A Study of Women and Nature: Resilience and Resistance in the Mahabharata

Nature is a dynamic force which gives energy to all of the organisms on Earth. It is not only a physical environment but also an internal force that resides in every human being. In Mahabharata, it communicates with the life of its characters especially with the women. Thus, Mahabharata becomes the source of the Study of Gender based violence and women’s resilience and resistance through the healing of nature. The healing energy of nature is found in the experiences of women in Mahabharata. This research excavates the vital role of nature in the lives of the female characters of this epic: Draupadi, Kunti, Gandhari and Satyavati. It also focuses on the women’s endurance in their hardships, routing of trauma and the challenge over the oppressive forces around them. By critically analyzing these women’s relationships with nature, this paper explores how the natural world becomes both a sanctuary and a site of resistance, offering emotional and spiritual healing to the women it is surrounded by. The nature is also empowering the women to assert their identity in a patriarchal society. The three objectives of this paper is to investigate how nature symbolizes strength, healing, and protection for women characters in the Mahabharata, to examine the role of nature in helping women cope with gender-based violence (GBV) and trauma, facilitating emotional survival and resilience and to highlight how nature becomes a space where women’s resistance is manifested subtly yet powerfully, from silent endurance to strategic actions.

Keywords: Mahabharata, Resilience, Resistance, Gender-based violence (GBV), Women and nature, Feminist literary criticism, Emotional healing, Patriarchy and agency.