Author: Dr. Sonia Sebastian, Lt Anu Jose

Abstract: This paper reads M. T. Vasudevan Nair’s Randamoozham as a sustained act of demythologization centered on the character of Bhima. Moving away from the canonical Mahabharata, where Bhima appears as a figure of exaggerated strength and secondary prominence, Nair reconstructs him as a reflective, wounded, and historically situated consciousness. The study argues that the novel reconfigures the epic through a dialectical strategy: while retaining the broad civilizational frame of the Purana, it subjects the supernatural plot, divine births, avataric interventions, demonization of the “other,” and celestial closure, to rational reinterpretation. Through close textual analysis, the paper demonstrates how Bhima’s corporeality replaces mythic excess with physical labour and endurance; how his masculinity is rendered structurally subordinate within fraternal and political hierarchies; and how caste and gender ideologies shape his perception of figures such as Hidimbi, Ghatotkacha, Kunti and Draupadi. Rather than desacralizing the epic, Randamoozham restores to it psychological density and ethical ambiguity by granting voice to a figure long instrumentalized within epic memory. In doing so, Nair reclaims Bhima not as caricature of brute force, but as the epic’s most compelling witness to the burdens of power, hierarchy, and mortality.

Keywords: Counter myth, Demythologization, Narrative Focalization Subaltern Consciousness.

Article Info: Received: 08 Feb 2026; Received in revised form: 09 Mar 2026; Accepted: 13 Mar 2026; Available online: 16 Mar 2026

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.112.24