At one point, Yudhistira expresses his desire to hear about “the supreme greatness of women” to sage Markandeya. But any excitement we might develop regarding the prospect of women getting centre stage in the stories told by the sage fizzles out in seeing markers of the ideology which this group of people is submerged in: the greatness of women is tantamount, for both Markandeya and the Pandavas, to the intensity of their devotion to their husbands. This disappointing point of view shall mar all that the sage tells the Pandavas about this topic.
Markandeya tells the story, for example, of the nameless woman who makes the great brahman Koushika wait for a long time at her doorstep because her first priority is to serve her husband. When the brahmana expresses his irritation, the woman is unfazed and in fact reprimands the rishi, saying things like, “Among all the gods, my husband is the supreme god.” Koushika accepts the woman’s point of view, but not before he has been advised by the woman to educate himself a bit more in the ways of dharma.
Koushika then goes to the city of Mithila and meets a hunter there. It is from this working class person that Koushika gathers many lessons related to dharma. The hunter convinces Koushika that eating meat, and killing animals for meat, is not even an issue of ethics. Even with the more philosophical concerns of right and wrong, the hunter has a lot to say, and in fact employs good metaphors to convey his point of view: “Using the boat of steadfastness, one can cross the river that has the five senses as its waters and is infested with the crocodiles of desire and avarice, and overcome birth.”
But why do the Pandavas need to know all this? When we ponder this question, we realize that Markandeya telling the Pandavas the story of an erudite hunter may have a different purpose as well, namely to introduce killers — or men of violence — as possible flag-bearers of ethics. In that sense, Markandeya is conditioning the Pandavas to accept the violent path that lies ahead of them as also a righteous one. Or if not a righteous one, then at least one that involves a great deal of ambiguity. “There is no one who does not cause violence,” the hunter says to Koushika at one point.
Elsewhere, he clarifies how the virtuous act of agriculture also involves great violence. Thus, one might say that through the story sage Markandeya is touching upon the same concerns that are later voiced by Arjuna and are famously addressed by Krishna. There comes a point, in fact, when Mankandeya’s narration sounds exactly like Krishna’s. It is when his hunter says, “Sometimes falsehood becomes truth and truth becomes falsehood. Whatever ensures the welfare of beings is held to be truth.” Or when he says, “The soul does not die when the body perishes.” Clearly, indifference towards violence and death is deemed essential for warriors.