Abstract
Among the stories narrated in Mahabharata, lies the story of a Yuvanashva, a childless King, who accidently drinks a magic potion meant to make his wives pregnant and gives birth to a son. Mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik reiterates the story through his fictional work The Pregnant King examining the blurring lines in gender roles. Yuvanashva’s entire life becomes a dilemma of whether he should act like the mother or father of his child. The codes of Dharma tells him to pretend like a father and king, while his heart tells him that he is the mother of his child. Ironically, the king who tried to be the embodiment of manhood and proponent of Dharma, longed till his last breath to be called ‘mother’ by his son. The paper expounds to analyse the identity crisis faced by Yuvanashva, befuddled and trapped in the grey areas between fatherhood and motherhood
