top five mahabharat characters
❤ Thank you for this ask, Goki! Ah, you've allowed me to talk about my favourite subject! You know my heart. 🥺 In no particular order -
Ekanamsa. The least known character in this list. Yashoda's daughter (yes, that one), who exchanged places with Krishna and unlike what later narratives will tell you, didn't die. Some may try to tell you she's the same as Subhadra because of the incarnation theology of Nidra and Yogamaya (who some scholars consider as one and the same) for Ekanamsa and Subhadra respectively; they would be wrong. Time and again Ekanamsa is called Yashoda's daughter (the girl who lived, everyone), and Subhadra doesn't feature as Yogamaya's incarnation until Srimad Bhagavata Purana, which is preceded by Harivamsa. Raised like a son (that's the words Harivamsa uses - the best conclusion we can come to is that Kamsa didn't, or wasn't able to, kill her; the reason is very much up to interpretation and Medha obviously has her own), doesn't marry to the best of our knowledge. Dark beauty, very much a badass from what we can gather, and Medha can talk about her for ages. Issue is: no one will listen because they don't even know of her (I don't blame anyone at all, it's not like I learned about her from thin air), even though she has been worshipped alongside Krishna and Balarama from as old as late 3rd-2nd century BCE through the famous Vrishni triads [Sankarshana-Ekanamsa-Krishna].
Sanjaya. Highly underrated. A master of sass, a speaker of hard truths. Excellent politician and speaker. Suta and sharp-tongued in the most efficient way possible. Genuine badass who talks back to his lord and king on a regular basis and is right in his criticisms.
Kunti. What a woman. Shame on adaptations by Divakaruni and Shinde (among others) for making Kunti antagonistic towards Draupadi at various levels. The canonical Kunti passionately supported Draupadi and wanted to see her molesters brought to justice, reprimanded her sons, ordered them to follow Draupadi's guidance and judgment. Women supporting women, and the best mother-daughter (in-laws) relationship ever. Austere, learned, politically sound, and an underrated, unfairly blamed (sometimes due to lack of information and mostly due to basic empathy) icon.
Satyabhama. Queen. Just queen. Part of the famously unique, tight and inviolable Arjuna-Draupadi-Krishna-Satyabhama group, warrior and partner-in-crime of Krishna in needling Indra, and an icon. Stereotyped very easily by renditions (as Kunti is). Glorious, unapologetic.
Okay, now this is tough. I still have two left and cannot choose and...Goki, my Gopika, please let me cheat again? *makes pretty eyes* *assumes you have fallen for them and will send pretty eyes right back in due time*
5a. Pradyumna. Rukmini and Krishna's first (and heavily mourned) son, abducted as an infant. Him being branded the incarnation of the previously Ananga (bodiless) Kama, his relationship with Shiva (his father Krishna's chosen aradhya), and his relationship with sexuality (and as such, his highly intriguing wives, who make it into my List of Fascination Mbh Characters) fascinates me. Heavily under-explored, despite there being a very well-written book on Kamadeva (and thus, Pradyumna) by Anuja Chandramouli (her second and better book).
5b. Abhimanyu. In certain dramas and films, there will be this character who gets little screentime, whose part is very small--but in the most critical phase of the story, they ascend, enrich the story with the sheer force of their performance and personality. There's no one better than Abhimanyu to fit this definition. 'Nuff said.
Bonus faves (because Medha just can't let it go because she's been asked about Mahabharata!): Subhadra, Shikhandin, Sahadeva, Balarama, Ghatotkacha and Iravat/Iravan (and how they are both literary parallels as well as foils). Okay, okay, I will stop now. God, I can talk about every single one of these people for ages.
I've excluded two categories of Mahabharata characters from this list:
The upakatha (subtale)-characters, like Kacha, Shakuntala, Damayanti, Savitri, Satyavana, etc. {No I'll not even think of Yayati and Nala and Dushyanta, those major assholes, and this is me saying this, me who's a sucker for grey morality and hates purity culture, so you can guess.}
My all-time favourites: the three Krishnas (Arjuna-Draupadi-Krishna) and Rukmini. There's no comparison across fandoms, and I wanted to be fair, lol.