Vol. 10, Issue 1, Part C (2024)

Abstract
The Pregnant King is the story of Yuvanashva, king of Vallabhi who in search of his manhood and its validation accidently drinks the potion prepared by Yaja and Upayaja, two Siddhas, for his childless wives and becomes pregnant. His widowed mother, Shilavati, has ruled over Vallabhi after the death of her husband as a seasoned administrator and diplomat. Now the grown up son has to prove his virility providing a male heir for the throne before he is allowed to rule over the kingdom. Having three wives and married for thirteen years, he is unable to produce a child and starts having misgivings about his manhood. His eagerness to prove his masculinity leads him to take assistance of magicians, alchemists and sorcerers. The rituals, however, are disrupted by two young Brahmin boys Somvat and Sumedha who masquerade as a young married Brahmin couple to get a cow in alms. Though Somvat is converted into a real woman by Sthunakaran, a Yaksha, the King refuses to accept their present reality and orders them to be burnt alive in two separate gates of his kingdom as they are aberrations in the social and moral codes of conduct. Thus, establishing his authority and masculinity among his subjects through terror and punishment, the king approaches his throne at night thirsty and drinks the child producing potion accidently. He gives birth to a son Mandhata and spends the rest of his life in search of the answer whether he is the mother or father, whether he is man at all and eligible for Kingship. This gender fluidity brings him to the crossroads of established gender roles of heterosexuality and he wonders whether he is a man in woman’s body or a woman in man’s body.