'For Bhīṣma's Destruction': Ambā, Śikhaṇḍinī and Śikhaṇḍin in the Mahābhārata

The thesis introduces the Mahābhārata as a complex literary text - a multi-genre text and a polyphonic interpretation of a factual discourse with several competing narratives - and uses the findings and techniques of narratology, especially of rhetorical narratology, to interpret it. In the thesis, I argue that when analysing the seeming inconsistencies of this text, it is not necessary to look for the explanation on the "outside" (various unconnected authors) but that it is possible to explain them also from the "inside" of the text, using the differences in genres, as well as the knowledge, goals and subjectivity of the individual characters and narrators. These resources are often used in the communication with the audience (readers/listeners). The concrete material for this argument is the story of Ambā, Śikhaṇḍinī a Śikhaṇḍin and the way in which are the facts concerning this triune character presented, especially by Bhīṣma who claims their narrative most importantly by narrating Ambopākhyāna, an analeptic episode explaining Śikhaṇḍin's life story and his involvement in the Kurukṣetra battle: narration with a distinctive authoritativeness and subjectivity, but a doubtable narratorial reliability. I show how Bhīṣma defines Śikhaṇḍin as a woman using this episode, and thus makes him into one of..