Depending on the perspective, sex and gender in the
Mahabharata can feel either very modern or very dated by today’s standards. On the one hand, Sikhandin becomes a noble warrior, and the figures who doubt his abilities (because he was born as the female Sikhandini) ultimately get proven wrong. At the same time, however, this transformation arguably reinforces gender roles by suggesting that women can’t be warriors and that the only way for a woman to take on a male role is for a boon to biologically transform her.