Category talk:Mahabharata epic

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[edit] My Impressions on the Mahabharata text

[edit] Essay - 1

[edit] PREFACE

Why the Mahabharata: The Mahabharata, the great Indian Classic, is at least 2000 years old. Is it still relevant in 2005 A. D.? If so why? I have asked myself this question several times. I confess I do not know the answer. Fact remains that the book has fascinated me since childhood. I read the book as a child as a condensed children's edition in Telugu, my mother tongue, at the age of probably eight.

A delightful collection of Children's Classics was available at this time, in the years 1961- 65. It used be called the Baalala Bommala (Illustrated for Children) series of Illustrated Children's Indian Classics in Telugu. Pity the series is no longer available. As a matter of fact a good Collection of Indian Classics is no longer available in any Indian Language, I suspect. I am however open for correction. From these collections I read several great books in abridged illustrated form. These include the two great Indian Epics, The Mahabharata and Ramayana, the Jataka Tales (Stories about the several reincarnations of Buddha! Did the Buddha reincarnate? I don't know. As far as my knowledge he taught agnosticism or even atheism in his Original Teaching. As I understand he laid emphasis only on the good deed and non violence. Any way that is a discussion of another subject matter); the Brihatkatha1 (supposedly the remaining portions of a collection authored in the Paisaachi Language by Gunaadhya: There is fabulous tale about how the stories came about. There lived a king who was very illiterate in Sanskrit. His wife, the queen on the other hand was a very accomplished scholar in the language. He was one day bathing in the water of a lake along with his wife. During the bath the king playfully sprinkled water on her. She told him in Sanskrit not to do so. The king misunderstood her communication to mean that she wanted to be splashed with oil and turmeric and hastily sent for them. The queen made fun of him for his ignorance. The king felt extremely insulted and decided to learn the language forthwith. He called for teachers to help him out in the quickest manner possible. Two pundits came along to teach him. One was Gunaadhya and another named Vishnu Sharma. The king asked them how long it would take for them to learn Sanskrit. Vishnu Sharma said a lifetime. Gunaadhya said six months. The king started learning from Gunaadhya. However, after a period of six months he found that he still could not cope with the queen's erudition of the language. The king held Gunaadhya responsible. Gunaadhya replied that it was the king's fault that he did not learn the language as he taught him. He was simply lacking in the ability to learn languages. Vishnu Sharma, who was present in the Court on that occasion, suggested a compromise. While he still held that a complete mastery of the Sanskrit language was unattainable, he would agree that Gunaadhya had made his best attempt and it was the king's inadequacy that made him fail in the language, however, on one condition - Gunaadhya must defeat the queen in the scholarship of the language.

Gunaadhya agreed to the challenge. The queen, who was extremely wise refused initially to take part in any such competition, but was compelled to do so when king, her husband, whose orders she could not disobey (The state of Indian women in those days!!), commanded her. So a contest was held. Gunaadhya could not match the authority of the queen, while she could easily hold out against Gunaadhya's examination. So Vishnu Sharma was proved right. The Sanskrit language proved too mighty for the capacity of any single human being. However the fact of defeat in the hands of a woman (learning was considered the exclusive preserve of males in those days) made Gunaadhya feel extremely ashamed of himself. He considered it a great insult to himself. He considered himself not worthy of living any longer. However, as suicide was sin, as a praayaschitta (penance) he vowed never to speak any human language again. Since he could not any longer communicate with any human being, he went away to the forest to carry on his atonement. While living in the forest Gunaadhya came across Pisachas (someone similar to Shakespeare's Goblins, Elves - I am of the opinion that they might have been tribals who spoke a language alien to the language spoken by the "civilized" peoples of those days and perhaps dressed strangely, if at all). From the Pisachas, Gunaadhya learnt their language - referred to as the Paisaachi language. In that language Gunaadhya collated and composed stories narrated by the tribals into book. It was a monumental work comparable to the Mahabharata itself. Having completed the composition Gunaadhya went to the king to present him with the work. Since the masterpiece was written in an alien language nobody, least of neither the king nor even the queen could appreciate it. The king rudely asked Gunaadhya to leave his Court. Insulted yet again Gunaadhya went back to the forest. There he made a bonfire, sat in front of it, and reading the piece page by page, with tears in his eyes started consigning the magnum opus to the flames. The P¡sachas and wild animals that lived around began to shred tears. Nature turned gloomy. Vishnu Sharma, who was passing by at that time, saw the mayhem that was occurring and enquired of the P¡sachas what the matter was. Having been informed of the misfortune that has occurred, Vishnu Sharma immediately pacified Gunaadhya and saved what was left of the work. He accepted Gunaadhya as his Guru (Teacher) and learnt the Paisaachi language from him. He then translated the magnum opus, Brihatkatha ("great tale") into Sanskrit. Vishnu Sharma then went to the palace and presented the work to the Royal Couple. This was it was greatly appreciated and admired. Vishnu Sharma then informed king of what had transpired of Gunadhya. The king was filled with great remorse and made a journey to the forest along with his queen to beg forgiveness of Gunaadhya. However Gunaadhya, who learnt that his masterpiece was recognized only because it was translated into Sanskrit, made a funeral pyre and jumped into it, thus ending his life. I often wonder if such has been the plight of Indian languages through out history).

Anyway, leaving the detour and returning to the subject, from the Baalala Bommala series of Illustrated Children's Indian Classics in Telugu, I not only read the two great ancient epics of Indian literature but also several other works, including the Brihatkatha, the Jataka Tales, the Panca-tantra2 (also spelled Panchatantra of Vishnu Sharman and Vidyapati (Sanskrit: "Five Chapters")) and Hitopadesa3, the Subhashitas4 (or the Subhaasitas) of Bhartr–ihari, another version of Mahabharata supposedly written by JaŒmini, ostensibly a disciple of Vyasa, in which the story of the descendants of Pandavas is narrated, several abridgements of other Indian texts which I don't now remember as well as other texts such as the Arabian Nights and so on.

While I read many other Indian Classics at this time the charm and the mystique of Mahabharata stays on with me even today. True the text contains Bhagavad-Gita ("Song of the Lord"), which is the single most important religious text of Hinduism, but I do not consider myself a practicing Hindu. In fact I consider myself non religious, perhaps agnostic or even atheistic. I think the charm of the text lies in the story itself together with the true to life characterizations contained there in.

Specifically I do not believe in the perpetual cycle of Birth, Death and Re-birth described and advocated in the Bhagavad-Gita, similarly as I do not believe in the Story of Creation described in the Holy Bible. I consider such surmises as purely speculative. I am of the opinion that Darwin's Theory of Evolution gives a more apt description of the world as it exits today. For the Evolution to occur no Creator seems necessary. Recent advances in such diverse areas such as the Big Bang Theory of Creation, Geological Rock and Continental Formation and Drifts, Archaeological Evidence of Dinosaur and other Fossils, Human Biology and Genetics all appear to offer more intuitive explanation of the Phenomena of Life. Recent Advances in Neurology and the related sciences look as if they negate the notion of the necessity for Perpetual Existence of a Soul even, if soul were to be described simply as "Consciousness". It appears that there is really no reason for consciousness to continue beyond death.

Karma Theory on the other hand seems to turn up an excuse for inaction. If every thing is pre determined then there is really no need for any effort, even though I believe that such explanation is the product of a Cultural Misinterpretation of India and what the Gita really stands for is really the Principle of Affirmative Action. The Concept of Dharma on the other hand appears a little more complex. The exact meaning thereof is very difficult to translate into English, although it may be loosely interpreted to stand for Ethical Life and Ethical Behavior. If we disregard this aspect it world would be a very difficult place to live in indeed.

But what holds fascination for me is not the Teachings of Gita contained within the Mahabharata but the text itself. The Great Poem called "Mahabharata" is made up of almost 100,000 couplets-its length thus being about seven times that of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined-divided into 18 parvas, or sections, to which has been added a supplement entitled Harivamsa ("Genealogy of the God Hari," i.e., Krishna-Vishnu). Authorship of the poem is traditionally ascribed to the sage Vyasa, although it is more likely that he compiled from previously existing material. The traditional date for the war that is the central event of the Mahabharata is 1302 BC, but most (western) historians prefer a later date. The poem reached its present form about AD 400 (The Gupta Dynastic Period). (Source: Encyclopedia Britannica).

I could never leave the Mahabharata behind. When I went to college I was made to study a more elaborate, and complete translation of the text in Telugu by the very famous three translator poets - Nannayya, Tikkanna, and Erra Preggada. Later on I took up study of Sanskrit to overcome the tedium of the numbers of a bean counting accountant, and revisited parts of the original text. The desire to study the text in original haunted me. Then I purchased a Sanskrit copy the text which contained a transliteration (wherein the meaning of each word of the Sanskrit passage is furnished in Telugu - known in Telugu as PratŒpada-Artha) into Telugu. A summary of each Shloka (stanza) was also rendered therein, which was known as Taatparya in Telugu. This occurred at the time the Epic was being broadcast as a serial on Doordarshan. I could relate to what was being shown on the TV to what I was reading, and my appreciation and admiration only increased by leaps and bounds.

Now recently when I was searching the web I came across Mahabharata on the web at bombay.oriental.cam.ac.uk/ john/mahabharata/statement.html where a complete text is available (This site houses the electronic text of the Mahabharata. Based on John Smith's revision of Prof. Muneo Tokunaga's version of the text, it was subjected to detailed checking by a team of assistants based in the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) in Pune, and is made available with BORI's agreement.), in Sanskrit as well as an English Translation of the work entitled "The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli [published between 1883 and 1896] available at [1]. Reference is also made to John Smith's home page at [2]. Electronic versions of the Mahabharata and Ramayana are available [3]. It is these electronic editions (The English Translation of Kisari Mohan Ganguli and Sanskrit Original Electronic Edition available at John Smith's home page) as well as the original Telugu translated version in poetry of very famous three translator poets - Nannayya, Tikkanna, and Erra Preggada as also another Telugu translation in prose carried out by Pur¡panda Appala Swami that constitute the basis for these "My Impressions .".

In my next essay I shall enter a commentary of the text itself, as perceive it. Please be with me and I shall try to post at least weekly. Your comments and criticism will be greatly appreciated. Please do feel free to comment. I can be reached at vatsayan1@netscape.net

End Notes_______________________________ 1 Somadeva: The court poet to King Ananta of Kashmir, Somadeva apparently was commissioned to compose a cycle of stories to amuse and calm the queen Sriyamati during a political crisis. He borrowed from an earlier work, now lost, the Brihatkatha ("Great Tale") by the Sanskrit writer, Vishnu Sharma, who is said to have translated a work of even earlier work by Gunaadhya from an ancient vernacular. Gunaadhya probably had used Buddhist sources of an even earlier period. Somadeva's work Kathaasar¡tsagara ("Ocean of Rivers of Stories") bears a strong resemblance to medieval European fairy tales: magic, demons, bloody orgies, vampires, love, and high adventure abound in the 124 sections, or chapters, known as taranga ("waves"). An English translation by Charles H. Tawney, titled The Ocean of Story, was published in 1924-28. Somadeva wrote his monumental work during the two periods of Ananta's interrupted rule, which ended in 1077. ( Entry found in the Encyclopedia Britannica under Somadeva and Brihatkatha) 2Pancha-tantra: collection of Indian animal fables, which has had extensive circulation both in the country of its origin and throughout the world. In Europe the work was known under the name The Fables of Bidpai (after the narrator, an Indian sage, Bidpai, called in Sanskrit Vidyapati), and one version reached there as early as the 11th century. In theory, the Pancha-tantrais intended as a textbook of artha ("worldly wisdom"); the aphorisms tend to glorify shrewdness and cleverness more than the helping of others. The original text is a mixture of Sanskrit prose and stanzas of verse, with the stories contained within one of the five frame stories. The introduction, which acts as an enclosing frame for the entire work, attributes the stories to a learned Brahmin named Vishnu Sharman (perhaps the same Vishnu Sharma of Brihatkatha? - I conjecture) , who used the form of animal fables to instruct the three dull-witted sons of a king. The original Sanskrit work, now lost, may have come into being at any time between 100 BC and AD 500. It was translated into Pahlavi (Middle Persian) by the Persian royal physician Burzoe in the 6th century. Although this work also is lost, a Syrian translation of it has survived, together with the famous Arabic translation, by Ibn-al- Muqaffa (d. A.D. 760), known as KalYlah wa Dimnah, after the two jackals that figure in the first story. The KalYlah wa Dimnah led to various other versions, including a second Syrian version and an 11th-century version in Greek, the Stephanites kai Ichnelates, from which translations were made into Latin and various Slavic languages. It was the 12th-centuryHebrew version of Rabbi Joel, however, that became the source of most European versions. The 17th-century Turkish translation, the Hmayun-nama was based on a 15th-century Persian version, the Anwar-e Suhayi. The Pancha-tantrastories also traveled to Indonesia through Old Javanese written literature and possibly through oral versions. In India the Hitopadesa ("Good Advice"), composed by Naaraayana in the 12th century and circulated mostly in Bengal, appears to be an independent treatment of the Panca- tantra material. . ( Entry found in the Encyclopedia Britannica under Panca-tantra) 3 Hitopadesa: Refer above under Panchatantra. Panchatantra is a collection of Indian animal fables, which has had extensive circulation both in the country of its origin and throughout the world. In Europe the work was known under the name The Fables of Bidpai (after the narrator, an Indian sage, Bidpai, called in Sanskrit Vidyapati), and one version reached there as early as the 11th century. In theory, the Pancha-tantrais intended as a textbook of artha ("worldly wisdom"); the aphorisms tend to glorify shrewdness and cleverness more than the helping of others. The original text is a mixture of Sanskrit prose and stanzas of verse, with the stories contained within one of the five frame stories. The introduction, which acts as an enclosing frame for the entire work, attributes the stories to a learned Brahmin named Vishnu Sharman (perhaps the same Vishnu Sharma of Brihatkatha? - I conjecture), who used the form of animal fables to instruct the three dull-witted sons of a king. The original Sanskrit work, now lost, may have come into being at any time between 100 BC and AD 500. It was translated into Pahlavi (Middle Persian) by the Persian royal physician Burzoe in the 6th century. Although this work also is lost, a Syrian translation of it has survived, together with the famous Arabic translation, by Ibn-al- Muqaffa (d. A.D. 760), known as KalYlah wa Dimnah, after the two jackals that figure in the first story. The KalYlah WA Dimnah led to various other versions, including a second Syrian version and an 11th-century version in Greek, the Stephanites kai Ichnelates, from which translations were made into Latin and various Slavic languages. It was the 12th-centuryHebrew version of Rabbi Joel, however, that became the source of most European versions. The 17th-century Turkish translation, the Hmayun-nama was based on a 15th-century Persian version, the Anwar-e Suhayi. The Pancha-tantra stories also traveled to Indonesia through Old Javanese written literature and possibly through oral versions. In India the Hitopadesa ("Good Advice"), composed by Naaraayana in the 12th century and circulated mostly in Bengal, appears to be an independent treatment of the Panca- tantra material. . ( Entry found in the Encyclopedia Britannica under Panca-tantra) 4 Subhaasitas: Authors of Subhaasitas often collected them themselves, the favorite form being that of the sataka ("century" of verses); in which 100 short lyrics on a common theme were strung together. Mention has been made of Haalaa's Sattasya ("The Seven Hundred," consisting of lyrics in the Maharashtrian dialect). Four well-known Sanskrit collections, of the 7th century, are the famous "century" of Amaru, king of Kashmir, and the three "centuries" by the poet Bhartr–ihari one of the latter's collections is devoted to love, another to worldly wisdom-a very popular theme in epigrammatic verse-and the third to dispassion. Of the same type but in a different vein is Saurapanchika (("Fifty Poems on Secret Love"), in which the 12th-century poet Bilhana fondly recalls the pleasure of his clandestine amours with a local princess.) ( Entry found in the Encyclopedia Britannica under South Asian arts - Literature - Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit literatures: 1400 BC-AD 1200 - Classical Sanskrit kaavya (200-1200) - The mahaakaavya)