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My Impressions on the Mahabharata_Essay - 1
By vatsayan
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
B„„lƒlƒ Bommƒlƒ (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 Pƒis„„chi
Language by Gun„„dhya: 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 Gun„„dhya and another named Vishnu Sharma. The
king asked them how long it would take for them to learn
Sanskrit. Vishnu Sharma said a lifetime. Gun„„dhya said six
months. The king started learning from Gun„„dhya. 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 Gun„„dhya responsible. Gun„„dhya 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 Gun„„dhya had made his
best attempt and it was the king's inadequacy that made him
fail in the language, however, on one condition - Gun„„dhya
must defeat the queen in the scholarship of the language.
Gun„„dhya 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. Gun„„dhya could not match the authority of the
queen, while she could easily hold out against Gun„„dhya'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 Gun„„dhya 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 pr„„yƒschitta (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 Gun„„dhya came across P¡sachas (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 P¡sachas,
Gun„„dhya learnt their language - referred to as the
Pƒis„„chi language. In that language Gun„„dhya collated and
composed stories narrated by the tribals into book. It was a
monumental work comparable to the Mahabharata itself. Having
completed the composition Gun„„dhya 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
Gun„„dhya to leave his Court. Insulted yet again Gun„„dhya
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 Gun„„dhya and saved what
was left of the work. He accepted Gun„„dhya as his Guru
(Teacher) and learnt the Pƒis„„chi 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 Gun„„dhya. However
Gun„„dhya, 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 B„„lƒlƒ Bommƒlƒ 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
Pa¤ca-tantra2 (also spelled Panchatantra of Vishnu Sharman
and Vidyapati (Sanskrit: "Five Chapters")) and Hitopadesa3,
the Subhashitas4 (or the Subh„„sitas) of Bhartr–ihari,
another version of Mahabharata supposedly written by
J„Œmini, 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 PrƒtŒpada-Artha) into Telugu. A summary
of each Shloka (stanza) was also rendered therein, which was
known as T„„tpƒrya 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
http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/maha/index.htm. Reference is
also made to John Smith's home page at
http://bombay.oriental.cam.ac.uk/index.html. Electronic
versions of the Mahabharata and Ramayana are available
ftp://bombay.oriental.cam.ac.uk/pub/john/text/. 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¡pƒnd„
Appƒlƒ Swami that constitute the basis for these "My
Impressions .".
In my next blog 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
_______________________________
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 Gun„„dhya from an ancient vernacular.
Gun„„dhya probably had used Buddhist sources of an even
earlier period. Somadeva's work Kath„„sar¡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)
2Pa¤ca-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 Pa¤ca-tantra is 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 Pa¤ca-tantra stories also traveled to Indonesia through
Old Javanese written literature and possibly through oral
versions. In India the Hitopadesa ("Good Advice"), composed
by N„„r„„yana in the 12th century and circulated mostly in
Bengal, appears to be an independent treatment of the Pa¤ca-
tantra material. . ( Entry found in the Encyclopedia
Britannica under Pa¤ca-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 Pa¤ca-tantra is 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 Pa¤ca-tantra stories also traveled to Indonesia through
Old Javanese written literature and possibly through oral
versions. In India the Hitopadesa ("Good Advice"), composed
by N„„r„„yana in the 12th century and circulated mostly in
Bengal, appears to be an independent treatment of the Pa¤ca-
tantra material. . ( Entry found in the Encyclopedia
Britannica under Pa¤ca-tantra)
4 Subh„„sitas: Authors of Subh„„sitas 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
H„„l„a'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 Saurapa¤chika (("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 k„„vya (200-1200) - The mah„„k„„vya)
About the Author
vatsayan
* *Age*: 51
* *Gender*: male
* *Astrological Sign:* Libra
* *Zodiac Year:*: Snake
* *Industry*: Accounting
* *Occupation*: Chartered Accountant
* *Location*: Vijayawada, Chennai
Tamilnadu AP, : India
About Me
A man without work
Interests
* Reading
* Philosophy
* Science
* Fiction
* Economics
* Classics in Sanskrit Greek and William Shakespeare
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