Archaeology and the Mahabharata (Study)
by Gouri Lad | 1978 | 132,756 words
This study examines the Mahabharata from an archaeological perspective. The Maha-Bbharata is an ancient Indian epic written in Sanskrit—it represents a vast literary work with immense cultural and historical significance. This essay aims to use archaeology to verify and contextualize the Mahabharata's material aspects by correlating epic elements w...
Conclusion
Before attempting a conclusive summary, we would do well to re-state the problem before us, in order to ascertain how far we have succeeded in finding a solution to it. Our problem, in a nutshell, is finally one of synthesis, of putting together the evidence of various -a sources, literature, history, art & archeology, to see if it will, at any stage, coincide in time & space. The problem ofcource centres around the Mahabharata and the main
615 thrust of the solution is directed towards finding a proper niche, in historical perspective, for its rich cultural data. The entire process of synthesis, therefore, revolves around it, trying to harmonize & synchronize its contents the with those of other literary works, with history, art & a archeology, thereby providing a definite chronological sequence to the Epic. The growth & the development of the Mahabharata has always posed as somewhat of an enigma defying solution. It is our belief that bracketing the Epic material into meaningfu chronological groups will be immensely helpful in seeking answers to some of the persistent questions that have so far remained unanswered or have not been fully answered. are four questions of vital importance around which, more or less, revolves the problem of the growth, developement & chronology of the Epic. There (i) What were the different elements incorporated into the Epic from time to time? (ii) (iii) Which were the different periods during which these diverse elements came to be incorporated into the Epic ? S How were these elements incorporated, as isolated instances or as a concious & systematic process of incorporation ? What was the exact mode of a incorporation, as single verses, passages or entire adhyayas ? Are the incorporations
restricted to particular Parvas or are they spread over generally throughout the Epic ? and (iv) What were the motivating factors & trends that led to their incorporation in a particular period of time ? These questions have sought to been answered, during the course of this thesis, although somewhat partially & restrictively in connection with individual chapters. What is now attempted is a comprehensive summing-up, taking into consideration all the inferences drawn so far. us Let/proceed gradually, seeking answers to the questions posed above, one by one. (i) What were the different elements incorporated into the Epic from time to time? Scholars have sought to classify the Epic contents in various ways & by various criteria. The best division probably comes from the great Indologist & Epic scholar, Dr. M. Winternitz. It is four fold, Heroic, -Brahmanic, Ascetic & Didactic poetry. He traces the Heroic poetry, with its legends of the Ksatriya kings to the dialogue hymns of the Rgveda; Brahmanic poetry is 616
= 617 mostly ancient mythology centering around gods & Brahmin sages; Ascetic poetry, preaching love for all beings, through parables, fables, & moral tales, has an unmistakably common heritage with the Buddhists & the Jains; while dry discussions upon law, polity, morality & philosophy form the forte of Didactic poetry (Winternitz 1972: vol. II, pp. 375-441). This division though versatile & smooth, does not, however, solve the chronological tangle. At best, it offers some kind of a tentative chronology inherent in the division itself, suggesting the developement of the Epic from a Heroic bard poetry to a treassure-house of culture, refurbished gradually by Brahmanic mythology, folk-lore, law, morality & philosophy, a development which can be traced through some of the Parvas at least very distinctly. Thus a majority of the Brahmanical myths are found in Book I (Adiparva) & Book III (Aranyakaparva), while there is a heavy concentration of Ascetic & Didactic poetry in Book XII & XIII (Santi & Anusasana). In fact there is hardly any other matter in these two Books. Notwithstanding these important clues in the growth of the Epic, the chronological edifice remains weak as ever, raised as it is on a shaky foundation of literary parallels which are themselves only loosely dated. We have, therefore, tried to sort out the Epic material on an entirely different plane, that of material
= 618 artifacts. There is no longer any need to trace the growth of the Epic only in terms of its poetry, thought, religion & philosophy. A new & a fascinating dimension is added to the process of its growth by tracing the material artifacts, down the ladder of time, through a We have, literature, history, art & archeology, resulting in definite clues towards setting the Epic chronology on a firmer foundation. And these clues can generally be depended upon for they are the end products of a crisscross pattern of synthesis, cutting through broad currents of history. They have also emerged from systematically excavated & well-defined strategraphical contexts whose veracity can hardly be doubted or questioned. therefore, divided our chapters, grouping the various interesting material artifacts separately for a detailed study of each. Thus it will be the presence or the absence of an artifact & its history through the centuries, that will help set up a chronological frame-work for the Epic, within which its evolution can be explained more reliably & convincingly. (ii) Which were the different periods during which these diverse elements came to be incorporated into the Epic ? The answer to this question may well unravel the
chronological sequence of the Epic, but one has to tread gently here, for the path is rather slippery. It is now pe an oft-related cliche that the Mahabharata has undergone a long and a slow process of expansion, which bears the stamp of at least three to four distinct phases. It will be our endeavour here to trace some of these important phases, with the help of the evidence collected so far. Phase (A) : pre-500 B.C. 619 There is hardly any doubt that the Mahabharata preserves many an archaic features, not only of language and construction, but also of culture. These elements have managed to escape the scrubbing and polishing of later centuries and often stand apart in awkward inconsistency in the midst of all the additions and accretions that have accumulated over the years. A few conspicuous examples may suffice to clinche the issue. The great importance of honey (madhu) in the Mahabharata diet is a typical example. It was the only sweetening ingredient known to the Vedic as well as the Epic Indians. Sugar whose manufacture and consumption had become routine by the time of Panini and the Pali Canon i.e. around 400-500 B.C., is nowhere on the scene in the Mahabharata The ritual use of leather sandals (upanahau) is also a stirking resemblance with Vedic practices. In the entire Epic (barring the Santi and the Anusasanaparvas),
= 620 sandals occur only once as necessary adjuncts of the prince to be coronated. In the Vedic period too, they appear only on ritual occasions. As far as the Santi and the Anusasana are concerned, there is a percepticble change in so far as the kings are exhorted to gift leather shoes to Brahmins, thereby suggesting that they were now being regularly used by the members of the royalty, but were still expensive and out-of-reach for the common man. This was probably somewhere around the 1 st-2 nd centuries B.C., when the freizes at Sanchi depict the king, the soldiers and hba some foreigners gearing shoes and sandals. The total absence of glass (kaca) and glass artifacts in the Mahabharata is yet another link with pre-historic times. It is true that 'kaca' is mentioned in some early Vedic texts, but the major bulk of the Vedic literature is quite oblivious of glass. Archeological records too say as much. The handful of fragmentary glass objects and bangle-peices recovered from Chalcolithic Maski a (1000-400 B.C.) and a few Iron Age PGW sites in the North (1000-500 B.C.) is a clear indication that glass-making was still in its infancy at the beginnings of the Historical Period. It is only from 500 B.C. onwards and particularly during the Maurya Period, that glass objects of all kinds came to be manufactured widely. By the same logic of negative evidence the
621 the complete absence of money economy in the Mahabharata may be viewed as an added proof of its distant origins. No system of coins exists in the Epic, and the only measure of wealth, 'niska', an exact parallel of its counterpart in the Vedas, can hardly be looked upon as a currency denomination. This reliance on a barter economy is in striking contrast to the well-developed currency system of Panini and the numerous finds of silver bent-bar and silver punch-marked coins from 600 B.C. onwards. Yet another puzzling absence in the Epic is that of the city of Pataliputra, which was founded by Ajatasatru in the 6 th century B.C. From then on it rose to dizzing heights of glory as the capital of the great Mauryas. It was known to Panini in its pre-Mauryan days as a great city of Magadha and numerous are the references to it in the Buddhist Pali literature. Interestingly Girivraja the pre-decessor of Pataliputra during the reign of Ajatasatru's father Bimbisara (603-551 B.C.) does occur in the Mahabharata (II.19.3). It is, therefore, remarkable that the Mahabharata which contains a vast amount of geographical data, even of the post-Christian era, should so completely ignore the existence of this city, which was the epicentre of ancient Indian culture for a very long time. It is a reflexion on the haphazard process of expansion and additions which the Epic underwent, with no attempt to reconcile the
622 inconsistencies or to give an overall finish. The additions and accretions did not come as part of a systematic campaign to supply what was lacking, but they came at the slightest whim and fancy of some poet, bard or scribe, and then simply stayed on to find their own little nook and corner in the huge mass that became the Epic. Fortunately some crucial lapses have been left behind for posterity to pick up the threads. Yet another link in this chain (of lapses) is the absence of grape-wine, 'draksya' or 'mrdvika', an import from distant North-West, from Kapisa (Begram) and other places in modern Afghanistan. The middlemen were the Iranians, the Greeks and other foreign and semi-foreign people who inhabited this region. These imports 'Kapisayani, from Kapisa and 'Harahuraka' brought in by the foreign Harahuras, started comming in right from the days of Panini (5 th century B.C.) and by Kautilya's time (2 nd-3 rd century as B.C.) had reached as far east the Maurya court at Pataliputra. Legion are the names and varities of wines and intoxicants in the Mahabharata and even the Harahuras are not strangers to it, but grapes and grape-wine is neverthless unknown. are These few examples, though an evidence in absentia, are an eloquent testimony of the pre-historic origins of the Epic, reaching back to a period much earlier than 500 B.C., though exactly how early is anybody's guess.
= 623 Here some very early literary sources provide invaluable help. The earliest references to an Epic called the 'Bharata' or the 'Mahabharata' occur in the Sutra texts. The Asvalayana Grhya Sutra (III, 4, 4) enjoins that libations should be offered among other things to the 'Bharata' and the 'Mahabharata' also, while the 'Sankhayana Srauta Sutra' (XV, 16) mentions the Kuruksetra war as having ended disastrously for the Kauravas (Winternitz 1972: vol. I, pp. 471). Both these Sutra texts can only be loosely dated to a period not later than 400 B.C., but also not very much earlier than 600 B.C. Their evidence is supported by another very important work of around the same period, the Astadhyayi of Panini. Panini not only refers to certain familiar characters of the Epic like Yudhisthira, Arjuna and Vasudeva, but also to a work known as the 'Mahabharata' (Agrawala 1963:340). We, therefore, need have no doubts, at all, that by 400-500 B.C. an Epic called the Mahabharata was widely known and probably venerated too. A century or two of literary activity must be taken for granted before it could culminate into an Epic of any dimension. Thus working backwards we assume that it was sometime during 700-800 B.C. that the Epic first started taking shape. The evidence of the earlier Vedic Literature should be interesting in this context. No trace of the Epic exists in the Rgveda, the most ancient of our literary records. It is, more or less, the same story with the other
= 624 Vedic texts also, although secondary Epic characters like Pariksit, Janamejaya and Dhrtarastra and some prominent Epic tribes like the Kurus and the Pancalas do occur in the Atharvaveda, the Yajurveda and the Brahmanas. There is, however, still no sign of a battle fought at Kuruksetra though the feild is well-known as the venue of many a sacrificial sessions. Quite obviously the great Mahabharata war had no popular base at all till the very end of the Vedic Period, i.e. about 700-800 B.C. It was then somewhere during the four centuries between 800-400 B.C. that the magnificent saga of the Epic war was built up into a book called the 'Bharata' or the 'Mahabharata'. Today more than two thousand years later it will be a highly precarious guess to try and imagine what exactly were the contents of this earliest Mahabharata, for much water has flown down the Ganga since then. It is much safer to fall back upon a later period (1 st-2 nd century B.C.) when there is the first definite allusion to the story of the Kauravas and the Pandavas by Kutilya and Patanjali (Puri 1957:207). Kautilya refers to both the Ramayana as well as the Mahabharata indirectly when he speaks of the destructive pride of Ravana and Duryodhana. seemed to have been aware of the myth of the destruction of the Vrsni tribe as it occurs in the Mausalaparva of the Mahabharata ( 1.6.8, 10 ). Armed with these facts we may not He even be wrong in concluding that the growth of the Epic was a
625 continuous evolution from about 800 B.C. right down to a 100 B.C. or so, with somewhere around 500 B.C. constituting the landmark, when a vast floating mass of heroic poems had merged into a single Epic narrative called the 'Bharata' or the 'Mahabharata'. Phase (B) : 500-100 B.C. This brings us to the second very important phase in the growth of the Epic, which coincided with the composition of the Buddhist Pali literature. As such a rather curious relationship exists between the two a close affinity of contents, but a total ignorance of each other's existence. It is strange, but true, that the Buddhist literature is only superficially acquinted with some of the Epic characters who are not portrayed in exactly commendable light. The Mahabharata too, on its part, betrays not the slightest suspicion of any acquintance with the person of the person of the Buddha or with events connected with his life. In sharp contrast to this mutual ignorance are the close cultural parallels between the two. This could only be possible with a contemperonous growth, the two literary currents developing side by side, drawing freely from a common historical and social background and a common fund of floating literature, but blissfully oblivious of each others existence. r The death of Lord Buddha which occured either
626 in 543 B.C. or 486 B.C., according to two different sources, can be considered to be the starting point for the Buddhist literature. The first ever Buddhist Council was held within a short span of the Buddha's death, followed by a second one, a hundred years later and a third during the reign of Emperor Ashoka in the 3 rd century B.C. 6 According to Cylonese sources it was during the cource of this council held at Pataliputra that a real cannon of sacred texts was compiled which is believed to have reached Cylone with Ashoka's emissaries. Whatever be the historical truth in this tradition, it neverthless is a pointer to a long-drawn out process of development similar to that of the Epic though a little more systematic. Of great significance, however, is the period which witnessed this development, a and roughly comprising of the centuries between 600 200 B.C. The archeological scene during these four centuries is dominated all over North India, by the finds of the NBP culture-complex which is more or less firmly dated to between 500-200 B.C., thus coinciding with the first crucial phase of the composition of Buddhist literature. Towards the fag-end of this period came the works of Kautilya and Patanjali which as we have observed earlier, were amongst the first to definitely allude to the story of a fratricidal war of considerable dimensions between two factions of cousins, the Kauravas and the the Pandavas. Thus on one hand, are the close parallels between the Mahabharata and the Pali texts, and on the other, an already
= 627 extensively blown-up bulk of Epic verses called the 'Mahabharata'. The situation does not leave much of a choice. The only possible inference that can be drawn is that the period between 500-100 B.C. was a very crucial period in the growth of the Epic. A major portion of the additions and accretions came during this period, involving a forceful movement towards a shaping and a reshaping, a moulding and a remoulding of the Epic contents. Dr Winternitz has long ago drawn our attention to the repertoire of fables, parables and fairy-tales which were drawn from a common fund of a vast floating literature at the easy disposal of the Hindus, Buddhists and the Jains alike (Winternitz 1972: vol. I, pp. 406). As far as the Mahabharata is concerned there is a somewhat close concentration of these in certain Books only e.g. Book III, XII and XIII. They seem to have got enmeshed in a Ksatriya saga of war somewhat late and as such do not normally appear in those Books of the Epic which deal with the great war and its connected events. The resemblances between the Mahabharata and the Buddhist literature, however, do not end here, but extend over a whole gamut of material and cultural life. A vast feild of material artifacts of daily and ornamental use, household goods, expensive luxury items, musical instruments and even weapons are part of this family heritage, which this time is not restricted to particular Parvas only. There is no
= 628 mistaking this common heritage of a shared background particularly when one compares the life-style in the Epic and the Pali literature with that of the earlier Vedic literature. It is now much more fuller, more prosperous materially and much more varied than anything gleaned so far in the earlier Vedic Period. It would be worthwhile to go over some of these common features breifly. Household goods like furniture and utensils, with many new shapes that came up after the Vedic Period and with common nommclature in both Sanskrit as well as Pali, are a vindication of the close artistic and cultural links between the two. The large number of gold ornaments, gems and precious stones, mentioned in the Mahabharata have their exact counterparts in Pali. In fact, most of these gems and stones appeared in literary records only from 500 B.C. onwards. Beryl and coral, the two better known gems of the Mahabharata have archeological records too, which confirm their arrival in North Indian markets mainly during the Maurya period and later, when trade links with South and Cylone where most of the gems originated had been vigorously cultivated. The Cosmetic goods imported from distant lands too came on to the literary scene around the same time. widespread use of fragrant Candana and Agaru in the Epic
629 and the Pali texts is an indication of changing times. The import of huge amount of Sandalwood from the South and Aloewood from the North-East was made possible during the reign of the Mauryas as confirmed by Kautilya's description of the godds that went into the royal Mauryan treassury. A large number of musical instruments with a multiplicity of drums and trumpets of all kinds, the flutes venu and vallaki, and particularly the orchestra turya is another common meeting ground between the two. A boom in material prosperity is as a rule immedietely reflected in expensive luxury goods and fancy ornamental articles used by the elite. The phenomenon is seen in the Epic with the introduction of certain artifacts artificates which had caught the fancy of aristocratic Ksatriyas and had become a status symbol with them. The fly-whisks, known as camara fans, made of pure-white Yak hair, a species confined to the remote corners of the Himalayas, and the parasole chatra, also wrought in white cloth and lavishly ornamented with gold and jewels, were the two important royal attributes which every recognized prince and particularly a coronated king could not do without. Both these items, exclusively for regal use, make their debut on the literary scene simaltaneously in the Epic and the Jatakas and also on the stone walls of Sanchi during the 1 st-2 nd century B.C. It is the same case with
630 the 'vaiyaghra' chariots, possessed by a few top Ksatriyas. It was a highly ornamental vehicle set apart from the others by its tiger-skin upholstry, as much prized as the leopard skins are today in European markets. Social behaviour and social contact is probably the best barometer of change. The full-blooded gaity and boistrocity that marked the samaja gatherings, garden and drinking parties, hunting expeditions, royal weddings and royal processions were as much a part of the life-style of the Epic as of the Jatakas. Of crucial importance, however, are the close parallels in weapon types between the Epic and the other works of this period. The Mahabharata is primarily the story of a great war, and hence it is the weapons used, which will, to a large extent, determine its claims to an ancient past. The very first fact we are confronted with is the presence of iron weapons everywhere in the Epic. They are of all types and shape. Although iron is known to have r occured in India, even in the form of weapons too, as early as 900 B.C., the proliferation and widespread use of iron weapons came only after 600 B.C., coinciding at most places in the North, with the NBP culture phase. These include, in particular, the large number and variety of iron arrow and spear-heads. The next important fact is undoubtedly the exact parallels between the Mahabharata weapon types on one hand, and those of the Pali literature and the Arthasastra, the
= 631 the Vo on the other. As noted earlier there are nearly about 50 types which are common between these two groups, and these include all the important arrows and spears, the different types of spikes, clubs, bolts and bars, swords with a variety of shapes and handles, wooden and leather sheilds, the discus, the noose and the lasso and other mechanical contrivances, as well as helmets and metal armour for different parts of the body. Thus almost the entire range of/ Mahabharata weaponry was at the disposal of Kautilya. This in itself is a stunning revelation, for the Arthasastra, can not, by any stretch of argument, be placed prior to the 3 rd century B.C. and this is the earliest date that can be assigned to it. There is no doubt that Kautilya's treatment of the weapon types known to him is much more detailed and systemacic and that there are quite a few (new) weapons in the Arthasastra which are unknown to the Epic, but this is not enough of a reason to overlook the fact that the Mahabharata war was fought with exactly those weapons which Kautilya recommended in his day and time. Thus if we believe that the Epic preserves the memory of some real war, it certainly was not this war, laid out as it is in the 3 rd-4 th century B.C. The heavy retouching of the accourtment of war has almost completely wiped out all traces of the original tribal warfare, which we would all like to believe was a reality of some hoary antiquity. This probably is the greatest tragedy of the Mahabharata that the war can never be
= 632 reconstructed in its original form whatever be the rigorous criteria applied. There are no doubt a few primitive elements still surviving which speak volumes, but on the whole, the war scenario as far as the important weapon types are concerned is so throughly reminicent of the Historical Period that it will be well neigh impossible to separate the old from the new and the earlier from the later. The cumulative evidence of the Mahabharata, the Pali literature, Panini and Kautilya is unmistakable. Whatever be the original form of the Epic and however ancient, it was the early Historical Period (600-200 B.C.) which gave us the Mahabharata in all its grandeur and glory. Phase (C) : 100-300 A.D. One would have expected a moratorium on additions and expansion as early as 500 B.C. by which time the Epic had already grown into a Mahabharata But as the moratorium did not come then so it did not come even after 100 B.C. by which time the Epic had, more or less, assumed gigantic proportions. There is, however, a slight difference, in so far that the process was considerably slowed down in this period, as a result of which these latest additions and accretions can easily be picked out and branded as typical of the early Christian Era. They are so few and far between so as not to be hopelessly muddled-up or lost in the massive bulk of Epic verses.
== 633 examples. Let us consider some of the most conspicuous There are varied references to gem-incrustation on metal artifacts in the Mahabharata Every expensive item be it a vessel, a banner-pole, a weapon, a furniture piece or even a chariot had to be adorned with jewels, beryls in particular, but also with pearls and corals and on rare occasions with the Sun and the Moon-stones. As noted earlier in the sections dealing with ornaments and weapons, the art of gem-incrustation was introduced and popularized in India by the Indo-Scyths and Parthians at Taksasila around the 1 st century A.D. It is, therfore, highly unlikely that any of these jewelled artifacts of the Mahabharata are earlier than those reported at Taksasila in the SakaParthian and Kushana levels. The moot point, however, is how common were such artifacts even in the pompous regal atmosphere of the Epic ? In answer we can confidently assert that they were far from being common. It is a bit difficult to give an exact statistical break down of these articles, but it is not impossible to make a rough estimate of them. There are, in all, only about 50 references or so to various jewelled articles in the entire Epic. Surprisingly very few of these are personal ornaments. With a few exceptions a majority of the ornaments were of gold. When gems and stones were worn, they were simply strung on a thread, at best on a
= 634 gold chain, but not incrustated on metal. As with Of the large ornaments so with utensils and furniture. number of gold and metal utensils used in the royal households only those that came as expensive gifts from king Drupada for the Pandavas on no less an occasion than the svayamvara' of Draupadi were bejewelled. The gemstudded furniture pieces too were always part of the decor of the royal 'sabha' halls. References to chariot-frames and standard-poles and parasoles raised atop the chariots are a little more common, but even here the meagreness of jewelled ornamentation is most striking when we consider the constant references to 'rathas' met with at every stage in the Epic. By far the most numerous of the gemstudded articles were the weapons, but here again it is just one bow, one sword-hilt, a single armour-coat or a single helmet that is thus ornamented. The only real exceptions are the metal shafts of the heavy spear-like sakti and the bulbous and equally heavy metal mace-heads, which are often described in lavish terms. It must, however, be remembered that the sakti as well as the gada, particularly those which were richly ornamented were normally carried by the top-most of the chariot-riding Ksatriyas and none others. What do these hand-picked references, this low frequency indicate ? Simply that jewelled metal artifacts were expensive, rare and a privilage of a small fraction of an aristocratic elite ? It is more likely that the unknown
= 635 and the unseen hand that did the retouching, from time to time, could do it only sparingly, lest he become asymmetrical and unconvincing. The case of ivory furniture is very suggestive of this cautious attitude of the interpolators, albeit not the result of any deliberate strategy. They have desisted from the temptation of turning the royal sabhahalls into an extravaganza of pure white ivory seats and couches, restricting themselves to barely two references to ivory furniture pieces. It will have to be repeated here that these Mahabharata references have their counterparts in literary works of the 1 st century A.D. like the Mahavastu and in actual finds of ivory furntiture at Taksasila and Begram around the same period. Of the two ivory couches in the Mahabharata one is also studded with expensive gems and stones, leaving no doubt about its late insertion. The presence of Chinese silk in the Mahabharata is probably the best example to cite of fresh matter that entered the Epic around this time. The silk came along the overland silk-route, entering India proper through the Bahlika country, with the middlemen comprising of such foreign people as the Chinese (Chinas), the Scyths (sakas), the Huns (Hunas) and others. This is the only reference of its kind in the entire Epic (II.47.22) and very significant as it proves beyond doubt that it was not easy anymore after about 200 A.D. or so to add to the Epic text too, indiscriminately.
636 The Epic contains periodic references to certain foreign people which entered India through its North-West frontiers. Prominent among these people are the Sakas (Scythians), Hunas (Huns), Tukharas (Tokahrians), Yavanas (Bactrian Greeks), Pahlavas (Iranians), and Chinas (Chinese or Turko-Chinese). There were other people too, but mainly of semi-foreign and mixed origins, whose exact identity can not be established despite erudite efforts by scholars. None of the above mentioned people are known to have come in contact with India proper before the 2 nd century B.C., though they may have operated along its North-Western frontiers for a long time. The Huns in fact stormed into India much later, during the 5 th-6 th century A.D., drawing a tragic finale to the once powerful and prosperous Gupta Empire. Of the others the Sakas made deep inroads into the Indian mainland and established powerful Ksatrapies in Central and Western India during the 1 st-2 nd century A.D. When the Mahabharata speaks of these people it is certain that none of the references can be earlier than the 2 nd century B.C. but it is, in fact, more likely that they are a few centuries later. It would be interesting at this
11 637 stage to trace the context and the character of these references. Two things stand out conspicuously. One, that these references are scattered throughout the Epic. One can not say where one will meet with them. Secondly and more important/#, none of these references give the impression that the Epic was acquinted intimately with any of these foreign people it speaks of. We are, no doubt, told that they all hailed from the distant NorthWest, were the middlemen in a flourishing trade in products typical of this region, as well as Central Asia and the Chinese mainland, such as fine horses, woollens, furs, dyed skins, embroidered garments and Chinese silk, that they took part (11.97.13-15) (II.47.19, 26; VIII.40.108) in the great Mahabharata war on the side of the Kauravas and (XIII.51.18-20) and were experts in sling-stone warfare, but then this is all that the Epic has to say of them. These details are valuable in themselves, but despite them these foreign people do not come alive for the reader through the Epic verse. The Epic generally tends to merely enumerate the names of these people in a verse or two, one after the other (VIII. 5.18-20), without furnishing any worthwhile cultural details about them. At other times they are simply part of a long list of tribes and people whenever the Epic launches itself into details of its geographical perspective and become more lifeless than ever (VI.10). This lacklustre treatment is indication enough that the poets and bards who
638 spoke of them were either only superficially acquinted with them or else it was already too late to accomodate them easily and glibly into the Epic framework. Finally two other references to place names, one Indian and the one foreign, across the seas are typical of the additions which managed to carve out a niche for themselves in the Epic. The first is 'Bharukaccha' or modern Broach on the Gujarat coast, an ancient sea-outlet for Indian goods and an emporium for all Western and particularly Roman goods arriving in India, which rose to grat prominence during the 1 st-2 nd century A.D. The second is 'Roma' or ancient Rome, trade connections with whom were at their flourishing best during the same period. The two are almost juxtaposed side by side in the 28 th adhyaya of the Sabhaparva (VS.49 & 50). Thus, as the presence of these two would indicate, retoucheing was not uncommon even in the 2 nd-3 rd century A.D. Only the unknown hand working at it did not certainly have as free a reign as in the earlier periods. It was sparing and restrictive, whatever be the constraints, the cheif amongst which must have been the already tightly-knit fabric of the Epic story, discouraging any changes or new additions, except in its Julnarable and weak points. The few points enumerated above are suffice to show that the additions typical of this period, i.e. of the early Christian era, were marked by expensive luxury items, often
639 foreign imports. These 2-3 centuries were culturally very important for their vigorous foreign contacts, for the rule of the Bactrian Greeks, Sakas and Kushanas, and for commercial contacts with Rome and the West and China and the Far East, giving a great impetus to activities in all walks of life. If, however, we find that the impact of this period. particularly of the various culturally and ethnically divergent foreign people is too limited, too small, too insignificant in the Mahabharata, it only points to the hardened core of the Epic text, with which it was no longer possible to tamper with ease and impunity. The absence of the finger-ring particularly the signet-ring in the Mahabharata is, therefore, of crucial importance to the evidence of this period. The signet-ring was introduced by the Greeks around the 1 st-2 nd century B.C. and became fashionable with the Indian kings after 100 B.C. or so. Its absence in the Epic despite a very large and varie repertoire of ornaments proves that not everything was touched or changed and not everything was added or supplied at a later date. There were many things that found no place in the Epic despite its all-engulfing expansionist tendency, thus betraying its ancient moorings. Phase (D) : post 300 A.D. After 300 A.D. the additions were not many. They were mostly didactic, though not necessarily so and hence
640 not of direct concern to our study. By 600 A.D., however, the Epic had developed almost into its vulgate form. A land-grant of the 6 th century A.D. speaks of the Mahabharata as a 'satasahastri Samhita; a compilations of a 100 thousand verses, the exact size of its vulgate form. By the same time the Epic had also come to be revered as a sacred smrti, with recitations of its text held regularly in temples and other public places, listened to with great respect by members of the royal family, as well as by lay people, as is clear from the evidence of Bana, Subandhu and Kumarilabhatta (Winternitz 1972:Vol. I.p.463). As a sacred text it now came to be put down in writing, although the earliest Mss avalaible to the editors of the Critical Edition was only a 14 th century Nepali Mss. After the scriptal fixation whatever changes were wrought came mostly from the pen of the scribe or the copyist. Additions no doubt continued, but they differed in quality from the earlier ones. no longer easy to break the written format of the Epic text and induct anything radically new, which would not make itself incongrous and inconsistent with the rest of the setting. Rather typical examples of such late didactic additions are the very first opening verse of the Mahabharata in praise of Ganesa and the Durga-stavana hymn in the Virataparva. Both have been thrown out by the Critical Edition and so also many similar passages and verses, making our It was
641 task all the more easy. As far as our study is concerned, based as it is on the Critical Edition, we would have very little to do with these latest set of additions. It would, however, be misleading to believe that all late additions were didactic or that all didactic portions in the Epic were necessarily late. Since we are not mainly concerned with the didctic portions, we would do better to present two other glaring examples of probable late additions, which might have entered the Epic even as late/400-800 A.D. The more conspicuous of the two is the as description of the highly ornamental armour-coats in the Virataparva with their schematized and stylized geometrical decorations in gold. Being the only kinds in the entire Epic, these armour-coats have a unique significance, but of greater significance is their close affinity with Sassanian metal-works of the 5 th-6 th century A.D. and the almost exact parallels with similar decorative motifs from Bana's Harsacarita (7 th century A.D.). The case of the other capped with faunal figures example, the dhvajas, is slightly different, in so far as they occur more frequently, but here too, one can hardly overlook their cultural contexts, their almost total absence in literary and art sources till as late as the 4 th-5 th century A.D., when the works of Kalidasa and the Gupta coins give the first clear indication of their factual existence outside of Epic mythology. More important, however is the combined testimony of the late Puranic tradition,
642 and it certainly was not so -Tamil literature and the annals of the Southern kingdoms like the Pandyas, Pallavas and the Chalukyas which leaves no doubt about the popularity of these faunal-figured emblems during the 6 th-8 th centuries A.D. Our Epic has thus been assimilating new matter assiduously even as late as the 8 th century A.D. This late date need not cause much of a problem, when we remember that the earliest Mss utilized by the Critical Edition was a 14 th century A.D. Nepali Mss. All other Mss notwithstanding the Sarada, are from between the 15 th-18 th century A.D. However closely gaurded the Epic text it was almost impossible to prevent bards and scribes, by now spread all over the country, from making their own 'contribution' to the great Epic. They might often have been inspired by other well-known literary works of their times, in Sanskrit, Tamil or even other regional languages. Many of them are also likely to have been patronized by royal houses, local dynasties or even small principalities and hence the tendency in these later times was always to paint the details of the royal court, royal household and in general the ways and lives of the kings and princes in ever new colours and rich finery. (iii) How were these elements incorporated, as isolated instances or as a concious and systemati process of incorporation ? What was the exact
mode of incorporation, as single verses, passages or entire adhyayas ? Are these incorporations restricted to particular Parvas or are they spread over generally throughout the Epic ? = 643 As already pointed out and as will be doubly clear from the examples cited below, the process of additions was far from deliberate. Whatever be the tradition, no one group can lay claims to having brought out an Epic of this dimension. The role of learned editors, however, has to be acknowledged in so far as the present arrangement of the Parvas and adhyayas is concerned, but beyond this basic outer framework they had no control over the fluid text. As a result there was no conscious or systematic attempt at all to mould or reshape the Epic material. It was more a haphazard, unplanned and unconscious process of supplying what was an intimate part of the poet's or the bard's immediate surroundings, but which he found wanting in his favorite Epic. We are confronted with this unweildy and unorganized growth at every step in the Mahabharata Thus new matter found its way into the Mahabharata sometimes in the form of single verses, sometimes in a group of verses, at other times in longer passages or even a full adhyaya, but rarely spread over a few adhyayas at a stretch.
644 There are also instances when certain additions are found restricted to a particular Parva only or concentrated heavily in a particular Parva. An example or two of each kind would be worth citing here to make the process of the growth of the Epic come alive. Very often references to gem-studded articles such as utensils, furniture, weapons and even personal ornaments are contained in a single verse. Superficially these verses seem to fuse beautifully with their setting, but must stand apart since gem-incrustation was a legacy of the early Christian Era (1 st century A.D.), whereas the rest of the setting may not necessarily be so late. The same is very much true of those isolated verses which describe rare ivory furniture pieces. It is, however, more common to come across a group of verses, 4 to 5 or even as many as 10 to 15 at a time, which contain interesting cultural matter. Again these verses, though never quite out-of-tune with the setting, are neverthless not perfectly natural to it either. To cite a conspicuous example, verses 20-34 of the 38 th adhyaya of the Virataparva describe, one after the other, the different weapons of the Pandava brothers, lavishly ornamented with intricate gold decorations. Such a description does not occur anywhere else in the entire Epic although there were plenty of opportunities to do so.
= 645 Adhyaya 30 th of the same Parva contains yet another unique group of 6 verses (9-14) which give a similar description of armour-coats of metal with late parallels in the 6 th-7 th century A.D. These two groups of verses though seemingly blending quite harmoniously with the text, as it is preserved today, must have originally been inserted somewhat late. There are also instances, though rate, where an entire adhyaya seems to have been retouched in order to is project the picture of changing times. A good example te the two consequtive adhyayas, 47 and 48 of the Sabhaparva, which give a detailed report of the expensive gifts and tributes that came pouring in when Yudhisthira crowned himself the king at Indraprastha. The gift articles included brocaded woollens and furs, Chinese silk, animal hides, particularly woolly soft deer hides, all from distant the Central Asia and/Chinese mainland; fine horses from Gandhara, Kandhara, Kamboja and Bahlika; ivory furniture pieces from Eastern India; pearls, corals, beryls and chanks from Cylone and Sandalwood and Aloewood from commercial emporiums and sea-ports like Bharukaccha and Tamralipti. All were expensive luxury items often imported over long distances and from far-off lands through foreign contacts like the Scythians, Huns, Chinese, Greeks, Romans, Cylonese etc., contacts which were forged only during the 1 st-2 nd century A.D. or so. The XIIth Book of the Mahabharata,
= 646 describes the Santiparva too/yet another coronation of Yudhisthira, this time at Hastinapura, the prestigious seat of the Kuru family. The occasion was all the more important as the e covated crown of Kuru lordship was coming to Yudhisthira after a hard-won victory in a bitterly fought fratricidal war which had threatened to destroy the entire Kuru clan. And yet we find no such fanfare, no such rows after rows of kings and princes waiting at his doorstep with tributes and presents. Adhyayas 47 and 48 of the Sabhaparva are thus quite unique in being packed with so many details which definitely point to the early centuries of the Christian era in Indian history. They have been heavily retouched or probably even largely inserted at a later date. 1 The above two adhyayas are also a good example of how certain details of material culture have come to be restricted to certain Parvas only. There is also the example of the Santi and the Anusasanaparvas which contain a major portion of all didactic matter in the Mahabharata Everything from religion, ritual, law, polity, morality, the rules of conduct for a king and for the four castes philosophy, cosmology and eschatology is discussed in these two Books with tedious meticulousness. As such the Santi is the biggest of the 18 Parvas with the largest number of verses to its credit. Not that these didactic details are They provide many a fascinating all uninteresting.
647 glimpses into the daily lives of the people, albeit generally in a ritual and religious context. Yet by virtue of the fact that almost the entire philosophizing and sermonizing of the Epic is cornered by these two Books, there is no doubt that they were after-thoughts, which could not fuse indistinguishably with the immedietely preceding Parvas with their background of the great war and its tragic aftermath. S Thus the pattern of additions follows a general trend, with various elements scattered more or less throughout all the Parvas. Their presence or absence does not indicate much for a particular Parva. At best the verse or the verses of the adhyaya to which they are confined can be tentatively dated, but it would be risky to date an entire Parva on the basis of a verse or a few verses or even an adhyaya. The same Parva can contain elements so divergent as to be separated by a span of centuries and yet pitted side by side. One had to, once again, recall at the stage the words of Dr. Sukthankar that "in an average adhyaya of of this edition (i.e. the Critical Edition) we may read a stanza of the 2 nd century B.C. followed by one written in the 2 nd century A.D." It is, therefore, more or less, a problem of dating every single verse, every little part of the Mahabharata separately, on its own merit, a conclusion drawn by Dr. Winternitz many many years ago (Winternitz 1972: Vol. I, p. 475). To agree with him, however, is not to say that dating the Mahabharata is an almost impossible and hopeless task. It would be more correct to say that the time is as
yet not completely ripe for such a close dating, one of the greatest drawbacks being the very inadequate help a . from archeology. A lot of new data and fresh approach are is needed from this and the other quarters too. May be, one day, the net will close in, the chronological framework will become tighter and tighter dispelling the doubts and misgivings looming large on the horizons. Till then all conclusions will not only be tentative but also a little shaky and somewhat shallow. (iv) What were the motivating factors and trends that led to their incorporation in a particular period of time ? 648 Following the trend of the discussion so far we come to the conclusion that it were mainly the two periods (i) the early Historical Period (500-100 B.C.) and (ii) the early Christian Era (100-300 A.D.) WDW which have contributed the most towards the expansion of the Mahabharata Theirs is what we may rightly term as the "lion's share". It would, therefore, be worth-while to try and trace the motivating causes and trends behind this expansionist activity. As What could possibly have inspired this expansion, in these particular centuries only and not any other ? cause number one is ofcource to be cited the fluidity of
= 649 the Epic text, but that is not going to the root of the problem, for the Epic text has always been fluid. behind There were certainly more fundamental causes being this urge to expand and to swell. To get at them we will have to delve into the political, social and economic background of the respective periods. A new political situation was slowly building up from the 7 th century B.C. onwards, when the existing tribal set-up started crumbling, making way for small kingdoms and city-states, which in their turn caved in, one after the other, under pressures from ambitious and everexpanding empirical powers. The process of empire-building was accelerated, more than anywhere else in the subcontinent, in Eastern India, which witnessed the rise of the Magadhan power in the 6 th century B.C., paving the way for the powerful Mauryan empire, which was to follow three centuries later (under Chandragupta in 321 B.C.). In the meanwhile as the quest for an empire continued, there was a continuous aligning and re-aligning of political and military forces, a ceaseless struggle between small kingdoms, republics and confiederacies. With the rise of of the Mauryas, however, a new phase had begun. For the first time practically the entire sub-continent was brought under one political sway, knitting together diverse cultural and ethnic groups into one polity. The stable government, the orderly polity and the highly centralized
650 political power of the Mauryas coupled with the establishment of distant geographical contacts, resulted in a great boost to trade and communications, to safe transport and roadways, to the creation of new markets and fresh demands and supplies, to old arts and crafts and in general to an overall material prosperity. Thus arrived on the scene gems and precious stones like beryls, corals and pearls from South India and Cylone, fragrant wood like Candana and Agaru from the South and the North East, grape-wine from distant Afghanistan, a variety of ivory, shell and metal articles from craftsmen's guilds all over the country, indegenous silk like Kauseya and fine linen like dukula, mostly from Eastern India, the finest breed of horses from the North-West, interesting glass artifacts and so many other local as well as imported goods. At the same time, there was a sharp rise in military power and strength, with central garripsons manning even far-off provincial capitals and as a result a consequent qualitative and quantitative change for the better in weapons and armaments. A new era of order and sophistication was ushered in. It is but natural that all these developments should be reflected in the literary works of the period, particularly a live literary current like the Mahabharata Surveying the literary too scene too one glimpses the same struggle, as on the political scene, to restore order in chaos. Wheather it be the pithy Sutra texts or
651 the highly organized grammar of Panini, the repeated recasting of the Buddhist texts at the different councils or a comprehensive treatise on statecraft and polity like the Arthasastra, there is the same trend, the same effort at systematizing. It was not basically an age of creative writing though there was much fervent literary activity. The order of the day seems to have been that of arranging, systematizing, redacting, composing and editing. Little wonder then that the Epic material went through the same mill before emerging as the venerated 'Mahabharata'. However, the case of the Epic was far more complex due to its extremely fluid and flexible text, which never got settled by any kind of consensus and was always open to abuse and misuse, lending itself with remarkable case to any bard, poet, redactor or scribe, who chose to tamper with it. Thus while the other works were spared this popular manhandling and remained, more or less, static and captive of their age, the Epic went on evolving, not just swelling in bulk, but also acquiring ever fresh cultural dimensions. Yet another socio-economic and political upheaval was witnessed in the early centuries of the Christian Era, in the wake of wave after wave of foreign people pouring into India through its North-Western frontiers from about 200 B.C. onwards. These people comprised mainly of the Bactrian Greeks, Sakas, Parthians and the Kushanas. By 100 B.C. the Greek king Menander had penetrated deep into
D 652 the Ganga heartland and by 100 A.D. the Sakas had spread h The Kuslanas under to Rajasthan, Malwa and Saurashtra. Kaniska established yet another widespread empire, encompassing within its folds not only the Northen half of India but also distant regions like Afghanistan, Khorasan and Turko-China which till then had never been geographically, culturally or politically integrated with India proper. Being foreigners themselves, with close historical, cultural and ethnic ties with Persia, Central Asia and Turko-China, these new rulers were instrumental in opening up the Indian sub-continent, in a very big way, to trade and cultural contacts which stretched across distant lands and oceans. Of great cultural and material significance were the the commercial contacts with Rome and the West, on one hand, and China and the South East Asia, on the other. The Roman trade was mostly sea-borne, carried through the Southern ports of the Chola and Pandya kings and through prosperous emporiums like Broach on the West coast and Arikamedu on the East. The trade with China, on the other hand, was partly overland, along the once-famous silk-route, linking the Far-East with Europe. It wound its torturous way over Tibet and Kashmir, with branches shooting off into India, via the Pamirs and Parthia, Bactria and Gandhara. There during in fact, a considerable period, when the Partho -Roman which when was, wars choked up the overland arteries of trade, Chinese
goods, including its renowned silk, were channelised to Rome and the West through Indian contacts and Indian sea-ports. = 653 the Thus during these centuries there was, one one hand, a tremendous inflow of novel imported goods, and on the other, the coffers of the Indian kings were full to The great to the brim with a surplus trade-balance. ur panchasing power generated by this surplus, in the hands of the Indian elite, was immedietely reflected in a vociferous demand for a wide range of imported and indegenous luxury goods. So from Rome came imported Roman wine, aromatics and perfumes, glass objects, fine clothing, corals, silver vessels and even women, from China its fine silk, from Central Asia embroidered woollens and colourfully tanned annimal hides and from within the country delicately carved fancy ivory articles which were in great demand in foreign markets too. Gem-studded ornaments and articles and finely-cut precious-stones were also very much in vogue, owing their great popularity to the Scythians and Parthians. It was, on the whole, an age of rich finery, great style, luxuriant living, urbane sophistication and loud gaity, reflected amply in the literature and the art of the period. The Mahabharata too has acquired a veneer of this high-style, luxury and grandeur. These few centuries from about a 100 B.C. to 200 A.D. or so, also witnessed a creative resurgence of Sanskrit, which was to soon culminate in a refined flowering forth
of Sanskrit literature under the Guptas. It was the age of Bhasa and Asvaghosa and even the Buddhists now took to Sanskrit. The Epic, with its still very much fluid text and a wide popular base, was easily manipulated to 654 suit the changed times and to draw freely from new cultural and material cross-currents. So far we have concerned ourselves with the positive side of the Great Epic. But a note of caution will have to be sounded before we close the discussion for it will not be in the correct spirit of a scientific work to ignore a very basic limitation inherent in any study of the Mahabharata To be more specific, the Mahabharata is not at all representative, contrary to popular belief, of all the sections and segments, and class divisions of the ancient Indian society. According to a very simplistic division, to be met with in any standard text-book, but which is good enough for our limited purpose, ancient Indian society, with its caste composition was easily compartmentalized into four main segments. the Brahmins, the teachers and the preists, the sprititual authority; the Ksatriyas, the warriors and the rulers, the political and the military authority; the Vaisyas, traders, artisans, farmers and merchants, at any time the backbone of economic activity and the Sudras, the manual workers and the landless. Now the Mahabharata being primarily an epic of war is heavily weighed in favour of the ruling Ksatriya nobility, whose aristocratic life-style must have been as much cut-off from the general pouplace as of any aristocracy There were
655 time, in any at any country. It is not even as if the ordinary soldier who fought the war had much of a chance before the royal luminaries. It is they who are prominent, they who steal the show. The ordinary Ksatriya soldier is completely overshadowed by the mightiest and the elitest of the Ksatriya nobility. The Brahmin preisthood forms the other dominant group and this because the Brahmins were almost wholly dependant on the royal Ksatriyas for livelihood, patronage and gifts and also because very many of the epic poets were most certainly Brahmins. But despite this close association between the kings and their preists, the treatment of the lifestyle of the Brahmins is wholly inadequate and incomplete in so far as it is only in the context of the Ksatriyas. It is more or less the same story with the other castes too, with only one great difference that their presence is almost completely ignored. Another important segment of society which too the Epic tends to ignore are the women, wheather of the Ksatriyas or of any other caste, and this despite the fact that some of the female characters of the Epic are wellknown for their fine portrayal. But on the whole, women in their day-to-day lives, in their little household chores, in their moments of relaxation and entertainment, in their fondness for dress, ornaments, cosmetics etc., hardly figure in the Mahabharata Thus the conlusion becomes inevitable that the
= 656 society projected by the Mahabharata was a highly male-oriented, aristocratic society. The additions and accretions made to the Epic over the centuries have to be viewed in this light. They were mainly oriented towards further bolstering the picture of this social set-up and it will be at the peril of sacrificing scientific truth that we can ignore the great limitation inherent in the very nature of the Epic. Summary 1) The origins of the Mahabharata reach back to beyond 500 B.C., into the pre-historic times, though how far beyond is as yet only a guesswork game. 2) A major re-shaping of the Epic material took place in the early Historical Period, roughly between 600-200 B.C. or so. At the end of it the Mahabharata emerged with a complete face-lift which almost obliterated its original Particularly striking was the through overhauling form. of the accourtment of war, the weapons and armaments, SO that the great Mahabharata war, in its present form, could only have been fought in the early Historical Period. 3) Another very obvious re-touching took place in the first few centuries of the Christian Era, between 100-300 A.D. Its impact, however, was limited, and mainly related to expensive and often imported luxury items.
= 657 4) In the background of both these phases of literary activity was the development of a strong and stable polity, the growth of powerful empires, the extension of geographical boundaries beyond the Indian ging sub-continent, the forth of new cultural and commercial contacts, economic prosperity and a steep rise in military prowess and hardware.