Novelty of the epic Śiśupālavadha

1. In the Mahābhārata we can found that Nārada reached the assembly of Yudhiṣṭira by rotating himself. But in Śiśupālavadha Nārada directly reached the assembly from the heaven with his purpose.

2. In second canto the conversation about politics between Śrīkṛṣṇa, Balarāma and Uddhava is new creation of Māgha. It is his own idea. This conversation is absent in the Mahābhārata. So the political knowledge of Māgha is exhibited here.

3. From third to thirteenth cantos the matter presented by Māgha is according to his own creation. It shows novelty in his epic. In the Mahābhārata from where the topic of the epic Śiśupālavadha is taken, no such story is present. The description of wealth of God Śrīkṛṣṇa, departure, drinking of honey, romance, description of dawn, season, sunset and sunrise, roving in forest, departure of armies all these are the new creation of Māgha. Such description is absent from the Mahābhārata. Beside these the moral advice of Nārada to Yudhiṣṭira is also Māgha’s new creation.

4. The end of the story of Śiśupālavadha is different from the Mahābhārata. In the Mahābhārata (2.40.22) it is found that when sahadeva offered argha to Śrīkṛṣṇa at that time debate started between Bhīṣma and Śiśupāla and this debate continued till the time when Śiśupāla challenged Śrīkṛṣṇa to fight.

Hearing the slang languages of Śiśupāla. Śrīkṛṣṇa started to speak infront of all the kings about Śiśupāla.

“aparādhaśataṃ kṣāmyaṃ mayā hyasya pitṛpvasaḥ
puttasya tevadhārhasya mā tvaṃ śokemanaḥ kṛthā ||” 2.43.24 ||^[1]

Śrīkṛṣṇa promised his aunt, Śiśupāla’s mother that he will forgive Śiśupāla upto hundred mistakes. Śrīkṛṣṇa announced that the figure of hundred mistakes is completed now. After this in the place of sacrificial ceremony Śrīkṛṣṇa amputed Śiśupāla’s head from his neck with his sudarśaṇacakra in front of all the kings.

Poet Māgha brought newness in this story of the Mahābhārata.

In the Śiśupālavadha Śiśupāla left the sacrificial ceremony. After this message was excehaned between Śiśupāla and Pāṇḍavas. Pāṇḍavas tried to establish peace but Śiśupāla turned a deaf ear to Pāṇḍavas and he transmitted arrogance speech towards Śrīkṛṣṇa.

So between them fighting became unavoidable and Śrīkṛṣṇa sent his army in the battle field.

Defeating Śiśupāla Śrīkṛṣṇa killed him in the battle field. This is the newness of the poet Māgha.

5. It is seen in the Sabhāparvan of the Mahābhārata that when Śiśupāla was abusing Śrīkṛṣṇa at that time Sahadeva kicked on the ground with outburst of anger and scolded the opponents.

“............................
vyajahārottaraṃ yatra sahadevo'rthavadvacaḥ ||
keśavaṃ keśihantāramaprameyaparākramam |
pūjyamānaṃ mayā yo vaḥ kṛṣṇaṃ na sahate nṛpāḥ ||
sarveṣāṃ valināṃ mūrdhtiṃ mayedaṃ nihitaṃ padam |
evamuktemayā samyaguttaraṃ pravravītu saḥ ||
sa eva hi mayā vadhyo bhaviṣyati na saṃśayaḥ” || 2.39. 1-4 ||^[2]

But in the Śiśupālavadh we find that the activities were as done by Bhīṣma instead of Sahadeva.

atha goraveṇa parivādamaparigaṇayaṃstamātmanaḥ |
prāha murariputiraskaraṇakṣubhitaḥ sma vācamiti jāhnavīsutaḥ ||
vihitaṃ mayādya sadasīdamapa mṛṣitacyutārccanam |
yasya namayatu sa cāpamayaṃ caraṇaḥ kṛtaḥ śirasi sarvabhūbhṛtām ||”15.45-46 ||^[3]

Here also the uniqueness of Māgha is found. Beside this it is also found in the Mahābhārata that after offering ‘arghya’ to Śrīkṛṣṇa, unsatisfied Śiśupāla left the assembly with the other kings, and he turned back with the request of Yudhiṣṭira. But in the epic of Māgha Śiśupāla did not came back Inspite of that he took preparation to fight immediately after leaving the assembly hall.

The description of war in seventeenth to twentieth cantos is also newly created by Māgha. In this way poet Māgha gave innovation to treaty and description of war.

It is mentioned earlier that poet Māgha showed his newness in the description of first to thirteenth cantos. The stories of this cantos have some similarities with the Bhāgavatapurāṇa and Viṣṇupurāna. It is mentioned in Bhāgavatapurāṇa that Śrikṛṣṇa was puzzled between two performing task at a time, i.e. killing of Jarāsandha and attending the sacrificial ceremony by Yudhiṣṭira. For this he consulted with Uddhava. Uddhava advicing to attend the sacrificial ceremony in Indraprastha said that Jarāsandha can be killed in the sacrificial ceremony itself hence the first preference should be given to attending the sacrificial ceremony.

This story of Bhāgvata is described in first and second canto of the Śiśupālavadha.

Even some similarities are found between Bhāgavata and the

Śiśupālavadha in the field of application of words and thoughts.

‘novāca kiñcid bhagavān yathā siṃha śivārutam |’

It is similar to the verses of the Śiśupālavadha i..e:

“prativācamadatta keśavaḥ śapamānāya na cedibhūbhūje |
anuhuḍkurute dhanaghvaniṃ gomāyurutāni keśarī ||” 16.28^[4]

Beside this it is described in Bhāgvat (1.3.11, 2.7.4) that Dattātreya is the sixth avatāra of viṣṇu God blessed to sage Atri who wants to get son, he affered himself as a son of sage Atri Because of this the name of the son is Dattātreya. Anasūyā, the daughter of Prajāpati Kardama is the wife of sage Atri. Dattātreya borned in the womb of Anasūyā.

This Dattātreya taught ānvīkṣikī vidyā to Alarka and prahlāda.

“ṣaṣṭamatrerapatyatvaṃ vṛtaḥ prāpto'nasūyayā |
ānvokṣikīmalarkāya prahnādādibhya ucivān ||” 1.3.11^[5]

Beside this—

“atrerapatyamabhikāṅakṣata āha tuṣṭo |
dattomayāham iti yad bhagavān sa dattaḥ |
yat pāda paṅkajaparāgapavitradehāyogardhimāpurubhayīṃ yaduhaihayādyāḥ ||2.7.4 ||^[6]

From this story of this avatāra we come to know that poet Māgha was vaiṣṇava in the school of Bhāgavata.

The story of Dattātreya is mentioned by Māgha in his epic.

“sampradāyavigamādupeyuṣīreṣa nāśamavināśivigrahaḥ |
smarttumapratihatasmṛtiḥ śrutirddatta ityabhabadatrigotrajaḥ” || 14.79 ||^[7]

Śiśupāla was Hiraṇyakaśipu and Rāvaṇa in his previous births respectively. Such story is absent in the Mahābhārata. But it is mentioned in viṣ ṇ upurāṇa and Bhāgvatapurāna. Beside this the description of Hiraṇyakaśipu in the Śiśupālavadha is similar to the description of Agnipurāṇa.

The verse about this in the Śiśupālavadha is—

sa sañcaviṣṇurbharavanāntareṣṇu yāṃ yadṛcchayāśiśriyadāśrayaḥ śriyaḥ |
akāritasyai mukuṭopalaskhalatkarai strisandhyaṃ tridaśardṛśo namaḥ || 1.49 ||^[8]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Mahābhārata, Sabhāvarvan: p. 738.

[2]:

ibid., pp. 730-731.

[3]:

Haridas Siddhantavagisha: Op.cit., p. 634-635.

[4]:

ibid., p. 677.

[5]:

Bhāgabata, p.140.

[6]:

ibid., pp. 285-286.

[7]:

Haridas Siddhandavagisha: Op. cit., p.560.

[8]:

ibid., p.27.