Chapter 12 - Introduction to the Mahabharata

Introductory—The Mahabharata is the most voluminous work in the world literature. It is so big that some parts of it have come to assume the character of independent works most important of which is the Bhagavadgita which represents the dialogue between Lord Krsna and Arjuna in the battlefield of Kuruksetra when the two armies of the Kauravas and the Pandavas were stationed face to face and the strike order was imminent. Arjuna requested the Lord who was acting as his charioteer to station his chariot in the midst of the two armies, senayor ubhayor madhye ratham sthapaya me'cyuta, so that he could see for himself as to with whom he had to fight; kair maya saha yoddhavyam asmin ranasamudyame. Noticing his near and dear ones arrayed against him he felt diffident, so diffident that he gave up his bow and arrow and took the seat in the rear part of the chariot. To lift him up from this spirit of diffidence the Lord delivered him the sermon which represents the essence of the Upanisads, sarvopanisado gavo dogdha gopalanandanah, all the Upanisads are cows and the one who milks them is the son of a cowherd, Krsna. The other portions of the work which have assumed an independent character as mentioned oned above are Kisuusahasranama, the Anugite Anugita , the Bhismastavaraja and the Gajendramoksa. All these

are collectively called Pancaratna. Apart from these there are works like the Viduraniti which form part of the Mahabharata . It represents the quintessence of dharma , righteousness, artha, the material prosperity, kama, the desires and moksa , salvation. Anything concerning these can be met with in this work. It is I said with uncanny effectiveness that whatever pertaining to them as available in this work can be found elsewhere as well but whatever is not here that cannot be found elsewhere; dharme carthe ca kame ca mokse ca bharatarsabha/ yad ihasti tad anyatra yan nehasti na tat kvacit. The work is called Mahabharata because of its large size and substance: mahattvat bharavattvat ca mahabharatam ucyate. It is elevated to the position of the fifth Veda: Bharatam pancamo vedah. Its Authorship loy 120 m It is composed by the sage Vedavyasa, the son of the sage Parasara and Satyavati who was born as the daughter of Vasuparicara, the ruler of the Cedi country, in an island of the river Yamuna. A chief of the fishermen had adopted her as his daughter and brought her up. The sage Vedavyasa has different names. He was called Dvaipayana for taking birth in a Yamuna island, was called Krsna on account of his dark complexion and Vedavyasa for dividing the Vedas in four Samhitas. He had sired Dhrtarastra and Pandu on the wives of Citrangada and Vicitravirya, the sons of Santanu who had died issueless, at the behest of his mother Satyavati who wanted the perpetuation of the Iksvaku race as per the custom of niyoga, the custom that permitted a childless widow to have a child with contact with the brother or any near relative of her deceased husband. Vedavyasa was also the son of Satyavati. The wives of Vicitravirya have the son from him. Bhisma, another son of Santanu apart from Citrangada and Vicitravirya, had vowed that he would not marry and thereby not to come in the way of the promise that his father Santanu had made to the fisherman, the adoptive father Satyavati that it would be her son who would

be his successor. Vedavyasa had also sired Vidura on a palace maid whom one of the wives of Vicitravirya (Ambalika) not wanting to face him on account of his repelling appearance had sent to him as her replacement. The Mahabharata was composed by Vedavyasa in three years of constant application. There are two recensions of it, the northern and the southern. The northern one was published from Calcutta in the period 1834-39 in four parts with no commentary . The second edition of this recension was published in 1875 from Calcutta again with the commmentaries of Arjunamisra and Nilakantha. Still another edition of it was published with the commentary of Nilakantha from Bombay in 1863. This does not include the Harivamsa. The Bombay edition from the point of view of the text is superior to the Calcutta editions. The Southern recenssion was published from Madras in four parts during the period 1855-60 in Telugu characters. It has the Harivamsa and excerpts from the commentary of Nilakantha. The most authentic critical edition of the work was brought out by the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune which is the brightest feather in the cap of Indian scholarship. Its Subject matter The Mahabharata is divided in eighteen Books called Parvans named Adi, Sabha, Vana, Virata, Udyoga, Bhisma, Drona, Karna, Salya, Sauptika, Stri, santi, Anusasana, Asvamedha, Asramavasin, Mausala, Mahaprasthanika and Svargarohana. The Adiparvan describes in detail the history of the lunar race, the Candravamsa and the birth of the Kauravas and the Pandavas. In Sabhaparvan is described the game of dice, in the Vanparvan, the exile of the Pandavas for twelve years, in the Virataparvan, the life of the Pandavas as servants in the palace of king Virata of Matsya country in the thirteenth year of incognito exile, in the Udyogaparvan Krsna's visit to Kaurava court as the emissary of Yudhisthira to sue for piece, in the Bhismaparvan, the sermon of Krsna to Arful the start of the fight,ti Bhisma S

bringing death and destruction to Pandava forces, his laying down of arms on account of his resolve not to pick up fight with a eunuch or one who had been a eunuch earlier and his lying on the bed of arrows, in the Dronaparvan, the killing of young Abhimanyu under attack by all the Kaurava warriors in the Cakra-vyuha formation of the army, the fierce fight put up by Drona and his getting killed because of his laying down arms by being told falsely that his son Asvatthaman had died, the information vouchsafed by a person no less than Yudhisthira, though ambigously, the ambiguous part of his statement not audible to him, in the Karnaparvan, Karna's fight and death, in the Salyaparvan, fight by Salya and his death, in the Sauptikparvan, the killing of the sleeping sons of Pandavas by Asvatthaman, in the Striparvan the cremation of the dead heroes and the lamentations of their female relatives, in the Santiparvan, the instruction of Bhisma to Yudhisthira in Moksa-dharma, in the Anusasanparvan the episodes highlighting ethics and morality, in the Asvamedhikaparvan, the coronation of Yudhisthira and the performance of the Asvamedha sacrifice, in the Asramavasiparvan, the entering into the Vanaprasthasrama of Dhrtarastra and Gandhari, in the Mausalaparvan, the mutual destruction by the Yadavas through Musala, a mace and the death by chance of Krsna by an arrow discharged by a hunter, in the Mahaprasthanaparvan, the losing of interest in life of Pandavas and their handing over the reins of kingdom to Pariksit, the grandson of Arjuna and finally in the Svargarohanaparvan, the ascent of Pandavas to svarga, heaven. Besides these the Mahabharata has a large number of interesting and educative episodes of which the following are more noteworthy: 1. Sakuntlopakhyana 2. Matsyopakhyana X 3. Ramopakhyana 4. Sivyupakhyana CC-0. For Sayitryupakhyanaion, New Delhi. Digitized by S 3 Foundation USA

heding ai ots Its Dated: The Mahabharata has assumed its present form with all accretions, additions, and changes from time to time . It is in no case easy to decide about its date of composition. For that purpose some of the following facts would have to be kept in mind. In the eleventh century Ksemendra in his Bharatamanjari has presented a synopsis of the work which according to Buhler is not much different from the vulgate Mahabharata. Kumarilabhatta of the eighth century has referred to at least ten Parvans out of eighteen of the Mahabharata and has reproduced quotations from them. Sankaracarya of the second half of the eighth century has spoken of the Mahabharata as the Smrti for the womenfolk and the Sudras who do not have the right to study the Vedas. Subandhu of the sixth century and Bana of the seventh one have referred to the episodes of the Mahabharata. They were all too familiar with the Harivamsa. There is reference to the copies of the epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, having been presented to a temple in a Cambodian inscription of circa 600. The person offering the copies had also arranged for their non-stop recitation proving thereby that these two works are certainly of the period prior to the sixth century A. D. The same century, the Mahabharata was well known in the islands of Java and Bali. Before that it had been translated in Tibetan. The inscriptions recording the donation of land of the fourth and the fifth century A.D. refer to the Mahabharata as Smrti and Dharmasastra; satasahasryam samhitayam vedavyasenoktam; Vedavyasa had said in the Samhita with hundred thousand (verses), the reference to the Mahabharata as Satasahasri is very important in that that as early as the fourth century A.D the Mahabharata had assumed its present form of hundred thousand verses. On the basis of the three chapters of the Syrian translation of the santiparvan, Hurtle has proved that the Mahabharata, as early as 500 Aat Dyrawas not much different from the Mahabharata as available at present. On the basis of the researches in Chinese

Turkistan and Chinese literatures, the date is pushed back to several centuries. According to Deon Chrysostom , the Mahabharata in hundred thousand verses was known to South India in 50 A. D. Asvaghosa of the first century A.D. has reproduced a stanza from the Harivamsa . Bhasa of the preChristian centuries has composed some of his plays on the themes of the Mahabharata episodes. In the Asvalayanagrhyasutra (3.4.4) the works Bharata and Mahabharata are referred to separately. The Baudhayana-grhyasutra includes stanzas from the Visnusahasranama and the Bhagavadgita. 400 B. C. is the period of the Asvalayana and the Baudhayana Grhyasutras. From what has been said above it would be clear that the Mahabharata had assumed its present enlarged form as early as 400 B.C. Further, the Mahabharata was a pre-Buddhist work. In its Santiparvan where the incarnations of Visnu are mentioned, the Buddha does not figure. Like the Ramayana the Mahabharata also has been a source of many a work which has drawn their themes from it. Like its counterpart the Ramayana, it has exercised deep and abiding influence on art, culture and tradition of the country. In popularity of course its rating is a couple of notches below of that of the Ramayana. It has not been translated in as many languages as has been the Valmiki's work. Maybe, its theme is partly responsible for it. In view of all the death and destruction and the internacine quarrels, strifes and dissensions, it has come to be associated with unease and disturbance and in popular imagination, mistaken of course, it is identified with what disturbs peace. Hence, the disinclination of the people in India to keep a set of it at home. The Mahabharata in popular imagination has become a synonym of conflict, which really is unfortunate, ignoring as it does the fact that it is a great storehouse of knowledge, the cumulative wisdom of India that it embodies. CA 30