My first encounter with Mahabharat was in school at the age of 11.
It was a kiddish Bengali version by Upendrakishore Raychaudhuri. Ancient Indian Epics hardly entice a child standing at the edge of her teens. Thus, once the academic year came to an end, the book was locked behind other novels to be covered with layers and layers of dust in the coming years. Little did I know back then, that my tryst with Mahabharat had only begun.
Copyrighted Image. Source: http://www.champa-art.com/
As fate would have it, the epic found its way back to my life when a popular Hindi television channel adapted Vyasa’s magnum opus on a grand scale in 2013. And like a magnet pulls iron, I was instantly drawn to it. What began as a curious young girl’s accidental interest, soon turned into passion of a conscious woman. Till that time an ardent admirer of foreign ideas like Coldplay, Keane, Arrow, The OC and an advocate of anything that had the “imported” tag, I gradually metamorphosed into an avid reader of ancient indigenous Hindu scriptures! Now the question is –How did I perceive Mahabharat as a young adult?
My perception of the epic and its various characters in the early days was just like any other Indian, and a young one at that.
I believed that Mahabharat was a story of good vs. evil. I believed Draupadi, the heroine of the epic to be the sole cause of the Great War and Shakuni to be the main villain. It was also my belief that Karna was an innocent, tragic hero fighting against the caste system, the Pandavas were saints and that Duryodhana was black as coal.
Yes, I “believed”. It is important to note this word, because most of these “beliefs” turned out to be either myths or half-truths.
‘Vedic subjects’ are not exactly everyone’s cup of tea, especially in today’s time when westernization has seeped in. Yet, in this country of 1.3 billion, there is still a considerable amount of readers who take interest in Ramayana and Mahabharat. But do we really have the time and patience to read epic stories of such lengths? We live in a busy world, and thanks to easy access to everything via Internet, most of us have very less attention span too. In light of that, we look for simpler ways to get an insight into the Epics.
Abridged, illustrated books, Wikipedia pages, grandmother’s tales and televised versions – these are the standard sources of our acquaintance to the great heritage of Ramayan and Mahabharat. My journey wasn’t very different. Having gone through a couple of blogs, I was instantly drawn to the epic. And immersed in my love for it, I began to take part in debates on public platforms as though I was some subject matter expert!
But a few months into the debates, I realized my idea of my own knowledge of the Epic was wrong. Terribly wrong.
I took a step back. And as I did and observed the discussions from a distance, I realized there was something like “unabridged” epic. It was around this time, when I stumbled upon K. M. Ganguli’s English translation and Gita Press’ Hindi translation of the unabridged Sanskrit version. Soon after, someone directed me to the Critical Edition of Mahabharat by Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. And my life took a turn.
To the uninitiated, the above-mentioned versions are some of the classically accepted unabridged editions of Mahabharat. In other words, these are the text books of the epic in its current form. One might wonder, what difference is there anyway? There is. There is a huge difference in reading any text in its unabridged form, that we will gradually explore when we move on.
Krishna Dwaipayana, or more popularly, Veda Vyasa, had not composed just another story or merely chronicled history. He had created a vast disquisition embedded with philosophy and social science. Every character in his work has his or her own story to tell. Every incident can be seen from multiple perspectives. In light of this, it is practically impossible to capture the multi-dimensional essence of the epic in its totality in a limited 3-hour film or 300-page book. The fictionalized versions and television shows that most of us are accustomed to are merely the easiest ways to tell the story to the masses. Thus, the magnum opus is condensed by distilling out the important events. This gives us a perception that 5 Pandava brothers are being hammered into war by their ‘bloodthirsty’ wife which they win only by cheating!
Mahabharat is that, and much more. Adaptations have done a great service to Indian literature as well as to the audience/readers by presenting this epic in a relate-able format to the general population. But everything has its own downside. While the epic has reached millions through this simple format of storytelling, this process has left us with a very constricted view of the colossal story and the characters, which are far more nuanced, layered and complex in the unabridged state.
Now, some read our epics as just another fascinating tale at leisure. In such cases, the “authenticity” or “accuracy” of facts hardly matters, even though the biases of adaptations subconsciously paint one’s thoughts. But for those who are interested in academic study (or even literary pursuits) related to the epics, factual accuracy and the idea of ‘unauthentic vs. authentic’, ‘canon vs. folklore’ become essential. This blog is my humble attempt to share what I’ve learned as a student of Mahabharata, debunk myths related to the epic, and learn from those who happen by.
If you’re here because you wish to start your research on Mahabharat or simply wish to learn more about it, here are a few things which might help you understand the epic better:
Go for the unabridged texts for research: For any epic—Indian or otherwise—reading the unabridged text is an absolute necessity for researchers and writers. Fictional takes by modern authors are undeniably wonderful reads. But they may not always be designed to disperse correct information unless the author provides detailed footnotes and research materials.
Differentiate between unabridged canon and retellings: Over the years, various bards had retold and rewritten Mahabharat in regional languages. Unknowingly, we often mistake these retold versions as “exact translations” of Vyasa’s Mahabharat. Examples of such regional retellings are Villi Bharatham in Tamil (14th Century) and Kashiram Das’s Mahabharat (15th Century) in Bengali.
Let’s not always judge characters of Mahabharat with modern sensibilities: Can we accuse Bhishma of being sexist? Would it be fair to expect a Dwapara Yuga patriarch to behave like a modern feminist! Same is the case of accusing an epic character as casteist or polygamous. The prevalent social structure in general may have been worthy of criticism. But then is it fair to single out one character accusingly for being a product of the contemporaneous society? Unless a person shows staunch adherence to an acceptedly evil social practice and injuring others with it, we need to exercise thoughtfulness in criticizing the behavior of these legendary characters.
Let us not judge incidents in isolation: Bibek Debroy, translator of the Sanskrit Critical Edition of Mahabharat by BORI, emphasizes the above point. The characters of Mahabharat exhibited marvelous variety in their actions, words and ideologies on different occasions. Sometimes, they were mean, other times they showed outstanding magnanimity. So it is important that we read the whole story, and not just selective incidents, before drawing conclusions. Some repeated behaviors surely need to be looked upon askance. But, at the same time, a full picture of the society and the character graph is imperative for judging him/ her accurately. For example, before we dismiss Kunti as a selfish woman, we need to thoroughly read and analyze her circumstances.
Let us not judge every situation or character through the lenses of our favourite figure(s) from the epic: More than often, we tend to fix coordinates on one character, say Karna or Draupadi. And then, we judge the whole story of 100,000 verses from this favourite character’s perspective. This comes in the way of understanding the epic by significantly narrowing our vision.
If my blog manages to kindle any interest in Mahabharat, then let this be only a starting point. Read the unabridged text and taste the nectar in its purest form. Because, in the end, no blog or novel or retelling can replace the unabridged Mahabharat in all its messy glory. On this note, let us begin this journey. For better navigation, you may start from here: Mahabharat Archives .
Amrita T.