Hinduism: Mahabharat

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Mahabharat

The Mahābhārata (Devanagari: महाभारत), is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the Rāmāyana. With more than 74,000 verses, plus long prose passages, or some 1.8 million words in total, it is the longest epic poem in the world.

It is also of immense religious and philosophical importance in India, in particular for including the Bhagavad Gita, an important text of Hinduism.

The title may be translated as "Great Bharath" which means "Great India" in modern terms or "the great tale of the Bharata Dynasty", according to the Mahabharata's own testimony extended from a shorter version simply called Bhārata of 24,000 verses.

The epic is part of the Hindu itihāsas, literally "that which happened", along with the Ramayana and the Purānas.


Traditionally, the Mahabharata is ascribed to Vyasa. Due to its immense length, its philological study has a long history of attempting to unravel its historical growth and composition layers. Although its origins likely lie in the 8th and 9th centuries BC, the oldest parts of the current text are likely to date back to the around the 6th century BC.


Authorship
The epic is traditionally ascribed to Maha Rishi Veda Vyasa, who is one of the major dynastic characters within the epic. The first section of the Mahabharata states that it was Ganesha who, at the behest of Vyasa, fixed the text in manuscript form. Lord Ganesha is said to have agreed, but only on condition that Vyasa never pause in his recitation.

Vyasa then put a counter-condition that Ganesha understand whatever he recited, before writing it down. In this way Vyasa could get some respite from continuously speaking by saying a verse which was difficult to understand. This situation also serves as a popular variation on the stories of how Ganesha's right tusk was broken (a traditional part of Ganesha imagery).

This version attributes it to the fact that, in the rush of writing, the great elephant-headed divinity's pen failed, and he snapped off his tusk as a replacement in order that the transcription not be interrupted.






Textual history and organization
It is undisputed that the full length of the Mahabharata has accreted over a long period. The Mahabharata itself (1.1.61) distinguishes a core portion of 24,000, the Bharata proper, as opposed to additional "secondary" material, and the Ashvalayana Grhyasutra (3.4.4) makes a similar distinction. Not unlike the field of Homeric studies, research on the Mahabharata has put an enormous effort into recognizing and dating various layers within the text. Oldenberg (1922) stipulated that the supposed original poem once carried an immense "tragic force", but dismissed the full text as a "horrible chaos".

The earliest known references to the Mahabharata date back to the 5th or 6th century BC, in sutra 6.2.38 of the Ashtadhyayi of Pātini (c. 520-460 BC), and in the Ashvalayana Grhyasutra (3.4.4), which both also mention the Bharata.

Various characters from the epic are also mentioned in earlier Vedic literature. This indicates that the original 24,000 verses, known as the Bharata, as well as various secondary material in the extended Mahabharata version, were complete by the 5th or 6th century BC.

The earliest testimony of the existence of the full text of the Mahabharata is by the Greek Sophist Dion Chrysostom (c. 40-105), who mentions that "the Indians possess an Iliad of 100,000 verses".

The later copper-plate inscription of the Maharaja Sharvanatha (533-534 CE) from Khoh (Satna District, Madhya Pradesh) also describes the Mahabharata as a "collection of 100,000 verses" (shatasahasri samhita). The redaction of this large body of text was carried out after formal principles, emphasizing the numbers 18 and 12.


The addition of the latest parts may be dated by the absence of the Anushasana-parva from MS Spitzer, the oldest surviving Sanskrit philosophical manuscript dated to the first century, that contains among other things a list of the books in the Mahabharata. From this evidence, it is likely that the redaction into 18 books took place in the first century.


An alternative division into 20 parvas appears to have co-existed for some time. The division into 100 sub-parvas (mentioned in Mbh. 1.2.70) is older, and most parvas are named after one of their constituent sub-parvas. The Harivamsha consists of the final two of the 100 sub-parvas, and was considered an appendix (khila) to the Mahabharata proper by the redactors of the 18 parvas.

The division into 18 parvas is as follows:

The Adi-parva is dedicated to the snake sacrifice (sarpasattra) of Jayamejaya, explaining its motivation, detailing why all snakes in existence were intended to be destroyed, and why in spite of this, there are still snakes in existence.

This sarpasattra material was often considered an independent tale added to a version of the Mahabharata by "thematic attraction" (Minkowski 1991), and considered to have particularly close connection to Vedic (Brahmana literature), in particular the Panchavimsha Brahmana which describes the Sarpasattra as originally performed by snakes, among which are snakes named Dhrtarashtra and Janamejaya, two main characters of the Mahabharata's sarpasattra, and Takshaka, the name of a snake also in the Mahabharata. The Shatapatha Brahmana gives an account of an Ashvamedha performed by Janamejaya Parikshita.


According to Mbh. 1.1.50, there were three versions of the epic, beginning with Manu (1.1.27), Astika (1.3, sub-parva 5) or Vasu (1.57), respectively. These versions probably correspond to the addition of one and then another 'frame' settings of dialogues. The Vasu version corresponds to the oldest, without frame settings, beginning with the account of the birth of Vyasa.


The Astika version adds the Sarpasattra and Ashvamedha material from Brahmanical literature, and introduces the name Mahabharata and identifies Vyasa as the work's author. The redactors of these additions were probably Pancharatrin scholars who according to Oberlies (1998) likely retained control over the text until its final redaction in the 3rd or 4th century CE. Mention of the Hunas in the Bhishma-parva appears to imply that the compilation of the text was still ongoing in 400 CE.



Historicity

The historicity of the events of the story is unclear. Many historians believe it to be a work of fiction. The epic's setting certainly has a historical precedent in Vedic India, where the Kuru kingdom was the center of political power in the late 2nd and early 1st millennia BCE.

Ancient Indian scholars have calculated chronologies for the Mahabharata war, comparable to the Hellenistic attempts at a chronology of Greek mythology, the 5th century mathematician Aryabhatta arriving at an approximate date for the Kurukshetra battle of 3100 BCE.[7] Contentious and disputable attempts to date the events of the Mahabharata with the help of archaeoastronomy have claimed dates in the 6th millennium BCE.

According to the Puranas, there is a time gap of 1015 or 1500 years between Parikshit's birth during the Mahabharata war and the coronation of king Mahapadma Nanda (ca. 364-382 BCE).


Synopsis
The epic employs the 'tale-within-tale' structure popular in many Indian religious and secular works. It is recited to the King Janamejaya by Vaishampayana, a disciple of Vyasa.

The core story of the work is that of a dynastic struggle for the throne of Hastinapura, the kingdom ruled by the Kuru clan. The two collateral branches of the family that participate in the struggle are the Kauravas, the elder branch of the family, and the Pandavas, the younger branch.

The struggle culminates leading to the Great battle of Kurukshetra, and the Pandavas are ultimately victorious. The Mahabharata itself ends with the death of Krishna, and the subsequent end of his dynasty, and ascent of the Pandava brothers to Heaven.

It also marks the beginning of the Hindu age of Kali (Kali Yuga), the fourth and final age of mankind, where the great values and noble ideas have crumbled, and man is speedily heading toward the complete dissolution of right action, morality and virtue.
Some of the most noble and revered figures in the Mahabharata end up fighting on the side of the Kauravas, due to conflicts of their dharma, or duty.

For example, Bhishma had vowed to always protect the king of Hastinapura, whoever he may be. Thus, he was required to fight on the side of evil knowing that his Pandavas would end up victorious only with his death.

Click here for enlargment

Map of "Bharatvarsha" during the time of Mahabharata & Ramayana.
(Title and location names are in English.)

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Bhishma

Janamejaya's ancestor Shantanu, the king of Hastinapura has a short-lived marriage with the goddess Ganga and has a heroic son, Devavrata (later to be called Bhishma). Many years later, when the king goes hunting, he spots Satyavati, the daughter of a fisherman, and wants to marry her.

But the fisherman refuses to consent to the marriage, saying that he is not assured of his daughter's happiness and status in the royal family. So he asks Shantanu to promise that her son (his grandson) should ascend the throne of Hastinapura. Shantanu promises that, but still the fisherman is not convinced.

He doubts Devavrata's renouncement of his right to the throne. So Devavrata takes an oath that he will never claim his right to the throne and will always support the one holding the position, no matter what.


The fisherman still doubts whether Devavrata's son would not claim his right to the throne.

Devavrata then vows to be a lifelong celibate, so that Satyavati's son can be the king.

Such a vow was unheard of amongst warrior dynasties, thus inspiring the name Bhishma — 'the person of the terrible oath'.

It was because of this oath that he later fights against the Pandavas, despite supporting them ideologically.

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The Pandavas

Unfortunately Satyavati's sons die young and her grandson Pandu ascends the throne as his elder brother Dhritarashtra is blind.

Pandu is however cursed by a sage (whom he accidentally kills while he is in union with his wife, mistaking their moans of pleasure to the sound of a deer) that he can never engage in sexual congress with any woman.

He retires to the forest along with his two wives. Using a magical spell to summon the gods Dharma, Vayu, and Indra, his elder queen Kunti gives birth to three sons Yudhishthira, Bhima, and Arjuna through their respective "fathers".

His younger queen, Madri bears the twins Nakula and Sahadeva through the Ashwini twins. Pandu and Madri cannot resist temptation, and die in the forest and Kunti returns to Hastinapura with her sons.

The rivalry between the Pandavas and the Kauravas start from childhood itself. Dhritarashtra’s sons, the Kauravas, led by the eldest Duryodhana, detest their cousins.

However, they were the favorite of their teacher Drona and (the Pandavas) grow up to be exceptional. Each one of the Pandavas is said to have one exceptional strength or virtue - Yudhishthira is the most virtuous, Arjuna the bravest warrior, Bhima the strongest, Nakula the most handsome and Sahadeva the most learned.

When the princes come of age, a tournament is held to display the strength and specialities of the princes of Hastinapur. When Arjuna was hailed as a master of archery, a young man challenges him for a duel.

He declares his name is Karna, and he was the son of the charioteer. When asked to prove that he is of royal birth, which is the criterion for joining the tournament, Duryodhana, spotting a potential ally, jumps over to his side and gives his kingdom of Anga.

Karna is forever grateful for this act. Because of this, he becomes Duryodhana's closest friend and plays a crucial role in the war.

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The House of Wax

Meanwhile Duryodhana plots to get rid of the Pandavas and tries to kill the Pandavas secretly by burning their palace which is made of lac, which he made for them as a gift.

However, the Pandavas are warned by their uncle, Vidur who sends them a miner to dig a tunnel.

Therefore, when Duryodhan's servants set the house on flames, they will be able to escape in safety.

After escaping from the tragedy, the Pandavas arrive in a forest and rest.


It was during this time that the Pandavas had to face a demon called Hidum, Bheem killed him and married his sister called Hidumba. With her, he had a son called Ghatotekach.




Bheem and Arjun want to confront the Kauravas, but Kunti and Yudhishthir decide against it.

Bheeshma goes to the river Ganga to perform the last rites of the Pandavas. Vidur then informs him that the Pandavas are alive and to keep the secret to himself.

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City of Ekchara

The Pandavas stay in the city of Ekchara in the guise of Brahmins.

Kunti and Bheem then learn of a cruel and terrible rakshasa named Bakasur who has made a deal with the villagers that if he receives 1 villager a month to eat, he will not harm the villagers.

Bheem sets out to eliminate this rakshasa.

A great fight arises and Bhim with his might kills him. In order to avoid being caught by the villagers, the Pandavas leave the City of Ekchara and move on.

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Draupadi

In course of this exile the Pandavas are informed of a "competition" taking place with the prize being the hand of win being the hand of the Panchala princess Draupadi.

The Pandavas enter the competition in disguise as Brahmins, the task being to string a mighty steel bow and shoot with a steel arrow the eye of a rotating fish on the ceiling while concentrating on the reflection underneath.


No king manages to do so, Karna who is about to try is halted by Draupadi whereas Arjuna becomes successful and manages to complete the task.

When he returns with his bride, Arjuna goes to his mother to show her his prize, exclaiming, "Mother, see what I have won!". Kunti, not noticing the princess, tells Arjuna that whatever he has won must be shared with his brothers.


To ensure that their mother never utters a falsehood even by mistake, the brothers take her as a common wife.

All of the Pandavas love Draupadi dearly. In some interpretations, Draupadi alternates months or years with each brother.

At this juncture they also meet Krishna, a close friend of Draupadi, who would become their lifelong allie and guide.

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Indraprasth

Duryodhan and Shakuni are furious when they learn that the Pandava brothers are alive and that King Dhritrashtra has sent Vidur to call them back to Hastinapur.

Karna, as usual, is ready to fight them, but Shakuni realizes that with King Drupad and Krishna on the side of the Pandavas it would be difficult to defeat them. Dhritrashtra consoles Duryodhan and assures him that his rights as the Heir Apparent to the throne of Hastinapur will be fully protected.

In Kampilya, King Drupad advises Yudhishthir to fight for his right to the throne of Hastinapur. Just then Vidur arrives and tells the Pandava brothers that they have been invited back to Hastinapur along with their bride. The Pandavs and Draupadi return to Hastinapur.

Dhritrashtra conceals his disappointment and orders everyone to welcome them. Determined to establish peace between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, Bheeshma suggests giving half the Kingdom to Yudhishthir.

Dhritrashtra agrees to this suggestion. Krishna and Balram, also give their consent and it is decided that Yudhisthira's coronation as King of Indraprasth be held in Hastinapur.

This land given to them again becomes another unjustice to the Pandavas as it neither has any agricultural soil neither any buildings nor people. Krishna consolidates the Pandavas saying that Indraprasth is not a waste but instead a Land of Action.

Taking the advice of Krishna, the Pandavas make Indraprasth a beautiful town where justice is always met and the inhabitants are happy.

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The Rajsuya Yagna

Shortly after this, Arjuna and Subhadra (Krishna's sister) get married and return to Indraprastha to be welcomed by Draupadi.

Here, Yudhishthir seeks Sri Krishna's advice on performing the Rajsuya Yagna which will make him the emperor of India.

Krishna advises him that Jarasandh who has emprisioned 86 kings must be killed as he may interfere in the ceremony.

Hence Yuddhisthir decides to send Krishna, Bheem and Arjuna to challenge Jarasandh for combat.

Jarasandh chooses to fight with Bheem. Bheem and Jarasandh were so equally matched in strength that they fought for nearly fourteen days without rest.

When Jarasandh finally showed signs of exhaustion, Krishna prompted Bheem to make an end of him.

After Jarasandh had been destroyed, Jarasandh's son was crowned King of Magadh. The Rajsuya Yagna is celebrated and Yudhishthir is recognized as an Emperor.

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"The House of Illusion"

Duryodhan is unhappy about the prosperity of the Pandavs, Shakuni consoles him and later loses in a game of dice to Yudishthir. Duryodhan walks around Yudhishthir's 'Maya Mahal" ("The House of Illusion") and falls into one of the pools.

Draupadi calls him the "blind son of a blind father." Duryodhan, Kama and Shakuni plan to avenge Draupadi for her taunting remarks.

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Game of Dice

Duryodhana, who now has a friend in the peerless warrior Karna becomes aware of Yuddhisthir becoming the emperor. This proves too much for Duryodhana who feels death would be better than watching one's foes prosper.


His maternal uncle Shakuni, convinced that however brave his nephew may be, he was no match for his cousins, decides to use a ruse to destroy the Pandavas. He forces Dhritarashtra to invite the Pandavas for a game of dice in which he wins everything from Yudhishthira, including himself, his brothers and Draupadi through the use of a trick.

The jubilant Kauravas insult them in their helpless state and even try to disrobe Draupadi in front of the entire court. Her honour is saved by the grace of Krishna.


When the elders intervene and Dhritarashtra has to restore everything to the Pandavas, Shakuni forces another game of dice which he again wins.

The Pandavas are required to go into exile for 13 years, and on the 13th year they must remain hidden. If discovered by the Kauravas, they will be forced into exile for another 12 years.