Mahabharata
Spring School
on
Mahabharata
The Mahābhārata is one
ancient book of India in which modern Indians have substantial
investments. It is as if, to the moderns, (particularly to
those who have been subjected to the rigors of western pedagogy),
Mahābhārata is at once an archive and a
living text—a source-book complete-by-itself and a text
perennially-under-construction as well.
A storehouse of information, Mahābhārata
furnishes ample material to any professional interested in
excavation;—and the professional may don
the hat of, say, the anthropologist or the historian or the
sociologist or the linguist or the literary critic to work
out, even if provisionally, some or the other well-integrated
meaning. On the other hand, in the course of entering the
Mahābhārata there is almost none who does
not undergo a sense of déjà vu—an
inescapable feeling that the present; s/he inhabits
is only a re-play of happenings; already-recorded;
an eerie sensation that most of the ethical dilemmas, the
logical paradoxes, the unavoidable impasses which baffle the
modern man as well as the mood of irresolution following every
resolution that keeps plaguing him have already been punctiliously
check listed. In the case of the Mahābhārata
thus, two interpretative paths—one devoted
to the uncovering of a shadowy past and the other engaged
in negotiating the contemporary—keep intersecting. While
scholars seek to expound on its subtleties of meaning by imposing
strict contextual limits, poets-playwrights-novelists-journalists-political
commentators extend its contextual scope by treating it is
a package of Rohstoff or raw material;
derived from their own experiences.
But the interesting thing is, both experts
and amateurs, adepts committed to the sanctity of words enshrined
in the book and authors of fictions keen on spinning new versions
of them, tend to regard their output as being pre-inscribed.
Deep down, scholastic and eclectic exercises involving the
Mahābhārata are united in viewing it as
an inexhaustible repository. By the same movement, the Mahābhārata
steadily gains in significance as itihāsa or
iti-ha-āsa or so indeed it was;.
Scholars engrossed in sifting through various confusing variants
in order to bring coherence to a chaotic corpus, absorbed
in the pursuit of transforming a literary unthing;,
(an expression coined by Maurice Winternitz), into a critically
codified text that can shed light on India;s past with
sufficient cogence, collaborate, wittingly or unwittingly,
with amateurs who, even while critically reflecting on current
affairs;, remain more or less convinced that the Mahābhārata
is no less than a chronicle of events foretold;.
This double-play of freezing; and unfreezing;—the
double-move of construing a decisive body of words;
that can be employed to prove or disprove any scientific hypothesis
in relation to the past and of reckoning the same as being
a tool that can be employed to decipher the mysteries of the
present—renders to the word itihāsa a
magical quality: creating a kind of transcendental
synthesis;, Mahābhārata;s (modern)
reception transforms itihāsa to imply so
indeed it was;, so indeed it is; and even
so indeed it will be; all at once. The urge to
discover in the Mahābhārata the repetition
of before, during and after provides,
in turn, a master-key to the analysis of the compulsion;
known as the compulsion to repeat which holds the
modern Indian in its grip—a compulsion;
palpably evident in a number of his philosophical;,
aesthetic; and political; undertakings.
To read the liaison between the Mahābhārata
and modernity; as being somehow symptomatic of
a time-loop;, it is imperative that over and
above paying attention to the thematic; bundles
it contains we take in our intellectual stride the bundle
of narrative-styles; the text displays.
In an effort to foreground our own
fascination with the Mahābhārata—a
work that is indeed fascinating—the following topics
will be dealt with in the Summer School being organized by
the Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla:
1. Modes of Narration
(Special emphasis on: the report;
of the War of Kurukshetra;; digressions;
that keep interrupting the main plot;)
2. Modes of Transmutation
(For example:[1] the methodology behind the
preparation of the Critical Edition brought out by Bhandarkar
Oriental Research Institute,Poona; [2] comparative analyses
of pre-modern translations; of the Mahābhārata
into Indian vernaculars and modern adaptations;;
e.g., relevant portions from Kasiram Das; Bangla Mahābhārata
[17th c.] and Rabindranath;s Gandhari-r Abedan;
[Gandhari;s Plea;: 1897] / Karna-Kunti-sambad;
[Karna-Kunti-Exchange;: 1899]).
3.Authors in Search of the Hero of the
Mahabharata
(Comparative analyses of character-centric
studies; e.g., Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay;s Krishnacharitra
[first edition: 1886; expanded second edition: 1892], Irawati
Karve;s Yugānta [Marathi: 1967; English:
1969], Buddhadev Bose;s Mahābhārata-er
Katha [1974], Alf Hiltebeitel;s Rethinking
the Mahābhārata [2001], Chaturvedi Badrinath;s
The Women of the Mahābhārata [2008])
4. Authors in Search of the Meaning of
the Mahabharata
(E.g. comparative analysis of Abhinavagupta;s
(10th-11th c.) or Ânandatīrtha;s (?) or Nēlkantha;s
[15th c.] view with that of V. S. Sukthankar as expressed
in the latter;s book On the Meaning of the Mahābhārata
[1957])
5. The Ideal Life Style
(Analysis of the internally contradictory
views on Varna-dharma; and Âśrama-dharma;,
between the notions of Total Duty; and Total
Renunciation; etc. in the Mahābhārata
and the modern; efforts to resolve;
them. A special session on a discussion on the Mahābhārata;s
conflicting versions of praxis relating to Âśrama;
in conjunction with Pandurang Vaman Kane;s piece Âśramas;
included in his monumental treatise History of Dharmaśāstra
[Volume II, Part I: 1941] may be planned.)
6.Transgression and Dissidence
(Just as fouls; give a better
picture of the rules of the game; than the code
of proper play;, focusing on the [near-systematic] transgressions
of the Dharmic Law in the Mahābhārata
may tell us more about the Eternal Dharma;
it spells out at various junctures. Transgressions may include
instances involving love;, marriage;,
sex;, sexual harassment of women;
[Draupadī, of course], military cunning;,
strategic untruths; etc. along with those sanctioned
during times of distress;. The session on transgressions;
cannot be complete without a discussion on the sense of acute
embarrassment; that almost unfailingly accompanies
most modern recounting; of the past misdeeds.
Dissidence; in the Mahābhārata
is often linked with the themes of revenge and
retribution; and procuring justice by violent
means;. In this regard, Aśvatthāmā, the
last army commander on the Kaurava side, is a stellar example.
Focalizing on transgression; and dissidence;
will certainly clear the way to lead us to Dalit and Feminist
perspectives on the Mahābhārata.
7. The Ethical Conundrum
(There is no dearth of material in the Mahābhārata
on this score. However, it seems, one would gain much
if we concentrated on three interlinked concepts; namely,
himsā [violence;], ahimsā
[nonviolence;] and ānŗśamsya
[noncruelty;]. Although it is referred to
in many places, we receive a rather elaborate thesis on the
golden mean; between himsā and
ahimsā, that is, on ānŗśamsya
in Âraņyakaparvan: 197-206 in the voice
of Dharmavyādha
Dharmavyādha;s discourse may also
provide a clue to the Brahminical mechanism of neutralizing
the trenchant Śramaņ [e.g., Buddhist-Jain]
critique of himsā and its over-valorization
of ahimsā. It may also be employed to re-consider
the violence;-nonviolence; binary
that dominates India;s nationalist [and post-nationalist]
discourses—the ideologues of the 1905-08 Swadeshi
Movement and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the modern Apostle
of nonviolence, are surely pertinent, as far as this is concerned.
8. The Bhagavadgītā and the
Other Gītās
This session can have three parts:
a. A comparative analysis of the Bhagavadgītā
and the other Gītās like Anugītā;
in Âśvamedhikaparvan, Bhīmgītā;
in Udyogaparvan
b. The pre-modern and modern / post-modern
divide on the question of the central message of the
Bhagavadgītā;Commentaries by Śankara
(8th-9th c.), Rāmānuja (11th-12th c.), Madhva (13th
c.) on the one hand and 19th-20th c. commentaries by Bankimchandra
Chattopadhyay, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
on the other, may be marshaled for this purpose.
c. A brief history of English translations
of the Bhagavadgītā and also that of Gītā;s
western response For the former a detailed discussion on the
first English translation [1785] done by Charles Wilkins is
necessary.For the latter, nothing can be more illumining than
the Introduction appended to Wilkins; translation authored
by Warren Hastings, the then Governor-General of India. In
addition, G. W. F. Hegel;s reading of the Gītā
[1827]—a reading based on Wilkins; English translation
and August Wilhelm von Schlegel;s Latin translation
[1823]—can also be effectively used.)
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