The Mahabharata (Volume 2)

Description

Book Specification

Item Code:	NAB909
Author:	Bibek Debroy
Publisher:	Penguin Enterprise
Edition:	2010
ISBN:	9780143100140
Pages:	520 (1 Map)
Cover:	Paperback
Other Details	9.0 inch X 5.8 inch
Weight	610 gm

Book Description

Back of the Book

The Mahabharata is one of the greatest stories ever told. Though the basic plot is widely known there is much more to the epic than the dispute between the Kouravas and Pandavas that led to the battle in Kurushetra. It has innumerable sub plots that accommodate fascinating meanderings and digressions and it has rarely been translated in full given its formidable length of 80,000 shlokas or couples. This magnificent 10 volume unabridged translation of the epic is based on the Critical Edition compiled at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.

Volume 2 consists of the last part of the Adi Parva the complete Sabha Parva and the early part of the Vana Parva. The story covers Arjunas stay in the forest his marriage to subhadra: the burning of the Khandava forest the Pandavas building the assembly hall and conquering the world Yudhishthiras crowning as emperor Duryodhanas envy at the Pandavas prosperity the two games with the dice Droupadi disrobing Arjunas encounter with Shiva and ends with the Nala and Damayanti Story.

Every conceivable human emotion figures in the Mahabharata the reason why the epic continues to hold sway over our imagination. In this lucid nuanced and confident translation Bibet Debroy makes the Mahabharata marvelously accessible to contemporary readers.

About the Translator

Bibek Debroy is an economist and is Research Professor (Centre of Policy Reserch) and Contributing Editor (Indian express group). He ahs worked in universities research institutes industry and for the government. He has published books papers and popular articles in economics. But he has also published in Indology and translated (into English) the Vedas, the Puranas, the Upanishads and the gita (Penguin India 2005) his book Sarama and her children. The dog in Indian myth (penguin India 2008) splices his interest in Hinduism with his love fore dogs. He is currently translating the remaining volumes of the unabridged Mahabharata.

Introduction

The Hindu tradition has an amazingly large corpus of religious texts, spanning Vedas, Vedanta (brahmanas, aranyakas, Upanishads,), Vedangas,smritis, Puranas, dharmashastras and itihasa. For most of these texts, especially if one excludes classical Sanskrit literature, we dont quite know when they were composed and by whom, not that one is looking for single authors. Some of the minor Puranas (Upa Purana) are of later vintage. For instance, the Bhavishya Purana (which is often listed as a major Purana or Maha Purana) mentions Queen Victoria.

In the listing of the corpus above figures itihasa, translated into English as history. History doesnt entirely capture the nuance of itihasa, which is better translated as this is indeed what happened. Itihasa isnt myth or fiction. It is a chronicle of what happened; it is fact. Or so runs the belief. And itihasa consists of Indias two major epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The former is believed to have been composed as poetry and the latter as prose. This isnt quite correct. The Ramayana has segments in prose and the Mahabharata has segments in poetry. Itihasa doesnt quite belong to the category of religious texts in a way that the Vedas and Vedanta are religious. However, the dividing line between what is religious and what is not is fuzzy. After all, itihasa is also about attaining the objectives of dharma. Artha, kama and moksha and the Mahabharata includes Hinduisms most important spiritual text-the Bhagavad Gita.

The epics are not part of the shruti tradition. That tradition is like revelation, without any composer. The epics are part of the smriti tradition. At the time they were composed, there was no question of texts being written down. They were recited, heard, memorized and passed down through the generations. But the smriti tradition had composers. The Ramayana was composed by Valmiki, regarded as the first poet or kavi. The word kavi has a secondary meaning as poet or rhymer. The primary meaning of kavi is someone who is wise. And in that sense, the composer of the Mahabharata was no less wise. This was Vedavyasa or Vyasadeva. He was so named because he classified (vyasa) the Vedas. Vedavyasa or Vyasadeva isnt a proper name. It is a title. Once in a while, in accordance with the needs of the era, the Vedas need to be classified. Each such person obtains the title and there have been twentyeight Vyasadevas so far.

At one level, the question about who composed the Mahabharata is pointless. According to popular belief and according to what the Mahabharata itself states, it was composed by Krishna Dvaipayana Vedavyasa (Vyasadeva). But the text was not composed and cast in stone at a single point in time. Multiple authors kept adding layers and embellishing it. Sections just kept getting added and it is no ones suggestion that Krishna Dvaipayana Vedavyasa composed the text of the Mahabharata as it stands today.

Consequently, the Mahabharata is far more unstructured than the Ramayana. The major sections of the Ramayana are known as kandas and one meaning of the word kanda is the stem or trunk of a tree, suggesting solidity. The major sections of the Mahabharata are known as parvas and while one meaning of the word parva is limb or member or joint, in its nuance there is greater fluidity in the word parva than in kanda.

The Vyasadeva we are concerned with had a proper name of Krishna Dvaipayana. He was born on an island (dvipa). That explains the Dvaipayana part of the name. He was dark. That explains the Krishna part of the name. (It wasnt only the incarnation of Vishnu who had the name of Krishna.) Krishna Dvaipayana Vedavyasa was also related to the protagonists of the Mahabharata story. To go back to the origins, the Ramayana is about the solar dynasty, while the Mahabharata is about the lunar dynasty. As is to be expected, the lunar dynasty begins with Soma (the moon) and goes down through Pururava (who married the famous apsara Urvashi), Nahusha and Yayati. Yayati became old, but wasnt ready to give up the pleasures of life. He asked his sons to temporarily loan him their youth. All but one refused. The ones who refused were cursed that they would never be kings, and this includes the Yadavas (descended from Yadu). The one who agreed was Puru and the lunar dynasty continued through him. Purus son Duhshanta was made famous by Kalidasa in the DuhshantaShakuntala story and their son was Bharata, contributing to the name of Bharata varsha. Bharatas grandson was Kuru. We often tend to think of the Kouravas as the evil protagonists in the Mahabharata story and the Pandavas as the good protagonists. Since Kuru was a common ancestor, the appellation Kourava applies equally to Yudhishthira and his brothers and Duryodhana and his brothers. Kurus grandson was Shantanu. Through Satyavati, Shantanu fathered Chitrangada and Vichitravirya. How even the sage Parashara had already fathered Krishna Dvaipayana through Satyavati. And Shantanu had already fathered Bhishma through Ganga. Dhritarasthra and Pandu were fathered on Vichitraviryas wives by Krishna Dvaipayana.

The story of the epic is also about these antecedents and consequents. The core Mahabharata story is known to every Indian and is normally understood as a dispute between the Kouravas (descended from Dhritarashtra) and the Pandavas (descended from Pandu). However, this is a distilled version, which really begins with Shantanu. The non distilled version takes us to the roots of the genealogical tree and at several points along this tree we confront a problem with impotence/sterility/death, resulting in offspring through a surrogate father. Such sons were accepted in that day and age. Nor was this a lunar dynasty problem alone. In the Ramayana, Dasharatha of the solar dynasty also had an infertility problem, corrected through a sacrifice. To return to the genealogical tree, the Pandavas won the Kurukshetra war. However, their five sons through Droupadi were killed. So was Bhimas son Ghatotkacha, fathered on Hidimba. As was Arjunas son Abhimanyu, fathered on Subhadra. Abhimanyus son Parikshit inherited the throne in Hastinapura, but was killed by a serpent. Parikshits son was janamejaya.

Krishna Dvaipayana Vedavyasas powers of composition were remarkable. Having classified the Vedas, he composed the Mahabharata, in 100,000 shlokas or couplets. Todays Mahabharata text doesnt have that many shlokas, even if the Hari Vamsha (regarded as the epilogue to the Mahabharata) is included. One reaches around 90,000shlokas. That too, is a gigantic number. (The Mahabharata is almost four times the size of the Ramayana and is longer than any other epic anywhere in the world.) For a count of 90,000 Sanskrit shlokas, we are talking about something in the neighborhood of two million words. The text of the Mahabharata tells us that Krishna Dvaipayana finished this composition in three years. This doesnt necessarily mean that he composed 90,000 shlokas. The text also tells us that there are three versions to the Mahabharata. The original version was called jaya and had 8,800 shlokas. This was expanded to 24,000shlokas and called Bharata. Finally, it was expanded to 90,000 (or 100,000) shlokas and called Mahabharata.

Krishna Dvaipayana didnt rest even after that. He composed the eighteen Maha Puranas, adding another 400,000 shlokas. Having composed the Mahabharata, he taught it to his disciple Vaishampayana. When Parikshit was killed by a serpent, janamejaya organized a snake-sacrifice to destroy the serpents. With all the sages assembled there, Vaishampayana turned up and the assembled sages wanted to know the story of the Mahabharata, as composed by Krishna Dvaipayana, janamejaya also wanted to know why Parikshit had been killed by the serpent. Thats the background against which the epic is recited. However, there is another round of recounting too. Much later, the sages assembled for a sacrifice in Naimisharanya and asked Lomaharshana (alternatively, Romaharshana) to recite what he had heard at ]anamejayas snake-sacrifice. Lomaharshana was a sum, the sutas being charioteers and bards or raconteurs. As the son of a suta, Lomaharshana is also referred to as Souti. But Souti or Lomaharshana arent quite his proper names. His proper name is Ugrashrava. Souti refers to his birth. He owes the name Lomaharshana to the fact that the bodyhair (loma or roma) stood up (harshana) on hearing his tales. Within the text therefore, two people are telling the tale. Some times it is Vaishampayana and sometimes it is Lomaharshana. Incidentally, the stories of the Puranas are recounted by Lomaharshana, without Vaishampayana intruding. Having composed the Puranas, Krishna Dvaipayana taught them to his disciple Lomaharshana. For what it is worth, there are scholars who have used statistical tests to try and identify the multiple authors of the Mahabharata.

As we are certain there were multiple authors rather than a single one, the question of when the Mahabharata was composed is somewhat pointless. It wasnt composed on a single date. It was composed over a span of more than 1000 years, perhaps between800 BCE and 400 ACE. It is impossible to be more accurate than that. There is a difference between dating the composition and dating the incidents, such as the date of the Kurukshetra war. Dating the incidents is both subjective and controversial and irrelevant for the purposes of this translation. A timeline of 1000 years isnt short. But even then, the size of the corpus is nothing short of amazing.

Contents

Family Tree	x
Map of Bharatavarsha	xiv
Acknowledgements	xv
Introduction	xvii
Section Sixteen
Arjuna Vanavasa Parva	1
Arjunas Sojourn in the forest begins with the reasons for his banishment
Section Seventeen
Subhadra Harana Parva	25
Subhadras Abduction
Section Eighteen
Harana Harika Parva	31
The giving of gifts that followed Subhadras abduction
Section Nineteen
Khandava-Daha Parva	39
The Burning of the Khandava forest by Arjuna and Krishna
Sabha Parva
Section Twenty
Sabha Parva	69
The building of the assembly hall
Section Twenty one
Mantra Parva	103
Consultation prior to the royal sacrifice
Section Twenty Two
Jarasandha Vadha Parva	121
The killing of Jarasandha
Section Twenty Three
Digvijaya Parva	137
The Conquest of the world by the Pandavas
Section Twenty four
Rajasuya Parva	153
The Royal Sacrifice
Section Twenty Five
Arghabhiharana Parva	161
The offering of a gift and the consequent dispute
Section Twenty six
Shishupala vadha Parva	169
The Killing of Shishupala
Section Twenty Seven
Dyuta Parva	185
The gambling with dice
Section Twenty Eight
Anudyuta Parva	249
The Aftermath of the gambling match
Aranyaka Parva
Section Twenty Nine
Aranyaka Parva	271
Padavas sojourn in the forest
Section Thirty
Kirmira Vadha Parva	299
The Killing of Kirmira
Section Thirty One
Kairata Parva	305
The Story of Shiva assuming the role of a mountain dweller to fight with Arjuna
Section Two
Indralokabhgamana Parva	395
Arjunas visit to Indras world and the Nala Damayanti story
About the Translator	482

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