Hi, I am happy to be back once again, after a short break. I hope that during my absence, you enjoyed listening to the Bhagavad Gita verses beautifully sung by Padmini Dinesh. If you have missed them for some reason, please go back to past episodes and do listen to them. I am sure you are going to like them and also have a new experience in Indian musical melody. She has done a great job. Thank you Padmini.
Today, I am going to start another interesting series. My voice is almost fine now. But occasionally you may find some distortion. Please don’t mind.
Many people who are familiar with the Indian scripture, namely the Bhagavad Gita, are probably not aware that this holy book of Hindus is a part of the great Indian Epic Mahabharata. Bhagavad Gita appears as part of Bhishma Parva which is Book 6 of Mahabharata. In all there are 18 books in this great epic.
Talking about its size – this epic has 100,000 verses, and many prose passages, adding up to a phenomenal total of 1.8 million words! In terms of size, it is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined, and four times the length of another well-known Indian Epic namely the Ramayana.
Traditionally, it is believed that this great Epic was composed more than 5000 years ago. However, modern researchers don’t agree on a definite date when this Epic might have been composed. They give a wide range of dates – from 500 B.C. to 3000 B.C. However, there is unanimity in the opinion that this epic was composed at least 500 to 800 years before Christ. Many scholars opine that the Epic was continuously updated, over centuries, before it took its present form. Coming to the authorship of this great Epic,
It is generally believed that the original author of this great Epic was Veda Vyasa. Apparently, he wrote a shorter original version called Jaya which bloated over a period of time and became the Mahabharata that we know today. Initially, some of the descendants of Vyasa propagated this Epic orally, probably adding many more stories in the process.
The story of Mahabharata which is traditionally referred to as Itihas or history, is the story of two groups of warriors Kauravas and Pandavas who probably ruled 5000 years ago in Hastinapur in the Northern part of modern India – somewhere near the Indian capital New Delhi. Both of them were cousins from the Bharata dynasty. That is the reason why the Epic is called Mahabharata. They fought with each other for succession to the throne, finally ending up in complete annihilation barring only a few who survived.
There are many heroes and heroines and of course villains as well, in this great Epic which is multifaceted. Each character is so complex and has its own compelling story to tell. Each is righteous in its own way. There are many events in this Epic that may not be very palatable to our modern sense of morality, though.
But still, the war that ensued as a result of the feud between these two rival factions is often termed as Dharma Yuddha – the war of righteousness. Apart from being a record of history, the primary purpose of this great Epic was supposed to be to create complex scenarios depicting the conflict between right and wrong and show how righteousness can be a complex phenomenon rather than a simple set of commandments.
In real life, it is difficult to define righteousness. What is right and what is wrong varies from person to person, depends on situation, time, end results, and so on. It is not just black and white, but there are myriad shades in between.
In this series of talks, I am going to pick some of the scenarios from this Epic to show how complex real-life events can be, when it comes to deciding right and wrong. Given the massive proportion of this voluminous Epic, it is almost impossible for me to cover the entire Epic in all details. Instead, what I plan to do is to take up some tricky and interesting incidents from the war that ensued, to show how multifaceted is the notion of righteousness in real life.
My intention is definitely not to give a verdict, nor to justify wrong doings, but rather to highlight different viewpoints and pose questions. I leave it to you to decide what inference you want to take – who is right and who is wrong? I am more interested in encouraging analytical thinking rather than taking the Epic as reality or a model for our life. I guess that this is only a very narrow aspect of this great Epic, but nevertheless an important one.
So, let us start in the next episode with some background of the Author of this great Epic, who is also a real hero, the one who always chose to remain in the background, while running the whole show – so to speak.
Talking about its size – this epic has 100,000 verses, and many prose passages, adding up to a phenomenal total of 1.8 million words! In terms of size, it is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined, and four times the length of another well-known Indian Epic namely the Ramayana.
Traditionally, it is believed that this great Epic was composed more than 5000 years ago. However, modern researchers don’t agree on a definite date when this Epic might have been composed. They give a wide range of dates – from 500 B.C. to 3000 B.C. However, there is unanimity in the opinion that this epic was composed at least 500 to 800 years before Christ. Many scholars opine that the Epic was continuously updated, over centuries, before it took its present form. Coming to the authorship of this great Epic,
It is generally believed that the original author of this great Epic was Veda Vyasa. Apparently, he wrote a shorter original version called Jaya which bloated over a period of time and became the Mahabharata that we know today. Initially, some of the descendants of Vyasa propagated this Epic orally, probably adding many more stories in the process.
The story of Mahabharata which is traditionally referred to as Itihas or history, is the story of two groups of warriors Kauravas and Pandavas who probably ruled 5000 years ago in Hastinapur in the Northern part of modern India – somewhere near the Indian capital New Delhi. Both of them were cousins from the Bharata dynasty. That is the reason why the Epic is called Mahabharata. They fought with each other for succession to the throne, finally ending up in complete annihilation barring only a few who survived.
There are many heroes and heroines and of course villains as well, in this great Epic which is multifaceted. Each character is so complex and has its own compelling story to tell. Each is righteous in its own way. There are many events in this Epic that may not be very palatable to our modern sense of morality, though.
But still, the war that ensued as a result of the feud between these two rival factions is often termed as Dharma Yuddha – the war of righteousness. Apart from being a record of history, the primary purpose of this great Epic was supposed to be to create complex scenarios depicting the conflict between right and wrong and show how righteousness can be a complex phenomenon rather than a simple set of commandments.
In real life, it is difficult to define righteousness. What is right and what is wrong varies from person to person, depends on situation, time, end results, and so on. It is not just black and white, but there are myriad shades in between.
In this series of talks, I am going to pick some of the scenarios from this Epic to show how complex real-life events can be, when it comes to deciding right and wrong. Given the massive proportion of this voluminous Epic, it is almost impossible for me to cover the entire Epic in all details. Instead, what I plan to do is to take up some tricky and interesting incidents from the war that ensued, to show how multifaceted is the notion of righteousness in real life.
My intention is definitely not to give a verdict, nor to justify wrong doings, but rather to highlight different viewpoints and pose questions. I leave it to you to decide what inference you want to take – who is right and who is wrong? I am more interested in encouraging analytical thinking rather than taking the Epic as reality or a model for our life. I guess that this is only a very narrow aspect of this great Epic, but nevertheless an important one.
So, let us start in the next episode with some background of the Author of this great Epic, who is also a real hero, the one who always chose to remain in the background, while running the whole show – so to speak.
That was Mahabharata episode 01
Based on the 5000 year old Indian Epic namely Mahabharata. © Dr.King 2019.
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