Nalopakhyana, from the Mahabharata, tells the story of Nala and Damayanti – their love, loss and retrieval.
Don’t be fooled by the name (Nalopakhyana)! In essence, it is the story of a woman hero – a woman who spared no efforts to gain and keep the man she loved!
Listen in to this poignant story of Damayanti and the triumph of her love amidst adversity!
Karna is one of the most nuanced characters created by Vyasa. He crafts the character of Karna so finely making Karna one of the greatest tragic heroes of all times.
Check out how, when and where Karna enters the epic’s story and changes its course forever….
Several hundred books have been written about the Mahabharata. Why one more? Is there place for another sensible read? These are questions that often plague me when people ask me to write a book. Any book. Do I have anything new to say, anything worth saying, anything that has not been said before?
But with the Mahabharata, there is no place for such doubts. The epic is as evergreen as it is eternal. And it reveals newer and newer layers to the seeker. In this book, professor Ganesh N. Devy, an ardent seeker himself, sets out on a quest to answer questions about the epic that have plagued him for long:
What is it about the epic that gives it its timeless appeal – what can explain its incredible effect on the millions of people over thousands of years? How does the epic, even two millennia after its composition, continue to speak to the nation?
Seen from the context of time, these questions are extremely valid, for it explains the epic’s extraordinary survival story.
The epic’s extraordinary survival story
Consider this. In the time period the epic was birthed, evolved and reached its final stage of composition, the Indian sub-continent was ruled by several dynasties (the Mauryas, Guptas, etc.) that were guided by different ideologies. Through this long period, several new religions rose, some flourished, some others died here. Diverse philosophies and doctrines arose. All were discussed, some accepted and embraced while some others were discarded. Through all these historically turbulent times, the Mahabharata continued on its own quest, unperturbed, successfully surviving to this day, quietly crossing two thousand years along its way.
You will realise this is no mean feat, when you compare the Mahabharata with the epics of the near-east and the west such as the Gilgamesh, Iliad and the Odyssey. Today, these epics hold little or no significance today for the people of those geographies. It is from this perspective, professor Devy attempts to decode the eternality of the Mahabharata.
The epic quest
The book is divided into two parts titled – the epic’s quest, and the wheel.
In the first part, the author gives an overview of Mahabharata’s birth, its form and structure and its stages of evolution, from a global-historical perspective. Here, Devy rightly points out that an epic typically emerges at the beginning of a great civilisation and becomes an icon for that civilisation. In the case of the Mahabharata, it was a civilisation that was born at the cusp that marked the end of the pastoral-agrarian state system and the start of feudal state structure in the Indian sub-continent (yuganta).
The Nation’s way of remembering
Professor Devy interprets the Mahabharata as a way of remembering this slice of history. According to Devy, the epic records this history as an uninvolved witness, like the sthithapragnya mentioned in the Gita, with an empathetic detachment, a sage acceptance of all that has been, as it was. (That can certainly explain the epic’s non-judgemental narrative style, the close-to-life conundrums the epic poses and the shade of its characters, that is more grey than black & white.)
However, in reconstructing this past, the epic does not shy away from using myths and fantasy. And it is this technique of combining myth with history, according to professor Devy, that is one of the prime reasons for the epic’s timeless appeal.
An epic for all and everyone
In the second part of the book, the author discusses what he thinks is the epic’s relevance in the modern times and the significance it holds for us today.
Although the epic deliberates continuously on the aspect of dharma, Devy believes that the epic’s dharma is different from the dhamma (dharma) of Buddha or the dharma prescribed by the Dharmasutras that were laid down by Brahmins for Brahmins. Mahabharata, according to Devy, has steered clear of these influences. And that is an important reason why its appeal transcends religious, sectarian and linguistic communities making it an epic for all and everyone.
Mahabharata & the Chakra
The dharma of the epic, according to Devy, is the dharma of the chakra (wheel), that symbolises the relentless passage of time and eternal movement. In fact, the kala chakra or the wheel of time is, for Devy, the central metaphor of the epic.
Indeed, this idea of circular time is reflected in the narrative style of the epic too, with the epic beginning in the future, at the snake sacrifice of Janamajeya, where the past story is narrated before ending again at the snake sacrifice, which becomes the present for the reader. The past, the present and the future thus merge into one big circle of time carrying the potential for multiple beginnings and multiple endings.
Epic’s fluid narrative
According to Devy, it is this idea of multiple beginnings of the epic – which could either be the Satyavati-Shantanu story or the oath of Bhishma or the birth of Pandu and Dhritarashtra or the conflict between the Pandavas and the Kauravas – that is the epic’s central message for a diverse society such as ours with different origin stories. A diverse society that is unfortunately being forced to agree to a single narrative for the beginnings of Bharata.
As a linguist, Devy enriches his views by presenting some interesting possibilities about the interpolations in the epic and how the nature of tense in Sanskrit grammar could have been one of the reasons for the popularity of the epic. For me, these were the really interesting takeaways from the book. The book could have, however, done with better editing and proof reading.
The book is available on amazon.in
The Mahabharata refers to Arjuna using 14 different names. One of which is Savyasachi.
Do you know what the name means?
Watch the YouTube video for the answer and to know what makes Arjuna the iconic hero of the epic.
Why did Drona refuse to teach Ekalavya?
Was it because Ekalavya was not a Kshatriya? Because Ekalavya was supposedly a low-born compared to his other students?
Why did he extract a bloody sacrifice from Ekalavya?
Check the video on one of the most debated issues from the Mahabharata!
(A 5-minute read)
The Shanmatha traditions
Hindu religion, as we know it today, is mostly an aggregation of what used to be six independent sects called the Shanmatha, which included the worship of the Sun (Saura), Vishnu (Vaishnava), Shiva (Shaiva), Kumara or Skanda-Karthikeya (Kaumara), Devi (Shakta) and of course, Ganapati (Ganapatya).
The Missing Deity of the epic
The third and the fourth parvans of the Mahabharata namely the Vana parvan and the Virata parvan refer to the worship of many of these deities. But there is one deity, whose worship references are conspicuously absent in the epic. Which deity is that?
Let’s first start with the deities that the epic knew.
Vishnu: As everyone knows, Krishna, considered an avatar of Vishnu, plays an overarching role in the epic. The Bhagawad Gita clearly presents Krishna, the incarnation of Vishnu, as the supreme god.
That is not to say the other equally large Shaivite tradition does not find representation in the text.
Shiva: References to Shiva can be found in the Vana parvan where Arjuna performs a penance to please Shiva and obtains divine weapons such as the Pashupathastra from him. Of course, who else, but the destroyer God, to grant Arjuna weapons of mass destruction!
Shakti: While Shakti, as Parvati, does make a cameo appearance in the Pashupatastra episode of the Vana parvan, she finds greater representation in the Virata parvan. Just before the Pandavas enter the kingdom of Virata to complete the last year of their exile incognito, they pray to Durga, the goddess of war. The Pandavas, led by Yudhishtra, sings praises of goddess Durga seeking success in their mission. She appears before them and blesses them with successful completion of the incognito year without being recognised by the Kauravas and eventual victory over them in the war.
Surya: While in exile in the forest, Yudhishtra is faced with the responsibility of not just feeding his brothers and their wife, Draupadi, but with also ensuring that all the Rishis and Brahmins who have followed him into the forest are fed. So, he performs several austerities to the Sun god, Surya, who blesses him with the Akshaya patra, the vessel that ensured unending supply of food for the Pandavas and their retinue through their stint in the forest. Yudhishtra knew very well, which God to please, when it came to asking for bountiful food!
Karthikeya: The story of the birth of Skanda, the son of Shiva, his childhood exploits and his slaying of Tarakasura are narrated by sage Markandeya in detail in the Vana parvan. Stories about the exploits of Karthikeya, the war God, may have inspired the Pandavas to prepare themselves for the impending war.
Thus, we find that the epic, through its period of evolution, accommodated several existing and emerging religious sects in the form of stories about their chief deities. All deities of the Shanmatha, except one!
So, which deity is absent from the epic’s narrative?
It is Ganesha!
Why are there no stories about his worship in the epic?
Mystery solved
One reason may be that for a long time, Ganapati worship was concentrated in the Western parts of India where he was considered a farmer’s god. Ganapati worship became more mainstream and widespread only around the 5-6th century CE by when it started to emerge as a large and independent sect. Interestingly, by this time, the Mahabharata, as a text, had more or less completed its period of evolution and had reached its final written form. That can explain why stories of Ganesha did not find themselves into the epic.
However, as the worship of Ganesha became popular over time, his devotees could not be disappointed. So, the story about how Vyasa requested Ganesha to be his scribe while composing his magnum opus, was inserted as a frame story in a later-period manuscript, written in Devanagari and belonging to India’s North-Central region.
Who knows? The clever interpolator who inserted the story, may have been a Ganpati devotee himself. But as an elephant-headed God of wisdom, he could not have found a better scribe to pen down Vyasa’s magnum opus!
Om Ganeshaya Namaha!
For more on the Vyasa and Ganesha story, watch this 2-minute video!
The story of Krishna is narrated in several texts including the Hari Vamsa and the Bhagawata Purana. In these texts, he is God – omnipresent and omnipotent.
But in the Mahabharata, he comes across as a complex character in varying shades of white, black, grey and blue. Here, he is not always god, but often a thinker-philosopher and war strategist.
Presenting five lesser-known aspects of Krishna from the Mahabharata.
The Mahabharata is narrated for the first time at a horrific snake sacrifice conducted by Arjuna’s great grandson and Abhimanyu’s grandson, Janamejaya.
But how does the snake sacrifice relate to the core story of the epic? How does the Sarpa Sattra or the snake sacrifice set the perfect context for the epic?
Click to find out!
There are several difficult expressions and riddle-like verses in the Mahabharata. They are called the Vyasa Kutas.
Legend has it that it is these difficult Vyasa kutas that made Lord Ganesha pause and ponder over while writing down the great epic.
But, the story of Ganesha writing down the Mahabharata serves a larger purpose.
Click the link to know the whole story!
Kulture Katha 