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July 31, 2006

Blogging the Mahabharata: Introduction

"It contains all that is worth knowing; what is not in it is not worth knowing." So the ancient Indian sage Vaishampayan is reported to have said of the Mahabharata, widely acknowledged to be the longest epic in the world. It is arguably the most important text in the ancient Indian canon and contains, among other things, the Bhagavadgita, which, apart from being Hinduism's Bible-equivalent according to some, also packs a powerful philosophical wallop. The elaborate rituals of Hindu life may be ascribed to the Vedas, but the complex episodes and heroic personas that animate the Indian mythos live out their lives in the Mahabharata. Hardly any child in India--Hindu or otherwise--has grown up without hearing of this epic that captures the imaginations of billions, including me.

The Mahabharata (literally, "the great story of Bharat's line") has been the subject of a staggering amount of social, political and spiritual commentary in India. When compared with the Bible, it tends to omit details. Commandments, burnt offerings and uncleanness resulting from menstruation are not featured in its pages. Save for some explicit moralizing in the Bhagavadgita parts, the Mahabharata mostly features powerful characters whose choices and actions are nuanced and of ambiguous "goodness" and moral worth. The overriding message is one of realpolitik: dharma, or righteousness, must be upheld at all costs, even if it means betraying your clan, your relatives or even your own self. This sort of end-justifies-the-means outlook is deeply entrenched in the Indian collective psyche even today.

I was told the story of the Mahabharata several times in my childhood. Yet, not once have I viewed it as anything more than a story with occasional religious or prescriptive overtones. I've acquired most of my current critical reasoning skills in a secular, humanistic setting, after I left the milieu of my relatively religious family and community. Earlier, I viewed the Mahabharata as a simple clash between good and evil and as such, was uncritical of the established wisdom about its main characters. In recent times though, I've come to realize that as with any great epic, shades of gray that don't immediately meet the eye inhabit the Mahabharata as well.

Therefore, taking inspiration from David Plotz's Blogging the Bible project, I have decided to read the Mahabharata and blog about it. For starters, it would be a series of related posts -- hopefully one that would keep my readers coming back. It would make me read the Mahabharata in a renewed secular and humanistic light, divorced from its usual moralistic undertones. I hope to examine how some events of the Mahabharata continue to influence attitudes in India to this day. My writing will be less entertaining than Plotz's; I have much less to material to deride in the Mahabharata, because of its predilection towards skipping details that may seem absurd in modern life. For my reexamination, I will use this online full-text edition of the Mahabharata, if you want to read ahead. I hope that through this critical reexamination, I will end up loving a much-loved epic even more.

Watch this space.

Posted by Vishy at July 31, 2006 11:24 PM

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