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Kinship, Caste And Class
Discuss the composition and content of Mahabharata as a literary work.
It is really hard to know who composed it because what we have today as Mahabharata is actually cumulative act of many individuals from a long period of time. However it is geneally believed that The original story was probably composed by charioteer-bards known as sutas who generally accompanied Kshatriya warriors to the battlefield and composed poems celebrating their victories and other achievements. These compositions circulated orally. Then, from the fifth century BCE, Brahmanas took over the story and began to commit it to writing. This was the time when chiefdoms such as those of the Kurus and Panchalas, around whom the story of the epic revolves, were gradually becoming kingdoms.
We notice another phase in the composition of the text between c. 200 BCE and 200 CE. This was the period when the worship of Vishnu was growing in importance, and Krishna, one of the important figures of the epic, was coming to be identified with Vishnu. Subsequently, between c. 200 and 400 CE , large didactic sections resembling the Manusmriti were added. With these additions, a text which initially perhaps had less than 10,000 verses grew to comprise about 100,000 verses. This enormous composition is traditionally attributed to a sage named Vyasa.
As we cannot authenticate the historicity of the text, many take it as a literary text with some comments in the social complexities of that time. However as a epic it is a very long epic, with narrative that is easy to undertand. It could be understood by any one. That could be the reason why later on the didactics were added in the main body, so that the author can impart their knowledge along with the narrative. As a literary text the Mahabharata is grounded in the Indian mythology and it was also the time when new myths were created,hence as a literary work it was highly imaginative.
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In what ways was the Buddhist theory of a social contract different from the Brahmanical view of society derived from the Purusha Sukta?
The following is an excerpt from the Mahabharata in which Yudhisthira, the eldest Pandava, speaks to Sanjaya, a messenger:
Sanjaya, convey my respectful greetings to all the Brahmanas and the chief priest of the house of Dhritarashtra. I bow respectfully to teacher Drona .... I hold the feet of our preceptor Kripa .... (and) the chief of the Kurus, the great Bhishma. I bow respectfully to the old king (Dhritarashtra). I greet and ask after the health of his son Dpryodhana and his younger brother ......Also greet all the young Kuru warriors who are our brothers, sons and grandsons......Greet above all him, who is to us like father and mother, the wise Vidura (born of a slave woman)......I bow to the elderly ladies who are known as our mothers. To those who are our wives you say this, 'I hope they are well-protected.'...... Our daughters-in-law born of good families and mothers of children greet on my behalf. Embrace for me those who are our daughters..... The beautiful, fragrant, well-dressed courtesans of ours, you should also greet. Greet the slave women and their children, greet the aged, the maimed (and) the helpless.
Try and identify the criteria use to make this list in terms of age, gender, kinship ties. Are there any other criteria? For each category, explain why they are placed in a particular position in the list.
This is what a famous historian of Indian literature Maurice Winternitz, wrote about the Mahabharata: “just because the Mahabharata represents more of an entire literature.... and contains so much and so many kinds of things....(it) give (s) us an insight into the most profound depths of the soul of the Indian folk.' Discuss.
Discuss whether the Mahabharata could have been the work of a single author.
How important were gender differences in early societies? Give reasons for your answer.
Discuss the evidence that suggests that Brahmanical prescriptions about kinship and marriage were not universally followed.
Compare the map in this chapter with Map 1 in chapter 2. List the mahajanapadas and cities located near the Kuru-Panchala lands.
Find out about retellings of the Mahabharata in other languages. Discuss how they handle any two of the episodes of the text described in this chapter, explaining any similarities or differences that you notice.
Imagine that you are an author and rewrite the story of Ekalavya from a perspective of your choice.
With whom central story of Mahabharata is associated?
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