Hindu Scripture - The Mahabharata

from Hinduism, Ancient and Modern

The other great epic of India is the Mahabharata, which may be said to be one of the greatest books of the world. We have in it not only a perfect picture of the India of those days, but also a great teacher of duty to all, the highest and the lowest, in a manner suited to the capacity of each. Ethics, religion and philosophy are here not only inculcated by abstract rules, but by pictures of men and women who carried them out in life, while throughout the whole runs the great lesson of dharma (duty) - not to do to others what is not good for one's own self; and that wealth and pleasure, unless subordinated to dharma, lead to ruin. The poem further illustrates the great moral law that as soon as a nation falls off from righteousness, it is hurled into destruction, and that even the highest are not exempt from the operation of this law.

The Main Characters of the Mahabharata

The life of each of its characters is a study in itself. Yudhisthira is the embodiment of virtue, Arjuna of courage, Bhima of strength, Duryodhana of strong and determined will to enjoy the present, Bhishma of wisdom and bravery, Dhritarashtra of blind avarice defeated and bringing repentance at every turn, Draupadi of strength of character and conjugal devotion, while the chief actor in the whole drama is the greatest hero of Indian history – Sri Krishna the politician, statesman, warrior, philosopher and ascetic. He stands out a figure by himself, and the more he is studied from whatever standpoint, the more reverence does he inspire.

Lessons in the Mahabharata

Each of the episodes of the great epic also embodies a great lesson. The Bhagavad Gita is now well-known in every civilized country of the world. In India it is the book of books both for the anchorite in the forest and for the busy man of the world who has a conception of duty higher than mere personal gratification. The story of Sakunthala illustrates how true-hearted and strong in the courage of their convictions were the women of India in those days. In the fall of Yayati, and his asking one of his sons to give him his youth in order to prolong the period of his enjoyment on earth, we have the picture of man deriving nothing but sorrow from sensual gratification. The story of Nala and Damayanthi shows the strength of conjugal devotion in distress of the direst description, while the manner in which Savitri rescues her husband from the clutches of the king of the dead, shows what a faithful wife can do for her husband. Markandeya's adventures in the stomach of Vishnu illustrate how even the wisest are not able to fathom the mystery of creation.

The story of the good fowler, Dharma Vyadha, who teaches duty to a Brahmana and attributes all his spiritual insight to devotion to his aged father and mother, shows that in those days learning was not the exclusive property of the priestly class. The Vidura Niti embodies the instruction given by Vidura to Dhritarashtra, and is still studied as a great book of ethics in India, while the Sanat Sujata Gita teaches the doctrine of the unity of self in the clearest and most forcible manner possible, without any attempt at compromise or adherence to dogma or traditional authority. The Santi and the Anushasana Parvas of the epic form one long treatise on religion, polity, philosophy and ethics, while the Anugita attempts to popularize the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. The story how Vyasa brings the dead out of the Ganges to meet the living, and how the two hostile factions merge their former grudges and meet as brothers and friends, is intended to illustrate the lesson that for those who aspire to a higher life, forgetfulness of past grudges is the only course.

The way in which Krishna, by appealing to his devotion to truth, brings to life the still-born grandson of Arjuna, shows that all the charges of cunning which used to be leveled against him were false. In Yudhisthira refusing to go to heaven unaccompanied with his dog and his brothers and wife, we have the picture of love for those who have followed us in life. Krishna's seeing iniquity increasing among his kinsmen and letting them perish, furnishes a strong illustration of the moral law that the highest and best cannot avert the consequences of evil, which must be suffered by its doer sooner or later. One thing, however, that strikes the reader most is that though describing great events, Vyasa never forgets that he is describing the history of souls in their passage through the world, the shackles that bend them and the knowledge which cuts these shackles asunder.

No doubt we meet in places ideas which may seem crude and fantastic to modern readers, as well as repeated attempts to subordinate all to the claims of the priestly class. Doctrines of the Saiva and the Vaishnava cults have also been interpolated in the Santi Parva to support them from the authority of the Mahabharata. Accounts of battles have been prolonged in a manner which shows that Vyasa could not have written them in the manner they are now presented to us.

Composition of the Mahabharata

The work at present consists of more than 100,000 slokas, but originally it contained only 24,000. In the Adi Parva we are told that before the Upakhyanas were added, this was the number. We are further told that 8,800 slokas of the book are "known to me and Suka, but whether Sanjaya knows them or not is doubtful." This would seem to show that the groundwork of the poem was these 8,800 slokas. There are thus three layers in this wonderful book:

1. 8,800 slokas which according to the Mahabharata itself are very abstruse and "closely knit,"
2. 24,000 slokas which contain the main story without the episodes, and
3. 100,000 slokas which form the complete work.

When these interpolations were made cannot be known. The Mahabharata is mentioned in the Asvalayana Grihya Sutras. It mentions Vishnu and Shiva as the chief gods, and though it also deals with every other cult then prevalent in India, the aim of its teachings is always pure and lofty. "Even the most intelligent by cherishing wealth and wives can never make these their own, nor are these possessions lasting." (Adi Parva, Chapter 2). "Thousands of fathers and mothers, hundreds of sons and wives I have met with and shall meet with in the Samsara, they come and go. Thousands of occasions of joy and hundreds of sorrow occur every day to the fool, but not to the wise. I cry with uplifted arms, but no one hears me. From virtue come wealth and pleasure, why not follow it?" These teachings are repeated in several places, and may be said to be the cherished doctrines of the author of the poem. But it requires discrimination in the reader to separate the original from the more modern portion of the book.

The Pandits, though they recite it to large assemblies of Hindus who laugh or weep as the occasion demands, never attempt to do so. On the other hand, an idea prevails in native circles that the book can never be completely read and that it has to be stopped on account of some untoward thing, or a fight or quarrel taking place in the house where it is recited. These are mere superstitions due to the heaviness of the task of reading such a vast book. Whoever, however, determines to read it through cannot but rise from its perusal a better man as well as feel its good and elevating influence on the whole course of his life.

The field of Kurukshetra which is called the dharma kshetra (the field of virtue) in the Gita, is still a very sacred place for the Hindus, and every eclipse of the sun brings to its sacred lake hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from all parts of India, the popular belief being that the war was concluded during a solar eclipse. The place still retains much of the primitive simplicity, and as one treads its jungles he is reminded of the India of the past, when cities and towns were few and far between, and people lived a simper and in many respects a better and more truthful life than now.

The Date of the Mahabharata

There is much controversy as to the date of the Mahabharata. The ordinary Hindu is content with being told that the war took place at the end of the Dwapara Yuga, and that its close marked the commencement of the present Kali Yuga. Western scholars, like Professor Macdonnel, on the other hand, think that the kernel of the poem existed in the tenth century BC, that its original form came into existence in the fifth century, and that it assumed its present shape at the beginning of the Christian era. The opinion of modern native scholars is that the war took place in the fifteenth or the sixteenth century BC, while Gopal Aiyar in his Chronology of Ancient India ascribes to it the 14th to 31st October, 1194 BC, after which the Kali Yuga commenced. Read about the different ages in Hindu history.

Source: Nath, Rai Bahadur. Hinduism, Ancient and Modern.

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