Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India

encyclopedia

THE EPICS

RELIGIONS

The two great epics of India, the

Ramayana

and

the Ma-

habharata

are not unitary epics like the

Iliad

and the

Odyssey

Homer. They are "epic complexes" which have satisfied the craving

of the people for religion, poetry, drama, fiction, philosophy, enter-

tainment, and moral and intellectual enlightenment:

The

Mahabharata,

the traditional author of which is the sage

Vyasa, contains 90,000 stanzas and is the largest single poem in

the world. It is the story of the struggle between the Kauravas, the

hundred sons of the blind Dhritarashtra, led by the eldest,

Duryodhana and their cousins, the five Pandavas, Yudhisthira,

Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva, over the right to rule the

Aryan Kingdom of the Kurus. The epic battle between the two,

fought on the plain at Kurukshetra, near modem Delhi, lasted eight-

een days and resulted in the annihilation of the Kauravas.

The Pandavas ruled long and peacefully and when their time on

earth neared its end they renounced the kingdom and approached

the Abode of the Gods on Mount Meru in the Himalayas. The five

brothers and their joint wife Draupadi were followed by their pet

dog and when they reached the gates of Heaven the Gods wishing

to test them declared that if the Pandavas wished to enter they

must leave the dog outside. The Pandavas declared that they would

rather forsake Heaven than their dog which had served them faith-

fully for so many years and turned away. This noble answer so

pleased the Gods that they opened the portals of Heaven to the

Pandavas, Draupadi and their faithful dog.

(The

Mahabharata

has many interpolated episodes the most

famous being the

Bhagvad Gita.

Arjuna, the most valiant of the

Pandavas, known for his skill in archery, awaits in his chariot the

beginning of the battle. He feels that he cannot fight against those

who are his old friends, relatives and preceptors whom he has

known all his life. He wants to surrender and let the Kauravas take

everything so that there may be peace and goodwill. He turns to

Krishna who is acting as his charioteer and asks for his advice.

Krishna explains that the death of the body does not involve the

death of the soul. There are many roads that lead to God. For most

people the way to God lies in the path of duty. Arjuna was a

Kshatriya and his duty was to fight for righteousness, whatever be

the consequences. Arjuna must act without the desire or hope of

reward or glory or even success. Right action, said Krishna, was

bereft of all desire even the desire for success.

This is the message of the

Bhagvad Gita±

Each individual has

to fight the Mahabharata war in and through his own life.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Sage of Concord, derived great

consolation from reading the

Bhagvad Gita

and solved the meta-

physical problems that had beset his mind. He was introduced to it

by Thomas Carlyle when he met him in England. In the course of the

conversation, Carlyle picked up a book from the table and handed it

to him saying, " This is a most inspiring book. It has brought

comfort and consolation in my life. I hope it will do the same for you.

Take it and read it." It was the first English translation of the

Bhagvad Gita

published in London in 1785. After reading it, Emer-

son wrote his famous poem "Brahma" of four stanzas:

If the red slayer think he slays,

or if the slain think he is slain,

They know not well the subtle ways

I keep, and pass, and turn again.

Fair or forgot to me is near;

Shadow and sunlight are the same;

The vanished gods to me appear;

And one to me are fame and shame.

They reckon ill who leave me out;

When me they fly, I am the wings;

I am the doubter and the doubt,

And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.

The strong gods pine for my abode,

And pine in vain the sacred Seven;

But thou, meek lover of the good !

Find me, and turn thy back on heaven.

Of the other interpolated episodes in the

Mahabharata

the longest

is the story of Nala and Damayanti related to Yudhisthira, the eldest Of

the Pandavas, to convince him of the evils of gambling because it was

in a gambling match that Yudhisthira had lost his kingdom including his

brothers and Draupadi to Duryodhana, the eldest of the Kauravas. The

story tells how King Nala won Damayanti at a

swayamvara

(self -

choice), a ceremony at which a girl passed along the assembled ranks

of her suitors until she found the man of her choice. Damayanti chose

Nala in preference to the Gods themselves who were among her suitors

but then lost his queen and kingdom at a gambling tournament. He

regained them both after many adventures.

The

Mahabharata

has the story of Shakuntala and King Dushyanta

which was made into a play by Kalidasa, the greatest of Sanskrit poets,

who lived in the reign of Chandra Gupta II (380 - 415 A.D.).

Another interpolation is the legend of Savitri, who insisted on

marrying Satyavan although she had been warned by a seer that he

had only one year to live. When the fatal day arrived Satyavan went

to the forest to cut wood and she followed him. There he fell dying

and she, as she supported him saw a figure who told her that he was

Yama, God of Death, and that he had come for her husband's spirit.

Yama carried off the spirit towards the shades but Savitri followed

him. Her devotion pleased Yama who offered her any boon except

the life of her husband. She extorted three such boons from Yama

but still she followed him, and he was finally constrained to restore

her husband to life.

The legend of Savitri conveys the assurance that we have the

power to change our destiny. In his epic

Savitri,

Sri Aurobindo has

captured the essence of the legend in these words :

A magic leverage suddenly is caught,

That moves the veiled ineffable's timeless will :

A prayer, a master act, a kind idea

Can link man's strength to a transcendent force,

Then miracle is made the common rule,

One mighty deed can change the course of things;

A lovely thought becomes omnipotent.

The

Mahabharata

contains as an episode the story of the

Ramayana,

the traditional author of which was the Sage Valmiki

who wrote the Sanskrit original. The regional languages of India

have produced their own versions of the epic, the most outstanding

being Tulsidas's

Ramacharitamanasa

in Hindi and Kamban's

Ramayanam

in Tamil.

In the countries of South - East Asia, as much as in India, the

Ramayana

has, in some local version or the other, been established

as a national epic. The Thai

Ramakien

Ramakirti

is known to Thai

choreography as a masked play or Khon, as the Napg or shadow

play. The Thai version is derived from the Indonesian version pre-

vailing in the epoch of the Srivijaya Empire. The Malaysian

Hi Kayat

Seri Rama

has been a basis for the repertoire of Malay shadow plays.