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The concept of <i>raj dharma</i>

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A K Bhattacharya
THE MAHABHARATA
Volume 8
Translated by Bibek Debroy
Penguin Books; 710 pages; Rs 699

It is difficult to overlook the coincidence of the current political debate over governance and the publication of the eighth volume of the English translation of the Mahabharata a few weeks ago.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's political campaign to promote its prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, for the general elections has brought under sharp focus the Gujarat chief minister's responsibilities when his state saw its worst communal killings of Muslims or what then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee described as the chief minister's failure to observe the raj dharma. And the eighth volume of the Mahabharata dwells at length on what a king's raj dharma ought to be in a section that accounts for a little more than half of the book's 700-odd pages.
 
This is the section that describes how Yudhisthir, the eldest of the Pandavas, reaches out to their grandfather Bhishma when the old warrior is lying on a bed of arrows after being vanquished by Arjuna in a battle in which purists believe the latter had used unfair means. Yudhisthir urges Bhishma to explain how a king should govern and how he should deliver justice or treat his enemies. What follows is one of the most erudite lessons on the king's duties and the royal code of conduct or what is also known as the raj dharma.

How can a kingdom be protected? How can a kingdom be won over? How should the king employ himself in the protection of the subjects without offending dharma? Or how should a king extend his treasury? All these and many more questions from Yudhisthir are answered by Bhishma in detail with the help of examples from mythological stories.

The eighth volume of the Mahabharata, however, is not just about raj dharma; it is also enlivened by the recounting of three well-known episodes from the Mahabharata. Bibek Debroy's rendering of each of the episodes provokes deeper thinking on a wide range of issues that the Hindu epic touches upon.

At the end of the 18-day-long battle, Kunti acknowledges before her three sons (Yudhisthir, Arjuna and Bheem) that she had another son, Karna, who was the eldest of them all, but was their enemy during the war as he had joined Duryodhana's army. Kunti describes Karna as brave, a great archer and a warrior who shone "like the sun in his radiance". After revealing the secret to her sons, Kunti asks Yudhisthir and others to perform "water-rites" for Karna also as homage for those who were killed in the battle fought in Kurukshetra.

This is one of the shortest sections in the Mahabharata and yet brings out one of the most poignant and dramatic moments in the epic. Kunti is overcome with grief and Yudhisthir, who suddenly realises that he was not really the eldest among the Pandavas, is "sighing like a serpent" and visibly upset with her mother, asking her why she kept it a secret for all these days. It is significant that the Mahabharata presents the reactions of only Yudhisthir to Kunti's revelation. There is no mention of how either Arjuna or Bheema reacts to the revelation of Karna being their elder brother.

But you get an inkling of Yudhisthir's eventual apotheosis as the best among the Kuru dynasty (after all it is he who finally makes it to swargalok, or the heaven) when he admits that the killing of Karna was as painful as the death of other Pandavas - Arjuna's son Abhimanyu and Draupadi's other sons.

At another level, the inflexibility of social order is driven home quite effectively. In his life, Karna, born out of wedlock and of dubious parentage, could belong to neither the Kauravas (Duryodhana's camp) nor the Pandavas. But, ironically, Kunti's revelation at the end of the war allows Karna to finally belong to the Pandavas, but only after his death, as Yudhisthir performs the water-rites for him. Even Karna's wife is invited to take part in the ritual, putting an end to the question of where Karna finally belongs.

Another section eloquently captures the reaction of a grieving father, Dhritarashtra, who has lost all his hundred sons in the battle. Dhritarashtra's anger is largely focused on Bheema, who admits that without using unfair means he could not have defeated the formidable Duryodhana, Dhritarashtra's eldest son. The father, who did not intervene when his son was trying to disrobe Draupadi, decides once again to go against dharma. He tries to crush Bheema to death in the guise of embracing him.

Krishna, who has always showed the Pandavas a way out of difficult situations even if that meant using unfair means, comes to Bheema's rescue once again. An iron statue of Bheema is placed before the blind Dhritarashtra who crushes that so hard that it is reduced to pieces. Dhritarashtra later regains his balance, expresses his remorse over what he did and is relieved that he had actually crushed only an iron statue. In a touching moment later, Dhritarashtra forgives Bheema and embraces him and Bheema escapes a grieving father's fury.

In sharp contrast, Gandhari, Dhritarashtra's wife, is more demanding and less accommodative of the Pandavas' explanation of how they killed her sons without always following the rule book. Bheema has a tough time explaining his conduct and is finally forgiven. But no such luck for Yudhisthir, who has to bear the brunt of Gandhari's anger as her curse disfigures the nails of the Pandava king.

Mr Debroy's lucid prose brings out eloquently the contrast in the ways two mothers and a father responded to the loss of their children in the Kurukshetra battle. Indeed, the drama and emotional turmoil of the Pandavas and Kauravas as portrayed in Mr Debroy's translation have made the Mahabharata's story of human follies even among the greats an enduring story for generations. Annotations are thoughtfully provided as footnotes where Sanskrit words are used or a Hindu belief system is mentioned. There is no attempt to burden the reader with unnecessary references and the explanations are short, crisp and relevant. The Mahabharata under Mr Debroy has thus become more accessible.

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First Published: Apr 09 2014 | 9:40 PM IST

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