Not everything in The Mahabharata is exciting or as riveting as its celebrated stories of the dice game and the Kurukshetra war. Large sections of the great Indian epic are quite boring and seem to have been included without appearing to be an integral part of its central plot or theme. The third volume of The Mahabharata, originally written in Sanskrit by Vedavyasa and translated by Bibek Debroy, provides ample proof of that.
The volume covers 12 out of the 98 sections in The Mahabharata, which has over 80,000 couplets. It begins with the 33rd section on the journey of the exiled Pandavas to sacred places of pilgrimage and ends with the 44th section where Yudhishthira has to use his intelligence, cool thinking and pragmatism to revive all his four brothers who had earlier defied a Yaksha and paid the price with their lives.
In between are detailed accounts of the killing of demons and an encounter between the Pandavas and their ancestor, Nahusha, who had taken the form of a large Ajagar (boa). There is an interesting dialogue between Droupadi and Krishna’s wife Satyabhama on what a woman should do to entice her husband. While one of the sections deals with Droupadi’s abduction by Jayadratha, the penultimate one in the volume under review is devoted to narrating the story of Karna’s loss of his natural armour and earrings that made him invincible.
In themselves, the sections do tell interesting stories, but some of them fail to justify their place in the epic’s central plot. Equally evident is a lack of movement in these stories that could take forward the larger plot of The Mahabharata. In comparison with the previous two volumes (also translated by Mr Debroy), this one, therefore, is unlikely to have the same appeal for readers. That, of course, is not Mr Debroy’s failing and it also points to the manner in which The Mahabharata is likely to have been written over many years and possibly by more than one writer and finally compiled by Vedavyasa.
Thus, you will read about the fascinating encounter between Bhima and Nahusha. Bhima was not aware that the large boa was one of his ancestors who lost his kingdom and was leading life in that form. After Nahusha overcomes Bhima, Yudhishthira appears on the scene and what follows is an outstanding treatise on the Chatur-Varna system — or the social order that defined a person’s caste by birth.
Yudhishthira challenges that definition and outlines an alternative interpretation that seems much more logical and rational. Yudhishthira’s account of the ideal caste system is worth recounting here. After defining what a Brahman’s traits ought to be, he says, “a brahaman in whom a brahmana’s traits are not found is a shudra.” Later, Yudhishthira quotes Manu, the ancient Hindu law-giver, to say that “the observance of rituals determines varna”. Nahusha is so pleased with Yudhishthira’s explanation that he decides against making Bhima his meal for the day. “O Yudhishthira!I have listened to your words. You know what should be known. How can I now devour your brother Vrikodara (another name of Bhima)?”
Yudhishthira comes to the Pandava brothers’ rescue once again in the last section of the volume. Here, the Pandava brothers look tired and thirsty in the forest. The responsibility of looking for water falls on Nakula, who locates a lake, but he tries to drink its water in spite of the warnings of a Yaksha in charge of that place and dies. So do the other three Pandavas in the same way, leaving Yudhishthira to face the Yaksha. He answers all the difficult questions put by the Yaksha. Pleased, the Yaksha offers to revive one of the dead Pandavas. Much to the Yaksha’s surprise, Yudhishthira asks for the life of Nakula and not of his favourite and more talented brothers Bhima and Arjuna. Yudhishthira explains his choice: “Madri (mother of Nakula and Sahadeva) is like Kunti and I see no difference between the two. I wish the same for both my mothers. O Yaksha! Let Nakula live.”
It is important to note that all these interesting stories are stacked up largely in the latter half of the section. Indeed, the poignant story of how Indra dispossesses Karna (the illicit son of Kunti) of his natural armour, embedded in his arms, and earrings that were to protect him against the mightiest of enemies makes the section lively and brings it closer to the central plot of The Mahabharata.
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Indra, at the behest of the Pandavas, convinces Karna to gift away his natural armour and ear-rings in return for a spear that would help him kill any enemy. That was an imprudent move. Karna’s pride in his own abilities was his major weakness and he paid a heavy price for that. Equally fascinating is the story of Karna’s birth — how a young Kunti tried out a new boon she got from a Brahmin and invoked the Sun god, who, in turn, was so impressed with the princess that he wanted a child by her. A reluctant Kunti agreed and Karna was born.
Such stories in the latter half of the volume bode well for the remaining volumes that Mr Debroy plans to bring out in the coming few months. They clearly indicate a return of the narrative to the central plot of The Mahabharata with the protagonists preparing for the inevitable Kurukshetra war. The current volume under review may lack the excitement, but the ones on the anvil should surely compensate for that loss.
THE MAHABHARATA
Volume 3
Translated by Bibek Debroy
Penguin Books
XXXX plus 606 pages; Rs 550