 "Mahabharata")
THE MAHABHARATA: VOLUMES IX & X
Author: Bibek Debroy
Publisher: Penguin India
Pages: 720 & 760
Price: Rs 599 each
Six years ago, Bibek Debroy had begun translating the Mahabharata from its original Sanskrit text into English. It was a gigantic task. Close to two million words framed in about 90,000 shlokas, or couplets, had to be understood and rendered in English prose that is easily understood by today's readers. The overall context had to be explained and short explanatory references had to be provided for important characters and complex events or rituals. And all this had to be achieved without complicating the process of story-telling or burdening the readers with an overload of explanatory footnotes and long annotations within brackets.
Contrary to some beliefs, the world's longest epic has large sections that can strain a reader's patience and even be quite boring, filled with long stories to illustrate the many qualities of life and living or even the much-celebrated idea of dharma. The attempt to make all of that interesting and sustain the reader's interest in the larger narrative of the Mahabharata, therefore, made Debroy's task formidable and his challenges daunting.
Eight volumes of Debroy's translation of the Mahabharata came out between 2010 and 2013, accounting for almost four-fifths of the epic. The last two volumes have just been published, completing a project that the translator himself describes as a personal voyage of sorts. It was also a hazardous journey, as he recounts how he had been gently cautioned by one of his erudite friends that the "track record of those who embarked on unabridged translations of the Mahabharata hasn't always been desirable". This must have come to him as a dreadful warning. And now that the project is completed, Debroy appears relieved and is thankful that he has survived "to finish telling the tale".
But the impact of the task of translating the Mahabharata has been felt by Debroy in a different way and he makes no secret of this in the last two volumes. He makes two interesting observations to underline how he saw the translation of the Mahabharata as a personal voyage. One, the completion of the project has left a vacuum in his life, not because he is not sure of his next academic project, but because of the thought that all the characters with whom he had to deal while translating the Mahabharata are no longer with him. It is a loss that a writer almost inevitably suffers. Debroy's loss is perhaps more painful because of the manner in which each of the key characters of the Mahabharata departs - many of them had appeared invincible with resplendent qualities of life and indefatigable vigour, but in the end they all depart under ordinary circumstances. The parallel between great tragedies and the end of the Mahabharata is too obvious to be missed.
The second aspect of Debroy's personal voyage is even more telling. He suggests that the act of translating the Mahabharata may have changed him, but does not explain how. Even those who read the Mahabharata carefully are likely to change in the way they start perceiving the permanent to be more important and the temporary to be discounted. As is perhaps true of all great epics, what is not made clear in the Mahabharata as well is what can be truly perceived as permanent and what is temporary. It is, thus, quite appropriate that only in the last two volumes of his translations has Debroy brought up the question of how the Mahabharata can change one's philosophical outlook on life.
Indeed, that realisation is likely to dawn on most readers in the wake of the events that unfold in these two volumes - in particular the tenth volume in which almost everybody who had a towering presence through the epic departs in the most ordinary way. If Yudhishthira survives in heaven after passing three difficult tests and a brief stay in hell, his loneliness and unfulfilled desire to be among his brothers may appear to be no less in intensity than the suffering many others experienced through death.
In comparison, therefore, the ninth volume may be less interesting for those who are looking for some action or drama. There are only two long sections in this volume - one on Moksha or liberation (and as Debroy explains, liberation is to be seen as opposed to other worldly pursuits) and the other on the importance of gifts, donations or giving away things in charity. The second section, however, is completed only in the tenth and final volume. Both sections in the ninth volume deal with sermons from Bhishma lying on his deathbed and answering questions Yudhishthira asks on life and living. There are some interesting sections that are worth recounting here. For instance, Bhishma defines the three signs of dharma as good conduct, sacred texts and the Vedas. This is perhaps the closest Bhishma gets to defining dharma, which otherwise is always explained through examples or with his favourite expression that dharma is too deep (Sookshma) to be understood.
The ninth volume also provides a lesson on how your deeds are responsible for your fate. Yudhishthira is remorseful for killing his relatives and subjecting even Bhishma to extreme pain and suffering. Bhishma explains with a short story how neither the instrument nor the time of death can be held responsible for what happened to him. It is finally the deed that results in the outcome that follows. Equally important is to find out if there was any motive for the action that caused the suffering or death, without which the killer cannot be entirely blamed - a lesson that remains valid even today and indeed even in criminal jurisprudence. In another section, there are lessons for a householder that should stand in good stead even today. Not without reason is it said at the end of the epic that "what is here (the Mahabharata) can be found elsewhere, but what is not here cannot be found elsewhere".
The tenth volume recounts important developments, some of which are little known or rarely discussed. The death of Bhishma is captured with a sense of calm and majestic peace of which any modern-day scriptwriter would be proud. Vidura, half brother of Dhritarashtra and Pandu, dies but merges his body with that of Yudhishthira, reminding one and all that both after all had Dharma as their progenitor. The death of Dhritarashtra, his wife Gandhari and Kunti in a forest fire and the departure of Sanjaya, perhaps the world's first original commentator as he narrated the Kurukshetra war to blind Dhritarashtra in the Mahabharata - all combine to create a sense of grief and loss.
The Mahabharata does change you. It is an epic whose appeal is not confined to only practising Hindu. More than an epic, it is a story that equips you to come to terms with life and, indeed, many adversities in life. More than giving a premium to permanence and discounting the temporary, its stories, as Debroy's translations illustrate so emphatically, will teach you the importance of acceptance of all that comes your way with equanimity. That is perhaps the biggest change that reading the Mahabharata is capable of bringing about. Having reviewed most of Debroy's translated volumes of the Mahabharata, this reviewer too has undergone that experience.
