The second volume of The Mahabharata dispels many doubts. One was the pace at which Bibek Debroy had hoped to finish the translation of the world’s longest epic. Going by his own admission, one-fifth of the work is over and 10 per cent more is in the pipeline. This is good progress, considering the complexity of the language and the need for a simple translation of the text in lucid English prose.
Debroy’s is not the only English translation available in the market, but where he scores and others fail is that his is the closest rendering of the original text in modern English without unduly complicating the readers’ understanding of the epic with a surfeit of annotations and footnotes. There are simple explanatory notes that enhance an understanding of the context and references to obvious incongruities in the narrative structure. They neither impede the flow of the text nor do they complicate the narrative.
The second doubt was about retaining the interest of ordinary readers in each of the volumes. Debroy has planned to divide The Mahabharata into 10 volumes, each of which would take care of roughly 10 per cent of the original text that runs to 80,000 shlokas or couplets. Expectedly, the first volume raised readers’ curiosity, as did the inclusion of many unknown facts about the original text, for instance, that the entire epic was actually a rendering of the past to a descendant of the Pandavas, who had vanquished their cousins in an 18-day war in Kurukshetra. The doubt then was whether there would be enough elements in the remaining volumes to arouse similar curiosity and interest. The second volume under review sets those doubts at rest.
If for nothing else, this volume is a must-read for Dyuta Parva or the section on the dice game. The story of what happened at the game of dice played by the Pandava king Yudhishthira and Shakuni, the king of Gandhara and a representative of Duryodhana, is part of folklore in large parts of India. What provoked the dice game was Duryodhana’s jealousy of the attractive palace the Pandavas had built. Was it only jealousy or the Pandava’s sarcasm that spurred Duryodhana to plot the game of dice to rob his cousins of all they had? Debroy’s translation manages to raise these questions and portrays the complexity of The Mahabharata and its characters.
There is no doubt that the Pandavas did not treat Duryodhana, a guest at their palace, very well. That was certainly against the Hindu spirit of Atithidevo Bhava (treating your guest like a god). If Duryodhana fell into a pond mistaking it for a crystal floor or bumped into a crystal wall because he failed to notice it, he became the object of ridicule by the Pandavas, including Draupadi. The narration of these incidents is quite non-partisan. The Mahabharata brings out Duryodhana’s pain and anguish quite evocatively. At that point, it is difficult not to empathise with Shakuni’s response that justice could be done only when Duryodhana dispossessed the Pandavas of those riches that made them so insolent.
It is at this point of the translation that you begin to understand why Sanskrit playwright Bhasa devoted several of his Mahabharata plays to presenting Duryodhana as a victim rather than a conspirator. In this respect, Bhasa was a notable exception. Debroy’s translation, therefore, makes you wonder why the epic’s rich, creative legacy in different Indian languages did not give rise to a body of writing to present Duryodhana’s perspective of the war with his cousins. Michael Madhusudan Dutt was among the first Indian poets to celebrate Meghnaad’s valour and correctness and presented the improper and unfair war Ram and Lakshman waged against the son of Ravana. There are writings on an alternative perspective of The Mahabharata seen from Draupadi’s point of view — Iravati Karve’s work is certainly the best among them. Was Duryodhana so evil, devoid of any redeeming features that no Indian writer, apart from Bhasa, looked at the epic from his perspective? Debroy’s translation succeeds in raising these questions and will hopefully revive a creative debate on this issue.
It is in Dyuta Parva again that The Mahabharata brings out with great subtlety the eternal conflict between free will and preordained action on the one hand and between paternal love and royal duty on the other. There is also the exquisite exposition of the subtle significance of what Dharma stands for and how Bhishma explained this. Vidura, the wise counsel in the Kourava court, does his best to restrain his cousin, Dhritarashtra, the blind king and father of Duryodhana, from allowing the latter’s son to challenge Yudhishthira to a game of dice. Dhritarashtra understands the logic of Vidura’s advice, but does not withdraw his assent to the game on the ground that it had been ordained by destiny. Dhritarashtra’s weakness for Duryodhana was as evident as his royal duty when he allowed Draupadi as many boons as would help her regain whatever Yudhisthira had lost at the dice game. Bhishma’s ruling on Dharma is an outstanding display of shrewdness and well-entrenched social prejudices that have lasted many centuries. On being asked how Yudhishtira could stake his wife after having lost himself, Bhishma pointed out that a wife is always the property of the husband. And then he added that the ways of Dharma were indeed very subtle. The debate on this goes on even now, but Bhishma’s subtlety in tackling the delicate situation shows the craft and mastery the grand old man in The Mahabharata had acquired.
Finally, those who may hope for a detailed account of how the dice game was played and how Shakuni conspired against Yudhishthira to bring about his downfall will learn a trick or two in the art of story-telling from the master narrator Veda Vyas. There is no detailed rendering of how Shakuni won the game. At the end of every stake Yudhishthira places, there is a simple and brief statement that notes that Shakuni has won. If you are interested in The Mahabharata and do not know Sanskrit, this is one book that should whet your appetite.
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THE MAHABHARATA
Volume 2
Translated by Bibek Debroy
Penguin Books
482 pages; Rs 550
