The Mahabharata
Author:Bibek Debroy
Publisher: Penguin, Rs699
In this final volume of Bibek Debroy’s Mahabharata, the horse sacrifice is held, and Dhritarashtra, Gandhari, Kunti, Vidura and Sanjaya leave for the forest. Krishna and Balarama die and the Pandavas leave on the great journey with the famous companion Dharma disguised as a dog. ANUBHAV PRADHAN reflects on it
Questions such as who are we, why are we where we are, whence did we come from and where will we go, and how are we to be, are timeless, and will remain so. These have a significance which will never be diminished by the passage of time and evolutions of culture and place. Thousands of answers have been given and more will be given, for it is not in the nature of questions such as these to present themselves again and again for an answer, and so the process the cycle continues.
It is in this light that Bibek Debroy’s final volume of his truly epic translation series of the Mahabharata should be seen. It has eight full parvas, or sections, and one, the first, which continues from the previous volume. It takes on from the central meditative motifs of the ninth volume and delves into now into the multifaceted how: How is one to be, how to do that which one is supposed to do, and how to face death.
The question which concerns Dharmraj in the ‘Dana Dharma Parva’ is of giving. The question is nuanced and dynamically fuses a flux of occasion, class, caste, degree, merit, reward and returns. It is embedded in the complicated matrix of honour, of where to give and when, of taking and fulfilling oaths and of striving to fulfil one’s positional as well as eternal dharma in life. Accordingly, from matters “supremely purifying” (Chapter 1761(80)) to the type of cattle which should not be gifted, Yudhishthira gleans the meaning and truth of giving in all its forms and norms from his wise great-grandfather.
The ‘Dana Dharma Parva’ is followed by the ‘Bhishma-Svargarohana Parva’, which relates with great poignancy the ascent of Bhishma’s “breath of life” (Chapter 1835 (154)) straight from his corporeal body to heaven. Particularly moving here is Ganga’s lament upon the death of her son when his ashes are immersed in her waters. Debroy’s prose excels in portraying the emotional turmoil of this situation in words such as “when water was offered to her son, the goddess Bhagirathi herself arose from the water, weeping in grief”. Similarly, in ‘Ashrama-Vasa Parva’, Debroy again gives a moving pathos to Dhritarashtra’s turmoil as the adopted father of the men who killed his sons. The discerning reader will immediately be reminded of the haunting choral ode of Andha Yug through chapter 1934 (3) to chapter 1946 (15), for despite the splendours and justness of the Pandava rule, beneath the prosperity of the king’s city and the richness of his sacrifices, sorrow makes life pervasively weary and meaningless for everybody.
This dialectical how comes to its climax in ‘Svargarohana Parva’, the culminating parva of the Mahabharata. The questions now are immense, the stakes eternal, sublime: How is one to be after death, what is one’s dharma towards attaining heaven. The meaning of human existence, the answer to the vital how, can perhaps, be gleaned from these ostensibly simple words: “King Yudhishthira pondered in many ways. He was overcome by sorrow and grief...The king who was Dharma’s son was filled with great rage. Yudhishthira censured the gods and dharma...he addressed the messenger of the gods: ‘O fortunate one! Go to those who have sent you as a messenger. I will not go to them. Go and tell them that I will remain here. O messenger! I will be happy with my brothers here’” (Chapter 1992 (2)). In his refusal to attain heaven without those of his peers and elders who, in his own clear estimation of their dharma, deserve it as much, if not more, than him lies, perhaps, the crux of this how: Sacrifice, selflessness, reasoning, these three before the calls to the self.
Debroy’s poetic prose conveys well for the contemporary reader the immense worth of this piece of subcontinental ithihaas. Of course, as far as the contemporary reader is concerned, the text may appear absurd often — “by bathing thrice a day, one obtain a woman” (Chapter 1738 (57)) — but it must be remembered that the Mahabharata is to be read literally as well as symbolically at the same time. Only then, its own casteist and misogynistic biases notwithstanding, will it be read well.
The reviewer is Assistant Professor, Department of English, Bharati College, University of Delhi