Mahabharatham : Great second epic after Ramayanam:-

Mahabharatham : Great  second epic after Ramayanam:-

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IT is not an exaggeration to say that the

persons and incidents portrayed in the

great literature of a people influence

national character no less potently than

the actual heroes and events enshrined in

its history. It may be claimed that the

former play an even more important part

in the formation of ideals, which give to

character its impulse of growth.

In the moving history of our land, from

time immemorial great minds have been

formed and nourished and touched to

heroic deeds by the Ramayana and the

Mahabharata. In most Indian homes,

children formerly learnt these immortal

stories as they learnt their mother tongue

at the mother's knee. And the sweetness

and sorrows of Sita and Draupadi, the

heroic fortitude of Rama and Arjuna and

the loving fidelity of Lakshmana and

Hanuman became the stuff of their young

philosophy of life.

The growing complexity of life has

changed the simple pattern of early home

life. Still, there are few in our land who do

not know the Ramayana and the

Mahabharata. Though the stories come to

them so embroidered with the garish

fancies of the Kalakshepam (devotional

meeting where an expert scholar and

singer tells a story to his audience) and the

cinema as to retain but little of the dignity

and approach to truth of Vyasa or

Valmiki. Vyasa's Mahabharata is one of

our noblest heritages. And it is my

cherished belief that to hear it faithfully

told is to love it and come under its

elevating influence. It strengthens the soul

and drives home, as nothing else does, the

vanity of ambition and the evil and futility

of anger and hatred.

The realities of life are idealised by genius

and given the form that makes drama,

poetry or great prose. Since literature is

closely related to life, so long as the

human family is divided into nations,

literature cannot escape the effects of such

division.

But the highest literature transcends

regionalism and through it, when we are

properly attuned, we realise the essential

oneness of the human family. The

Mahabharata is of this class. It belongs to

the world and not only to India. To the

people of India, indeed, this epic has been

an unfailing and perennial source of

spiritual strength. Learnt at the mother's

knee with reverence and love, it has

inspired great men to heroic deeds as well

as enabled the humble to face their trials

with fortitude and faith.

The Mahabharata was composed many

thousand years ago. But generations of

gifted reciters have added to Vyasa's

original a great mass of material. All the

floating literature that was thought to be

worth preserving, historical, geographical,

legendary political, theological and

philosophical, of nearly thirty centuries,

found a place in it.

In those days, when there was no printing,

interpolation in a recognised classic

seemed to correspond to inclusion in the

national library. Divested of these

accretions, the Mahabharata is a noble

poem possessing in a supreme degree the

characteristics of a true epic, great and

fateful movement, heroic characters and

stately diction.

The characters in the epic move with the

vitality of real life. It is difficult to find

anywhere such vivid portraiture on so

ample a canvas. Bhishma, the perfect

knight; the venerable Drona; the vain but

chivalrous Karna; Duryodhana, whose

perverse pride is redeemed by great

courage in adversity; the high souled

Pandavas with godlike strength as well as

power of suffering; Draupadi, most

unfortunate of queens; Kunti, the worthy

mother of heroes; Gandhari, the devoted

wife and sad mother of the wicked sons of

Dhritarashtra, these are some of the

immortal figures on that crowded, but

never confused, canvas.

Then there is great Krishna himself, most

energetic of men, whose divinity

scintillates through a cloud of very human

characteristics. His high purposefulness

pervades the whole epic. One can read

even a translation and feel the over

whelming power of the incomparable

vastness and sublimity of the poem.

The Mahabharata discloses a rich

civilisation and a highly evolved society,

which though of an older world, strangely

resembles the India of our own time, with

the same values and ideals. India was

divided into a number of independent

kingdoms.

Occasionally, one king, more

distinguished or ambitious than the rest,

would assume the title of emperor,

securing the acquiescence of other

royalties, and signalised it by a great

sacrificial feast. The adherence was

generally voluntary. The assumption of

imperial title conferred no overlordship.

The emperor was only first among his

peers.

The art of war was highly developed and

military prowess and skill were held in

high esteem. We read in the Mahabharata

of standardised phalanxes and of various

tactical movements. There was an

accepted code of honorable warfare,

deviations from which met with reproof

among Kshatriyas. The advent of the Kali

age is marked by many breaches of these

conventions in the Kurukshetra battle, on

account of the bitterness of conflict,

frustration and bereavements. Some of the

most impressive passages in the epic

center round these breaches of dharma.

The population lived in cities and villages.

The cities were the headquarters of kings

and their household and staff. There were

beautiful palaces and gardens and the

lives led were cultured and luxurious.

There was trade in the cities, but the mass

of the people were agriculturists.

Besides this urban and rural life, there was

a very highly cultured life in the seclusion

of forest recesses, centerd round ascetic

teachers. These ashramas kept alive the

bright fires of learning and spiritual

thought. Young men of noble birth

eagerly sought education at these

ashramas. World-weary aged went there

for peace. These centers of culture were

cherished by the rulers of the land and not

the proudest of them would dare to treat

the members of the hermitages otherwise

than with respect and consideration.

Women were highly honored and entered

largely in the lives of their husbands and

sons. The caste system prevailed, but

intercaste marriages were not unknown.

Some of the greatest warriors in the

Mahabharata were brahmanas. The

Mahabharata has moulded the character

and civilisation of one of the most

numerous of the world's people.

How did it fulfil, how is it still continuing

to fulfil, this function? By its gospel of

dharma, which like a golden thread runs

through all the complex movements in the

epic. By its lesson that hatred breeds

hatred, that covetousness and violence

lead inevitably to ruin, that the only real

conquest is in the battle against one's

lower nature.