Q7 of 9 Page 80

Discuss whether the Mahabharata could have been the work of a single author.

The Mahabharta is a colossal epic, comprising about one lakh verses. This enormous composition is traditionally attributed to Sage Vyas. However, historians are of the view that the Mahabharta was composed over a period of 1000 years, so it can not be the work of a single author. Large didactic section resembling the manuscript was added during the period between 200C and 400CE. This outburst made Mahabharata an epic consisting of 100,000 verses.

The historian assume that the original story was composed by charioteer bards known as “Sutas”, who generally accompanied Kshatriyas warriors to the battle field and composed poems celebrating their victories and other achievements.


Them from 500 B.C.E. Brahmanas took over the story and began to commit it to writing, this was the time where chiefdoms of the Kurus and Panchalas were gradually becoming kingdoms, the kings of their new kingdoms also wanted there “itihasa” was also included in the Mahabharta, for e.g.; we find that during this time old social values were replaced by new norms and it shows the upheavals that accompanied the establishment of new kingdom.


We notice another phase in the composition of text between 200 BCE and 200 CE this was the period when the worship of “VISHNU” was growing in importance and “KRISHNA”, one of the important figures in the epic was identified with VISHNU.


Subsequently between C.200 and 400 C.E didactic sections resembling the Manusmriti were added to the Mahabharata.


All this shows that Mahabharata could not be the work of a single author.


More from this chapter

All 9 →
5

The following is an excerpt from the Mahabharata, in which Yudhisthira, the eldest Pandava, speaks to Sanjaya, a messenger:

Sanjaya, convey my respectful greetings to all the Brahmanas and the chief priest of the house of Dhritarashtra. I bow respectfully to teacher Drona … I hold the feet of our preceptor Kripa … (and) the chief of the Kurus, the great Bhishma. I bow respectfully to the old king (Dhritarashtra). I greet and ask after the health of his son Duryodhana and his younger brother ... Also greet all the young Kuru warriors who are our brothers, sons and grandsons … Greet above all him, who is to us like father and mother, the wise Vidura (born of a slave woman) ... I bow to the elderly ladies who are known as our mothers. To those who are our wives you say this, “I hope they are well-protected”… Our daughters-in-law born of good families and mothers of children greet on my behalf. Embrace for me those who are our daughters … The beautiful, fragrant, well-dressed courtesans of ours you should also greet. Greet the slave women and their children; greet the aged, the maimed (and) the helpless …


Try and identify the criteria used to make this list – in terms of age, gender, kinship ties. Are there any other criteria? For each category, explain why they are placed in a particular position in the list.

 6

This is what a famous historian of Indian literature, Maurice Winternitz, wrote about the Mahabharata: “just because the Mahabharata represents more of an entire literature … and contains so much and so many kinds of things, (it) gives(s) us an insight into the most profound depths of the soul of the Indian folk.” Discuss.

 8

How important were gender differences in early societies? Give reasons for your answer.

 9

Discuss the evidence that suggests that Brahmanical prescriptions about kinship and marriage were not universally followed.