Pradip Bhattacharya

Indologist, Mahabharata scholar

BOOKS

 

 

MAHABHARATA:

 

               

               

          

 

LITERATURE:

 

             

        

 

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & MANAGEMENT:

 

               

               

Edited Administrative Training Institute Monographs 1-20. Kolkata. 2005-2009:

               

          

Edited Samsad Series on Public Administration. Kolkata, 2007-8:

               

     

 

COMICS :

 

     

 

HOMOEOPATHY :

 

‘“This is not Heaven,” said Yudhishthira. He reviled the gods and dharma.’

By

Wendy Doniger: After the War—The Last Books of the Mahabharata. Speaking Tiger, 2022, pp. 221. Rs. 499/-

Doniger’s “After the War” immediately brings to mind Mahashweta Devi’s three brilliant short stories entitled “After Kurukshetra,” a unique imagining of the post-war scenario that, strangely, does not feature in Doniger’s bibliography. Doniger’s latest work is an exciting prospect for Mahabharata aficionados. English translations of these short closing “parvas” of the Mahabharata are limited to the turgid Victorian prose of K.M. Ganguly and M.N. Dutt of the Vulgate and Bibek Deb Roy’s pedestrian version of the Critical Edition which drops many passages. The far superior rendering, and the only one in verse and in prose faithfully following the Vulgate text, of Padma Shri Professor P. Lal is surprisingly, is missing from Doniger’s bibliography as well. The succinct and insightful prefaces of Prof. Lal to each volume are not to be missed. While Doniger’s is a prose translation, the language flows and her style is most engaging.

This book is practically her lecture-notes to the last class she taught at the University of Chicago to second year Sanskrit students translating Books 15-18: the Ashramavasika (Forest Life), Mausala (Clubs), Mahaprasthana (Great Departure) and Svargarohana (Ascent to Heaven) Parvas drawing upon the commentator Nilakantha whose edition is the Vulgate and adding passages from various manuscripts as she wishes, possibly to make the narrative more complete. She omits the 6th and final chapter of the last book which details the benefits of listening to the Mahabharata and how it is to be recited and heard, specifically including the Harivamsha. So this is Doniger’s Wikipedia-text of the last four books, not adopting the Critical Edition which she considers “misguided” and as leaving “the patient in a critical condition…Like Frankenstein’s monster…”  Her omission of the frame story in every case deprives us of the interaction between Janamejaya the audience and Vaishampayana the narrator as well as the outermost frame where Ugrashravas Sauti recites the epic in the Naimisha forest.  It is Sauti who brings the narration to a full circle stating that when Vaishampayana’s recital ended so did the snake-holocaust and Janamejaya returned from Taxila to Hastinapura. Repeating from the opening chapter (Anukramanika), Sauti calls it “Jaya-Victory,” explains why it is called Mahabharata (it narrates the great birth of the Bharatas and is highly profound), that it outweighs the four Vedas and the 18 Puranas and took Vyasa three years to compose. He repeats the claim: “Whatever there is here—about dharma, politics, pleasure and liberation—you can also find elsewhere; but what is not here is nowhere.”

A very illuminating and provocative Introduction running to 60 pages teases out implications of the narrative that we generally overlook. Appendices provide cross-references to the Critical Edition, explain Sanskrit adjectives qualifying characters, list the names of major and minor players, provide a summary of the earlier books and a valuable bibliography. However, there is no index. The cover of this Indian edition of her book is somewhat pedestrian compared to that of the Oxford University Press edition which is a full-colour reproduction of a medieval illustration of Yudhishthira’s vision of hell.

Doniger sees the book split into three parts, each beginning with the arrival of Narada. Therefore, she chooses to begin with chapter 26 (chapter 20 of the Vulgate) in Book 15, omitting the Pandavas’ futile arguments to dissuade their old, grief-stricken uncle who insists on retiring from royal life to live out his last days in the forest and his lengthy advice to Yudhishthira on good governance. Left out also is Bhima’s unremitting assault on Dhritarashtra’s sentiments by repeated loud mentions in his hearing of killing all his sons. When Dhritarashtra needs wealth for the shraddha of the slain, Bhima refuses to part with any. Then Yudhishthira and Arjuna who share their personal riches. Dhritarashtra donates gold, gems, slaves, sheep, goats, cows, blankets, villages, fields, horses, elephants and lovely virgins in the names of Bhishma, Drona, Somadatta, Bahlika, all his sons and Jayadratha:-

                        All the four castes,

            one after another, were gratified

                        with abundant food and drink.

Vestures and wealth and jewels

                        were its billows,

            the mridanga-drumbeats

                        its maha-reverberations,

            cows and elephants its makara-creatures

                        various gems its whirlpools,

            Villages and gifted lands

                        were its islands,

            diamonds and gold

                        were its rippling waves,–

            such was the plenitude

                        of the cornucopious Dhritarashtra-ocean. 14.12-14 (P. Lal).

Vyasa sees poetic justice here, comparing the departure of the aged royal couple to that of the exiled Pandavas. The Pandavas’ shock when their mother decides to accompany Dhritarashtra and Gandhi to the forest and the reason Kunti gives for her decision are part of this omitted portion revealing the emotional backlash suffered by the victors. Her directive to Yudhishthira to respect Sahadeva, to remember Karna always by donating generously in his honour and always to please Draupadi is also omitted. Having enjoyed the kingdom with her husband, Kunti does not desire that of her sons. This remarkable heroine never desired anything for herself—a true parallel to her nephew Krishna. Sanjaya and Vidura accompany the three.

Dhritarashtra is instructed in the way of forest-life by the royal rishi Shatayupa, former king of Kekaya, at Kurukshetra. Gandhari, Kunti and he, wearing bark-cloth and deerskin, mortify their bodies, attended by Vidura and Sanjaya. Narada visits them and assures him and Gandhari of going to the world of gandharvas and rakshasas after three years, of Kunti joining Pandu who is with Indra, of Vidura entering Yudhishthira’s body and Sanjaya attaining Svarga. Narada mentions one king Shailalaya as the grandfather of Bhagiratha. However, it is Asamanjasa who is the grandfather in the puranic lineage.

All joy is driven from the lives of the Pandavas, Draupadi and Subhadra, their sole consolation being Parikshit. They are unable to carry out royal duties, immersed in grief for their mother, uncle and aunt. Finally, importuned by Sahadeva and Draupadi, Yudhishthira decides to visit them in the Kurukshetra ashram of Shatayupa. Leaving Yuyutsut and the priest Dhaumya in the city, the Pandavas wait outside their capital for five days for citizens to join. Kripa leads the army, crossing the Yamuna to reach Kurukshetra. The meeting of Sahadeva and Kunti brims over with pathos. Yudhishthira runs after Vidura into the dense forest. Vidura is skeletal, naked, filthy, matted-haired, pebbles in his mouth, starving himself to death like a Digambara Jain. By yogic power Vidura joins his self to Yudhishthira’s, as a father does to his son, and dies standing against a tree, proceeding to the Santanika world. There is no mention of Vidura merging into Dharma. A skyey voice prohibits his cremation as he was a world-renouncing “yati”.

Book 15 begins with three questions put to Vaishampayana by Janamejaya: how did his victorious forefathers treat vanquished, forlorn Dhritarashtra; how did Gandhari behave; how long did his ancestors rule. Yudhishthira never objected to the old king pardoning condemned people, going on pleasure trips, spared no expense and ordered his brothers to ensure that the son-less monarch never felt desolate. The Pandavas (except Bhima) were apprehensive that Dhritarashtra might die of despair. The Pandava ladies, Kunti, Draupadi, Subhadra, Ulupi, Chitrangada along with the daughters of Shishupala and Jarasandha, attended on Gandhari. After bearing 15 years of Bhima’s boasting about how he killed the Dhartarashtras, the old king and queen take to eating on alternate days and then twice a week, sleeping on a grass mat on the ground (of which, strangely, Yudhishthira was ignorant). Vyasa urges Yudhishthira to accept their decision. Dhritarashtra discourses to Yudhishthira over three chapters on how to govern. The material is drawn, quite appropriately, from Bhishma’s lectures on raja-dharma lying on his bed-of-arrows, to Yudhishthira. When Dhritarashtra bids farewell to the citizens, they declare how well they had been governed by him and by Duryodhana.

At the request of the ashramites, Sanjaya describes the appearance of the Pandava men and women (Chapter 32; 25 Vulgate), a very rare glimpse indeed. Yudhishthira is golden, lion-like, long-nosed, eyes large and copper-bright. Bhima’s complexion is like molten gold; he is broad-shouldered, massive-armed, wolf-waisted. Ajuna is dark-skinned with leonine shoulders and eyes like lotus leaves. Nakula and Sahadeva are innocuous—simply good looking. Draupadi is middle-aged, dark as a blue-lotus, lotus-eyed. Krishna’s sister (Subhadra) has golden skin shining like the moon. Ulupi’s complexion is like pure gold while Chitrangada’s is like the madhuka blossom. Blue lotus-like in colour is Bhima’s unnamed chief wife (Balandhara), sister of Krishna’s inveterate foe who is left nameless (Shishupala or the Kashi king?). Sahadeva’s wife is the champak-complexioned daughter of Jarasandha. Nakula’s wife with large lotus-leaf eyes has blue lotus-like complexion. With skin like molten gold is Virata’s daughter (Uttara), her son in her lap. Yudhishthira’s wife Devika of Shaibya, mother of Yaudheya, is not mentioned and remains just a name in the Mahabharata.

Vyasa’s appearance in this ashram is a narrative tour-de-force. At Janamejaya’s snake-holocaust at Taxila, it is at his request and on Vyasa’s bidding that Vaishampayana narrates the Mahabharata in which its author himself appears as an actor at critical junctures. Here Vyasa makes some crucial observations regarding the births of Vidura and Yudhishthira. Doniger’s mistranslates “Ordered by Brahma” as “through the Levirate arrangement with a Brahmin,” he fathered Vidura. Vyasa conclusively states that Vidura procreated Yudhishthira “by the power of his yoga,” that “Dharma is Vidura / and Vidura is Pandava Yudhishthira,” and that again “by the power of his maha-yoga” Vidura has entered Yudhishthira’s body.

At this point the narrative re-starts (chapter 36; 29 in the Vulgate) and Doniger inserts a passage from one manuscript to begin that tale afresh with Yudhishthira arriving in the forest-ashram with his entourage. The frame-story passage she omits provides the rationale for this re-telling in questions Janamejaya puts to Vaishampayana about what they subsisted upon and for how long. He is then informed that the Pandavas stayed for a month in that forest-ashram living on varied food and drink. This time several Gandharvas are mentioned by name as being present. Why is Doniger baffled (in a footnote) by the presence of such celestials when celestial sages are also present? After all, celestial beings and humans rub shoulders throughout the epic.

Gandhari begs Vyasa to grant peace of mind to them all. Kunti confesses to him about Karna’s birth, adding that she gave in to Surya only when he threatened to consume both her and Durvasa, as she wished to protect the sage. In earlier accounts she is virtually raped by Surya. Vyasa absolves her of guilt making this astonishing statement, made earlier by Bhishma to Draupadi when she was molested in the assembly:-

“Everything is within bounds for those who have brute power; everything is pure for those who have power. Everything is dharma for those who have power; everything of those who have power is their own.”—Doniger 15.38.23

“The path of the powerful

            is always right.

Everything connected with the powerful

            is pure.

Everything the powerful do,

            is dharma.

Everything there is,

            belongs to the powerful.” 15.30.24—P. Lal

In other words, might is right.

Vyasa then informs them of the celestial origins of the protagonists. Doniger gratuitously makes Pandu Indra, which is nowhere in the text. An unexplained, intriguing feature is that the god Surya is Karna on earth, yet he is aligned with rakshasa-Duhshasana, Kali-Duryodhana and Dvapara-Shakuni. Conversely, rakshasa-Shikhandin is on the Pandava side with Agni-Dhrishtadyumna. It is clearly not clean-cut black and white, good and bad. Shades of grey prevail. Both celestial bodies, Surya and Soma, split themselves in half, one part staying in the sky, the other becoming Karna and Abhimanyu respectively.

Now occurs a stunning miracle. Vyasa causes all the dead to appear before the assembly out of the river Bhagirathi, a scene similar to Odysseus seeing the dead appear in Book 11 across a trench full of sheep-blood:

“What a tumultuous clamour

sprang from the waters!

It resembled, O Janamejaya,

the combined uproar

of the battling armies

of the Kauravas and Pandavas.” (P. Lal)

“Then the sound of a great commotion arose from within the waters, like the sound when the two armies of the Kurus and Pandavas met in the past.” (Doniger)

The point is that there was,

“No more bitterness,

no more ahamkara-ego,

no more hatred,

no more jealousy.” (P. Lal)

“They were free from enmity and free from egoism, and they had lost their rage and their vengeful pride.” (Doniger)

This is repeated a few slokas later. As he had done with Sanjaya for the war, Vyasa grants Gandhari and Dhritarashtra divine sight to enjoy the sight. Reconciliation takes place and all spend the night in amity, as if in Svarga. Then they vanish in a trice in the waters of the Bhagirathi.

At this juncture an event occurs that is unique in literature. As Hiltebeitel has pointed out, no author has ever become a character in his own work, killing off his own characters. Here Vyasa urges widows who wish to join their husbands to commit suicide in the river. Believing him, they all do so. The chapter (41; 33 Vulgate) concludes with a recital of the benefits accruing to the listener, which always ends a book. Doniger feels that this is where the second part of this “parva” originally ended. She does not translate the subsequent two chapters in which Janamejaya questions how the bodiless can be seen in the same bodies and then obtains a vision of his father Parikshit. In this narration, twice it is Sauti who narrates, thus reminding us of the original setting of the epic’s recital. Delighted, Parikshit tells Astika (thus the narrative recalls how the snake holocaust began in the first book) that his grief is gone. Astika tells him that the snakes who perished, save Takshaka, have attained the state of his father.

Despite the epiphany, Yudhishthira’s depression persists and he tells Kunti:-

            “Hollow is this earth now,

devoid of delight.

            Kinsmen dead, strength sapped.” (P. Lal)

“This whole earth is empty and gives me no pleasure…Our relatives have been decimated and our power is not what it used to be.” (Doniger)

Sahadeva too (Yudhishthira says Kunti loved him the most) pleads to be allowed to remain. Once again it is Kunti who persuades him and the others to leave as their staying back will hinder her ascesis. Her’s is the role unexceptionable.

Two years later Narada arrives with news of their mother, uncle and aunt being consumed in a random fire as they were wandering in the forest at Haridwar, with no fixed habitation. Kunti, who had burnt a Nishada woman and her five sons alive in the house-of-lac, meets with poetic justice, as does Dhritarashtra who had consented to its construction to consume the Pandavas. Like Vidura, Dhritrashtra starved, pebbles in his mouth. Their tragic death occurs eighteen years after the War (the epic has 18 books; the war lasts 18 days; the Gita has 18 chapters; Krishna dies 18 x 2 = 36 years after the war). Why the sons and daughters-in-law maintained no surveillance, with their fervid protestations of devotion, remains a puzzle. Sanjaya escapes and departs for the Himalayas. What mystifies Yudhishthira most is why they should have been consumed in an unconsecrated fire, not a holocaust, specially when Arjuna had granted Agni a favour long back. Narada offers consolation by spinning a yarn about this forest-fire having arisen from Dhritarashtra’s own sacrificial fire. People are sent to perform rituals with the bones of the dead at Haridwar, while the Pandavas and Yuyutsut do the same at the Ganga outside Hastinapura. Yudhishthira somehow continues to rule, bereft of pleasure. Strangely enough, in their misery they do not turn to Krishna as they always used to.

Years pass. Again, it is the 18th year (36 years after the war as Gandhari had cursed) that sees ominous portents and Yudhishthira receives news of Krishna’s death and how his people slaughtered one another. There is a problem with translating “vimukta” here as applied to Krishna and Balarama. “Freed” or “escaped” cannot be correct, as Ganguly, Dutt and Lal have rendered it. Doniger correctly translates as “finally freed”, i.e. “dead”. Again we wonder why the Pandavas were not in touch with their beloved “sakha” and mentor and the growing social disorder in Dvaraka. Doniger glosses Jambavati as “the daughter of a monkey chief” (fn. p. 116) whereas she was the bear-chief Jambavan’s daughter. She translates Krishna’s killer Jara as “Old Age” although he was his step-brother born to Vasudeva’s fourth wife and was brought up by the Nishadas. By order of the raja (Doniger’s naming him Ahuka is wrong, for he was never king of Dvaraka) the iron club Samba delivers is pulverized and flung into the sea. Prohibition for the first time is imposed on pain of impalement of the brewer and his family, which still prevails in Gujarat. The society begins to degenerate in morals. A lunar eclipse occurs duplicating the Kurukshetra War. Krishna makes a puzzling reference to what Yudhishthira had said on that occasion. Doniger fills in the gap from a manuscript, viz. the best course is to donate, offer oblations to pacify and act righteously. Wishing to fulfil Gandhari’s curse, Krishna orders a pilgrimage to Prabhasa on the seaside. Instead, the citizens pack food and drink for a picnic. The Sudarshana discus and the standards of Balarama and Krishna disappear into the sky. Krishna’s chariot is taken by the four steeds to the sea. At Prabhasa the first to depart is Uddhava who divines the impending carnage.

Once again it is an instance of cherchez la femme. As Draupadi was the immediate cause of the great war, here it is Satyabhama in tears hugging Krishna, reminded by Satyaki of Kritavarma’s role in her father’s murder, infuriating him. To avenge her, Satyaki beheads Kritavarma, setting off a mad frenzy of killing. It is Krishna who, furious at Pradyumna and Satyaki being killed, seizes a handful of reeds that transmute into adamantine clubs and lays about him indiscriminately. Then seeing his other sons and grandson Aniruddha killed, he uses his mace, bow and discus to kill everyone except Daruka his charioteer and Babhru. Balarama does not engage, as he had not at Kurukshetra. Daruka is despatched to summon Arjuna and Krishna rushes to his father in Dvaraka asking him to protect the women. Then he returns to join Balarama only to find him merging with the ocean as the serpent Shesha. Krishna withdraws into yoga and, fulfilling Durvasa’s prophecy of only the soles of his feet being vulnerable, is shot by his step-brother Jara precisely there, as Achilles was by Paris. Doniger is mistaken in her footnote (p.130) that Krishna is the only avatar of Vishnu who dies. Rama dies too as is mentioned twice in the Mahabharata in the account of sixteen great rajas who died and also in the Ramayana. Unnecessarily Doniger inserts at the end of chapter 5 a long passage occurring only in a couple of manuscripts incongruously having four-armed Vani (Speech) asking Krishna to join her in Bhanu the sun where gods cannot enter.

According to the Bhagavata Purana (III.3.15), Krishna realised the earth’s burden persisted even after the great war because of the massive Yadava forces guarded by Pradyumna. None but they could destroy themselves in drunken frenzy. Hence, he organised what follows. In this version Krishna does not engage but rests under a tree. The Jain Bhagavati Sutra (7.9) describes two battles in Mahavira’s time (6th century BCE?) involving King Kuniya/Ajatashatru. One is “the battle of thorns like great stones” in which the touch of thorns was like blows of great stones. The other was “the battle of chariot and club”, Kuniya’s automated chariot with club that killed. The manic violence is as in the Vrishni massacre. The time of composition of the Mausala Parva might be the same.

Krishna refers to Arjuna as “Vibhatsu” which Doniger translates as “the Disdainful” whereas it connotes both “dreadful-deed-doer,” (P. Lal) and “not acting dreadfully”. Vasudeva tells Arjuna about Krishna foretelling that immediately following Arjuna’s departure for Indraprastha Dvaraka will be submerged. Arjuna announces that the Pandavas have realised it is time to move on. Vasudeva’s four wives join his corpse on the pyre. Although Arjuna locates the bodies of Balarama and Krishna, strangely enough there is no account of what he saw. After seven days he leaves the city with all Krishna’s widows, other women, children, youths and the aged in carriages led by Krishna’s great-grandson Vajra. Here Doniger unaccountably introduces a speech by the sea that is found in just one manuscript declaring that it will protect the city with all the people’s treasures for the next avatar in the Krita Yuga.

Now we face a shock. In Punjab invincible Arjuna, unable to summon his special weapons, strings the Gandiva with great difficulty and fails to prevent staff-wielding Abhira dacoits from looting the wealth and abducting the women.

            “His divine weapons nullified,

                        his physical strength sapped,

            his bow refusing to nock,

                        his inexhaustible quiver empty…

            O raja, in frustration he said:

                        ‘All is uncertain. Nothing lasts.’” –P. Lal

“The loss of his magical weapons and the waning of the manly power of his arms and the uselessness of his bow and the exhaustion of his arrows broke the heart of Kunti’s son Arjuna…said, ‘This no longer exists.’” –Doniger

Arjuna settles the surviving old men, women and children in Indraprastha with Vajra as ruler; Kritavarma’s son in Martikavat with the women and others of the Bhojas and Satyaki’s son on the banks of the river Sarasvati with old men, women and children. It is not Babhru’s widows as Doniger translates but Akrura’s who retire to the forest. Nor is Rukmini of Gandhara, rather it is Shaibya of Gandhara who, along with Haimavati and Jambavati, enter the funeral pyre. Satyabhama and other women of Krishna enter the forest for ascesis (in the village of Kalapa beyond the Himalayas, as Doniger adds from three manuscripts).

Arjuna approaches Vyasa and reports of five hundred thousand Yadavas perishing and his own humiliating defeat. Vyasa consoles him that Krishna has lightened earth’s burden and that Arjuna has accomplished his divine mission with the help of Bhima and the twins. It is significant that he does not include Yudhishthira here. The time has come for them to leave for the final destination. The inexorable end is at hand.

            “The root of all

                        is Cosmic time Kala.

            Cosmic time Kala

                        is the seed

            of the universe.

                        Kala is the giver,

            and Kala is the taker.

                        That which is strong

            is that which becomes weak.

                        He who rules

            becomes he who is ruled.” –P. Lal

“All of this has Time as its root. time is the seed of the universe. And it is Time that once again draws things together into annihilation, spontaneously. Someone who becomes powerful once again becomes powerless; someone who becomes a ruler here once again is commanded by others.” –Doniger

The Book of the Great Departure is profoundly ironic. Abdicating, the Pandavas leave the kingdom in the hands of their nemesis Dhritarashtra’s sole surviving son Yuyutsu, born of a Vaishya maid as regent, installing Parikshit as raja in Hastinapura with Kripa as guru. Note that Parikshit is 36 years of age at this point and should need no regent. Yudhishthira warns Subhadra not to consider taking over Indraprastha where Vajra rules, but to protect him. As once before, the six leave dressed in bark-cloth, followed by a dog. Ulupi enters the Ganges, Chitrangada returns to Manipura. Arjuna cannot let go of his bow and quivers, although they have failed him. When they reach the surging red sea (Lauhitya-Brahmaputra?) Agni appears in human form and takes back the weapons which belong to Varuna. From the east they go south till the salty sea, then turn west to Dvaraka, and thence northwards, thus circumambulating the earth. Doniger needlessly adds passages from a solitary manuscript elongating the journey. Approaching Meru, starting with Draupadi, one by one each collapses. Bhima alone is shocked and enquires—not any of the others. Yudhishthira cites reasons for their fall. His jealousy of Draupadi’s fondness for Arjuna is blatantly exposed. Never once does he look back at his fallen wife and brothers. Vaishampayana for the only time refers to himself in the first person, saying that he has often mentioned the dog following Yudhishthira. When Indra invites him to board the chariot, Yudhishthira begs that his brothers and lovely Draupadi accompany him. Indra assures that having discarded their bodies they are already in Svarga, but he will enter there with his body.

Yudhishthira now refuses to go without the faithful dog despite Indra’s repeated urging that dogs are prohibited in heaven. He explains that he left the others only after their death, but cannot desert a faithful living companion. The dog assumes his true form as the god Dharma and blesses Yudhishthira to reach Svarga in his physical body, which, however, does not happen. Yudhishthira has to give up his physical form by bathing in the heavenly river and only then is he escorted to Svarga by the divine fathers of the Pandavas—Dharma, Indra, Maruts and the Ashvins.

We recall that it all began with the bitch Sarama cursing Janamejaya’s yajna in Book 1. Curiously, Indra is associated with a dog elsewhere. In the Ashvamedha Parva he appears as a Chandala with dogs before Uttanka. Again, In the Anushasana Parva, chapter 93, Indra appears to the primordial Seven Rishis disguised as a wandering mendicant named Sunahsakha accompanied by a dog and saves them from a demoness. Doniger has not commented on this peculiar feature.

Reaching Svarga, Yudhishthira is furious at finding Duryodhana gloriously ensconced and no sign of his brothers and Draupadi and allies there, insists on joining them wherever they might be. He waxes eloquent of his guilt over Karna, whose feet always reminded him of Kunti’s. “This is not Svarga in my view,” he says.

“I want to go there where my brothers have gone and where big, dark Draupadi has gone, a woman of intelligence, goodness and virtue, the best of women, the woman I love.” –Doniger

“I want to be

            where my brothers are.

I want to be where Draupadi is—

            the lovely ample-bodied lady,

the dark-blue-cloud-complexioned lady,

            the sattva-guna-endowed lady,

the lady who is youthful.

            Take me to my Draupadi.” –P. Lal  

Yudhishthira is then ushered into horrendous hell where he finds them. Enraged, he reviles the gods and dharma, insisting on remaining there, rejecting Svarga once again. This is a stunning reversal of the entire ethic he has represented and defended stubbornly against all odds throughout, which readers mostly overlook. Vyasa rectifies the balance immediately as Dharma re-appears and the horrors vanish. Truly, as Milton’s Satan proclaimed,

“The mind is its own place and in itself

 Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.”

This is Dharma’s third test (the first was Dharma as a crane during the forest-exile) and expiation of the lie Yudhishthira told to trick Drona. Now he has to give up his physical body in the skyey Ganga, abandoning which his vengeful pride also disappears. Entering Svarga, he sees Draupadi and is about to question her when Indra stops him. There are no questions in heaven. Each hero merges into a divinity, except Shikhandi who is not mentioned, while Pradyumna, who was supposed to be Kama reborn, here enters Sanatkumara. Krishna’s 16000 wives commit suicide in the Sarasvati and become apsaras staying with him. But here Kunti and Madri are not given any celestial origin (in the Adi Parva they are Siddhi-Success and Kriti-Action, while Gandhari is Dhriti-Constancy). They simply accompany Pandu to Indra’s realm.

But the narration has a stinging shock at the end—the Bharata Savitri. Sauti says that having taught his composition to his son Shuka, Vyasa exclaimed,

“I myself cry out with my arms up, but no one hears me. From dharma comes politics and also pleasure; why is it not practised?”—Doniger

“I raise my arms and I shout

            but no one listens.

From Dharma comes Artha and Kama—

            why is Dharma not practised?” –P. Lal

Is anyone listening? Or is it a host of phantom listeners?

WHEN THE EIGHT VAJRAS ASSEMBLED

By

KRISHNA AGAINST THE KURU-PAANDAVS

THE APOCRYPHAL DANDI PARVA OF THE MAHABHARATA

Introduction

The core story of the Mahabharata is well-known: how Krishna helps the five Paandav brothers (three Parths and the twin Maadreyas), sons-and-stepsons of his paternal aunt Pritha-Kunti, win the kingdom of Hastinapur with their seven armies from the eleven armies of Duryodhan and his ninety-nine brothers on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. However, little known is the tale of the sons of Dhritarashtra and Pandu, allied with Jaraasandh of Magadh and Shishupal of Chedi, jointly opposing Krishna and the Yaadavs in battle. It is this tale that formed the matter of Paandav Gaurav (1900), a five-act play in Bengali by Girish Chandra Ghosh, the founder of Bengali theatre, that was a runaway hit on the Calcutta stage. What was his source?

The version of the Mahabharata that we know is what Vaishampaayan recited to Raja Janamejay at Taxila at the bidding of his guru Krishna Dvaipaayan Vyas during intervals of the holocaust of snakes the king had organised to avenge his father Parikshit’s assassination by Takshak naga. Heard there by the bard Ugrashravas Sauti, it was recited by him to Rishi Shaunak and his group of ascetics in the ashram at Naimish forest during intervals of their twelve-year-long yajna. Besides this version, there is another by another of Vyas’ pupils, Jaimini, of which only a few parvas are extant. From his Ashvamedha Parva Girish Ghosh took the very unusual story of Queen Jvaalaa and wrote a successful play on her named Janaa (1894).

Moreover, there is an apocryphal text entitled Mahabharata: Dandi Parva attributed to Krishna Dvaipaayan Vyas narrating, inter alia, the startling story of how the Paandavs and the Kauravs jointly opposed Krishna in battle, which provided Girish Ghosh the material for his play. This rare Sanskrit text was translated into Bengali by Pandit Kaliprasanna Vidyaratna and published in 1900 (reprinted in 1987 by Nabapatra Prakashan, Calcutta). Dinesh Chandra Sen states in his Bangabhasha O Sahitya (pp. 424, 427) that he found a translation in Bengali poetry by Rajaram Datta, containing 1500 verses, the manuscript of which written by Ramprasad Dey is dated to 1809 CE. However, the introduction states that it was composed by (or at the behest of) Nrisimha Das son of Ramkanai Das in the “poyar” metre of 14 letters after studying the Brihat Kurma Purana. This Purana consists of four samhitas: Brahmi, Bhagavati, Sauri and Vaishnavi, of which the Brahmi Samhita is also known as the Kurma Purana. Besides the story of Raja Dandi and Urvashi, it contains the curious tale of Shrivatsa narrated by Krishna to Yudhishthira to console him during the forest-exile. Apparently, Girish Ghosh’s source was a poetic composition called “Dandi Parva” (1870) by Umakanta Chattopadhyay in which the narrator is Shukadeva Goswami, Vyas’s son. Prior to that Rohininandan Sarkar’s “Dandiparva by Maharshi Vedavyasa” had come out in 1885 and in 1886 Prankrishna Ghosh had written “Dandi-charit-ba- Urvashir-Abhishap” (Dandi’s Deeds or Urvashi’s Curse).

What distinguishes this work from the Mahabharata is the excessive overlay of Vaishnava bhakti and unnecessary excursions into didactic peroration at the slightest opportunity, indicating its composition in late medieval times. Further, the stereotype of women as foolish, incapable of taking sound decisions by themselves without the guidance of father, husband or son is repeated often, except in the case of Rukmini, possibly because she is Krishna’s consort.

Parikshit’s Birth and Curse

Rishi Shaunak exhorts the wandering rhapsode Sauti, praising him for his Vaishnava-bhakti, to narrate the story of Bhagwan to enable the audience to achieve salvation in the context of the impending dreadful Kali Yuga and enquires why Raja Parikshit, born into the blessed Paandav family, committed sin.

Sauti then narrates that in his earlier birth Parikshit was a Gandharva named Vidyadhar who used to sing daily in Indra’s celestial court and, waxing proud of his melodious voice, his intellect was overcast by pride. In the season of spring youthful Vidyadhar was overcome with desire for his young wife. Drunk with liquor, both entered the Nandan garden, whose enchanting environs aggravated his loss of self-control and he began singing lewd songs loudly. This disturbed the blessed rishi Parvat who was seated there speaking to his disciples on salvation. Parvat, approaching the Gandharva, requested him to be restrained and not disturb the peace. Vidyadhar insolently told him that this garden was suitable for enjoyment by him and his companions, servitors of Lord Indra, not for ascetics. If they felt disturbed, they should leave the place. Parvat again warned him that being drunk he was misbehaving, but Vidyadhar boasted he was accountable only to Indra and did not care about anyone else’s anger. Urged by his disciples to discipline the arrogant singer, Parvat cursed Vidyadhar that as punishment for the insult he would take human birth and be consumed by a Brahman’s curse. Overwhelmed with depression and terror, Vidyadhar begged to be spared human birth, that most miserable of all existences. His women also pleaded with the sage for mercy, but Parvat was adamant on cleansing Svarga of the pollution caused by Vidyadhar’s ill-conduct. However, he told him that he would be born in the supremely pure and renowned Paandav family and regain his station after his sins had been burnt away. Indra did not intervene. Thus Vidyadhar was reborn as Parikshit. Yudhishthir gave him this name because he was born when the Paandav dynasty was almost extinguished. Unlike the Mahabharata, which knows of no previous birth of Parikshit, here there is no reference to his being still-born and the resurrection by Krishna.

Parikshit was anointed Crown-Prince by Krishna himself and imparted advice regarding governance by Dhaumya, the family priest of the Paandavs, and Naarad. The sage Kanva advised regarding discarding desire and keeping good company. Sage Lompad advised on moksha-dharma. Vibhanda described the horrors of hundreds of hells and the nature of the Brahman. Krishaashva discoursed on the four classes, the four stages of life and the primacy of domestic life in sustaining the rest. Sage Deval spoke on the dharma of donating, celebrating ahimsa as the supreme dharma and on abstaining from liquor and indulgence in coition, as these were sources of delusion.

Despite all this, after ruling well for years, because of the rishi’s curse Parikshit went to hunt in a forest where the ascetic Shamik lived. Causing havoc among animals, he shot a deer which fled. Giving chase, Parikshit got exhausted, parched and sought for water from the monk who was observing a vow of silence, seated in ascesis. Distracted by hunger and thirst, enraged at the silence, Parikshit insulted the monk by draping a dead snake round his neck. Shamik’s son Shringi infuriated by this cursed that the culprit would die of snake-bite within a week. Shamik rebuked his son for cursing the raja and despatched a disciple to warn the king.

Overwhelmed, Parikshit went to the banks of the Bhagirathi and pleaded with sages to rescue him. Vyas also arrived and told him that instead of punishment, cleansing the character was more important. As he himself did not have the time, he deputed his son Shuka for the purpose. (This setting copies that of the Bhaagavat Purana and there are echoes of the Pururavas-Urvashi myth in the tale.) Parikshit begged the sage to tell the tale of why Bhagwan Vaasudev (Krishna) had opposed his favourite Paandavs in battle. Then Shuka recounted the holy tale of Raja Dandi to him.

Urvashi cursed by Durvasa

Once, after spending a thousand years in ascesis, the rishi Durvasa began roaming the world to satisfy his senses but was not satisfied. Then he proceeded to the abode of the immortals and was delighted to see its unique splendour. Seated alongside the devas in their court named Sudharma, he passed much time. To entertain him, Indra summoned the loveliest of apsaras Urvashi and bade her delight the sage with her dance. Urvashi, repelled by the body-odour, matted hair and dirty appearance, doubted his capacity to appreciate her skills. Durvasa immediately made out from her facial expression what she was thinking and roared aloud that sin must never be tolerated. Hence, as she had thought he was beastly, she would fall from Svarga to earth and be born as a mare to expiate her sin. Urvashi and all the devas begged the sage to set a limit to her suffering, whereupon warning her never to be proud again, he said that on earth she would live in the kingdom of Raja Dandi of Avanti and return when the curse was spent. Remaining a mare during the day, she would become a divinely lovely woman at night.

Thus Urvashi descended as a mare in a lovely wood in the wonderful kingdom of Avanti (in Central India) where everyone was good, festivals were held and no dangers existed. Raja Dandi was an excellent ruler, touring everywhere to supervise his subjects’ welfare. Once, when in distress because of her state the mare was running hither and thither, scaring the animals, Dandi arrived to hunt. He came upon the splendid mare in the company of some deer and ordered his troops to capture her. Leaving them all behind, Urvashi sped off deep into the forest. Pursuing her, Dandi was exhausted. Out of pity Urvashi spoke to him, enquiring who he was. Dandi was enchanted and declared his identity. Urvashi recalled Durvasa’s prophecy and lamented her state. By this time the sun had set and, losing the form of a mare, Urvashi became a captivating woman, stunning Dandi. She explained the entire matter to him. Dandi begged her to become his and assured to keep her hidden from all eyes. Urvashi agreed on condition that he vowed never to abandon her. Dandi promised immediately. Spending the night with her, Dandi took her back in the form of a mare to his capital and kept her in a secret place away from all eyes. Day and night he spent with her, neglecting all duties. Dandi was obsessed with the mare who became his sole concern, grooming and feeding her with his own hands all day long. Subjects and ministers had no access to him. At night when she became an enchanting woman, Dandi would devote himself to pleasing her as best as he could, regardless of his diminishing fame. His intelligence waned, his spirit dulled. Devi Lakshmi decided to abandon him and he became incapable of protecting his kingdom. The subjects began to suffer from sickness, untimely death and various sorrows, afflicted by robbers. Teenage widows and beggars began to abound.

The splendour of Svarga waned as well. Indra felt the absence of Urvashi acutely and was apprehensive of her having to face great suffering. Therefore, he summoned the celestial rishi Naarad and requested his intervention. Naarad assured him that the time was near for Urvashi’s curse to be lifted. Eager to have darshan of Shri Hari (Krishna), he proceeded to that very unholy place, earth. Naarad went to Dwarka, that city of unrivalled splendour because of Shri Hari’s presence and waited at the entrance for permission to enter, having due regard to royal protocol. Already aware of his impending arrival, Shri Hari had sent a guard to usher in the sage to where he was seated with Devi Rukmini. Crossing the apartments of 16,000 women, Naarad arrived where Shri Hari was seated. Greeting all the children, the aged and the women, Naarad found that wherever he looked in the inner apartments he saw Shri Hari present. Bewildered, when he willed to see Shri Hari at one spot, he found him seated before him with all his women, welcoming him. Having embraced him, Shri Hari enquired after his welfare, whereupon Naarad begged him to remove the curse from Urvashi and left.

Shri Hari despatched an envoy to Raja Dandi with this message: “O ruler of Avanti! The magical mare you have obtained and enjoyed in secret for so long, despatch it forthwith to me in Dwarka city. Do not do otherwise!” Hearing this, the king flared up with rage and shouted, “Get out! I do not know your master. If you tarry even a moment here, mighty Dandi’s deadly rod will split your body into pieces like Indra’s vajra or Shiva’s trident.” The envoy left immediately and reported everything to his master.

Krishna mused for a while that nothing of significance ought to be done in a hurry. So he summoned his intimate companion Uddhav and asked him to proceed to the city of Avanti. Crossing many lands, Uddhav reached Avanti soon and called on Dandi. Uddhav urged him not to dispute with Krishna who was the supreme divinity and to hand over the splendid mare to avert disaster. Dandi felt dizzy, bewildered, unable to decide what to do. Then to deceive Uddhav he said, “Why should I unnecessarily quarrel with Vaasudev to whom I pay tribute? If I had the mare I would definitely have handed it over. Someone has mistakenly informed you that I have found a mare. I am lucky that hearing that news you have set foot in my kingdom. If you do not believe me, please visit my palace and see for yourself.” Laughing, Uddhav said that he was not deceived by the king’s lies and that Dandi was only inviting misfortune thereby. “Alas, O king! Your intelligence is lost because of a petty thing,” said Uddhav taking leave.

Deeply disturbed, Dandi began to lament. Seeing his distracted condition, his queen urged him to concentrate on saving himself. Dandi argued that keeping his word to the mare was more sacred than obeying Krishna. Further, it was destiny that had made his mind thus obsessed, so there was no way out for him but to flee for saving his life as Krishna was sure to launch an attack after hearing of his refusal from the envoy.

Ardently embracing and kissing the mare, he exited the city in secret on her back, all alone. He roamed one land after another, from town to town, village to village like a madman, without any goal in mind. Gradually he came to his senses and decided he needed to seek for some way out of the predicament. First he approached the sea and prayed to it, but the sea declined as its glory was all Vaasudev’s doing and he could not protect Dandi against the Lord.

Then, one after another, Dandi approached Krishna’s foes: Shishupal lord of Chedi and mighty Jaraasandh of Magadh from whom Krishna had fled to Dwarka. Both turned him down, one because of Krishna’s invincible discus and as he was kin, the other as he considered it beneath his dignity to fight such a petty person.

Depressed and disappointed, Dandi decided not to approach any human being as men were incapable of protecting. Therefore, he presented himself before the lord of mountains, Himgiri and sought refuge with him. Acknowledging his right to be granted refuge, the Himalayas expressed its inability to protect him against the omnipotent one and advised him to seek shelter with Shri Krishna immediately.

His intelligence overcast, Dandi rejected the advice as venomous and abusing the lord of mountains proceeded to meet Duryodhan who said that he neither wished nor was able to oppose invincible Krishna. He advised Dandi to hand over the mare to Krishna and be free from danger.

Dandi then considered approaching the supremely righteous Yudhishthir who was celebrated as the support of the helpless. “But being an intimate of Krishna’s, if he asked Dandi to surrender the mare, what then? So long as he was alive, he could not give up the mare. It did not befit a man to break his given word.” He was unable to decide what to do and kept lamenting.

***

The Tale of Shrivatsa

“This is what happens,” said Shuka, “when the planets are unfavourable. Because of that Raja Shrivatsa had to live among the lowly born with his wife like an orphan.” Parikshit then begged him to narrate this tale of Shrivatsa that was unknown to him. Shuka told him that during the period of exile in the forest, Yudhishthira was deeply depressed. That is when Krishna came to him and narrated the story of Shrivatsa to console him. First, at Parikshit’s request, after narrating the lineage of Parikshit, starting from Daksha Prajaapati’s 50 daughters from 13 of whom rishi Kashyap produced humans and others, Shuka narrated the deeds of the Paandavs in brief till the forest-exile. 

Shri Krishna told Yudhishthir that in the past noble Citrarath was installed as emperor of the earth. Shrivatsa was his only son, a store of all qualities. He was a king during whose rule the happiness of subjects was boundless. Constantly all of them sincerely prayed for the king’s long life and welfare. His chief queen was Citrasen’s daughter Cinta, unrivalled in devotion to her husband and in beauty.

Once in the abode of the gods Lakshmi Devi said to Shanaishcar, “Look, I am the chief in the universe because everyone in the three worlds desires me. Can you say that even by mistake someone takes your name? Your sight, even your shadow, is the cause of all types of misfortune in the world.” Shani was enraged at Lakshmi’s words and said, “If I am not supreme among all and more honoured than you, then why should the three worlds shiver fearing me? You will be a laughing stock by claiming you are the best.”

To settle the dispute, both appeared before Raja Shrivatsa as he was preparing to bathe. Startled and wonder-struck, he greeted them humbly and enquired why they had come. Shani explained the entire matter. Bewildered, the king kept silent for a while. Begging time for a day, he requested them to appear in the court the next day when he would present an answer to the best of his abilities. Blessing him, the gods left.

Thinking and consulting all day long with his ministers and others, Shrivatsa decided not to say anything. In the court two seats were placed: one of gold, another of silver. The golden one was kept to the right of the royal throne and the silver seat to its left. The two gods entered and Lakshmi promptly sat on the golden seat, while Shani sat on the silver one. After a while, Shani asked the king to indicate who was the superior of the two. Softly and humbly Shrivatsa said that how could he as a mere human decide about gods. They themselves had decided their relative greatness. Enraged, biting his lips and red eyes Shani declared that as he had ruined Raja Nala, so would he deprive Shrivatsa of kingdom, happiness and wife. Lakshmi was delighted and left, blessing the king.

Day after day, month after month passed as Shani kept searching for a misstep on Shrivatsa’s part. Once, after bathing the king sat on the throne while the washed off water had not been wiped away. Suddenly a black dog appeared and lapped up that water. The shastras state that water washed off the body if fallen on the ground must immediately be removed, never touched. Moreover if polluted creatures like dogs touch it, the bathed person becomes unclean and loses prosperity. Therefore, the instant Shani spotted this flaw, he saw the right moment had arrived and gleefully entered the king’s body.

By and by the kingdom was overshadowed by ill omens: sudden outbreaks of fire, meteor showers, cloud-less lightning strikes and bloody rainfall at some places; somewhere drought, elsewhere floods. Blights of locusts, insects, rats, birds destroyed crops. By Shani’s wrath, Raja Shrivatsa’s prosperity gradually dwindled away. Wailing and lamentation arose everywhere as lawlessness prevailed. Subjects rebelled against the king. Finding no way out, at the dead of night Shrivatsa fled the land with his wife on foot. Covering a long distance, Shrivatsa and his queen arrived at an enchanting wood whose beauty enraptured them. There they saw a fisherman and, suffering from hunger and thirst, begged him for a single fish. Seeing their divine appearance, the fisherman was stunned. Considering them as divinities in disguise, he gave them some fine fish and pranam-ing them left.

Shrivatsa asked his wife not to spurn the fish begged for as this was their only means of sustenance at present. He told her to roast them for eating. After all, he said, in the past the royal rishi Vishvamitra had begged dog-meat from an untouchable to satisfy his hunger. The queen immediately lit a fire by rubbing dry sticks together and roasted the fish. Sadly she went to wash off the burnt parts in the lake, but when she dipped them in the water, they swam away! As she related the misfortune to the king and he burst out laughing, a skyey voice was heard, “Maharaj! Publicly you demeaned me by giving me an inferior seat in front of everyone and enhanced Lakshmi’s glory by giving her a golden seat. Where is she now? O Shrivatsa! As a judge you had displayed bias and now you suffer its just consequences.” Saying this, invisible Shani vanished.

Amazed, the raja told his beloved wife that it was because of his ill fortune that the roasted fish had swum away and she should not weep, for she was not at fault. Shani was not content having deprived him of kingdom and prosperity and making him a forest-dweller. Shrivatsa pledged that as long as he lived he would never abandon the way of dharma and resort to evil. Plucking fruit from trees and with water from the stream they assuaged their hunger and thirst. With grass and creepers they made a hut at the base of a tree and rested therein. Thus they passed the days.

Finding that fruits were becoming scarce, Raja Shrivatsa left that wood and went to a small village nearby where many woodcutters lived. Impressed by his demeanour, they gave him shelter and honoured his wife. Daily he would go into the forest with them to collect wood and thus eked out a livelihood. The river Kaushiki flowed by that village and once a merchant arrived carrying his goods on a barge which suddenly came to a stop. Shanideva, assuming the form of an old Jain mendicant approached him and said, “Sir, by astrology I am aware of the cause of your boat stopping. When you left home, your wife was busy arranging puja of the nine planets. As you left ignoring that, this crisis has occurred. No worries, however! I will give you the way out. In this village of woodcutters there is a chaste wife. If she touches your boat, it will immediately move as before.”

The merchant went to the village and stated his predicament. The woodcutters agreed and sent their wives to touch the boat. Queen Cinta went too. One by one the women touched the boat but it did not move. Finally when Queen Cinta touched it, it immediately began to flow with the current. Amazed, the wicked merchant thought that such a woman was rare indeed and having her with him would be best. He dragged Cinta aboard his boat. Chinta wailed aloud to no avail. The merchant’s boat vanished along the Kaushiki.

Meanwhile Shrivatsa had returned to his hut and on hearing the entire matter fell senseless. Regaining his senses after a while he ran out of the hut like a madman to the riverbank and without stopping to eat, or drink, or rest, proceeded southwards. Crossing many places, towns, habitations, hills, woods and wildernesses the king reached a splendid grove. As he rested under a huge tree, suddenly the immortal cow Surabhi arrived there and, surprised to see a human being, asked him who he was. Shrivatsa told her everything. Reassuring him, Surabhi asked him to stay in her ashram there as by divine foresight she knew that soon his queen and his lost royal glory would be restored to him.

Shrivatsa obediently stayed there. From the mud from the froth of the milk falling on the ground as Surabhi’s calf Nandini suckled her mother he began making clay bricks. Because of that divine milk the brick turned into gold. Amazed, the king devoted himself to making more and more bricks daily.

One day when he was standing on the bank of the Kaushiki musing on his state a trading vessel arrived. Seeing it, Shrivatsa decided that by taking all the gold bricks elsewhere he could earn a lot by selling them and also seek out his queen. The cunning merchant immediately agreed to his proposal and took Shrivatsa with him on the vessel. After a while the vessel reached the sea and the merchant decided to take all the gold for himself. So he threw Shrivatsa into the sea. It was this same trader who had abducted Cinta and kept her in a room in the vessel. Hearing Shrivatsa outcries, she flung a plank into the waters. Floating on that plank, Shrivatsa landed in the town of Sautipur where a garland-maker named Rambhaabati lived. In rags Shrivatsa arrived at her home and said that while sailing his ship had sunk and he begged shelter from her. Rambhaabati said, “Oh, on seeing you I am reminded of my dead nephew! My heart brims over with affection for you. I will look after you as best as I can. You stay with me.” Shrivatsa, keeping his identity secret, stayed in her home.

Baahudev, the ruler of Sautipur, had only one daughter, fifteen year old Bhadraa who used to pray to Devi Bhagavati daily wanting Shrivatsa for her husband. The day he arrived in that town, Bhagavati appeared before her and said that the one she had been desiring as husband had reached that kingdom and was living in the garland-maker’s home. In a bridegroom-choice ceremony she could garland him herself. The ceremony was announced and Shrivatsa wanting to witness it stood under a tall kadamba tree at one end of the palace. Stunning all assembled royal suitors, the princess garlanded this poorly clad stranger. Raja Baahudev in shame retreated indoors and all the invitees stormed out. The queen could not abandon her daughter and arranged for her and the son-in-law to stay in a building. The king appointed Shrivatsa as tax-collector on the banks of the river from all craft sailing by.

The period of Shani’s evil-eye is twelve years. As this passed, Shrivatsa’s depression ebbed and he found the world delightful again. On a summer noon Shrivatsa was seated on the river-bank when a merchant craft arrived and he recognised the wicked trader who had thrown him into the sea. He seized the ship and had all the gold bricks retrieved, imprisoning the merchant. Hearing this, the king arrived at the spot and found Shrivatsa’s appearance totally changed. He was glowing with beauty and health as Shani’s influence had passed. Shrivatsa declared his identity and past history. Baahudev immediately rescued Cinta from the ship and sentenced the trader to jail for his crimes.

Goddess Lakshmi appeared in the firmament and addressed Baahudev: “O king! Fortunately lovely Bhadraa has been born to you and you have obtained Raja Shrivatsa as son-in-law and been able to have darshan of me. Now go and pass the time happily with daughter and son-in-law.” Saying this, the goddess vanished. Shanaishcar appeared before Shrivatsa and said, “Raja, overcome by anger I have inflicted much suffering upon you. Do not bewail recalling all that. This is the way of the world. Be that as it may, I am granting you a boon that whosoever listens full of bhakti to this holy tale of yours, that person will never suffer from my evil eye.” Shani vanished saying this. All rejoiced and after a while Shrivatsa returned to his kingdom with the permission of Baahudev. By the grace of Lakshmi drought, famine and epidemics all disappeared from his kingdom.

Krishna told Yudhishthir that joy and sorrow were cyclical phenomena in life and like Shrivatsa he should be patient, bear happiness and grief staying on the path of dharma. In time surely the sun of happiness would rise and flood his heart with the waters of joy.

Suta told the group of ascetics that this holy tale of Shrivatsa had first been related to Vishnu by Devi Lakshmi. The Lord of Vaikuntha had recounted it to Indra, he to thousand-headed Ananta and the great sage Durvasa. From Ananta it was spread in the netherworld and by Durvasa among humankind. At the end of Dvapar Yuga, Krishna narrated it to Janamejay’s great grand-uncle Yudhishthir.

***

Parikshit lamented before Shuka that he had dearly hoped to listen to the salvific Bharata Samhita that cleansed all sins, but that was not to be and he was doomed to perdition. Shuka assured him that having heard even parts of Vyas’ Bharata he would gain all the benefits of listening to all of it, as Vyas had declared to him. Rishi Kapil reassured him too and declared that in future his son Janamejay would also be purified of his sins of Brahmin-hatred and incomplete snake-sacrifice by listening to the entire Bharata Samhita from Vaishampaayan at the behest of Vyas.

Shukadeva resumed the tale of Dandi. The Avanti ruler was bewildered. Seeing him weeping and lamenting like a child, not knowing what to do the mare spoke to him in human speech, “Master, why weep thus? It is women who weep and lament in danger. Control yourself and think what should be done. It is not proper for the intelligent to waste time in vain. I had warned you earlier but blinded by arrogance you did not pay heed. Now you will definitely have to suffer the consequences of your actions. O Raja! My state is like yours. I will never be able to live without you, nor do I wish to. It is not possible to bear the suffering of this sinful mortal world. Alas, what misery has the maha-ascetic, wrathful Durvasa wrought upon me! He pitied me not—orphaned, helpless and weak. A dweller of Svarga I have to suffer torture in the mortal world. What need have I to live? Therefore, raja, see where the Bhagirathi flows fast! Let us surrender our lives to her and put an end to all suffering. I see no alternative to this. By the grace of this heavenly river so many great sinners have attained supreme salvation.”

***

The Tale of Harisharma

The mare then recounted to Dandi a marvel she had witnessed once when returning from the abode of the moon in the morning, passing over the river Mandakini. She saw a hawk carrying a baby bird in its beak. The chick fell from its beak into the sacred river and at once was transformed into a divine form who was taken by envoys of Vishnu on a celestial aircraft to Vaikuntha. Therefore, the mare urged, the two of them should also put an end to their suffering and attain salvation in the same manner, although committing suicide was a grave sin and she might have to undergo unbearable pain like the Brahman Harisharma.

Dandi begged the mare to recount what had happened to Harisharma. The mare said that in the past a Brahman Dvijahari used to live in the town of Karnaat. He tried his best to educate his son Harisharma but the boy got addicted to wickedness and after his parents’ death lived by robbing others. Inevitably the king of Karnaat exiled him. Roaming many lands Harisharma became thin and weak from suffering. Unable to bear this any further, he committed suicide by leaping into a pond. Because of that sin he had to live on a silk-cotton tree for a long time as a Brahman-demon. Therefore, said the mare, they might also suffer a fate like Harisharma, but was determined to die as no other way was visible.

***

Agreeing to her proposal, Dandi prayed to Ganga and with his beloved mare stepped into the river. Both of them bathed in its waters and wishing to die stepped into the river up to their necks. Both banks of the river got crowded with curious onlookers. In the firmament celestial beings gathered to watch. At that time Vaasudev’s beloved sister, Arjun’s beloved wife, Subhadraa fatefully arrived to bathe. Moved to compassion by the sight, she enquired from Dandi and, having heard everything, without hesitation said, “O Raja! Discard all fear! Even at the cost of my life I will save you. Abandon your decision to commit suicide and come with me. I am of your opposing side, Vaasudev’s sister, Subhadraa by name. You might not trust me, being of your opponent’s camp, but recall the example of Vibhishan. Just belonging to the enemy’s camp does not make one untrustworthy and worthless.”

Hearing this, Dandi’s heart was soothed somewhat. Giving up the decision to die he followed Subhadraa who brought them with all respect to her home and provided shelter. For his protection she approached Dhananjay. Hearing everything Parth was thunderstruck and, smarting like one whipped, full of rage said excitedly, “What is this terrible deed you have done! Maha-mighty Shri Krishna to punish Dandi, having consulted me, has despatched hundreds of messengers to every land, town, village to seek him out. Know that I too am one of them. Shame on so independent a wife as you! Go, do not hope for any favour from me!”

Silently Subhadraa left and went to Vrikodar and humbly recounting everything begged him to say whether the Avanti king would be given refuge or not. Bheem said, “Do you not know that Vaasudev is like our very soul? Therefore, only after telling us should you have offered shelter to Dandi. You belong to a weak sex, unaware of consequences. That is why in this case you have displayed independence and acted wrongly. Woman’s duty is to act after taking the husband’s permission, or in his absence that of father or son. Be that as it may, breaking a promise is counted as a grievous sin. I do not wish to incur that great sin. My nature is to keep my promise. That is why Shri Krishna loves me so much. Therefore, he will surely love me for this work too. Therefore, Raja Dandi hereby receives refuge. Be at peace and return to your quarters! I am warning you never to behave in future in this foolish, rash manner. Inform Arjun of my words.”

Summoning Dandi, mighty Bheemsen addressed him respectfully: “O king, I trust you are well? I am meeting you after a long while. Be that as it may, regarding this as your own home stay here without any doubt.” Reassured by Vrikodar’s words, Dandi replied humbly, “Great Sir! It is not novel, surprising or astonishing that generous-hearted mahatmas like you should behave frankly like close relatives. I pray to God that people may face such intimacy in birth after birth and gain such holy company. Interacting with sadhus like you is a prime happiness of this world. Therefore, today I have obtained incomparable store of happiness.”

At such time Yudhishthir’s messenger arrived and with joined palms submitted to Bheem, “O valiant one, it is the Lord’s command to be present before him at once!” Mighty Bheem arose immediately and reassuring the Avanti Raja and asking him to remain there went to Yudhishthir. He saw the loving mother Kunti seated with her four sons like the Mother of the Vedas with Rig, Sama, Yajur and Atharva, or Shanti Devi herself with Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. Maha-intelligent Vrikodar appeared among them like Ananda (bliss) embodied. In the Kuru clan the five brothers and Kunti were like the five senses and Prakriti. The five brothers were separate merely in body but one in heart, mind and soul. Having greeted them and being greeted in return, Bheemsen sat and awaited Yudhishthir’s commands, knowing that it must be about Raja Dandi.

Kunti said to Vrikodar, “Before taking action, whether good or bad, one must examine its pros and cons. Without such examination one should not take any decision suddenly—even if good—whereby in future one might repent or suffer remorse. You have not done well by granting refuge to Dandi. Subhadraa is a woman and giving a promise at a woman’s word without considering does not befit a man. It is well known that woman’s intelligence causes chaos. It is true that to protect refugees is Kshatriya dharma. It is true indeed that keeping a promise is the supreme dharma of every person. However, it is also supreme dharma to act upon all this after due consideration. Specially, one who is an intimate friend and support, always a well-wisher, ever our refuge and the only salvation, who is dearer than the soul itself, to maintain loving relationship with him is the supreme dharma. Such is Shri Krishna for us. How often you have advised others in similar fashion. Then today why did you act contrary to that? Are you deluded as sometimes even rishis are? That is why I am giving you advice. Therefore, I advise you to discard Dandi, or surrender the mare to Krishna. Otherwise there will be great destruction, there is no doubt. You are highly intelligent, so do not engage in dispute with one’s own. It is well known that Lanka’s ruler Dashaanan was destroyed with his clan by quarrelling with his intimate well-wisher Vibhishan. I pray to God that because of your error we do not fall in similar danger.”

Maha-intelligent Vrikodar replied in sweet words to his mother, bowing his head to her advice, but begged her to hear why he had granted refuge to Dandi lest, like the guru of the celestials, she face embarrassment on speaking without knowing the reasons. “The shastras prescribe,” said he, “that a promise must be kept; not to do so is death. Even imperilling one’s own life another must be helped. None as pure and wise as Shri Krishna exists and he would never consent to my abandoning a refugee. Moreover, he is dearer to us than life itself and so are we to him. People truly say that between the Paandavs and Yaadavs there is no difference. Therefore, when he is willing to even give up his life for us, then it is not strange that he should give up a mere mare for us. I also believe that Subhadraa is supremely blessed and much loved by Krishna. Definitely her word will be honoured. Considering all this, whether I can grant shelter to Dandi without waiting for you all or not, you command.”

The son of Dharma said, “Brother, what you said is true. However, in view of the type of relationship we have with Vaasudev, by not give up the mare the Avanti Raja seems to have acted against us—this is what we should realise. So far as I know, no error or delusion exists in the lord of Yadus definitely. In such conditions, it is impossible to consider King Dandi as wholly free from fault.”

Maha-intelligent Vrikodar said, “Dharmaraj! Well, I accept that by acting against Vaasudev the Avanti king has also acted against us, for between Vaasudev and Paandavs there is no distinction. But it should also be considered that when Dandi took refuge with us he also took refuge with Vaasudev. To forgive the offender is the true expiation of his sin. Should he again come to seek shelter, he is fit to be forgiven a hundred times. This is the quality of the best of men like Shri Krishna and his view too. To tell you that is unnecessary. Considering everything from the beginning to the end in this manner, I have granted Dandi refuge.”

Dharmaraj said, “Brother, you have done well. But consider whether before granting refuge to Dandi was it not proper to seek his opinion in person or by sending someone to Shri Krishna when he is capable of comprehending everything about us? At least we should have been consulted. One should act thinking through the consequences. You are intelligent, wise, aware of policy and know the shastras. To say more to you is needless.”

In the meantime Shri Krishna and Rukmini’s son Kama-deva (Pradyumna) arrived as commanded by his father. He looked just as enchanting as his father, winning all hearts. Delighted, Kunti stood up and embraced Madan, shedding tears. Anxiously she enquired after the welfare of her sole relatives, specially Vaasudev. The Paandavs also enquired similarly after greeting him warmly. Responded appropriately, Rukmini’s son down.

Yudhishthir then said to him, “Despite being aware that between Vaasudev and us there is no distinction, Dandi the ruler of Avanti has taken refuge with us and blessed Subhadraa knowing everything has given him her word of protection. Although all this has occurred without our knowledge, it is duty to protect the refugee. Therefore, we have not stopped Vrikodar in this matter. Moreover, we know that even if we commit a thousand offences knowingly, Paandav-loving Bhagwan lord of Yaadavs will surely pardon us. Considering all this, we have decided to go to Dwarka in person to tell Shri Krishna. It is good that you have arrived at that very juncture. Now act as you consider proper.”

Rukmini’s son replied addressing Kunti, “Today I have not come as a close relative or friend. Today a great burden has been laid upon me which I did not wish to carry here, but I have had to. I have been unable to bring anything dear to you, as my mother did not agree, although father had given many things for each of you. I do not have permission to tarry even a moment. Hear the reason why. By acting illegally, Dandi, Avanti’s raja, has offended my father Vaasudev. Father is firmly pledged to punish him properly, which you are not unaware of. All of you have also agreed to this. Despite that the middle Paandav gave his word to protect the Avanti lord—is this proper policy, rightful, sanctioned by dharma or even logical? Be that as it may, if you wish so much to protect Dandi, then at least on the basis of intimate relations, at first even through a messenger this should somehow have been intimated to my father. Lord of Yaadavs Vaasudev would surely have forgiven Raja Avanti because of the sincere relationship, friendship and heartfelt love that exist with you even if you had violated its norms. To behave knowingly otherwise harms the friendship, that is not unknown to you. Be that as it may, all this is irrelevant now. My father Vaasudev’s core message is this: he has declared war against you, therefore get prepared for battle quickly. The moment I return to Dwarka the Yaadav army will attack you like a stormy sea undoubtedly. We have tried to plead with him in many ways, but in Vaasudev’s view breaking a pledge is maha-sin. Thus both sides are committed to honour their promises. There is no easy way out but war. Therefore, now do as you consider proper.”

Having said this, Rukmini’s son Kamadeva did not wait for a reply. He stood up at once and left the hall to return immediately to Dwarka as ordered by his father, not even waiting to take formal leave. Seeing him leave like a stranger, Kunti and the Paandavs became depressed like a lotus at the onset of winter, just as they had bloomed joyously at his sun-like arrival. None uttered a word for some time, unable to decide what should be done, staring at each other’s faces in dismay.

Unable to remain still, Paandav-mother Kunti rose and rushed after Madan who had anticipated that she would not stay still (since women act without thinking of consequences) and was walking away very slowly. So Kunti had no difficulty in stepping forward and lovingly catching hold of Rukmini’s son firmly with both her hands. How indescribable is the might of divine maya which encircles and binds all creation! None can escape it. As bhakti’s devoted slave, Krishna’s son Kama-deva honoured elders sincerely, full of bhakti for the Paandav-mother like a worshipped devi. Therefore he was unable to extricate himself from her embrace and could not advance even a step. Kunti’s tears drenched his breast. Then Kunti broke her silence and said, “Dear one, without telling me where are you going? Has Vaasudev told you to behave in this way without bhakti and affection? Or is that the advice of your cruel-hearted mother? No, that cannot be! Perhaps you are behaving thus overcome by childish, whimsical inclinations. However, you will not be able to leave now; I will not let go of you by any means. At this instant I am despatching my chief envoy to Vaasudev. You stay here! My messenger will tell Krishna that I myself have granted shelter to the Avanti ruler. Or, right now I will go myself with family to Dwarka and see with whom Vaasudev will fight. Should conflict arise finally, you will have to help us. Look, whenever any type of danger has occurred, Bhagwan Vaasudev at once helps us. It is he whom we call upon when fallen into danger and beg him alone to save us from calamity. Between him and you there is no difference. Therefore, in the danger besetting us it is you who will have to be our support. Besides you in this world there is no friend in danger we can turn to.”

Rukmini’s son Kama-deva replied to her politely in sweet speech, “Devi, your wish will bear fruit; your heart’s desire will be fulfilled I have no doubt. Vaasudev himself will be your support. That Shri Krishna is the support and friend of Paandavs is well-known in the three worlds, therefore why are you disturbed and anxious? People’s minds get distracted in danger—is your state also like that? Or are you putting me to a test? Devi, just as water never becomes fire and fire never turns into water, so God does never cause harm to anyone. Have you forgotten that? Has it ever been seen or heard that Vaasudev has anywhere caused harm of any type to anyone? Even if he causes harm it is transformed into a great favour. Whatever he does is for welfare. Those who arefortunately able to become aware of the true form of God Krishna, it is they who are capable of comprehending all this. What more shall I say? Attend to what I say in brief.

“Mother Rukmini-devi had said to my father that everyone in the three worlds believed that he would even destroy himself but never go against the Paandavs. Paandav-destruction was absolutely impossible for him. Therefore he must reveal to her what his intentions were behind declaring war against them, for the consequences of all his acts were always for welfare. If he did not do so, she would not permit Kama-deva to go to the Paandavs. Smiling, father Vaasudev told my mother that he could never keep anything secret from her for she was his second heart. She had correctly surmised that whatever he did was for the good of people. The battle he had announced was for bringing about the future welfare of the Paandavs. He said, ‘For accomplishing a task there were two ways: one by force; the other by strategy. Of these the second path is superior and adopted by the intelligent, whereas the first is beastly and the way of beasts of prey. In future the Paandavs would have to accomplish many grave tasks like killing terrible foes and seizing kingdoms. By displaying one’s own prowess in public, enemies can be overawed and the desired goal attained. With the mare as excuse, joining with the devas I will of my own accord be defeated by the Paandavs in battle. Thereby the Paandav’s unique worldwide glory will be established. Their enemies will not be capable of rising up against them suddenly. Many foes will accept their overlordship out of fear, without battle. Just hearing the name of the rakshasa Dashaanan many would accept his mastery on their own. It is not necessary to strike with the vajra; merely on hearing its crack people in the three worlds shudder. O auspicious lady! For accomplishing the task I have adopted such a strategy and it is for this reason that I have declared war. Do not worry!’

“When father stopped speaking, my mother’s delight was boundless. She loves and honours you even more than me. Her affection and bhakti are genuine, sincere. Therefore, be assured. Your sons will be world-conquerors undoubtedly. Vaasudev is God himself, as you know. So remember that God never causes misfortune.”

Reassuring Kunti thus, Krishna’s son Madan then left. Kunti was unable to stop him. Pursuing him as best as she could, finally she stood at one place, waiting till Rukmini’s son vanished out of sight, gazing fixedly like a statue, as if seeing him even when he was beyond sight. Such was her love for Vaasudev and his kith and kin. Later, distracted, like one mad and helpless, she approached the royal road and then came to her senses. Then slowly she turned towards her residence and gradually, like rain-laden clouds, walked musing, “Madan’s words are true indeed. God never does what is bad; whatever he does is for good.”

The lord of Yadus having appointed his son Madan for the aforesaid task as messenger immediately proclaimed hostilities. On receiving his orders the three-worlds-conquering Narayani Army left for battle at once. Shaamba, Aniruddha, Gada, Shaaran, Saatyaki, Haardikya, Akrur and other Yadu warriors are renowned maha-heroes on earth of unrivalled might. Each left with his troops equipped for battle. The earth filled with horses, elephants, chariots and infantry. The sky was filled with pennants, banners, crowns, plumes and the quarters resounded with neighing, trumpeting, roars, shouts and the clattering of chariots. All apprehended that untimely dissolution was impending.

On Mount Kailas deva-of-devas Pike-wielder Shiva could not remain still any more. That deva-of-devas Vaasudev, upon whose feet he meditated in his heart day and night, he had commanded. Therefore, he too arrived to fight against the Paandavs. His hand held the three-worlds-shattering great pike, accompanied by innumerable spirits, ghosts and demi-gods. Their appearance was very terrifying, highly virulent by nature. Some had faces of horses, elephants, tigers, lions, cows, deer, leopards, with one mouth, many mouths, one foot, two feet, three feet, four feet and more. Some were cripples, some dwarfs, some sick, some lame, some naked, some pot-bellied, some with sunken bellies.

Thereafter lotus-born Brahma with prayer-beads and Shachi’s husband the lord of devas with Jayanta, the clouds Samvartta, Aavartta etc. with their mighty, huge attendants arrived there. Lord of waters Varuna with thousands of rivers, lakes and seas arrived. Powerful, heroic lord of Yakshas Kuber arrived with variously dressed, triple-headed hordes of Yakshas. Dharmaraj Yama himself on his buffalo mount with Mrityu-Death, Kaal-Time and other followers came. With him were two chief warriors, terrible Jvar-fever and Maha-Jvar along with the general of all, Maha-Mrityu. Rakshasa raja Vibhishan and leader of apes Hanuman also arrived at the city of Yadus surrounded by innumerable troops. Whichever maha-warrior there was in the three worlds, everyone arrived in the city of Dwarka the moment they received the command of Krishna the lord of Dwarka to fight with the Paandavs.

Seeing the assembled warriors, the heart of Krishna the supreme strategist brimmed over with happiness. He thought to himself, “Today the supremacy and total victory of my most beloved Paandavs will be established in the three worlds, for today all the heroes of the three-worlds will be defeated by them.” Musing thus he arrived for battle near the place where the Paandavs were, the quarters and the sky echoing with the dreadful tumult of the troops. Without wasting an instant he messaged the Paandavs, “I have arrived with troops. Either hand Dandi over, or prepare for war. Other than these alternatives, I see no way for your welfare.”

Kama-deva while leaving had prohibited Kunti from revealing to others the secret he had conveyed to her. Therefore, without saying anything to her sons Kunti entered her chamber. Dharma’s son Yudhishthir, knowing that battle was inevitable, addressing his maha-heroic four brothers said, “What should be done now?” Kiriti (Arjun) said, “Nothing is to be done. Vaasudev will act.” Vrikodar said, “It is battle that is definitely duty. Where dharma is, victory is —if this be true then the always-devoted-to-dharma Paandavs will definitely be victorious. This I believe without any doubt. My mind is made up to fight.” Nakul and Sahadev said nothing, remaining silent. Again Yudhishthir said to Bheemsen, “Brother Bheem, you have no allies, no wealth, no troops and no general too. How will you fight? Particularly, battling Krishna on whose side are all the devas and heroes of the three worlds! Even if they were not, there is no loss, for by himself he is the devas and heroes of the three worlds. It is not as if you do not know that.”

Laughing, Vrikodar said, “I do not expect any other ally or wealth. With dharma alone as ally and wealth I will fight alone.” Then Dhananjay said politely, “If war is the settled decision then in my opinion Duryodhan’s help should be sought.” Noble Nakul opposing these unwelcome words of Arjun said, “That can never be. He is our constant foe. Suicide is preferable to praying for help from him.” Then Sahadev said, “The person who can fight with Shri Krishna, it is not impossible for him to take Duryodhan’s help. That type of person is also capable of suicide. In brief, I do not like any of your ideas. I will not fight, will not be on any side. I will only sit beside mother Kunti.”

As the brothers argued thus Yudhishthir said, “At this time disputing is not proper. Calm down! Let me ask mother. Whatever she permits we will do.” Saying this, Yudhishthir went to the mother and reporting everything said, “Mother, those who have found so wise a mother as you and as their supreme well-wisher, what worry can they have? Now you decide what we should do.”

Kunti said, “Just as agnates should be regarded as born foes, so too sometimes they should be considered as the best friends. Therefore, send an envoy to Duryodhan asking for his help. In danger even poison is amrita, and again amrita can become poison.”

Dharmaraj Yudhishthir heeding the mother’s advice and command immediately sent an envoy to Duryodhan. Hearing the entire matter from the envoy Dhritarashtra’s son asked the advice of Beeshm and others in the court. First wicked and cunning Shakuni said, “Fortunately the right time has come. Opposing Krishna the Paandavs will have to perish. Therefore, joining Krishna’s side you should destroy the enemy. What is more delightful and lucky than the enemy being destroyed by the hand of another?”

Hearing this rage flooded Vidur’s heart. Angrily he said, “Though washed a hundred times the blackness of coal is not removed. A snake can never disgorge nectar, only venom. You too are the same. Habitually you are wicked and you have spoken as is your nature. Your advice is not at all just or logical. The Paandavs are brothers and agnates. To take their side in danger is duty by all means, specially in such circumstances. If you do not help, that is your matter. But we have to tender proper and just advice. That is why I am saying this: it is protecting the refugee that is the dharma of Kshatriyas.”

Vidur’s words touched Duryodhan’s heart. He felt that helping the Paandavs was the best option and, ordering the troops to prepare, he himself made ready with Beeshm and other Kuru heroes. Soon Duryodhan set out for battle with a four-fold army. The ten directions echoed with the sound of drums, resounding with the trumpeting of elephant columns, the neighing of cavalry and the shouts of troops. His tributary chiefs also rushed to join him. The Paandavs too got ready for battle and left to face the Yaadav army. Hidimba’s son the maha-hero Ghatotcach began to accompany them like a mobile mountain. It seemed as if five lions were exiting a mountain cave with their only cub; or that Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Ganesh and Surya the five gods had descended upon earth from heaven with mighty Karttikeya.

Kurukshetra, sacred in the three worlds, was designated as the field of battle. Soon armies of both sides arrived at that holy place, terrifying the world with their tumult, the ten directions flashing with the reflections from their weapons, the earth shuddering from the weight of their steps, the quarters filled with the sound of their shouts. That gods, demons, gandharvas and others would fight with men, such an unprecedented, unheard of event none had ever dreamt or thought of even by mistake. Therefore, with all the heroes of the three worlds being gathered there a novel, marvellous scene was observed on the field of Kurukshetra.

As the armed troops awaited the command, the Kuru patriarch Beeshm decided to despatch a messenger to Vaasudev as propriety and bounden duty demanded. When everyone approved of that, maha-minded Vidur himself presented himself before Krishna as envoy of the Paandavs. Greeted by Krishna as proper, Vidur took a seat having saluted him and said, “Bhagwan, your sport is wondrously various and baffling to people in general. Why you do anything at anytime is known to you alone and none else. Therefore, how will I make out what the result will be of this Yaadav-Paandav war? Be that as it may, to ordinary people of low intelligence like us this war does not seem to be just, appropriate and logical. Those who are always followers, seeking shelter and obedient, those very Paandavs you are embarking against. To see, hear and speak of it is disgusting. Therefore, to refrain from this war appears to be the best in every way.”

Then laughing Krishna said, “O maha-minded! It will be even as you have said. Do you not know I always favour my followers, am defeated by my bhaktas and controlled by them? Therefore, fear not! Today too I will be defeated by the Paandavs. Go quickly and proclaim hostilities!”

As Krishna was speaking thus with Vidur, Devi Kunti arrived there. Seeing her, Krishna arose and the Paandav mother lovingly grasped him by the hand. Comprehending her intention, Vaasudev said addressing her, “Devi, grant blessings that today the Paandavs gain the glory of victory and I with my army be defeated by them. Perhaps from Pradyumna you have become aware of my intention. Therefore, depart free from fear, being assured.”

Kunti said, “Child, women by nature are fickle. Even having seen and heard, because of that fickleness I am confused, anxious and distressed. What more can I say when terrible dangers can be overcome by singing and remembering your name! Specially, you are well-wisher of the Paandavs, never think or do their ill. Therefore, whatever you think is proper and good, do that.”

Saying this, in great distress Kunti left there with Vidur. Vidur having escorted her to her place went to the battlefield and conveying Vaasudev’s intentions to Beeshm and others said, “You all prepare for war. Vaasudev does not wish to make a treaty.”

As Vidur spoke thus, from the Yaadav side tumultuous roars filled all sides splitting mountain caves and the sounds of drums beaten loudly echoed. That terrible sound terrified cowards and inspired the brave, distressing peaceful well-wishers. Battle-mad elephants and horses shitting and pissing reared up trumpeting and neighing. Then momentarily the battlefield shook and echoed, the sea became tumultuous, hills moved with landslides and the sky seemed to expand.

Krishna’s son Kama understanding that this was the right time, released the unique mesmerising missile from his bow to see the fun. Instantly, all on the battlefield were stunned; eyelids drooping, bewildered. Beeshm, Dron and other heroes all were at a loss, deprived of movement, standing still at one spot like statues. No one could comprehend the reason for such a sudden mishap.

Thereafter, omniscient Shri Krishna having permitted his son to withdraw the mesmerising missile, Pradyumna did so at once. Then the opponents being able to understand waxed wild with rage and all engaged in battle together. Both sides, mortal and immortal, were equal in weaponry and vigour. First, deva-of-devas the Pike-wielder himself engaged in battle with Beeshm. Seeing lord of spirits Mahadeva fighting, his attendant hordes of varied appearances leapt into war full of pride and rage. Jahnu’s daughter Ganga, from within Mahadeva’s matted locks, with her pure glances snatched the strength of the spirit-hordes and bolstered the power of the Kuru troops to encourage her son Beeshm’s enthusiasm. Seeing that, Bhagwan Maheshvar glancing at his followers excited their energy so that they madly engaged in destroying the Kuru troops. Then the Kuru soldiers, distressed by their attacks, began to flee in all directions. Yadu-lord Shri Krishna seeing the warriors on the Paandav side bewildered and fleeing, immediately held back his own battling warriors. Then, troubled by sun-like Beeshm’s blazing onslaught, the triple-eyed conqueror of worlds grasped his terrible world-annihilating great pike.

Simultaneously, terrific duels took place between mighty Bheem and Baladev, Karn and Kama, Arjun and Skanda, Dron and Shri Krishna, Duryodhan and Indra, Shishupal and Shaamba, Dantavakra and Satyavaan and Kama’s son Aniruddha with Jaraasandh and Ghatotkach.

The deva army with great energy and battle-ferocity, in great rage with great force began to decimate the Kuru army using celestial weapons. Thick clouds of dust raised by arrows, dense darkness and blinding rays of light appearing seemed to be ending the world. The sea and the earth shook repeatedly, echoing with the roars of warriors of both sides. The clash of arrow with arrow, sword with sword, club with club, spear with spear kept growing more and more fierce. The deva army teeming with elephants, horses and chariots tinkling with thousands of bells, mighty like blue clouds, engaged in terrible battle with the armed Kuru troops. The Paandav soldiers almost mad with anger began to trouble the deva troops showering them with pikes, swords, spears, javelins and arrows with golden fletches. Yaadav soldiers began to be slain on elephant-and-horse-back and fell terrified. Soon the battlefield became filled with splintered chariots, sundered elephants, horses and warriors’ limbs.

As a fish delighted on finding fresh water leaps into its depths, so maha-hero Arjun entered into the ocean of deva troops to fight Karttikeya. He mused, “The devas entered the battlefield with troops to assist Vaasudev and are immortal. Therefore, by weapons I will return them to the place they have come from.” Thinking thus, the leonine hero Parth shot the wind-missile. Like robbers that are bound hand-and-foot by the State, the greatest hero of the three worlds Karttikeya too, being placed in his own abode by Arjun’s wind-missile, was surprised, startled and stunned. Great Skanda was so overcome with shame and dispirited that he became incapable of entering the battlefield again.

Elsewhere, seeing the battle-skill of Dronacharya, Karn, Vrikodar, Shishupal, Dantavakra, Jaraasandh and mountainous Ghatotkach there was no end to the amazement of Kamadeva, the lord of devas Indra, Shaamba, Satyavaan, Aniruddha and other heroes on the Yaadav side. None could make out when the Paandav maha-heroes strung arrows on bows, released them or drew arrows from quivers They could only see opponents falling on the battlefield, crushed, decimated.

When the dispirited Yaadav army and many heroes began to flee, then the lord of waters Varuna-deva enraged entered the war surrounded by all rivers, lakes, ponds and wells. By his mighty current, the battlefield was flooded and elephants, chariots with riders and drivers, soldiers floated helplessly. By Vaasudev’s maya soon that too was ended. A little later, the lord of waters too retreated being defeated by the Paandavs.

By Vaasudev’s maya, bewildered by his discus and the variety of his sport, almost blinded, senseless, the deva and Yaadav armies, like spellbound pythons or thunder-struck trees or entranced creatures, fell motionless, bereft of strength and spirit. Therefore, the Paandavs won victory and the Yaadav side was defeated. What is more, Bhagwan Vaasudev was defeated by Dronacharya, the deva-of-devas by Kuru-lord Bheeshm, the lord of devas Indra by Duryodhan, Varuna-deva by Nakul, Yama by Kripacharya, Vayu-the-Wind by Yudhishthir, Kama by Karn, Baladev by Bheem, Shaamba by Shishupal, Satyavaan by Dantavakra, Aniruddha by Jaraasandh, the general of devas, six-headed Karttikeya, by Dhananjay and Saatyaki by Sahadev. Similarly, other heroes on the Yaadav side were also defeated by the great heroes on the Paandav side.

What can be more shameful, disgusting, laughable and regrettable than the celestial host being defeated by humans! Thinking thus, the devas’ hearts filled with rage, hatred, jealousy and outrage all together. Like ghee-fed fire, spurned serpents and storm-tossed seas, with redoubled enthusiasm they appeared again for war. Grandsire Brahma and the lord of death Yama had been defeated by Shaalva and the Paandav Yudhishthir. Both of them again with redoubled spirit, prowess and enthusiasm rushed into battle. Again the devas by beat of drum announced war. The maha-hero, Parvati’s son youthful Kumar again with full force and enthusiasm entered the battlefield with his troops. This time the devas, determined to destroy the foe, took up their special weapons. Brahma’s rosary, Vishnu’s discus, the Pike-wielder’s pike, Karttikeya’s dart, Varuna’s noose, Indra’s vajra and the lord of death Yamaraj’s deadly staff, these seven thunderbolts assembled. By the energy and the terrible sound of these seven vajras heaven and hell were filled, the earth shook and the three worlds were terrified.

Meanwhile, as a lake is not beauteous without lotuses, the sky is dull without the moon and the serpent plain without its gem, so was the state of the city of the immortals without Urvashi for so very long. That what is Svarga’s should return there and Svarga’s beauty reside in Svarga, this was the innermost desire of the devas, devis and specially of the raja of the devas. So that this wish could be fulfilled without delay the deva-host was constantly worried, striving to accomplish that and determined to find out the means for that. Mare-turned Urvashi too unable to bear the torture of the mortal world was constantly meditating upon Devi Bhagavati’s lotus feet hoping for salvation. Cursed by the rishi, when Urvashi had tearfully pleaded with the maha-ascetic Durvasa, he had said, “In time, upon earth the moment the eight vajras assemble your curse will be lifted.” Now seeing that seven vajras had assembled, lovely Urvashi concentratedly began to dhyana of Devi Bhagavati and paean her.

As the miser is the slave of wealth, the greedy of food and the voluptuary of desire, so devas are overcome by bhakti. Devi Maheshvari always regarded Urvashi with affection. Seeing that without Urvashi the world of apsaras had become bereft of splendour, dull and sorrowful like Lakshmi-less Vaikuntha, Gayatri-less Brahman homes and dancing halls without lights, her heart was already pained with regret and she was thinking how to free her from the curse and fetch her to the celestials’ abode. In the meantime, the paeaning of the best-of-apsaras Urvashi agitated her heart even more. She also heard from her attendant Vijayaa about the defeat of the deva-host. Then unable to stay still any more, realising that this was the proper moment to accomplish the task, Devi Haimavati—creation-preservation-destruction-doer, demon-destroyer, sin-remover—immediately appeared on that dreadful battlefield to fulfil Bhagwan Vaasudev’s aim and remove Urvashi’s curse.

Descending on the battlefield in the form of the war-goddess Chandikaa, stunning and bewildering the ten directions with resounding loud laughter, she stood amidst the deva-host. Seeing her appear in the battlefield, the heart of Urvashi-turned-mare danced with delight. The seven devas mentioned above hoping to gain victory, pranam-ing at the Devi’s feet, flourishing their seven vajras stood for destroying the Paandavs.

Then the dissipator of all maya, the severer of bonds of being, the presiding deity of maya Mahamaya shaking the three worlds with her roars, raised her own sword. Upon all the eight vajras appearing simultaneously before her eyes, the curse laid upon Urvashi by the rishi was removed. Abandoning the mare’s form, assuming her own self she fell at Devi Bhagavati’s feet and with palms joined together submitted, “Mother! Restrain your rage! Having brought creation into being, it is not proper to destroy it. If along with these seven weapons of the devas your infallible sword is let loose then, let alone the Paandav army, the three worlds will sink into oblivion forever. Therefore, be pleased and withdraw this terrible form! By your grace, after so long I have achieved liberation from the rishi’s curse.”

Saying this, lovely Urvashi pranam-ing the Devi again, rose into the firmament. From the sky flowers rained down in abundance covering the battlefield. Joyous beat of drums sounded delighting the ears of all. The Devi, too, pleased, vanished from there at once.

While leaving, Urvashi addressing Raja Dandi said, “Maharaj, do not be deluded by the world’s vain maya. Thinking the evanescent world to be eternal, thinking the delight of luxury is the essence of the world, erroneously overcome by delusion being confused by maya, you have suffered so much pain, suffering and humiliation for so long. Now everything is clear. Wherever there are possessions there is danger, where there is birth there is death and where there is union there is separation. Realising this, by the yoga of knowledge, intelligence and discrimination steady the atman. Instead of feeling worry, grief or sorrow for me, fix your consciousness on the feet of the God of all, the atman of all, Shri Hari. Only then will you be happy in endless joy and attain refuge in the all-sins-removing lap of that Lord.” Saying this, when Urvashi departed the Avanti raja remained with head bowed for a time like one entranced, bewildered, startled and stunned. Controlling the mind’s movement by the power of intelligence, discrimination and knowledge, he became firm.

Seeing such an unprecedented, unthinkable and unexpected event the devas, Paandavs and Yaadavs were amazed beyond all bounds. By the grace of Bhagwan Vaasudev and his maya the war was halted. By the Yaadav-lord Krishna’s infinite maya the Paandavs won victory. The three worlds echoed with their majesty, glory and prowess. Thereafter, greeting each another pleasantly, both parties returned to their own places with their attendants.

Shuka informed Parikshit that he was actually the principal courtier of the celestial court, a Gandharva named Vidyaadhar. Like Urvashi, he was an incomparable gem of the court of the immortals. In his absence Indra the lord of devas was dull and dispirited like the dimmed moon. The time for the end of his curse had approached. Resorting to yoga he ought to abandon this temporary mortal frame and proceed to Svarga soon, particularly as destructive, sinful, invincible Kali Yuga was spreading over the world. Yet, he said, Veda Vyas had declared that while practising dharma through ascesis, abstinence or prayers bears fruit in ten years in the Satya Yuga, in one year in the Treta Yuga and in one month in the Dvapara Yuga it fructifies in just one day-and-night in the Kali Yuga. Therefore, the Kali Yuga is the best. The benefit that accrues in the Satya Yuga by taking considerable pains through dhyana, by diverse yajnas in the Treta and through varied pujas in the Dvapara is achieved in the Kali Yuga merely by chanting the name of Hari and donating without desire, visiting tirthas or even listening to their glory.

Having said this, Shukadeva left Parikshit. On the seventh day Parikshit died after being bitten by Takshaka naga and his soul flashed into the heavens. At that time Janamejay was but a child. The counsellors and the subjects installed him as raja so that the kingdom was not left ruler-less. In due course, marrying the Kashi king Suvarnavarmaa’s daughter Vapushtamaa, Raja Janamejay ruled happily.

Having narrated all this, Lomaharshana’s son Sauti took leave, offering pranam to Shaunak and the other ascetics and, meditating on Hari, left on pilgrimage to tirthas.

***

Conclusion

In his play Girish Ghosh made Bheem the main character and placed the incident at the time when the Paandavs and Duryodhan were assembling their armies for the war. It is Saatyaki who informs Krishna, much to his astonishment and rage (he is not omniscient as in the Dandi Parva), that a spy has found that in the kingdom of Matsya Yudhishthir has granted refuge to Dandi. Instead of Pradyumna it is Saatyaki who is sent to Yudhishthir as Krishna’s envoy. Bheem visits Krishna in Dwarka and begs for death at his hands in a duel, sparing his four brothers. On Krishna’s refusal, Bheem calls him “Great trickster, great cheat, extremely cunning (ati chhal, ati khal, ateeva kutil)” (Act 3, scene 5), a dialogue that became extremely popular among the public. Following advice sent secretly by Krishna, Subhadraa goes at night to a shrine of the Goddess in a dense wood where she obtains her blessing that Dandi will regain his kingdom. Arjun meets Urvashi and assures her of salvation. Seeing them together, the jealous Dandi surrenders to Krishna in Dwarka but is refused as he has not brought the mare. Balaram also joins the battle and is defeated by Bheem. Beeshm defeats Shiva, Karn defeats Indra, Yudhishthir defeats Brahma. Krishna despatches Saatyaki to advise Mahadeva to take up the trident, Brahma the water-pot, Indra the vajra, Varuna the noose, Skanda the spear, Yama his rod, while he himself takes up the discus. As they wield their weapons, Kali (Ghosh calls her Krishna’s mother Katyayani) manifests with raised sword and her yoginis. The curse is lifted with paeans to Kali. By Krishna’s grace all those killed are resurrected.

There is a Telegu myth, whose origins are not clear, about Arjun fighting Krishna which was made into a film in Telegu, Kannada and Tamil, entitled “Krishnarjuna Yuddhamu” in 1963. Here, Arjuna had boasted to Narada that none can make him fight Krishna. Gaya or Chitrasen is the Gandharva king who, is blessed by Brahma with eternal fame. While returning to his kingdom in his aircraft, he spits betel-juice. This falls into the hands of Krishna (or of rishi Gaalav) as he is offering prayers to Surya, the sun god. Infuriated, Krishna swears to kill him (or Gaalav orders Krishna to do so). Terrified, Gaya flees and is advised by Narad to seek refuge with Arjun via Subhadraa who, without ascertaining facts, grants him protection. She then persuades Arjun to protect him so that her promise is honoured. So, Arjuna wages battle with Krishna. To save the earth from dissolution, Shiva appears and stops the duel. Krishna/rishi Gaalav pardons Gaya. This tale parallels the Rama-Hanuman duel over a similar incident that was also made into films in Hindi (1957), Telegu (1975) etc. However, the Dandi Parva is unique in its focus on the eight vajras having to be flourished together for the liberation of Urvashi from her cursed state as a mare.

WHY THE HARIVAMSHA?

By

Dvaraka c. 1585 from the Razmnama

In Parvasamgraha (I.2.378), the Mahabharata (MB)’s list of contents, Harivamsha (HV) is called its khila of 12000 slokas, consisting of two parts:-

“The Harivamsha and Bhavishya sections form the epilogue.

In the Harivamsha the maha-rishi composed twelve thousand slokas.”[1]

Khila does not mean “appendix” i.e. superfluous, hence discardable, as most Western scholars render it. Rather, it is a complement or supplement essential for realising the significance of the main work, as we shall see.

Although Razmnama, the Persian translation of MB commissioned by Akbar supposedly includes HV, this portion has never been studied to verify its contents vis-a-vis the Sanskrit original, which would have helped determine the state of the text in the 1590s. However, when Kaliprasanna Singha produced the first translation of MB in Bengali (1858-66), he omitted this supplement, commenting that its language was distinctly later. The first English translation by K.M. Ganguli (1883-96) also did not include it. V.S. Sukthankar did not propose to include HV in the Critical Edition (CE) of MB, but later it was edited by P.L. Vaidya and published by the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) in 1969. The Chicago University MB translation project omits HV although the earliest known list of its parvas (the Spitzer manuscript c. 130-200 CE) includes the khilas. Since Ashvaghosha quotes some verses from the MB that are found only in HV, the text—at least the Harivamsha Parva—is dated to c. 1st century CE. Andre Couture in his Krishna in the Harivamsha (vol. 1)[2] places it in the Kushan era (1st to 3rd century CE).

Translations

A complete Malayalam translation in verse of HV was done by Kodungallur Kunhikkuttan Tampuran over a period of 3 years (1894-1897) and was published in 1906. Manmatha Nath Dutt was the first to translate HV into English (1897) which, unlike the vulgate in three books, contains two parts: Harivamsha Parva (incorporating Vishnu Parva) and Bhavishya Parva. This work, long out of print, contains many errors, such as locating Dvaraka “in the country of Kanyakubja or Kanouj” (chapter 35, fn.68). Only in 2008 was a sloka-by-sloka English translation by Dr. K.P.A. Menon IAS (Sanskritist and retired Defence Secretary of India) published by Nag Publications, New Delhi. It is not clear which text he used as there are numerous omissions and the CE is followed haphazardly. Editing and proofing are absent. It is riddled with gross typographical errors and textual hiatuses, the translator having passed away well before the publication. The Menon translation is unique for rhythmically rendering into English each half-verse of every sloka with the caesura in-between. One wishes this arrangement had been followed in other translations instead of resorting to pedestrian prose. Harindranath and Purushothaman’s translation of the vulgate is available online.[3]

Simon Brodbeck translated the CE of HV in 2019[4] in prose with a brief Introduction and an elaborate genealogical appendix which is extremely helpful in clarifying relationships. His lengthy paper on the details of the translation, which would have served as an excellent Introduction, has been published separately.[5] Occasionally, Brodbeck successfully attempts a rendering in free verse, e.g.  Section 30, verses 19-20 and 110.73:-

            Fever flew through the air decked in wonderful gold,

            but the lord of the world, in battle in bodily form,

            used the bracelet on his arm to crush him in the heat of battle

            and send him towards Yama’s domain.

While maintaining the division into three books, the CE is only a third the length of the vulgate (118 chapterscontaining 6073 slokasagainst 318 chaptersand around 16,000 slokas). For instance, where the CE’s Bhavishya Parva is just 5 chapters, the vulgate runs to 135! Andre Couture,[6] A. Purushothaman and A. Harindranath[7] have strongly criticised the extensive excisions e.g. Jarasandha’s battle at Gomanta mountain with Krishna and Balarama, the elaborate account of the robbing of the Parijata tree, Pradyumna’s protracted battle with Shambara and his troops, how Dhanvantari came to propagate Ayurveda as king of Kashi in the second Dvapara Yuga and acquired godhood, which was denied him when he appeared at the churning of the ocean with the name Avja. It also omits the fascinating story of how Shiva by fraud got Raja Divodasa and his subjects to vacate Varanasi so that he and Parvati could live there away from the incessant criticisms of his mother-in-law Mena. Later, Varanasi is said to be depopulated by the rakshasa Kshemaka and re-established by Alarka by the grace of Lopamudra.

A very significant excision is Vishnu’s invocation of the goddess Arya Vindhyavasini although it occurs in all versions of the HV, except just three in Malayalam script, and is present in both the Sharada and Newari texts which Vaidya relies upon the most. This violates the very principles upon which the CE is based. The hymn is definitely pre-695 CE when it features in a Chinese translation of the Suvanabhassottama Sutra. This devi, under the names Nidra and Ekanamsha, plays a critical role in Krishna’s birth. Vishnu provides a lengthy description of the goddess of sleep to be born to Yashoda (47.39-45) named Kaushiki (her other name is Ekanamsha). She will be installed in the Vindhyas to destroy the demons Shumbha and Nishumbha, be worshipped with pitchers of wine and flesh and decorated with peacock plumes. Flying to the sky when smashed against a rock by Kamsa, like Durga she drinks and laughs loudly, foretelling that she will tear open his body and drink his blood. Kamsa’s verses in response (48.41) are memorable:

“It is Time that is people’s enemy; it is Time that rings the changes.

It is Time that carries away all. People like me are mere causal agents.”[8]

Criticising Vaidya, editor of the CE, who finds the story of the Syamantaka gem peculiar, Andre Couture has shown that every element of it constitutes a carefully constructed narrative depicting the supreme sovereignty of Krishna. Indeed, he is the Yajna-Purusha, the lord of sacrifice (Agni and Soma), of the sun and the moon and through them of the two major royal lineages. It is as the Yajna-Purusha that he overcomes the three Vedic fires that confront him in the battle with Bana, an incident that makes no sense otherwise. Moreover, Yaska’s Nirukta refers to Syamantaka, thus showing its antiquity. Its appearance coincides with the founding of Dvaraka and it has a solar as well as an oceanic (i.e. lunar) origin. Krishna’s possession of it indicates his mastery of both these yajnic principles. Indeed, Janamejaya states that Vishnu contains both. Further, the Krishna-Jambavan duel inside a cave with Balarama posted outside is a clear parallel of the Vali-Mayavi duel with Sugriva standing guard in the Ramayana and should not be omitted.

Structure of the Text

HV begins with the rishi Shaunaka telling the wandering rhapsode Ugrasravas Sauti that he has forgotten to recount the history of the Vrishni and Andhaka clans. Despite Krishna being the key figure in MB, it is silent about his life before his first appearance in Draupadi’s bridegroom-choice ceremony and does not provide details about his lineage and family. Moreover, Janamejaya, the befitting audience for narration of MB as the great grandson of Krishna’s sister Subhadra, justifiably asks Vaishampayana about his ancestral maternal uncle’s life and clan. At Janamejaya’s prompting, Vaishampayana also narrates the deeds of Krishna’s elder step-brother Sankarshana/Baladeva. Sauti states that having heard the HV, Janamejaya was freed of sins.

There is a distinct difference in the narrative structure between MB and HV. The outermost framework of Sauti narrating to Shaunaka and his followers is intact but, unlike in MB, Vyasa does not feature by way of bidding his disciple to recount it. There is also a change in the structure from chapter 101 to 104 where Vaishampayana quotes Arjuna who, at Bhishma’s behest from his bed of arrows, recounts Krishna’s greatness to Yudhishthira. In the tale of the rescue of a Brahmin’s sons the roles of Krishna and Arjuna are reversed: Arjuna becomes Krishna’s charioteer, driving through the northern sea-bed, the waters parting as with Moses leading the Exodus. At the end of this, Krishna proclaims to Arjuna that he is all creation and destruction, echoing the cosmic manifestation in the Gita. Thereafter, responding to Janamejaya’s request, Vaishampayana provides a brief list of Krishna’s deeds, viz. killing Vichakra, Naraka, Dantavaktra, Hayagriva, Kalayavana, robbing Indra of the Parijata tree, defeating Varuna, Bana, Shalva, Mainda, Dvivida and Jambavat, restoring to Sandipani his dead son, lifting the curse from Nriga, freeing kings imprisoned by Jarasandha, burning down Khandava, presenting Arjuna the Gandiva, consoling the exiled Pandavas, promising Kunti that he would protect them in the war, becoming their envoy too, and destroying all kings in his supernatural form. It is significant that Vishnu Parva is named Ashcharya Parva, the Book of Marvel, at 113.82 (p. 347). It reminds us of Hiltebeitel’s rhetorical query that does not the marvellous and the sense of wonder apply to the entire MB “better than heroism, or a peacefulness resigned to disillusionment?”[9] At the end his recital of the Vishnu Parva, Vaishampayana tells Janamejaya (113.81) that the rite has been completed, referring to the snake-sacrifice. The same completion is stated in the last book of MB. Thus, HV is, in Brodbeck’s words, “as it were a flashback, which here catches up with itself. The rite is simultaneously the rite of reciting the tale (fn.p. 347).” Vishnu Parva ends with the bard Suta telling sage Shaunaka that he has recounted the HV as Janamejaya heard from Vaishampayana.

Significant Data

HV supplies some chronological data connecting with MB events. Omitting the popular tale of Satrajit obtaining the sun-like Syamantaka gem, the CE has his brother Prasena obtain it from the sea. Krishna visits Varanavata after the supposed death of the Pandavas and Kunti in the House-of-Lac conflagration. That is where Satyabhama rushes to complain that Shatadhanva has murdered her father Satrajit and stolen the gem. Krishna hastens to Dvaraka and with Balarama chases Shatadhanva. Balarama suspects Krishna of taking the gem after he has killed Shatadhanva near Mithila. Disgusted, he leaves Dvaraka for Mithila where Duryodhana arrives for training in mace-battle. Sixty years later Krishna succeeds in persuading Akrura (to whom Shatadhanva had given the gem) to give up the jewel in public. This timeline needs to be collated with the MB. Some geological data is also found in HV: Balarama dragged the Yamuna to make it flow through Vrindavana; Hastinapura leans towards the Ganga since he dragged its rampart with his plough when Duryodhana refused to release Krishna’s son Samba.

Harivamsha and Mahabharata

HV takes care not to repeat MB. It leaves out the Pandava-Dhartarashtra conflict, the massacre of the Yadavas and the submerging of Dvaraka. HV’s goal is to establish and propagate Krishna’s avatarhood, reaching its acme in portraying him in the battle with Banasura with eight arms and a thousand heads, complemented by Balarama with a thousand bodies. That is a battle unique of Shiva and Skanda fighting Krishna, Balarama and Pradyumna which makes for fascinating reading (chapter 112). Here the CE is very erratic in excising verses about the goddess Kotavi who manifests to block Krishna from Skanda at 112.49, following which there is an abrupt hiatus. Then, as if this has not occurred, at 112.97 she stands naked between Krishna and Bana. The vulgate makes far better sense: she appears naked to protect Skanda, whereupon Krishna indignantly shoos her away and she vanishes with Skanda. Later, Shiva and Uma send her again to protect Bana from Krishna’s discus. Krishna shuts his eyes so as not to gaze upon her nudity and severs Bana’s thousand arms. Bleeding from his severed thousand arms, Bana dances for Shiva who makes him immortal, whole and grants him his desired name “Mahakala” (Great-Ender) among the pramatha hordes. Shiva also grants that devotees who dance thus, dripping blood, will be blessed with sons. That might be the origin-myth of the folk festival of “charak” towards the end of the the month of Chaitra in which devotees whirl around a pole suspended by hooks through their backs and pierce their tongues etc.

In Krishna’s confrontation with the mountain fires, since Brodbeck retains their original names, it would have been only appropriate to retain ahavaniya too instead of rendering it only as “offertorial” (110.16) which primarily refers to the Eucharist—an incongruous association here. Shiva does not say, “if I get close to gangs of tormentor fiends my mind gets unsettled.” The pramathas (tormentor demons) being his constant companions, he says, “I will stay with the pramathas; I do not wish to fight,” (112.84).

The killings of Jarasandha and Shalva do not feature, having already been told in MB. The reason why in MB Krishna insists on Jarasandha being killed is explained in HV, viz. his relentless attacks on Krishna and Balarama. Raja Ekalavya is said to live on mount Raivata near Dvaraka. However, no details are given of how Ekalavya was killed, which in MB Krishna claims he did. In MB Arjuna, while escorting the Ashvamedha horse, kills Ekalavya’s son. HV mentions the intriguing fact that Naraka is born of the Earth Goddess by the Varaha (boar) avatar. Its implications need to be teased out. The commentator Nilakantha comments that Krishna took Satyabhama along with him to fight Naraka because he could be slain only with her consent, she being a portion of the Earth Goddess. The Southern Recension of HV contains a detailed account of Satyabhama battling Naraka when Krishna is knocked down,[10] which the CE omits simply because the editor, P.L. Vaidya, felt that women in Puranic literature do not fight! The Kalika Purana mentions Naraka being so named as the baby was found resting with its head on a human skull.

There is also the feature of an earlier avatar (Parashurama) being worsted by a later one (Rama). Further, just as Arjuna Kartavirya, disciple of an earlier avatar Dattatreya, is killed by the later avatar Parashurama, so the deaths of Parashurama’s disciples (Bhishma, Drona, Karna and Rukmi), are brought about by the new avatars Krishna and Balarama. Parashurama’s severing of Arjuna Kartavirya’s thousand arms is replicated by Krishna with the demon Bana. Actually, during this duel Krishna specifically refers to that incident.

The vulgate contains fascinating descriptions of the Yadavas’ sports in the sea and elsewhere and the delectable food they enjoy in picnics. Jaimini’s Ashvamedhaparva has similar lists of food-items. HV contains the tale of Bhanumati’s ever-renewable virginity and fragrant body from Durvasa’s boon which recall Satyavati and Kunti. She is married to Sahadeva, but there is no mention of progeny. Here, after the internecine fight with reeds that devastated the Vrishnis, Gada, Pradyumna and Samba resettle in Vajrapura on the northern flank of Mount Meru, which was the kingdom of the demon Vajranabha whom Pradyumna killed after marrying his daughter Prabhavati secretly. In MB, however, none of them survive the massacre at Prabhasa. MB merely mentions that the son of Yuyudhana (Satyaki) was settled by Arjuna on the banks of the Sarasvati with old Yadava men, women and children. HV names him as “Asanga” whose son was Bhumi and Bhumi’s son was Yugandhara.

The first book of HV is very much of a Purana narrating the creation of the cosmos, the great war between gods and demons and the solar and lunar lineages. The second book, Vishnu Parva, is devoted to Krishna deeds other than those in MB: killing Putana, uprooting twin Arjuna trees, moving from Vraja to Vrindavana, taming Kaliya, killing Dhenuka, lifting Govardhana, killing Arishta, Keshin, Kuvalayapida, Chanura, Kamsa, resurrecting Sandipani’s son and a Brahmin’s sons, establishing Dvaraka, killing Kalayavana, abducting Rukmini, killing Paundra, Naraka with his generals, Nikumbha, Shambara and defeating Shiva’s disciple Bana after defeating Shiva and Skanda.

A link with Kalanemi is carried over from the deva-asura war through his six sons being born to Devaki and ironically being killed by Kalanemi reborn as Kamsa because of the demon king Hiranyakashipu’s curse. Varuna’s exhortation to Krishna (113.28-40) asking him to “Remember the unmanifest primordial matrix…” is very well translated. 40.17 is a fine sloka with echoes of the Rig Veda:

“Who is awake here, who is asleep? Who breathes, and who stirs not?

Who has pleasure? Who has splendour and who is darker than dark?”

He is said to fall asleep at the end of summer, and rites cease. He awakens, like goddess Durga, in autumn and his rites resume (40.23-24).

Mayavati’s falling madly in love with Pradyumna, whom she has nursed from infancy, is a unique event in puranic lore, carefully skirting the incestuous. Similarly, son-less Raja Jyamagha is so afraid of his only wife Chaitra that he introduces a young woman won in a fight as the future wife of their unborn son. Chaitra then gives birth to Vidarbha who fathers sons on that woman (called Kausalya in the next chapter) who is much older than him, very much like Pradyumna marrying his nurse Mayavati.

There are interesting details such as Vishnu’s chariot being two-wheeled (32.27) while the demon Maya’s is four-wheeled, drawn by bears, and Taraka’s has eight iron wheels drawn by donkeys. A curious detail regarding the barbarian invader Kala-yavana is that his horses’ foreparts were bull-like. Indra’s chariot fitted with a pennant atop a bamboo pole and his annual festival celebrated by Uparichara Vasu’s raising such a flag resemble the occidental Maypole festival. Varuna brandishes the snares of death, a memory of his supreme status in the Rig Veda. Another feature is that many gods and demons have the same name, e.g. Varaha, Hayagriva, Vamana, Vaishvanara. Svarbhanu (the name used in HV for Rahu, the eclipse) is extolled repeatedly. Surya has not much of a role. Catapults and machines that kill a hundred at a time (shataghni) are mentioned often.

HV states that Brihaspati’s sister Yogasiddha was mother of Vishvakarman and it was the 8th Vasu Prabhasa who became Bhishma. It provides alternative accounts of famous incidents such as Bhishma’s boon of death-at-will. While in MB Shantanu bestows it being pleased with Devavrata’s abdication and vow of lifelong continence, in HV Shantanu’s departed spirit bestows it because Bhishma strictly observes the rules of how shraddha offerings are to be made. HV further records that Vyasa’s son Shuka, celebrated as a lifelong celibate in MB, had four sons and a daughter by Pivari, mind-born daughter of the Barhishad manes. Shuka’s son-in-law is Anuha, king of Kampilya of the Panchalas. The chronology is completely garbled here because Bhallata, fourth in descent from him, is killed by Karna “long back”. Bhallata’s son Janamejaya is slain by the usurper Ugrayudha wielding a deadly discus, who demands that Bhishma give up the newly widowed Satyavati to him. Bhishma kills him and restores the Panchala kingdom to Drupada. MB does not know this episode. Soon thereafter Arjuna defeats Drupada and gives Ahichhatra and Kampilya to Drona.

A very interesting episode is the tale of how Lake Acchoda came to be born as the fish-born daughter of Vasu and Adrika in the 28th Dvapara Yuga. Another is that after Brahma created the gods, expecting they would worship him, they made offerings to themselves instead, whereupon ignorance overwhelmed creation. On their repenting, Brahma directed them to seek knowledge from their children, explaining that the gods and their offspring were fathers of one another. That is the origin of the manes and the reason for offerings to be made to them first in any rite.

The rishis are not vegetarians. Satyavrata, exiled by his father from Ayodhya, provides deer, boar, cow and buffalo meat to Vishvamitra’s family in his absence and liberates the rishi’s son Galava who was being sold by his mother to sustain the family during a 12 year drought. Seven sons of Kaushika in Kurukshetra sent out to graze their guru’s cow eat it up driven by hunger. Offering the flesh of animals in yajnas is highly extolled.

Interesting light is thrown on barbarians. The Shakas, Yavanas, Kambojas, Paradas and Pahlavas, whom Sagara seeks to eradicate, take refuge with Vasishtha. Sagara spares them but prohibits Vedic rites for these kshatriyas, as also for Kolisarpas, Mahishakas, Darvas, Cholas and Keralas. He enforces half-shaven heads for Shakas, fully shaven for Yavanas and Kambojas, unshorn hair for Paradas and uncut beards for Pahlavas. Central Asian tribes who invaded India had such strange appearances. It is these very mlecchas that Vasishtha calls upon to defeat Vishvamitra’s onslaught. The lands Sagara conquers are of interest too (the CE omits this): Khasa, Tukhar/Tushara, Cheen, Chola, Madra, Kishkindhak, Kauntal, Banga, Shalva and Kaunkan. This indicates that the north-west, east and south were beyond the Vedic pale.

The birth of Sagara’s sons prefigures that of Dhritarashtra’s. Rishi Aurva grants Sagara’s junior wife the boon of 60,000 sons. She delivers a bottle-gourd containing embryos that are placed in ghee-filled pots, just as Vyasa does later with Gandhari’s embryo. In Sagara’s lineage Rama’s son is named Kusha and the line follows his descendants, ending with Sahsvat. There is no mention of his twin Lava. The CE omits the verses that take the line up to Brihadbala who is killed by Abhimanyu at Kurukshetra.

Soma the moon is the first to perform the rajasuya yajna and waxes arrogant, even abducting his guru Brihaspati (Jupiter)’s wife Taraka (asterism; Tara in the vulgate). Ushanas-Shukra (Venus) and the demons espouse Soma’s cause while Rudra (Orion) wields his bow on Brihaspati’s side. Tara’s son by Soma is Budha (Mercury) who rises opposite him in the sky. The references to celestial events are clear. Budha is the progenitor of the Lunar Dynasty whose capital is founded by his son Pururavas at Prayag. The CE unfortunately omits the fascinating tale of how Pururavas obtains the heavenly threefold fire from the Gandharvas on Urvashi’s advice, finding it hidden within a fig tree, kindled by churning its wood.

HV resolves the puzzle why Indra is also called Kaushika in MB and elsewhere. Inspired by the ascesis of King Kushika, Indra takes birth as his son who is also named Gadhi. How Jamadagni, Parashurama, Vishvamitra and Shunahshepa came to be born is also told here, which the CE omits. When Indra loses his kingdom to King Raji’s sons, Brihaspati leads them astray into abandoning the Vedas and righteousness whereby they lose power and can be slain by Indra. This is the reference to Brihaspati as the author of atheistic doctrine (Buddhism, Jainism, Charvaka) that culminates in Kautilya’s Arthashastra.

HV provides a detail missing in MB. It specifies that while installing Puru in the centre as king, Yayati appointed the eldest Yadu in the north-east, Turvasu in the south-east, Druhyu in the west and Anu in the north, where their descendants continued to govern. Another origin story is that of the eastern gangetic delta peoples. Anga, Vanga, Suhma, Pundra and Kalinga are sons of the eponymous Bali, the demon monarch reborn as human. A link is found with the Ramayana because Anga’s descendant Dasharatha was known as Lomapada whose daughter Shanta (said to be daughter of Ayodhya’s Dasharatha) produced Chaturanga Dasharathi by Rishyashringa. Chaturanga’s son is Champa who made Malini his capital renaming it as Champaa, which was later Karna’s capital. Among Chaturanga’s descendants (or successors) Karna and Vikarna are named.

An important detail regarding the questionable royal pedigree of the Bharatas is that Bharata’s sons were destroyed because of their mothers’ rage and he adopted either the sage Bharadvaja himself or his son named Vitatha (“In Vain”) as his successor. Thus, Janamejaya, who is listening to the recital, is actually of Brahmin descent. A curious omission while naming Ajamidha’s descendants is that although Jantu is named, there is no mention of his being sacrificed in a yajna to obtain a hundred sons for Somaka as in MB. It is clarified that the genealogy contains two Rikshas, two Parikshits, three Bhimasenas and two Janamejayas. Only Vichitravirya is named as Shantanu’s son, not Chitrangad and Devavrata, presumably because neither had any progeny. Of Pandu’s sons only Arjuna is mentioned since he is the direct ancestor of Janamejaya.

Here Pandyas, Cholas, Kolas and Keralas are sprung from Duhshanta’s grandson Sharutthama. Duhshanta, descendant of Yayati’s son Turvasu, gets absorbed into Puru’s lineage to become king and father Bharata. Gandhara is named after Yayati’s son Druhyu’s descendent and famed for its horses. Yayati’s son Anu’s line is traced only up to Suchetas in the fifth generation. It is ironic that the lineage of Yayati’s disinherited eldest son Yadu should include Arjuna Kartavirya, the most famous emperor ruling over the seven lands and a disciple of Vishnu’s avatar Dattatreya. He incurs Vasishtha’s curse that because of destroying his ashram he will be surpassed by Arjuna Pandava and slain by a Bhargava Brahmin (the next avatar Parashurama). The Rama-avatar occurs in the 24th yuga and the killing of Lavana is credited to him instead of Shatrughna. Through Yadu’s progeny the Hehayas several clans emerge (Vrishnis, Madhavas, Bhojas, Avantis, Talajanghas etc.) who dominate western India. Krishna descends from Yadu’s son Kroshtu by his second wife Madrià DevamidhushaàShuraàVasudeva and nine other sons, plus Pritha and four other daughters from whom Shishupala, Dantavaktra and Ekalavya are born, Krishna’s cousins and mortal enemies of. Jara, Krishna’s killer, is his step-brother from Vasudeva’s fourth wife and becomes lord of Nishada bowmen, like Ekalavya who is brought up by the Nishada king Hiranyadhanus.

The rate of taxation was fixed as one-sixth of the produce. Those not paying tax had to be looked after by the ruler. Why devastating wars are needed is explained. Over-population burdens the earth which has no space left. Brahma recommends that, retaining the virtuous people, only kings be killed. That, of course, means that their fourfold armies will also have to be slaughtered.

A new origin story of the primordial demons Madhu and Kaitabha is given. After they emerge from Vishnu’s ears like logs, Brahma has the wind vivify them, naming the softer one Madhu and the hard one Kaitabha. Vishnu squeezes them to death and their fat, absorbing the primordial ocean, becomes the earth. There is an additional tale to the MB account where the earth states that after Parashurama eradicated Kshatriyas 21 times, she begged Kashyapa for kings, whereupon the Ikshvaku dynasty ruled over her. Again, it is when Brahma is listening to Kashyapa narrate ancient tales that the ocean and Ganga drench him. Brahma curses the ocean (and not Mahabhisha as in MB) to be born as Shantanu (because he ordered him to calm down and be embodied) with Ganga as his consort.

The meeting of the gods on Mount Meru with Vishnu and Brahma occurs when Pandu and Dhritarashtra have got married. The gods are commanded to distribute themselves as their progeny and cause a massacre of royalty to relieve the earth’s burden. Brahma prescribes that Dharma’s portion must go to Kunti or Madri and that of Kali to Gandhari. Reassured, the earth departs with Kala (time or death). Here Vasudeva is a portion of Kashyapa born as a cattle farmer at Govardhana mountain. Brahma asks Vishnu to be born to both Devaki and Rohini. Leaving his ancient body in Parvati (an inaccessible cave on Meru) Vishnu takes birth in Vasudeva’s house. How Vasudeva manages to evade guards and take the baby to Yashoda, returning with her new-born girl, is not told. It is Vasudeva who informs Kamsa that a girl has been born. Vasudeva makes Nanda shift to Vraja, not revealing that Yashoda’s boy is actually his own son, asking him to avoid Vrindavana. That is where Krishna has the community shift later when Vraja gets deforested, polluted with cowdung and urine and is attacked by wolf-packs that he creates. In chapter 96, however, Narada says that using wolves Krishna scared away Kamsa’s brother Sunaman who came with troops to capture him. It is strange is how Nanda, keeper of Kamsa’s cows, is able to shift station to Vraja and then to Vrindavana without his master’s knowledge.

The cart baby Krishna overturns and the two trees he uproots while crawling are not superhuman beings in HV which they are in the later Bhagavata Purana. Sankarshana is named Baladeva (the strong god) after he shatters the demon Pralamba’s skull with his fist. It is in this chapter 58 that Krishna reminds Sankarshana of his true self as Ananta the Endless and Shesha the Remainder upon whom the world rests.

Chapter 59 in its explanation of the Shakra festival at the end of the monsoon provides a fine interpretation of the Rig Vedic myth of the celestial cows and their liberation by Indra riving apart the clouds, thus milking the sun’s cows. Just as Brodbeck glosses Parjanya as “the water-giver” (59.17) he should not have omitted Purandara before “smasher of citadels” (59.7). He does not gloss “Shatakratu” (78.41, performer of a hundred rites). At the three-day-long mountain-festival Krishna introduces, first buffaloes are killed for food. The cowherds feast on seasoned meats with rice. This Govardhana episode includes the mini-myth of Indra relinquishing two of the four months of the monsoons to create the season of autumn when the sun will move into the Southern Cross (Trishanku) and the star Canopus (Agastya). Indra tells Krishna about Arjuna’s birth as his portion and requests that he befriend and protect him for the Bharata War. In his reply Krishna reveals his awareness of the birth of the Pandavas and Karna, promising to do whatever Arjuna asks him to. Chapter 64 describes milkmaids dancing and romancing Krishna that became famous later as “raasa-leela” in the Krishna-bhakti movement, but there is no mention of Radha.

There are thematic similarities with the Ramayana such as Krishna breaking the massive bow of Kamsa’s yajna and his killing numerous demons in the forest, but the moonlit dancing with milkmaids is all his own. There is also the peculiar incident of his smashing the skull of Kamsa’s dhobi simply because he will not give him clothing dyed for Kamsa. The two wrestlers who try to kill Krishna and Baladeva are from Andhra and Karusha. Krishna’s manner of dealing out death is quite horrific: splitting Keshin in two, tearing out Arishta’s horn and Kuvalyapida’s tusk and beating them to death with those, smashing Chanura’s skull so that his eyes pop out, as Sankarshana does with Mushtika. From the lament of Kamsa’s wives we learn that he had destroyed Jarasandha’s troops (77.26). Kamsa’s mother in her lament quotes a verse uttered by Ravana that it is relatives that bring misfortune despite all one’s potency (77.44-45). Krishna even repents hearing all the lamentation (78.2-6).

There is a detailed description of how a stadium should be prepared for tournament in Kamsa’s instructions (72.2-11 and 74.2-15) which is not found in the epics. Kamsa reveals that he was actually fathered by the demon Drumila, lord of Saubha, deceiving his mother Suyamuna by assuming Ugrasena’s appearance, very much like Uther Pendragon deceiving Igraine to produce Arthur. Of course, Vishnu himself deceives Vrinda by assuming the form of her husband Jalandhara.

During the stay in Mathura, Balarama, by himself, revisits Vraja where the cowherd community appears to have resettled from Vrindavana after having abandoned it initially under Krishna’s urging. On this occasion, Baladeva changes the course of the Yamuna so that it flows through Vrindavana.

Gonarda, the king of Kashmir, the only monarch missing from the Kurukshetra War, is mentioned as besieging Mathura as an ally of Jarasandha, along with Virata (with whom the Pandavas live in disguise later), Ekalavya (a cousin of Krishna like Shishupala and Dantavaktra), Shalya (maternal uncle of Nakula and Sahadeva) and the Kauravas. One wonders how Bhishma permitted this. Was he apprehensive of Jarasandha? Did the Kauravas include the Pandavas? How did Kunti countenance an alliance against her brother’s son and her kin?

In sections dropped by the CE Vikadru narrates how the Ikshvaku dynasty’s Haryashva was exiled from Ayodhya by his elder sibling and settled in his father-in-law Madhu’s town inhabited by Abhira cowherds. This kingdom came to be called “Anarta/Surashtra”. Haryashava’s son was named Yadu, whence the Yadavas. Yadu’s great grandson Bhima is Rama’s contemporary and his son Andhaka is Kusha’s. Mathura is not fortified, its moats are dry with no stores of materials to withstand a siege because of Kamsa’s neglect. The troops are disheartened facing repeated onslaughts (as many as 18 plus Kalayavana’s attack). Thereupon Krishna and Balarama proceed south-west to the Sahyadris to meet Parashurama on Mahendra mountain who has established the town of Shurparaka by “pushing back the sea”. He advises them to take shelter on Gomanta peak and fight Jarasandha there.

Krishna leads the Yadavas away from Mathura to the mountain Raivataka in the far west. Ekalavya’s home is nearby. On a large piece of land like a gaming board named Dvaravati Krishna establishes the city of Dvaraka marking it out with measuring tapes, with three-and-four-way crossroads. Such details are not found in MB for Indraprastha whose construction is quite mythical. As with the earlier avatar Parashurama establishing Shurparaka reclaiming land from the sea, here the new avatar Krishna reclaims an area of the sea-bed 10 yojanas-by-2 yojanas (86.36). Krishna sets out codes of conduct for citizens, constitutes guilds, appoints troop-commanders and, a council of ten elders with Raja Ugrasena.

Kalayavana, the deadly barbarian, attacks leading a horde of Shakas, Tusharas, Daradas, Paradas, Tanganas, Khashas, Pahlavas and Himalayan barbarians. There is a very interesting passage about embassies here. Krishna sends Kalayavana a sealed pot containing a vicious snake. The pot is sent back filled with ants who bite the snake to death. Finding himself trumped, Krishna leads the Vrishnis away to Dvaraka. After the ancient king Muchukunda has consumed Kalayavana, Krishna intimates a strange fact: at present it is the Kali Yuga (85.59). However, according to MB the Kurukshetra War occurs at the end of the Dvapara Yuga with Kali beginning after Krishna’s death. This is yet another piece of information that needs to be reconciled with MB. In HV the Kali Yuga is called Maheshvara’s age in which people worship him and Kumara (significantly, both are non-Vedic gods), are ruthless and short-lived.

HV explains Shishupala’s loyalty to Jarasandha. Shishupala’s father Damaghosha had given him away to his kinsman Jarasandha who treated him like his own son (87.22). To please his foster father, Shishupala made mischief against his maternal uncle’s clan, the Vrishnis, because Krishna had killed Jarasandha’s son-in-law Kamsa. Jarasandha was overlord of Anga, Vanga, Kalinga and Chedi, i.e. Bihar, Bengal, Orissa and Bundelkhand. Rukmini’s father Bhishmaka was king of Vidarbha (Nagpur area). In the battle following Krishna’s abduction of Rukmini, Balarama kills the king of Vanga and his elephant with a tree (which we find Bhima doing frequently in MB). As we find in MB as well, elephant armies were the speciality of Vanga, Kalinga and Pragjyotishpura (Assam).

After the marriage with Rukmini, seven other wives of Krishna are specifically named and 16,000 other wives are mentioned. Despite the enmity with her brother Rukmin, there is no problem in Rukmini’s son Pradyumna wedding his maternal uncle’s daughter Shubhangi, and Pradyumna’s son Aniruddha wedding Rukmin’s grand-daughter Rukmavati. In the dice-game engineered by Rukmin after the wedding he defeats Balarama by cheating—a parallel to the MB dice-game—and insults him, whereupon Balarama kills him with the gaming-board.

Chapter 96 introduces Ekanamsha as Devaki’s daughter, though born to Yashoda, as she grew up with the Vrishnis. She stands with Balarama holding her right hand and Krishna her left, exactly as depicted in the icons in Puri’s Jagannatha temple and also in a sculpture in Mathura from the early common era.

In Krishna’s battle against Naraka’s hordes it is abruptly mentioned that many fell to his plough, conflating him with Balarama. When Krishna goes to Svarga to return Aditi’s earrings stolen by Naraka, abruptly, without any reason, he carries off the celestial Parijata tree (Mandar/Kovidar) to Dvaraka. The reason has been explained at length in the vulgate, viz. to fulfil Satyabhama’s desire to observe the “punyaka” vow to outdo Rukmini, instigated by Narada. This episode, describing Satyabhama’s sulking, is very similar to that of Kaikeyi in the Ramayana. After the tree has been replanted in Dvaraka, Krishna brings the Pandavas, Draupadi, Subhadra and Kunti there, as also Shishupala with his mother, Bhishmaka and Rukmin. Therefore, this occurs during the Indraprastha period before the rajasuya yajna. After a year, Krishna returns the tree to Svarga. Satyabhama is celebrated as the best of women (Brodbeck’s “in terms of beauty” is gratuitous) and the most fortunate, while Rukmini is the supreme mistress of the household (94.27). After this, Narada recounts to the Yadavas Krishna’s deeds and foretells that the sea will reclaim Dvaraka after his death (chapter 97).

Krishna’s killing of two spies of Ravana (97.8) is puzzling and Brodbeck has not annotated this. Krishna is said to have defeated Yama and brought Indrasena’s son back (97.12) as he did Sandipani’s, but no details are given about Indrasena’s identity. Krishna is also said to have defeated Arjuna in Kunti’s presence (97.17) as also Drona, Ashvatthama, Kripa, Karna, Bhima and Duryodhana all together. Again there is no annotation of this intriguing mention. This tale, not told in HV, is found in Girish Chandra Ghosh’s Bengali play “Pandav Gaurav” (1901) which is based upon the apocryphal Dandi Parva of the MB. At a yajna performed by Duryodhana, the attending kings, hearing of Krishna’s glory, all proceed to Dvaraka to establish alliances with him. Here HV mentions the Dhartarashtras, Pandavas, Panchalas, Pandyas, Cholas, Kalingans, Bahlikas, Dravidas and Shakas.

Problems of Translation

Those unfamiliar with Tolkien’s world will be unable to make out what Brodbeck intends to convey by rendering Gandharvas as “light-elves”. The elf is a tiny, delicate, magical creature in human form with pointed ears while Gandharvas are magical warriors and celestial musicians. Yakshas are termed “dark-elves,” although these demi-gods are not always malevolent and might be rendered better as “ogres” who are treasure-guardians too. The analogous Guhyakas become “trolls”; the horse-faced Kinnaras and Kimpurushas are called “mountain-elves” and “wild-elves”; Vidyadharas (sorcerers), become incongruous “sylphs”. Although rakshasa, pisaca, apsara, ashrama, rishi and dharma feature in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), Brodbeck needlessly translates them as “monster”, “fiend/devil”, “celestial nymph”, “estate”, “seer” and “virtue,” but he does not translate “Danava” and “Daitya” who are demons.

In the high-seriousness of the epic environment, his use of slang, like “crikey” and the colloquial, “daddy’, “capable fellow”, “slowcoach”, “broad-bottomed (for women)” are jarring. “Rampant” as an adjective for women (92.35) is inappropriate. He also provides English translations of Sanskrit names inconsistently, similar to the TIME magazine’s hilarious “Red Brave Lion” for “Lal Bahadur Singh”, but not for “Rukmakavacha” (gold-armoured) and Kambalabarhisha (blanket of sacred grass). Where “Vaivasvata” is rendered as “the sun’s son Yama”, why is “Vaishravana” merely “Kubera Vaishravana” and not “Vishrava’s son” (34.48)?  In the same verse the army is not ‘tossed about” by Varuna as translated, but is “encircled” (parikshipta) by “the king of the waters”. Pashu, destroyed by Rudra, is translated as “cattle” instead of “beasts” (10.38). In 31.133 Brodbeck has Brahmins attending upon Kshatriyas whereas it is the other way about. When Krishna is called “maha-yogi’ by Janamejaya (85.5), it can hardly be rendered as “great trickster” as if he were another Loki. Both “maha” and “yogi” are in the OED. In 31.153 “yoga tricks” is an unfortunate translation of “yogamaya” (yogic illusion), as is rendering “yogadharmina” (whose dharma was yoga) as “tricks were his business,” when “maya” and “dharma” are in the OED. In 32.27 “bandhura” has been translated as “driving seat” whereas it means “crest” or “adorned with”. Kubera as “vimanayodhi” (34.17) is not “conqueror of aerial chariots” but “aerial-chariot-warrior”. His appellative, “naravahana” (carried by men) has been mistranslated as “transported by spirit-elves” (34.17). In 34.21 the Sun revolves from rising to setting, with no reference to the eastern and western mountains as rendered. Vishnu does not make Danava women “stray beyond their boundaries” (38.8) but removes the auspicious mark in their hair-parting, i.e. makes them widows. The demons are not “roasted” (“nirdagdha” 38.53) by Vishnu’s mace and discus, but “consumed”. Diacritical marks are unnecessarily used for “vina” when “veena/vina” is very much in the OED. “Vatsa” is certainly not “calf” when Devaki addresses Kamsa, but rather “child” (48.44). “Sarasa” (59.33) is not “flamingo” but “crane”; “japya” (86.1) is not “textual recitation” but “murmured prayers”; the dust raised by Keshin is not “sweet pale” but “honey-pale” (67.27) and it is his jaws that are split, not hips when Krishna thrusts his arm into his mouth (67.35). In 72.8 the correct rendering of “karisha” is not “cowdung” but “dry cowdung”. By replacing the original “Vraja” by “cattle station,” Brodbeck deprives the reader of the name of the place renowned for Krishna’s childhood. In 99.19 he describes Pradyumna as “young brave” as though he were a North American Indian warrior. In the Tarakamaya war, Brodbeck has Ushanas launch the Brahmashiras missile at the gods, whereas the vulgate appropriately has Rudra launch it at the demons causing great destruction.

Brodbeck’s translation for 26.27-8 makes no sense: “The Mother was born…The Mother’s wife was a descendant of Ikshvaku…”. The reference is to a son named “Maatu” (“Sattvan” in the vulgate, thus avoiding the confusion with mother). In the next verse (27.1) Brodbeck’s adding “the Mother” to “Satvat” is gratuitous. The translation of 27.20 about Ahuka is not correct and should read: “An entourage of eighty wearing white with leather shields marched ahead first of the great one energetic as a colt.” Brodbeck does not annotate the reference in 66.5 to a prince of the Ikshvakus who left. This is Sagara’s son Asamanja who was exiled for his wickedness. 98.24 is mistranslated as, “But Vajra was born before that. Vajra was the son of Aniruddha and Anu.” It should read, “Aniruddha had two sons Sanu and Vajra, but Vajra was born earlier.” In 99.3 “kala” Shambara is not “dark” but “deadly” and in 99.4 Krishna does not “practise the magic of the gods,” but “complying with deva-maya” he does not seize the demon. At 108.3 Aniruddha is compared to “Ilavila’s son Kubera,” which is confusing in the absence of the gloss that Ilavila is sage Vishrava’s wife.

In 3.63 Bana does not ask Shiva for a pleasure garden near him, but wishes to enjoy, staying by his side. The appellative “shitikantha” for Shiva is more appropriately “dark-throated” instead of “dark-necked” (106.19) as the poison he had drunk turned his throat dark blue. Bana captures Aniruddha by immobilising him with snake-nooses just as Indrajit did with Rama and Lakshmana (108.84). The Aniruddha-Usha episode is like a fairy tale replete with the magical and the erotic, similar to the Kathasaritsagara tales.

One of the delights of HV is Brodbeck’s splendid translation of the war between the gods under Indra and the demons led by Maya spanning several chapters. The gods are not immortal, nor are the demons. They are decapitated, chests smashed, cut to pieces. Yama, despite wielding the fatal rod, cannot destroy demons. Soma the moon and Varuna lord of waters join to freeze the Daityas. The demon Kalanemi (Death’s Rim) features prominently, even immobilising immortal Yama the all-destroyer. In the Adhyatma Ramayana Kalanemi is Marich’s son and is killed by Hanuman. Later, he is reborn as Kamsa along with other demons for killing whom again, at Narada’s urging Vishnu has to take birth where Brahma specifies. No Occidental epic other than Milton’s has anything like the exciting description of the Tarakamaya war between gods and anti-gods. Only Bali and Svarbhanu escape Vishnu’s onslaught. There is repeated reference to weapons made of the finest iron, which indicates that the composition is post-bronze age. Chapter 54, describing the monsoon and the description of the beauty of boy Krishna in Chapter 55 are mellifluously translated.

Bhavishya Parva

Bhavishya Parva starts with Shaunaka querying the bard Suta about Janamejaya’s descendants. Brodbeck’s translation of 114.10, “the august child’s storm clouds were made manifest” makes no sense. The last name in the Pandava dynasty—traced back to Puru—is the orphan Ajaparshva raised by two Brahmins in a weaver’s house.

The story of how Janamejaya came to prohibit performance of the horse-sacrifice is told. First he points out to Vyasa that the destruction of the Kurus arose from Yudhishthira’s rajasuya rite, which has always brought destruction in its wake beginning with Soma, followed by Varuna and Harishchandra. He asks Vyasa why he did not guide Yudhishthira. Vyasa replies that as he was not asked about the future, he did not reveal it and anyway time’s course is unalterable. Vyasa warns Janamejaya that he ought not to perform the horse sacrifice as Indra would attack it and Brahmins would be antagonised. Vyasa also foretells that in the Kali Yuga a Brahmin army general will revive the ashvamedha and also perform the rajasuya. This is a clear reference to Pushyamitra Sunga (c. 185 CE). Typically, Janamejaya forgets Vyasa’s warning and holds the horse-sacrifice in which Indra animates the suffocated horse and has coitus with the queen lying beside it. The priest reveals the truth whereupon the furious king bans the ashvamedha and exiles the priests.

A description of the degenerate social conditions of that age follows. An interesting feature of it is that nanny goats (not Brodbeck’s male “billy-goats” who cannot give milk) will be kept as milch animals, reminiscent Mahatma Gandhi’s preference. It also tells of climate change, ponds ploughed over, drought, infertile soil, prevalence of Shiva-worship, beggars proliferating, shudras following Buddha of Shakyas wearing ochre robes with shaven heads and collyrium-marked eyes (not Brodbeck’s “uncowed eyes”) and education being sold. In 116.33 the original of Brodbeck’s “he-men” is not found. He translates “gavedhuka” (116.35) as “tear-grass” whereas it is a mallow plant (Sida Alba). The name for this yuga used in 117.11-14 is “kashaya,” one sense of which is the ochre robe worn by Buddhist monks, i.e. this evil era will witness prevalence of Buddhism besides neglect of Vedic deities. Conversely, Vyasa also foretells that pure people will attain salvation quickly (117.13) at the time of the ochre affliction. Refugees will flee across the River Kaushiki (Kosi) and abound in Anga, Vanga, Kalinga, Kashmir, Mekala (Deccan) and hilly Rishika (not “River Rishika” 117.29), on Himalayan slopes, sea shores and forests, reverting to hunting from agriculture. Clearly, these places were considered outside the Vedic pale. The tide will turn when, with the proliferation of sadhus, people will be obsessed with having their darshan and give up desires to pursue truth (117.40), whereby the golden age will be renewed. The CE ends with Suta extolling the benefits of listening to this Purana and asking what else Shaunaka would like to hear. Brodbeck provides a fine rhythmic translation of the conclusion (117.51):

            “The cycles of ages were set up of old

            by nature and command,

            so not for a moment do creatures stay put:

            changing they fall and they stand.”

This is where the vulgate takes off with a different version of creation, the deva-asura wars and Vishnu’s avatars till Vamana, the dwarf. Then it suddenly recounts Krishna’s ascesis at Kailasa to please Shiva for obtaining a son as Rukmini desires. HV does not repeat the account of Krishna’s similar ascesis for fulfilling Jambavati’s desire for a son, Samba, related in MB. At Badari occurs a fascinating encounter with two pisacas eager to meet Krishna for salvation as advised by Shiva. They are the Ghantakarnas, bells hanging from their ears to drown out any mention of Vishnu whom they used to hate. With great devotion they offer Krishna half the corpse of a Brahmin. Politely declining, Krishna transforms them into celestial beings and proceeds to Kailasa to practise ascesis for 12 years. When Shiva appears, the hordes appearing with him are led by Ghantakarna (chapter 86). Harindranath and Purushothaman have found temples dedicated to this pisaca (cf. http://www.dvaipayana.net/krishnanattam/ghantakarna.html). Tagore’s short story “Shey (He)” mentions the two Ghantakarnas also. Shiva grants Krishna and Rukmini a son, Pradyumna, who is the god of love Kama reborn. Later, Shiva’s destruction of the triple cities of demons is narrated.

In Krishna’s absence Paundraka Vasudeva attacks Dvaraka with Ekalavya who, fighting against Balarama, flees to an island after Krishna kills Paundraka. Ekalavya’s death is not mentioned. At Durvasa’s request at Pushkara, Krishna kills Hamsa and Dimbaka of Shalva city, allies of Jarasandha. They scorn Bhishma as aged and weak and demand that Krishna surrender all his riches and provide salt for their rajasuya yajna. In this battle Balarama kills the rakshasa Hidimb exactly as Bhima kills his namesake in MB. Hamsa and Dimbaka proceed from Pushkara to Govardhana mountain and Krishna drowns the former in Kaliya’s lake in the Yamuna, whereupon Dimbaka commits suicide. It is after this that Yudhishthira performs his rajasuya yajna (chapter 29.10), which is another chronological milestone to be collated with MB. Nanda and Yashoda come to meet Krishna here. There is no Radha.

The gifts to be given to the narrator at the end of each MB parva are enumerated, specifying a book with gold. However, like in the Spitzer manuscript list, Anushasana Parva (32.68) is not mentioned. It might be subsumed in the Shanti Parva. At the end of HV the king is asked to feed a thousand Brahmins and present a cow along with gold coins. After extolling MB and HV, a summary of the HV episodes is given in chapter 34. The Padma Purana contains 5 chapters on the glory of HV plus one on the mantra for obtaining progeny.

[1] P. Lal: The Mahabharata of Vyasa, The Complete Adi Parva, Writers Workshop, Kolkata, 2013, p. 70.

[2] D.K. Printworld, New Delhi, 2015.

[3] http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa/harivamsa-cs-index.html

[4] Simon Brodbeck: Krishna’s Lineage—The Harivamsha of Vyasa’s Mahabharata, Oxford University Press, 2019, pp. 420, Rs.1295.

[5] https://alt.cardiffuniversitypress.org/articles/abstract/10.18573/alt.45/

[6] Krishna in the Harivamsa, vols. 1 (2015) and 2 (2017), DK Printworld, New Delhi.

[7] “Why Harivaṁśa calls itself the Khila of Mahābhārata? – A Critique of the BORI Critical Edition of Harivaṁśa” in Mahabharata Manthan, vol. 2, pp. 319 ff.,  ed. Neera Misra, Rajesh Lal, BR Publications, Delhi, 2019.

[8] I have amended Brodbeck’s translation in the interests of rhythm.

[9] A. Hiltebeitel: Freud’s Mahabharata, OUP, 2018, p. 4.

[10] A. Purushothaman and A. Harindranath: “Fight between Narakasura and Satyabhama in Harivamsa…” in Aesthetic Textures, Living Traditions of the Mahabharata, ed. Molly Kaushal, S. Paul Kumar, IGNCA & DK Printworld, New Delhi, 2019.

Vyasa a Polymorphic, Multi-textual, Omni-dimensional Persona

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Kevin McGrath: Vyasa Redux—Narrative in Epic Mahabharata, Anthem Press, London, 2020, pp.121

This is the 8th book by Dr. McGrath of Harvard University investigating different aspects of the Mahabharata, supplementing his 2011 book, Jaya: Performance in Epic Mahabharata. Intriguingly titled, it studies in detail the multiple roles played by this seer-poet who composes and participates in this autobiography which is also the biography of his descendants, turning the narrative into “a facsimile of (human) consciousness.”

Vyasa and Sanjaya are the only two dramatic persons who are also creative poets. It is true that Bhishma displays no dramatic persona in the two Books of Peace and Instruction (Shanti and Anushasana). In the former, however, McGrath overlooks the tragic persona of Vyasa himself desperately seeking his beloved son Shuka in vain.

It is Vyasa who gifts Sanjaya supernatural sight, inspires Bhishma to instruct, grants Gandhari sight of the corpses in Kurukshetra and shows blind Dhritarashtra his slaughtered kith and kin (akin to Odysseus’ viewing of the dead heroes, with Achilles silently turning away from him, whereas the Pandavas are reconciled with Karna). Yudhishthira will encounter them again twice over in Naraka and Svarga. Vyasa’s sudden appearances and disappearances always direct the plot and impact the emotions of characters. Sanjaya explicitly attributes his audio-visual experience of the Gita to Vyasa’s grace. Bhishma’s hymn to Krishna repeats what he had heard from Vyasa. The interlinking of Dvaipayana-Krishna and Vasudeva-Krishna is profoundly significant, as is that of Ganga-born Bhishma and Yamuna-island-born Vyasa. Vyasa is the only epic poet to move even to Svarga. In the Stri Parva he hears Vishnu telling the Earth how the kings would slaughter one another at Kurukshetra (it is not the Earth who forecasts this, as McGrath writes on p. 62), lending a cosmic inevitability to the happenings. In McGrath’s words, he is “a literary super-catalyst affecting the plot variously” and functions like Athena in the Odyssey, virtually like a director-cum-script-writer-cum-actor. Adept at flashbacks as well as flash-forwards, he is gifted with both foresight and hindsight. His absence from the crucial Sabha Parva (and Krishna’s during the dice-game), Virata Parva (Krishna is absent too) and the Udyoga Parva (but for two by-the-way interjections) is a feature that needed further. Vyasa also presides at four (not three vide p. 81) critical rituals: the royal anointing; the war as yajna; the horse-sacrifice and the snake-holocaust.

While Vyasa is “an acutely polymorphic and multi-textual figure” whose personal is only approximated by Homer’s Athena, both the Mahabharata and the Odyssey are polytronic. The unity is not of time but of narrative structure. Human time is quite vague in both except for the 18 days of the Kurukshetra War. The forest exile and the Shanti and Anushasana Parvas seem to be timeless. By ending with the snake-sacrifice where the epic was first recited, the poem creates cyclical “poetic time”. Both epics are also “multi-texts”, made up of numerous traditions (historical, geographical, social, mythological etc.) that are different yet coherent.

The structure of the Mahabharata is possibly the most complicated of any epic. Ugrashrava Sauti narrates to rishi Shaunaka and his monks what he heard Vaishampayana recite at Janamejaya’s snake-sacrifice at Takshashila as Vyasa had taught him (McGrath erroneously places it in Afghanistan, vide pp. 23, 46, instead of Northwest Pakistan). Sauti had also heard it from his father Lomaharshana. Further, we hear all this from a nameless rhapsode. So we have: anonymous rhapsode-> Sauti-> Lomaharshana-> Vaishampayana-> Vyasa. In the Odyssey it is: poet-> Muse-> Zeus-> Athena (who, unlike Vyasa, is a shape-shifting narrator and actor)-> Odysseus. Within these concentric circles there are numerous other narrators: Sanjaya in the Udyoga and the war books; Markandeya and Lomasha in the forest-exile; Bhishma primarily in the Udyoga, Shanti and Anushasana Parvas; Narada and Vyasa himself. The entire narrative is an extended flashback, artistically so rendered that the events acquire an immediacy. The narrative repeatedly moves back and forth. For instance, the tale of Shakuntala and her son the eponymous Bharata precedes the chronologically anterior account of Yayati and his sons.  Again, despite prophesies, protagonists lose awareness of these and proceed to take decisions that are character-driven, yet fulfil what has been foretold. Beginning with Yayati the great ancestor of the clans, this persists right up to Janamejaya’s sacrifice that was foretold to remain incomplete.

McGrath makes the very interesting point that Sauti’s summary (Parvasangraha) mentions 23,783 slokas for the war books including the Sauptika, approximating the 24,000 of the Jaya that Vyasa composed first. Sanjaya narrating the War Books is akin to the Greek aoidos, a poet of preliterate Bronze Age times, while Vaishampayana is a rhapsode of the literate period. The archaic war books became the Maha-Bharata through Vyasa’s act of supreme dhyana. It is very interesting that for this act of poetic inspiration McGrath should find an analogy in Bob Dylan who felt that his songs came to him from somewhere else. Sri Aurobindo has documented at length the process of poetic inspiration for his Savitri. Dhyana is also an act Bhishma performs before instructing Yudhishthira. Krishna’s Gita is divine afflatus. The evolution of the epic’s plot seems to be through meditative experiences of these three. Added to this is Krishna’s theophany in the Hastinapura court and on the battlefield. These, argues McGrath, “supply the core narrative poem with its ethical and spiritual force.” In enumerating Krishna’s strategies he overlooks the pains taken over Drona’s killing. He claims there is no solemn ritual (p. 27) despite the repeated extolling of yajnas.

The preliterate traditions that were compiled into one epic in classical times covered a vast geography to supersede specific locales and regimes for appealing to the commonalty, becoming “geopolitically uniform”. McGrath ascribes to this the absence of references to Buddhism, that was surely contemporary, to the heritage of the Harappan Civilization, to idol-worship and to money. The epic world is artificial, not reflecting material reality. Even the weather and physical details about characters are left vague. There are five places that are particularly important: Hastinapura, Indraprastha (curiously unoccupied by the Pandavas post-war, as Rama’s sons abandoned Ayodhya), the forest, Matsya and Kurukshetra. Although the last features as a field of blood (beginning with Parashurama celebrating his massacre of Kshatriyas in five pools called samantapanchaka), its initial fame is because Brahma performed a yajna there. Later Raja Kuru obtained the boon that Svarga was assured to anyone dying there, Krishna recited the Gita and Bhishma instructed Yudhishthira from the bed-of-arrows. Dvaraka should be added as significant because Krishna commutes between it and wherever the Pandavas are.

Despite the rivers of blood that flow, Homer and Vyasa’s poetry encapsulates it in similes and metaphors that invest death with beauty (note that Sauti begins with the tree image for the epic and the warring fraternities). Vyasa goes further than Homer and shows us the heroes beyond death glorious in Svarga. Neither does Homer have the very powerful moral dimension that Vyasa stresses repeatedly as his poem’s efficacy. Again, although the Iliad covers forty days and the Odyssey decades, there is little significance day-wise in either.

McGrath makes the very important point that Kshatriya lineages found in the Mahabharata are actually of matrilineal descent as all males had been killed by Parashurama and the women approached Brahmins for progeny. Vyasa’s direct descendants through Dhritarashtra are wiped out too. Janamejaya, descended from Yayati’s eldest son Yadu’s lineage through Subhadra, rules in Hastinapura and Indraprastha is given to Vajra, Yadava Krishna’s descendant. Thus, the bheda, division, that started when the youngest son Puru replaced the eldest Yadu is ended, lending another cyclical dimension to the epic.

McGrath argues that till the war ends the type of governance portrayed is fraternal (he cites the modern example of Saudi Arabia), what Romila Thapar calls “a lineage society”, whereas the Shanti Parva features a later development: the classic monarchic state instead of oligarchic rule.  However, if in the Iliad Agamemnon’s word is final, is that not true for Duryodhana and Yudhishthira as well? In both the Homeric and Indian epics, it is women who drive the plot: Helen, Chryseis, Briseis, Circe, Calypso, Penelope, Kaikeyi, Sita, Satyavati, Kunti, Gandhari. McGrath erroneously states that Draupadi, Sita and Penelope conduct svayamvaras to select a husband. It is actually viryashulka: the bride is the prize to be won in an archery contest. Helen’s marriage is an exception.

Bhishma’s lengthy discourse on peace and donating does not preclude war. Immediately thereafter, preceding the horse-sacrifice, is the Anugita by Krishna to Arjuna and then Arjuna’s battles accompanying the roving steed, paralleling the Gita and the Kurukshetra war. As McGrath points out, the vision of the Anugita and the society pictured in the Shanti and Anushasana Parvas is far from the Vyasan weltanschauung of the Gita and the Sabha Parva.

There is a very significant transition that usually goes unnoticed which McGrath mentions. Hearing of the living meeting the dead who emerge from the Bhagirathi, Janamejaya wishes to see his dead father. Suddenly, the narrator is no longer Vaishampayana. The anonymous reciter states, Sauti reporting that through dhyana (misspelled as “mediation” on p. 67 instead of “meditation”) Vyasa produced Parikshit.

In the very first book Sauti flashed forward to report Dhananjaya’s plangent lament to Sanjaya listing the key events of the plot even before the Mahabharata had begun to be recited. As McGrath writes, “it is absolutely proleptic.” On the basis of these first two books being largely in prose, McGrath feels that they are “editorial addition” setting the stage for the recitation at Takshashila. However, that is not where Vyasa composed and declaimed it as McGrath states on p.73. We are never told where Vyasa composed it, only that it took him three years. The Pauloma Parva is a fresh beginning, reporting Sauti’s arrival at Bhargava Shaunaka’s ashram, where he launches into a recital of the Bhrigu lineage (whence Sukthankar’s theory about the Bhargava Brahmins being the editors of the Mahabharata). Sauti further states having heard the story of Astika, composed by Vyasa, from his father Lomaharshana, Vyasa’s disciple, as he recited it to sages in the Naimisha forest. Thus, yet another concentric circle of narration is added. Although, initially, Sauti stated that its first public declamation was by Vaishampayana at Vyasa’s bidding to recite the poem of bheda (division), after the Astika Parva he states that during intervals of the snake-sacrifice Brahmins told Vedic tales while Vyasa recited the Bharata. Vaishampayana tells Janamejaya that he will tell how the bheda arose out of the dice-game for sake of the kingdom, the forest-exile and the war—the three crucial stages of the epic—and provides a summary (a fifth one) that, curiously, omitting the rajasuya yajna, ends with Duryodhana’s death and the Pandavas’ jaya (victory) that completes the tale of bheda. Vaishampayana’s own beginning is with the tale of Uparicara Vasu, father of Matsyagandha. These several beginnings are evidence of “editorial bricolage”, writes McGrath, seeking to include all possible traditions. The narrative repeatedly moves back and forth. For instance, the tale of Shakuntala and her son, the eponymous Bharata, precedes the chronologically anterior account of Yayati and his sons.

Janamejaya puts several questions to Vaishampayana before the recital begins: why the mighty Pandavas tolerated the misery inflicted; why Bhima controlled his rage; why Draupadi did not consume the Dhartarashtras; why the brothers obeyed Yudhisthira though cheated; why Yudhishthira bore undeserved wretchedness; why invincible Arjuna, with Krishna as charioteer, suffered so much? McGrath does not examine why these six questions are never answered. Surely, this is a moot question.

McGrath mentions with admiration the retellings by Shashi Tharoor (The Great Indian Novel) and Karthika Nair (Until the Lions). Amreeta Syam’s long poem “Kurukshetra” should be added to these. While quoting approvingly from Girja Kumar’s study The Mahabharatans, he could also have referred to Krishna Chaitanya (K.K. Nair)’s superb work The Mahabharata—a literary study. McGrath ends with a splendid discussion of the Odyssey (and a brief but insightful overview of the Iliad celebrating the Karna-like Achilles intent upon earning fame) drawing out the similarities in theme and structure with the Mahabharata. In all three epics the deaths of the heroes are foretold, but the Homeric poems do not include their deaths. Both are concerned not merely with a multi-dimensional narrator and a hero but also with family dynamics and divine agency. The template they follow is similar. McGrath’s work of just 104 pages with a striking cover and beautifully printed is densely packed with rich insights and is an immensely rewarding read.

cf. https://epaper.thestatesman.com/3357170/Kolkata-The-Statesman/20TH-JANUARY-2022#page/11/1

The Harivansha – The Significance of a Neglected Text

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The Harivansha – The Significance of a Neglected Text by Dr. Pradip Bhattacharya

Andre Couture: Krsna in the Harivamsha, vol. 1

—the wonderful play of a cosmic child,

DK Printworld, New Delhi, 2015, pp. 362, Rs. 990/-

Mahabharata (MB) scholars tend to dismiss the Harivansha (HV) as a superfluous “appendix” (as they interpret the word khila which the MB applies to it). When Kaliprasanna Singha got the MB translated into Bengali (1858-1866), he omitted the HV finding it to be obviously a later composition on the basis of its language besides being inferior in style. Possibly, because of this K.M. Ganguli did not include it in his English prose translation of the MB (1883-1896). The first English translation of the complete HV was done in prose in 1897 by Manmatha Nath Dutt, the Rector of Keshub Academy, Calcutta, who was the second translator of the MB (1895), besides the Ramayana and the Agni and Garuda Puranas. Dr. K.P.A. Menon’s translation (Nag Publishers 2008, of which Couture appears to be unaware), is of P.L. Vaidya’s “critical edition,” which drastically shortens the extant text from 18000 to 6073 slokas. Recently, an unfinished English prose translation of the complete HV (Chitrashala Press, 1936) by the late Desiraju Hanumanta Rao, A. Harindranath and A. Purushothaman is available online at a site maintained by the nuclear scientist Dr A. Harindranath of Calcutta.

It was left to the French scholar Andre Couture (professor at the Laval University, Quebec, Canada) to show that khila actually means “a complement, or supplement” essential for revealing the significance of the main work. This book collects updated versions of thirteen papers written over a period of three decades analyzing Krishna’s birth and childhood deeds. Usually dismissed as a hodge-podge of pastoral myths, Couture shows that the HV is a carefully crafted narrative with a definite goal. His investigation reveals the importance of Nilkantha Chaturdhara’s commentary, ignored by Indologists, for reaching a proper understanding of the work. Nilkantha explains khila as an addition to a Vedic corpus for a specific reason. The HV is added to the MB because it completes the glorification of Krishna’s deeds: “the meaning of the MB is not complete without the HV.” Couture is the first to state uncompromisingly, “the fact that its parts do not exactly fit the order Western Indologists would prefer is of little consequence…it is more constructive to try to understand the logic underlying the composition of the text as we now find it rather than to resort to radical surgery each time a narrative challenge arises.” Instead of a mechanical comparison of texts to arrive at an “Ur-Text” it is the contents that need to be analyzed to identify recurrent themes and how the episodes are sequenced. It is refreshing to find a Western scholar who dismisses the prevailing theory that Krishna was an ancient vegetation deity whose name “Damodara” refers to wheat sheaves tied with straw. Instead, writes Couture, “only the Indian explanations are worth consideration.”

Couture shows the error in Vaidya’s conception of the HV as a late and random collection of appendices, from which he shears away whatever he deems non-essential. Actually, the HV presents Vishnu as the only god who ensures the welfare of the three worlds, complementing the “Narayaniya” of the MB. His dark form is Shesha who, as Sankarshana, is Krishna’s necessary complement, the shesha (remnant) of Vishnu the shesin. Brahma is the form he takes when creating, Rudra when destroying. Both the HV and the MB regularly allude to the four forms of Vishnu: with one he performs ascesis on earth; another is a witness to all that happens; the third acts in the world; the fourth is in yogic sleep, awakening to emit the cosmos. Couture is critical of Vaidya’s unjustifiable omission of Vishnu’s invocation of the goddess Arya Vindhyavasini that occurs in all versions of the HV, except just three in Malayalam script, and is present in both the Sharada and Newari texts upon which Vaidya relies the most. The hymn is definitely pre-695 CE when it features in a Chinese translation of the Suvanabhassottama Sutra. This goddess plays a critical role in Krishna’s birth under the names Nidra and Ekanamsa, on whom there is a valuable discussion.

The representation of the Kshatriya Akrura as a devotee, bhagavata, suggests a new social environment in which this class led bhakti movements seeking to subsume ritual Brahminism in their views. This a world of kings and of Brahmins visiting courts to make a living. These Brahmins represent Vishnu as the supreme sovereign over all monarchs, to whom total bhakti is due, as seen in the bhagavata Shesha who supports the world and serves as Narayana’s couch. To compete with the onset of Buddhism and Jainism, the concept of a Universal Divine was welcomed by the newly urbanized society which found that the traditional rituals had outlived their day. The period for this development is suggested as the closing centuries BCE. At this time, the Vedas were being enlarged by adding a fifth (the Chhandogya Upanishad’s itihasapuranam panchamam) from which legitimacy was sought. The tales in this fifth category relate to genealogies, royal conduct, gods and heroes. The reciters of this lore sought to re-establish the challenged social order on the basis of shruti and the puranas, as the MB clearly states at the beginning.

Correctly, Couture discounts the prevalent dating of the HV to the first or second century CE merely on the basis of the single occurrence of the word dinarika (Roman denarius). Vaidya argued that Kshemendra’s Bharatamanjari contains summaries of both the MB and the HV which, therefore, must have been completed by 1046 CE. Couture finds no cogent basis for Vaidya’s dating of the HV to 300 or 400 CE. The recent conclusions of scholars like Hiltebeitel, Bailey, Sutton, Biardeau and Fitzgerald that the MB was compiled between 200 BCE and 200 CE as a response to Buddhism, would apply equally to the HV. According to J.L. Masson and Ingalls, the language of the HV cannot be later than the 2nd or 3rd century CE and could go back to the 1st century CE. Ashvaghosha’s Buddhacharita (1st century CE) refers to a story found only in the HV about Bhishma killing Ugrayudha. Couture finds that several similes in it are paralleled only in the HV. Such is the epithet rathavistirnajaghana (chariot-like hips) describing gopis in the HV and shroniratha in Buddhacharita applied to lovely ladies. Further, Kushana iconography from the 2nd century CE reflects descriptions about the Man-Lion avatar and Sankarshana found in the HV. Moreover, only in India did the Kushana kings use the epithet devaputra which is used in the HV to describe Krishna and Balarama. However, on what evidence does Couture conclude that the Mathura described in the HV is evocative of cities of the Kushana era (1st to mid-3rd century CE) and not of the end of the Dvapara Yuga (for which we have no descriptions)?

It would be interesting to see Couture’s reaction to Bankimchandra Chatterjee’s clear opinion in his remarkable Bengali study of the Krishna corpus, Krishnacharitra (1892, available in English translation since 1991 [1]) that the HV is later than the Vishnu Purana. Couture’s bibliography is unaware of this work. It is intriguing that Couture has nothing much to say about the nocturnal sport of Krishna with the gopis. Bankimchandra’s Chapter 6 is “The Gopis of Vraja” as described in the HV. He points out that they are mentioned only in the 76th/77th chapter of its Vishnu Parva, just as they only occur in the 13th chapter of the 5th book of the Vishnu Purana. Instead of the famous raasa, it is the word hallisha that is used in the HV whose chapter-heading itself reads Hallishakridanam. Both words connote a type of dance and there are verses here identical with the Vishnu Purana. The HV account is shorter (usually it embellishes and expands the Vishnu Purana accounts). Bankim opines, “Comparing in detail the poetic quality, high seriousness, scholarship and magnificence of both works, it is clear that the Harivamsha is far inferior in these respects to the Vishnu Purana. The Harivamsha composer has been unable to comprehend the profound truth inhering in the Vishnu Purana’s description of raasa and the achieving of union with the divine Krishna through the bhakti-yoga practiced by the gopis…. The vivacious girl of the Vishnu Purana is restless with joy, while the Harivamsha’s gopis express the sensibility of wantons. In many places the Harivamsha composer is found to display a fondness for the sensual to an excessive degree.”[2] Kaliprasanna Singha must have had the same reaction, because of which he did not include the HV when he translated the MB into Bengali.

Couture analyzes the HV account of the birth and childhood of Krishna in conjunction with the versions in the allied puranas. Couture contends that these are not a hotchpotch of legends taken from pastoral tribes like Abhiras, nor are they purely symbolic, but draw upon Brahminic Vedic tradition to address concerns of their audience. The Bhagavatas (formerly called smaarta) played the major role in constructing a coherent mythic narrative of a hagiography based upon a specific religious ideology. The murder of Devaki’s six new-born sons and her aborted seventh pregnancy leading to the birth of Sankarshana follow precedents of the birth of Martanda in the Rigveda and the Maitrayani and Taittiriya Samhitas, and the births of Bhishma, Aruna and Garuda in the MB. The device presages the birth of a deity or a semi-divine being.

Couture has a very interesting discussion on the place of Sankarshana in Krishna’s birth-story. He is the remnant (shesha) after the pralaya (universal destruction) symbolized by the killing of Devaki’s six sons at birth, which is followed by the supreme divinity, as is the pattern after cosmic dissolution. Recreation is not possible without the collaboration of Yoganidra, who emerges from Rohini in this case, and is named Ekanamsa, to whom Couture devotes a separate chapter. Couture argues that since her birth follows Sankarshana’s and is coterminous with Krishna’s, this evokes the union of Purusha-Spirit and Prakriti-Matter. Thus, no detail in the birth-story is arbitrary.

Similarly, after seven years in the cow-settlement (vraja), wolves emerge from Krishna’s pores, causing destruction. Therefore, they move to Vrindavana, to a new life with the miracle of the Govardhana-lifting to save it from a deluge. Again, this is the pattern of gestation and a new birth. Couture has not noticed that the reasons Krishna gives to his brother for the move are similar to those advanced by Krishna-Dvaipayana-Vyasa to Yudhishthira for moving from Dvaitavana to Kamyaka forest (MB.3.36.37). The black and white hairs Vishnu plucks, manifesting as Krishna and Sankarshana, are, Couture suggests, from the antelope skin used in rites of rebirth for the patron of the sacrifice, not his head. Krishna being the cosmic Purusha and his brother the remnant of the cosmic sacrifice, what is being symbolized in this myth is the cosmic sacrifice. Moreover, at the end of the MB, Jara shoots Krishna taking him to be an antelope. Balarama gets reabsorbed into the ocean as a white snake. The manner of their deaths completes the circle that began with the white and black hairs plucked by Vishnu.

Couture’s research reveals a very important finding: gokula, used so often in the HV and in puranas, is not the name of a particular village but designates a cow-settlement, a synonym for vraja, ghosha, and goshtha. Nanda heads the cow-settlement, which moves from one forest to another. Vrindavana is not a particular forest but simply another great forest like the mahavana in which gokula was first located.

The MB is familiar with some of the childhood deeds and the names Damodara, Govinda and Keshava (cf. Bhishma and Shishupala’s speeches in the Sabha Parva, Dhritarashtra’s in the Drona Parva). In the HV, when Indra names Krishna “Govinda,” he begs him to protect Arjuna, thus linking to the Kurukshetra holocaust beyond the re-establishment of dharma in Mathura by killing Kansa (the asura Kalanemi) and his band of re-born demons. Akrura forecasts that the dying Yadava line will be revived by Krishna whose childhood narrative has local as well as cosmic dimensions. That is why Krishna is the gopa, the herder who protects Earth, the cow. Hence, he is Gopala the cosmic cowherd, who replicates Narayana’s killing of Kalanemi by destroying Kansa. Leading up to this is his breaking a cart as an infant, accompanied by his crying (rud, referring to Rudra the destroyer), emitting wolves who devour all (like Kala-Time of the Gita) and breaking the great bow of the Mathura festival. These signify “the inevitable destruction preceding all renewal.”

In a challenging interpretation, Couture equates Vidura’s parable of the man in the well with the taming of Kaliya naga. Krishna is also walking through the forest of samsara. The pool of the Yamuna in which the five-headed snake Kaliya resides is the world threatened by Kala-Time. Unlike the Brahmin, Krishna is not lost, nor dangling helplessly upside-down from a vine, oblivious of the gaping maw of the serpent, engrossed in the honey dripping down. From the fragrant kadamba tree, not distracted by its scent and the bees, Krishna dives into the pool, gets free of the serpentine coils and dances on the five hoods of the senses. Kaliya reverts to the ocean, just as Indra, defeated at Govardhana, returns to Swarga. The cowherd settlement is preserved by the supreme divinity making all perform their svadharma instead of brutalizing others.

Couture analyzes the Govardhana episode at length, bringing out its replication of several Vedic myths about Indra clipping mountains of their wings and Vishnu as the boar uplifting the submerged earth. However, he is less persuasive when arguing that in tearing off the giant (bird) Putana’s breast Krishna is replicating Indra cutting off the wings of mountains to stabilize the earth and that Govardhana becomes a “mountain bird” sheltering all in its belly. In that feat, Krishna literally becomes a pillar of the earth. Thus, the childhood narrative up to Kansa’s death follows the pattern of the mythic deeds of an avatar and is not a mere entertainment. Like black Agni, Krishna swirls up to engulf Kansa on the throne and ploughs the soil with him. He is, thus, a sacrifice and Krishna’s childhood in the forest is an initiation (manushi diksha, HV 58.8) for this. For making the meaning of the manifestation of Vishnu as the Kshatriya Krishna clear, the Brahminical tradition composed this narrative which brings together the cosmic acts of the deity as creator, preserver and destroyer in the human world. It is not a borrowing from primitive pastoral myths.

In translating the Brahmavaivarta Purana passage about the hunchback woman cured by Krishna, Couture translates kanya as “a twelve-year old virgin” (p. 231), whereas it ought to be “ten-year old virgin”. The discussion provides an interesting nugget of information: in the Brahmavaivarta Purana, the hunchback is Shurpanakha reborn, her disfigurement removed by Rama reborn as Krishna, who also fulfils her unrequited love for Rama. By straightening her back, Krishna is replicating Prithu, the archetypal king, levelling the uneven earth. The curvaceous, fragrant Earth (kubja carries unguents for the king) is the handmaiden (sairandhri in the Bhagavata Purana) to the Raja, but Kansa’s adharmic rule has deformed her. Her breasts are sunk into her belly, her back is a hump, so that though young she appears old. The stinking, gigantic Putana is another symbol of this malformed, aged, infertile earth. Both resemble the sunken, submerged Earth rescued by Vishnu as the boar. In the HV the Earth is a woman who complains to Vishnu that after Parashurama’s slaughters she is stinking with gore (like the dead Putana), impure like a menstruating woman. This is the Earth Krishna rescues by becoming a pillar (Govardhana) upholding her in a deluge, straightening her hump to make her high-breasted and heavy-hipped, fertile, and by sucking out the poison in her (Putana). As Vishnu-the-boar had coupled with the Earth, so Krishna later makes love to kubja, which the Brahmavaivarta Purana typically describes in erotic detail. Their son is Upashloka, according to Ezhuttacchan’s Malayalam re-telling of Bhagavata Purana and the Sanskrit Naryaniyam (a summary of Bhagavata) by his contemporary Melputhur Narayana Bhattathiri, as pointed out by Harindranath and Purushothaman on their Harivamsha resources page. Couture also points to a possible connection with the tantric goddess Kubjika who is young, attractive, dark and hunched and presages the kundalini that has to be uplifted from the base of the spine to join the purusha atop the skull. He suggests that Shaiva tantrism may have appropriated this Vaishnava figure of Earth.

The rope tied around the child Krishna’s belly, Couture shows, is part of the Puranic tradition and not a foreign vegetation myth. It evokes Shesha, Krishna’s inseparable brother Sankarshana. The splitting of the two arjuna trees refer to the twin trees of dharma and adharma (Pandavas and Dhartarashtras) that Krishna refers to in the Udyoga Parva (29.45-46), an image that the MB begins with (1.1.65-66). Krishna is the supreme divine who cannot be bound, who is at play shattering both dharma and adharma, inextricably linked to the remnant of creation.

There is a very interesting chapter on how the winged mountains are a variation on a Vedic theme, with which Couture compares Hanuman’s flight to Lanka and his encounter with the submerged winged mountain Mainaka. Further, he shows how the Govardhana episode mirrors cosmic deluge, preservation of the earth and restoration. Shesha and Vishnu, Sankarshana and Krishna, replace the Vedic mountains as pillars of the earth. Couture even draws in the Buddhist aspect contemporary to the HV, pointing out how Buddha preached Mahayana from the summit of Gridhrakuta, dominating the peak wholly and enlightening the universe.

In discussing the presentation of Vishnu as hamsa, Couture renders it as “goose” whereas “swoose” (a swan-goose hybrid) would be more appropriate. Cowherds are like the freely roaming migratory swoose, as are yogis in the Pushkarapradurbhava section of the HV. Vishnu in human form said roams all the worlds as a master. Krishna is the perfect yogi, the cowherd of the cosmos, Gopala. The simple cowherd Krishna by yoga transforms Govardhana into a vraja (cow settlement) to shelter all. He is seen as the mountain itself, just as Markandeya first saw Narayana in the cosmic ocean, and then saw him as an infant at play on a banyan leaf. The HV reverses the sequence: Krishna is first the child cowherd and then the huge mountain sheltering all. The uplifted mountain peak touched by clouds resembles a swoose, which is the nature of Narayana. This is a passage from the chaos of deluge to ordered svadharma. In the HV, “a Vishnu first described as a goose but who appears as a gopa; a marvelous young cowherd who changes into a winged mountain; cowherds and ascetics who are compared to birds,” form a web of symbols representing total freedom of the supreme divinity that underpins the HV stories.

In sum, Couture’s position is against making a distinction between the cowherd god and the Kshatriya hero. The Rigveda calls Vishnu gopa; the HV refers to the cosmic gopa Vishnu, and the cowherd boy of gokula and vrindavana. The book is valuable for the lengthy excerpts translated from the HV and allied puranas that show how well they are parts of the same tradition. There is a valuable bibliography and an excellent index. There are some errors of idiom in translating from French into English. These, however, are few and far between. One hopes that Couture’s research will prompt a new English translation of the complete HV in verse. We await his exciting revelations about the adult Krishna in the second volume.

A shorter version was published in the 8th Day Literary Supplement of The Sunday Statesman dated 3rd July, 2016.

References

[1] Pradip Bhattacharya: Bankimchandra Chatterjee’s Krishnacharitra, M.P. Birla Foundation, Calcutta, 1991

[2] Ibid. pp. 120-121