RE: Dating of Mahabharat War -Reply

["Vaidya, Binod" <Binod.Vaidya@AIG.com>]

Title: RE: Dating of Mahabharat War -Reply

Greetings,

I think i waited my customary buffer period and noticed that no one replied to this mail, So i pick up my pen (metaphorical) and here's my share of rants....

>>The Mahabharat has been distorted beyond recognition by too many
>>interpreters thru many centuries.  It is hard to believe that
>>Vyasa would
>>have written all the rubbish that is understood to be the
>>Mahabharata today.
What is understood to be Mahabharata today??? Do you mean how "general people"(like me) interpret it or what your interpretation of Mahabharata is and SO you think everybody interprets it that way??? Cause  if you are presuming how I (or anybody else for that matter) interprets it, then I would say you are being mighty snobbish!!! (No offence intended). And if you think Mahabharata has been distorted by interpreters (which leads to assume that you know the precise interpretation of Vyasa's 'first edition'), then i'd say you are being highly pompous in your attitude!! (No offence meant again).

>>If you filter out the magic and the miracles, it is the
>>greatest story ever
>>told. 
Why do you think the magic and miracles should be filtered out!!! Maybe the miracles are an allegory to some other idea Vyasa intended to say but wasn't sure whether he would make sense in the plain_vanilla_flavour. I think the miracles are meant to be interpreted in some way it is supposed to be.

I mean you guys('you' in a generally way of speaking) would go ga-ga over Tolkeins 'Lord Of the Rings' (which contains nothing but miracles ,and a totally invnented world, and if you attempt to remove them there will be just a couple of pages to read from the 1000 odd pages of that novel) just because there is a cult following in the so called English_speaking_crowd. But at the same time Mahabharata seems to be distorted and sounds childish (an impression i got from your writing) because it uses miriacles to tell the story...

My friend, once again, maybe the miracles are meant to be interpreted in some other way than just a miracle...[Here i pull a rabbit from my pockets]...Interpret that!!!...

>>Once I read somewhere an interesting piece.  It was about the
>>hunting-king-ejaculation-messenger dove-hawk-fish story of Bhishma's
>>step-mother's birth.  Why would anybody want to invent such a
>>ridiculous
>>story?
Any Mahbharata related story i hear generally begins with 'Once I read(heard/saw(as in serials)) in an interesting place...' and never 'I read the Mahabharata in sanskrit as Vyasa had written it...'. I mean it really is very unfair to spread a notion just on hearsay...As for 'why would anybody want to invent such a ridiculous story?', I'm sure that even in those times the constitution had free speech in one of its ammendments(or whatever it is called). You have the choice to beleive it or not...

>>Surely, Vyasa was not so foolish. 
This is based on your 'langotiya_yaar_type' friendship with him I assume...
>>The conclusion was
>>that it is the
>>work of some fanatic casteist, who was disturbed by the idea
>>that all this
>>war and rivalry was caused by a king's lust for a lowly fisherwoman.
This is your interpretation, everybody has a right to their interpretation, so i won't delve into that....
>>Through this story, she is given royal blood and there is
>>nothing wrong with
>>a king falling head-over-heels for a princess, is there?
>>
>>I haven't understood the logic behind the vanishing sun story.  People
>>during the times of the Mahabharat knew about eclipses and
>>could predict
>>them with reasonable accuracy.  There is very little chance of this
>>stupidity being Vyasa's.  The story would have appeared later
>>in history as
>>a result of some 'interpretation'. 
Read the sanskrit reprint (I'm not sure if they still have the first editon around) to be sure and enlighten us rather than just speculate over it...

>>
>>Another fact: The Bhagavad Gita was not originally part of
>>the Mahabharata!
This, frankly, is a revelation to me...I didn't know this..I'll kick your sorry butt if I find this isn't so -:}
>>
>>I have a doubt.  Is there any difference between what the
>>Gita says and what
>>the Thirukkural says?   Why is Valluvar not a god, then?
Maybe those guys are worshipped as Gods by people who beleive in them...You can't force everybody to worship somebody without beleif....Besides, why do care care whether these guys are *God*(or not) if you truly beleive what they say...The idea is more important than the person...Something I find highly lacking in most beleifs today...

>>I'll stop.  I am starting to sound like a Dravida Kazhagam pamphlet.
>>
>>For those who might be interested, I can provide links to good
>>interpretations of the Mahabharata in English and other
>>languages, mostly
>>authored by Westerners (sigh!). 
Oh boy, will I ever get tired of this 'sigh' that many ,so called urban, Indians express...In fact this 'sigh' enticed me into this reply...Did you try reading any Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi (or any other indian language) interpretations of the same..I am sure you will find atleast 2 Indian interpretations to every English one out there..Just because you are comfortable with English(excuse me for assuming that) and you prefer to read interpretations in English you find interpretations by Westerners abundantly....English was never, and even today for the majority of Indians, the language of communication in India...I do not understand why many people express surprise at the fact that *most* interpretations are by Westerners..It's their mother_tongue, JF'ingC, what else do you expect????....

The Western interpretations might explain some of the notions you might have gained about the texts...
>>And I would recommend that
>>you read MT
>>Vasudevan Nair's "Randamoozham"(Second Turn), if you can get hold of a
>>translation. 
Thanks for this piece...I am trying to get my hands on this one...I always liked MT's works..I am trying to get a Hindi interpretation...I would like to read the Malayalam version but i'm painfully slow at it I'm afraid it might take me thru my retirement...

I would suggest you read the Bhagwad gita interpretation by Paramhansa Yogananda(in English, Good for you!!)..I don't say i beleive what he says, but i don't disbelieve it either....

Peace...
binod