The Mahabharata Read online

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  The Mahabharata

  R. K. Narayan was born in Madras, South India, and educated there and at Maharaja’s College in Mysore. His first novel, Swami and Friends (1935), and its successor, The Bachelor of Arts (1937), are both set in the enchanting fictional territory of Malgudi. Other ‘Malgudi’ novels are The Dark Room (1938), The English Teacher (1945), Mr Sampath (1949), The Financial Expert (1952), Waiting for the Mahatma (1955), The Man-Eater of Malgudi (1961), The Vendor of Sweets (1967), The Painter of Signs (1976), A Tiger for Malgudi (1983) and Talkative Man (1986). His novel The Guide (1958) won him the National Prize of the Indian Literary Academy, his country’s highest honour. As well as five collections of short stories, A Horse and Two Goats, An Astrologer’s Day, Lawley Road, Malgudi Days and Under the Banyan Tree, he has published two travel books, My Dateless Diary and The Emerald Route; four volumes of essays, Next Sunday, Reluctant Guru, A Story-Teller’s World and A Writer’s Nightmare; the retold legends Gods, Demons and Others, The Ramayana and The Mahabharata; a volume of memoirs, My Days; and, most recently, a collection of three novellas, The Grandmother’s Tale. In 1980 he was awarded the A. C. Benson Medal by the Royal Society of Literature and in 1981 he was made an Honorary Member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Many of his books are published in Penguin.

  The Mahabharata

  A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic

  by R.K.Narayan

  WITH DECORATIONS BY R.K.LAXMAN

  PENGUIN BOOKS

  PENGUIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane, London w8 5TZ, England

  Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

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  Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 5 Watkins Street, Denver Ext 4, Johannesburg 2094, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England

  This translation first published in the USA by The Viking Press 1978

  First published in Great Britain in Penguin Classics 2001

  1

  Copyright © R. K. Narayan, 1978

  All rights reserved

  Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject

  to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent,

  re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s

  prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in

  which it is published and without a similar condition including this

  condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

  EISBN: 978–0–141–19081–5

  CONTENTS

  Introduction

  List of Characters and Places of Action in the Story

  Generation Tree

  1 THE EIGHTH BABY

  2 ENTER—THE PLAYERS

  3 HOUSE OF JOY—AND ASHES

  4 BRIDE FOR FIVE

  5 UNCLE’S GIFT

  6 CITY OF SPLENDOUR

  7 STAKES UNMATCHED

  8 WANDERINGS

  9 HUNDRED QUESTIONS

  10 SERVITUDE

  11 WARNING SHOTS

  12 WAR OR PEACE?

  13 ACTION

  14 HESITANT HERO

  15 DELIRIUM OF DESTRUCTION

  16 VICTORY AND SORROW

  EPILOGUE

  Glossary

  INTRODUCTION

  THE ORIGINAL COMPOSITION in the Sanskrit language runs to one hundred thousand stanzas in verse, thus making it the longest composition in the world: in sheer quantity eight times longer than The Iliad and The Odyssey put together. A great deal of scholarly research, based on internal evidence, cross references, and astronomical data occurring incidentally in the texts, has gone on for years in order to reach a conclusion in regard to the authorship and date of this epic. There can, however, be no such thing as a final statement on the subject. However, a few salient points have emerged from all the research.

  The nucleus of the story in some form, perhaps a ballad, was known in 1500 B.C. The tension between two branches of a ruling family of the warrior caste, the ups and downs in their fortunes, and a mighty battle that ensued to settle the question of supremacy were familiar facts long before the Christian Era. The geographical locations, such as Hastinapura and Kurukshetra, are still extant in the northernmost part of India. Commemorative festivals are still being celebrated there in certain seasons, associated with the characters in the tale. “The Pandavas were exiled here… ” or “… lived in these forests… ” and so forth.

  This tale of heroism, persecution, and intrigue must have passed into ballads or similar modes of popular entertainment. Out of these the first version of the epic was composed, consisting of twenty-four thousand stanzas, the authorship being attributed to Vyasa. Now, once again, speculation and doubt begins to grow around the name “Vyasa”. While ninety-nine percent of our public would accept the name and venerate him without question as an immortal, inspired sage, research-minded scholars have their own doubts and speculations. They explain that “Vyasa” could be a generic title, and that there could have been at different stages of the epic’s life several others who must have assumed the name for the purpose of composition. Speaking for myself, I would rather accept the traditional accounts. The conclusions of cold, factual research seem like “catching the rainbow with one’s fingers,” to quote a line from the epic itself.

  Vyasa’s epic was originally entitled Jaya, which means triumph or victory. When the vision of it came to him through the grace of Brahma, the Creator, Vyasa needed someone to take it down as he recited it. Ganesha, the god with an elephant head, accepted the assignment on one condition—that there should be no pause in the dictation. The author accepted this condition, provided that Ganesha realized and understood the meaning of every word before putting it down in writing.

  Vyasa kept up his dictation at a breathless speed, and Ganesha took it down with matching zest. When, at one point, his stylus failed, he broke off one of his tusks and continued the writing. The composer, whenever he found his amanuensis outrunning him, checked his speed by composing, here and there, passages—terse, packed and concentrated—which would force him to pause to get at the meaning. There are thus several passages in The Mahabharata which convey layers of meaning depending upon the stress and syllabification while reciting them aloud.

  Jaya became Bharata at the next stage, when Vysampayana, who had listened to the original narrative from Vyasa himself, conveyed it to an assembly of listeners at the court of Janamejaya. The work acquired considerable volume at this stage, swollen to about fifty thousand stanzas. Much later, it was narrated again at another assembly of sages in a forest, this time by one Sauti, who had heard it at Janamejaya’s court.

  Sauti is a great traveller and arrives at the ashram of a sage named Saunaka, set in deep woods, where a number of sages are gathered reposefully after a prolonged performance of certain rites and sacrifices for the welfare of humanity. While they are resting thus, Sauti walks in—a wayfarer. As prescribed by the code of hospitality, the sages offer him shelter and rest, and seat him comfortably. When the formalities are over, and when they feel certain that their guest has rested and overcome the fatigue of travel, they ask, “O guest, where are you coming from? What strange and rare experiences have you undergone and what places and men have you seen?�
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  Sauti answers, “I visited the holy land of Kurukshetra where was fought the eighteen-day war between the Pandavas and their cousins, the Kauravas, and where the ground was washed in blood. I visited it after I had heard the tale narrated by Vysampayana at the great Serpent Sacrifice* performed at Janamejaya’s court.” And Sauti’s narrative acquired further quantity and quality at this stage.

  At other unspecified times, additions were made by each narrator. Episodes, philosophies, and moral lessons were added until the epic came to its present length of one hundred thousand stanzas. In this form, about A.D. 400, it came to be known as The Mahabharata, maha being a prefix indicating greatness.

  Scholars have worked hard to identify the recensions, alterations, and additions, and definitive editions are available indicating the changes from the original versions. It is a controversial field, but the main story is accepted on all hands and beyond all argument: once upon a time in ancient Hastinapura lived a royal family—with five brothers of divine origin on one side, and their one hundred cousins on the other, at war with each other. This framework is filled with details and lines of the finest poetic values in Sanskrit. Of its literary and other values, here is a summary as the author himself declared it:

  When Vyasa had the epic all complete in his mind, he invoked Brahma, the Creator, and explained, “I have composed a poem which is vast. Therein are revealed the mystery and the subtleties of the Vedas and Upanishads; descriptions of creeds and modes of life; the history of past, present, and future; rules for the four castes; the essence of the Puranas, of asceticism, and rules for the acolyte; the dimensions of the sun, moon, and stars; a description of the four yugas; a definition of charity, the subject of the incarnation of souls for specific purposes; the sciences and the healing of sickness; also a description of places of pilgrimage, of rivers, mountains, and forests, and of heavenly cities and palaces; the art of war; descriptions of different nations, their languages, and their qualities; and of the all-pervading universal spirit.” And at this stage Brahma said, “Call on Ganesha. He is the one fittest to take down your poem as you recite it.”

  The Mahabharata consists of eighteen parvas (or parts), as many volumes by the present measure of production. Being a work dependent on oral report, there is naturally much repetition, perhaps for the benefit of a listener who might have missed a piece, as the narration goes on day after day. In this method of narrative a character reporting elsewhere on a situation which the reader already knows, gives again a complete account to his listener. The epic form is detailed and leisurely, and the technique of narration is different from what we are used to. There is an unhurrying quality about it which gives it stature. To point a moral, a complete, independent story of great length and detail may be included, a deviation from the mainstream which can run to several hundred pages. Thus, we have in The Mahabharata the well-known legends such as Harischandra, Nala, and Savitri, Yayati, Draupadi (presented here in an adapted form), Shakuntala, and Sibi, which are included in my previous book, Gods, Demons, and Others.

  Another factor which swells The Mahabharata is philosophic discussion—discourses on life and conduct which one or another of the sages expounds—sometimes running to several hundred lines at a time. The Bhagavad Gita is an instance of such a situation. When the opposing armies are ready to attack each other, Krishna reveals and elaborates (in eighteen chapters) the Gita philosophy.

  Great edicts in the text often center round the duties of a king or a commoner. Thus we have a whole parva, or part, called Santhi, a full volume in which Bhishma, while dying, discourses on the duties of a king for the benefit of Yudhistira. This is followed by Anusasana, another complete book, which is equally voluminous, detailing the importance of rituals, worship, and their proper performance. In a sense, these could be termed “asides,” but no reader of The Mahabharata in India would miss any part of it.

  Although this epic is a treasure house of varied interests, my own preference is the story. It is a great tale with well-defined characters who talk and act with robustness and zest—heroes and villains, saints and kings, women of beauty, all displaying great human qualities, super-human endurance, depths of sinister qualities as well as power, satanic hates and intrigues—all presented against an impressive background of ancient royal capitals, forests, and mountains.

  The actual physical quantum of the epic is staggering. If only a single word could be used to indicate the gist of each stanza, the total length of such a sampling would still run to one hundred thousand words. I have omitted none of the episodes relevant to the destinies of the chief characters. I have kept myself to the mainstream and held my version within readable limits.

  For a modern reader in English, one has necessarily to select and condense. I have not attempted any translation, as it is impossible to convey in English the rhythm and depth of the original language. The very sound of Sanskrit has a hypnotic quality which is inevitably lost in translation. One has to feel content with a prose narrative in story form.

  For me, the special interest in this work is the role the author himself plays in the story. Vyasa not only composed the narrative, but being aware of the past and future of all his characters, helps them with solutions when they find themselves in a dilemma. Sometimes he may see into the future and emphasize the inevitability of certain coming events, making his heroes resign themselves to their fate.

  In this way, at a moment when the Pandavas are all happily settled at Indraprastha, Vyasa hints to Yudhistira that he will be the total destroyer of their clan and race thirteen years hence. Yudhistira accepts this news with terror and resignation, stating, “We cannot change the circumstances that destiny decrees. But I shall do nothing to provoke anyone in any manner and practise absolute non-violence in thought, word and deed. It is the only way to meet the decrees of Fate.” This episode comes long before the gambling match which leads to the Pandavas’ ruin. When the invitation to gamble comes, Yudhistira accepts it, in addition to his own partiality for the game, as a part of his policy not to displease others. When others argue fiercely with him on any matter, he always answers them with gentleness and calm.

  Earlier in the story, when the Pandavas wander without aim, they are directed by Vyasa to go to Ekavrata and then on to Panchala, where they are destined to find their bride. Throughout, the author lives with his characters, and this is the greatest charm of this work for me. Vyasa’s birth itself is explained at the beginning of the epic. He was conceived in a ferry by his virgin mother, who later begot by Santanu the two brothers, the widows of the younger brother becoming pregnant through Vyasa’s grace, and giving birth to Dhritarashtra and Pandu, whose sons in turn become the chief figures of The Mahabharata.

  R. K. NARAYAN

  Mysore, 1977

  LIST OF CHARACTERS AND PLACES OF ACTION IN THE STORY

  (If not otherwise indicated, the “a” is broad, as in “ah” the “th” is a soft “t” as in “thyme”; the “u” is “oo” as in “cool”; the “i” is “ee” as in “seen.”)

  AGNI (ag’ nee): God of Fire.

  AMBA (am’ ba): Princess, sister of Ambika and Ambalika, who was transformed into Sikandi, a male warrior.

  AMBALIKA (am ba’ lee ka): wife of Vichitravirya.

  AMBIKA (am’ bee ka): wife of Vichitravirya.

  ABJUNA (ar’ joo na): third son of Kunthi.

  ASWATHAMA (as wat ta’ ma): son of Drona.

  ASWINS (as’ wins): twins, minor gods.

  BAKASURA (ba ka’ soo ra): a demon.

  BHARADWAJ (ba ra dwaj’): a sage, father of Drona.

  BHIMA (bee’ ma): second son of Kunthi.

  BHIMASENA (bee’ ma say’ na): same as Bhima.

  BHISHMA (beesh’ ma): Devavratha’s later name.

  BRIHANNALA (bri ha’ na la): Arjuna’s assumed name in Virata.

  CHITRANGADA (chee tran’ ga da): son of Santanu by Satyavathi.

  DEVAVRATHA (day va’ vra ta): son of Santanu.

  DHANANJAYA (
da nan’ ja ya): another name for Arjuna.

  DHARMARAJA (dar ma ra’ ja): Yudhistira.

  DHAUMYA (dowm’ ya): Yudhistira’s chief priest.

  DHRISHTADYUMNA (dri’ shta dyoom’ na): son of Drupada.

  DHRITARASHTRA (dri ta rash’ tra): son of Ambika and Ambalika through Vyasa.

  DHURVASA (door va’ sa): a sage known for his quick temper.

  DRAUPADI (drow’ pa dee): wife of the Pandava brothers; also called Panchali or Yajnaseni.

  DRONA (dro’ na): a teacher of military science and art to the sons and nephews of Dhritarashtra.

  DRUPADA (droo’ pa da): King of Panchala.

  DUSSASANA (doo sa’ sa na): second son of Dhritarashtra.

  DURYODHANA (door yo’ da na): eldest son of Dhritarashtra.

  DWAITA (dwi’ ta)

  DWARAKA (dwa’ ra ka)

  EKAVRATA (ay ka’ vra ta)

  GANDHARI (gan da’ ree): wife of Dhritarashtra.

  GANGA (gan’ ga): Santanu’s first wife.

  GHATOTKACHA (ga tot’ ka cha): Bhima’s demon son.

  HARI (ha’ ree): one of Krishna’s names.

  HASTINAPURA (ha stee na’ poo ra)

  INDRA (een’ dra): Chief of the Gods.

  INDRAPRASTHA (een’ dra pra’ sta)

  JANAMEJAYA (ja na ma jay’ ya): son of King Parikshit.

  JAYADRATHA (ja ya’ dra ta): ruler of Sindu, and son-in-law of Dhritarashtra.

  KAMYAKA (kam’ ya ka)

  KARNA (kar’ na): son of Kunthi before she married Pandu.

  KHANDAVAPRASTHA (kan’ da va pra’ sta)

  KICHAKA (kee’ cha ka): General of Virata’s army and brother of the Queen.

  KRIPA (kri’ pa): another guru of the young men at the court of Dhritarashtra.

  KRISHNA (kreesh’ na): eighth incarnation of Vishnu.

  KUNTHI (koon’ tee): wife of Pandu.

  KURUKSHETRA (koo ru kshay’ tra)

  MADRI (ma’ dree): wife of Pandu.