Analyzing the Clues of Mahabharata - Research Paper Example

? Essay The epic Mahabharata represents different real facts of life and society through its different stories and characters. Analyzing these clues help one relate the ancient epic to the Hindu society, relationships and related aspects of India and the Hindu religious beliefs. Bhisma’ s vow The epic Mahabharata has given a lot of importance to vows and also shown instances how people tend to maintain these vows throughout their life. Such a case has been illustrated through Bhisma’s oath. Bhisma, the son of king Santanu and Ganga become very happy on seeing his father living a happy life with his new Queen Satyavati. For his father’s happiness after his remarriage Bhisma took a vow that he would never be the king nor would he marry. Instead he would devote all his energy to make his race the strongest one on land (Bucks, 21). Evidences are there in the story that such vows were really important and individuals never dare to break them in their entire lifetime. This is shown during King Shantanu’s conversation with Ganga before their marriage where the king vows that he would never ask her name, nor speak to her unkindly or interfere in anything she does. Else Ganga is bound to leave him (Bucks, 18). As soon as king asks Ganga not end his child’s life, bound by the vows Ganga left him (Bucks, 21). Vows were considered to be that important by the society that individuals sacrificed their desires and devoted his entire life in maintenance of the vow. Once a promise made could not be broken within lifetime. King Pandu’s Children Throughout the epic Mahabharata the author has shown how people had to suffer for their sins created even it was created unconsciously or without such intentions. The case of King Pandu is an example of the moral teaching. King Pandu during his dwelling in the forest had once killed a pair of deer when they were making love for which he received the curse that he would also face death in a similar situation. Pandu still had because princess Kunti knew a ‘mantra’ that would allow her to meet those Gods and give birth to their sons. Kunti had three sons one after another from Dharma, the god of justice; Vayu, the god of wind and lord Indra. Pandu’s another wife Madri also learnt the spell and gave birth to two twin sons from the twin horsemen and physicians of the God, the Aswins (Bucks, 34). Underlying king Pandu’s sons there remains a special feature. They were the offsprings of Gods. The quality and characteristics of their fathers, the gods were clearly visible in them. Yudhistira became so wise owing to his father Dharma. Bhim inherited such enormous strength from Vayu. So the special characteristics have helped the Pandavas emerge as the special and able persons as we have seen throughout the story. The Pandavas have emerged as the good characters of the epic and the author attributes this to their birth and inheritance. They are so good because they are special children of god. Gandhari wearing blindfold & Nature of women in society and religion In the epic Mahabharata we get an idea of place of women in society during that period and their devotion to husbands. Princess Gandhari of the mountain kingdom Gandhara was coming to marry Kuru king Dhritarashtra who was blind. Being already in love with the king Gandhari wore a blindfold to equalize her husband in terms of his blindness (Bucks, 33). Such an instance reveals Gandhari’s devotion towards her husband. This was found to be the nature of Hindu women during that period. They looked upon their husbands as everything on earth and wished to share any misery or punishment that was suffered by their husbands. They had a habit of putting themselves away from any facility or happiness that their husbands were devoid of. Gandhari loved her husband deeply and considered him to be her everything. Since her husband was devoid of vision she too wished to share her husband’s ill fortune. This was done so that her husband did not feel inferior or unhappy about the fact that a normal girl has married a blind person. Hindu society would cite her as an example of how much a woman can be devoted to her husband. They would also consider her to be extremely responsible towards her husband. The Hindu society during that period as described in Mahabahrata always welcomed such sacrifices of a woman for her husband and always wanted her to be very careful and responsible towards her married life. Significance of Karna’s character In the epic Mahabharata, the son of Lord Surya, Karna is a special character with a different background. He was left in the Ganges by his mother Kunti immediately after birth. Inclusion of Karna’s character in Mahabharata helps to show the negative side of Kunti’s character who did not care about her son and betrayed him (Bucks, 1973, p.30). The character also plays a role in showing the competitive nature of the God and even a trick played by Krishna who only supported truth. The trick was to save Arjuna from the arrows of Karna during war (Bucks, 292). The spiritual meaning brought out by Karna’s character is that supporting something wrong and not protesting against it is equivalent to committing a crime. Karna was very loyal friend to evil natured Duryodhana and supported him in his evil activities. In the end Karna had to suffer death in the battlefield pay for his deeds (Bucks, 46). Such a character like Karna gives mainly two lessons. Firstly betrayal can make a person emotionless and make him crazy for revenge. Secondly supporting something bad is equivalent to doing something of that sort. Draupadi and the dice game The epic Mahabharata talks about the curious character of Drupada king’s Draupadi who was supposed to marry Arjuna but ended up wedding all the five brothers. She was also put at stake during a dice game which Yudhistira lost. Draupadi had to tolerate extreme ill behavior and Dushasana tried to strip off her clothes in the Assembly only because her stake. Such an incident shows that women in Indian society at that time were treated as properties that could be put on stake and anybody had fair chance of winning. Again wives had to bear all the punishments on behalf of her husband and suffer for her husband’s misfortune (Bucks, 99). The incident depicted in Mahabharat tells us that women in Indian society had to be extermly obedient to their husbands during that period. They were made the victims for their husband’s wrong doings irrespective of their wishes. Yudhistira’s refusal to fight In the final stage of Mahabharata the author has given a vivid description of war and its underlying violence and bloodshed. Bhisma known to be an eminent was fighting against the Pandavas and his arrows bathed the entire Pandav army with blood. At this point of time in the battle field Yudhstira holds himself responsible for the bloodshed in Pandava army. He feels that his ignorance has resulted in enmity with Bhisma. So Yudhistira fels to save hundreds of remaining valuable lives present in the battlefield he should end the war and return to forests. Here basically Yudhistira is following ‘Dharma’ by claiming responsibility for war and trying to save the lives of warriors (Bucks, 266). Clearly Dharma (religion) has been the message of Mahabharata which tells individuals to protect the lives of all the people on earth and not indulge in violence. Yudhistira has always lived his life in the path of Dharma and by claiming responsibility and trying to save people he reveals his nature and characteristics filled with the qualities of his father lord Dharma. The religious meaning The story of a poisonous lake with a crane sitting beside has been depicted in Mahabharata whose water killed the four Pandava brothers with Yudhistira only being alive (Bucks, 194). Actually the brothers did not die because of the lake water. They died not because of drinking the lake water but because they refused to listen to a voice and ignored it. Such an incident brings out a religious meaning. It tells people not to ignore or avoid anybody and make it a point to listen to everyone. Underestimating someone can prove to be very costly and the person can land up in serious trouble (Bucks, 194). Such an incident carries the moral teaching ignoring someone due to his external appearance is never a good idea. External appearance can sometimes hide the reality of a person. Underestimation and ignorance are the major faults of human nature which needs to be corrected. References: Bucks, William, Mahabharata. London: University of California Press, 1973 Essay 2 The Mahabharata is an epic which contains short stories throughout with underlying moral teachings which help one at different junctures of life. Significance of the poisonous lake The story of a poisonous lake with a crane sitting beside it has been depicted in Mahabharata (Buck, 194). As soon as the four pandava brothers drank the water they were dead. The moral of the story is that no one should be underestimated. People create errors when they ignore someone considering the individual to be inferior. The story is also religiously significant as it teaches everyone to listen to others unlike what the four Pandava brothers had done. But Yudhisthira did not repeat the same mistake and this saved his life. He took a wise decision by listening to the crane whom others ignored. Again the questions that Yudhisthira answered are portraying religious beliefs. Such beliefs are wife is a friend given by god, mother is heavier than earth and many more. The answers to these and other questions asked portray religious beliefs of the Hindus (Buck, 195-198). At the end of the total episode of the poisonous lake it gives a moral teaching. It teaches every individual to be obedient and not to disobey anybody. Disobedience can result in extreme disasters like the one shown in the story. Had the brothers obeyed the voice they would not have died. Moreover the story teaches not to judge anybody based on his appearance. In the story itself we see that Lord Dharma was disguised as crane and he was testing the merit of Yudhisthira (Buck, 198). So nobody should be considered weak or harmless. The inner powers or intentions of nobody can be judged from outside. Absolute weapon The characters of Mahabharata portray the characters which are quite similar to the characters that any individual comes across throughout his life. One can compare and draw similarity with the type of characters the person faces in his life. According to Karna his ‘absolute weapon’ was Indra’s winged dart. But the concept of the absolute weapon to defeat Arjuna was totally proved wrong as the dart broke into pieces as soon as it reached near Arjuna’s head. Arjuna remained unhurt. Role of Karna The character of Karna although carries negative shades, is a tragic one. He had been left alone by his mother as soon as he was born. Again due to his friendship with Duryodhana he stayed away and became an enemy to his own brothers. With inclusion of the character of Karna in the plot, we find shades of negativity in princess Kunti’s character that left her son Karna in the Ganges soon after his birth without caring what would happen to him (Buck, 30). It is for Kunti only that Karna was separated from his brothers. Such a betrayal totally devastated his emotions and made him bad. Even after being Lord Surya’s son he had to live the life of a charioteer’s son. Karna also has been depicted as being very kind to beggars. Karna himself is not a very bad person. Negativity had touched his character only after he accepted Duryodhana’s friendship (Buck, 46). This instance of advancement of Karna’s character certainly contains a spiritual meaning. It guides individuals to stay away from bad company. Touch of evil even in something good can make it bad. This is exactly what we see in Karna’s character. Had he stayed with the Pandavas he could not be portrayed as a negative character. Negativity comes into his character only when he tries to do justice to friendship. One can learn from him to be always loyal to friends and be kind. But at the same time it teaches everyone to stay away from bad people and their company. Karna has bad karma only because he became a friend of the evil Duryodhana and participated in all his evil activities. He never protested or prevented Duryodhana from doing all these. Rakshasi, Hidimba Hidimba, the Rakshasi is a powerful woman since unlike the normal timidity that a woman of that society was expected to display, the rakshasi actually proposes Bhima with her affection towards him and this shows her courage and simplicity. She even pleads with Kunti to convince Bhima for marriage and finally succeeds. She depicts the different dimensions of a woman’s character. A woman can be destructive in nature if she wants and also can transform as she wishes into an enticing and shy person. It shows that woman of the society were expected to behave meekly and be beautiful in order to gain attention of their counterpart. Virata’s general finds a bad end The epic Mahabharata contains a number of incidents during Pandavas life in the forest and even during the period when they hid themselves from Duryodhana’s spies and took shelter in King Virata’s kingdom. They took shelter in disguise with some other identities. Draupadi took shelter as queen’s servant and told her name Sairindhri (Buck, 203). King Virata’s general, Kichaka was an evil natured man. He wanted Draupadi to be his wife irrespective of her wishes. Due to his forceful attempts to get hold over Draupadi she decided to teach him a lesson and rightly did so. Kichaka was crushed by Bhima to death (Buck, 220). This whole incident carries with it a religious message. Religious teachings say that a person always has to pay for his deeds and that is exactly happened with him. Ill behavior with women and forceful attempts to get hold of them is forbidden by religion. Kichaka did so and was hence punished by Bhima for his deeds. Danger of love Incidents like this, as depicted in Mahabharata gives an idea of romanticism during that period. Men were attracted by beautiful women and paid much attention to them. Sometimes the desired for them badly and wanted to get hold of them irrespective of women’s wishes. Women were looked upon as objects of desire and luxury which men tried to take over through their riches or through force. Such an instance is shown in the Draupadi –Kichaka episode where Kickaka, getting hold of Draupadi’s arm, says, “The Queen has many servants. Surely you can spend here the day with me” (Buck, 216) or where he catches Draupadi and says, “Sairindhri let our union take place” (Buck, 218). Such incidents prove that women had hard time protecting themselves from the eyes of such ill natured man. It also raises questions about the security of women during that period. Duryodhana’s excuse In Mahabharata the characters discussed contains both good and bad and each continues to remain so till the end of the story. The characters do not undergo any change in nature in any part of the story. Similar is the case with prince Duryodhana who refuses to shed his image of cruelty. As per the punishment from the game of dice after completion of the thirteenth year of their disguise the Pandavas could reveal their identity and get back their kingdom but Duryodhana refused to hand over their kingdom with the fake excuse of discovering them and revealing their identity before time (Buck, 218). Duryodhana had no limits to his cunning nature and cruelty and so refused to handover Pandavas Kingdom even after they served their entire of punishment. He wanted to grasp everything of his own cousins and his jealous nature has been revealed here. Bhisma’s refusal For the epic Mahabharata its biggest event had been the war which occurred for Duryodhana not returning Pandavas kingdom. Only Duryodhana supported the war for kingdom against everyone. He only received active support from his friend Karna. However Bhisma did not want Karna to fight. This is because Karna had already lost his support of armor by giving it to Indra. The Indra dart that he got in exchange had no comparison in protection to the Narayana one which the Pandavas received (Buck, 236). Karna’s fight against brothers Karna wants to fight against the pandavas knowing that they are his brothers. This is because wounds of Kunti’s betrayal had not healed up. Karna wanted to take the revenge from his brothers for such a betrayal. Moreover Karna wanted to do justice to his friendship Duryodhana who had always been by his side. He considered Duryodhana much above than his brothers whose mother had left him. Such an instance although gives out negativity shades in Karna’s character that supported a wrong cause but at the same time also reveals Karna’s loyalty towards his friend. Gita’s techings The epic Mahabharata has carried out religious teachings throughout along with various incidents. Some religious teachings have also been delivered to mankind in the final stage of the story which is warfare. In one part of the story where Krishna delivered Gita’s teaching to Arjuna saying, “My beloved –why yield, why give away? – the song of the Lord.” (Buck, 259) is very inspirational. In fact this message of Gita on the warfield is delivered to Arjun to give him support and courage to fight against his own people. It is always a difficult task to rise up against near and dear ones. But every individual should give priority to truth. Fighting for justice is the biggest task that a man can perform in his entire life. He should look forward to do so and if necessary revolt against his family. But justice should always be ensured. Such a message in the battlefield gave the confidence and strength to Arjuna with which he fought for justice. This message is thus highly appreciable. The message also serves the spiritual purpose of the story. It teaches human beings not to deny justice in any matter. It is equivalent to committing a crime. An individual should always step forward to fight for justice even if it requires him to fight against his family and friends. The Trick The warfare, biggest event of the epic Mahabharata, has been depicted in the final stage of the story. It gives us a vivid description of how man turned beasts on the battle grounds and also a clear description of the cruelty associated with such violence and bloodshed. Even Lord Krishna known to be the face of truth saves Arjuna’s life in the war by performing a trick. When Karna targeted some arrows at Arjuna, Krishna put his feet down so that Arjun’s car land in the earth. Thus arrows went atop Arjun’s head and this saved his life. Argument against the trick Such a trick cannot be justified in respect of warfare which always should be fairly fought. Such a trick does not at all suit Krishna who always speaks of truth and justice. Even if the trick is considered to be n attempt to save Arjuna’s life but it again cost Karna his life. This is again unfair. Hence such a trick in the battlefield can never be supported or tolerated at any cost. The final point The epic Mahabharata starts with the story of brothers of which one group is honest, kind and truthful while the other filled with cruelty and can never be honest or truthful. Throughout the epic we have short stories with religious teachings related to various incidents and finally the epic ends with warfare. At the final point of the story it has been shown that victory is always in the side of truth. It also goes with our religious belief that whoever is right and justified should be on the winning side. The Pandavas emerged victorious because they fought for the right reason and justice. Duryodhana found himself on his losing side in spite of having a huge army and eminent warriors. Actually Duryodhana was rightly paid in the end for his cruel deeds. Anybody in support of wrong doings is himself committing a crime. This is why Karna was punished although he was kind and remained loyal to his friend. Overall the moral of the story is victory is always on the side where truth and honesty is. References 1. Bucks, William. Mahabharata. London: University of California Press, 1973 Twelfth century BC is known to be the year of birth of the two great epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata. The Hindus, the way they live and their traditional beliefs, are inspired by the stories and the moral teachings of these two epics. These books have also helped in shaping up the attitudes of the Hindu community towards women. Place of Women in Hindu Society Women during the 12th century as evident from Mahabharata were given sufficient respect and men always looked forward to fulfill all their needs and desires. The conversation between Bhima and Draupadi in the book gives us an idea of this where Draupadi expresses her likings for a flower saying that, “Look what a wonderful flower!” Even knowing that it is in the mountains Bhima said that, “I’ll go look…. And if I find any more I’ll bring them back for you” (Buck, 156). Women took part in family decision making and were given social rights like choosing their husbands. In Mahabharata mention has been several times of a ceremony called ‘Swayamvara’ (Buck, 121). The ceremony was held for princesses’ marriage. Thousands of kings and princes would come for different regions and princess would select as her husband. A great amount of love and respect was noticed in every woman for her husband. They were even ready to share their husband’s misery as princess says “How long will you pass your days without me? How long will you live hungry, sleep under the trees without me?” (Buck, 126) This fact has been highlighted in the book through princess Damayanti’s remarks “I will wear this torn robe until I see Nala again and if I do not meet with him soon I will die and leave this body for a better place” (Buck, 130). This shows that the princess cannot even think of surviving without her husband King Nala. They in return received the same kind of love and respect as evident from Nala’s remarks “I will remain yours forever” (Buck, 123). Men gave women, especially the beautiful ones, much importance as they desired to marry them. Such a desire is expressed by King Shantanu as he tells Ganga, “Beautiful One, of whatever race you are, goddess or Naga, Asura or Apsaras or human being as myself, return with me now as my Queen” (Buck, 18). This quotation also shows there was no such racial discrimination. Women maintained privacy in their decisions and also did not tolerate such interference. As Ganga says to king Shantanu before marriage, “But if I become your lady you must never ask my name, nor speak to me unkindly, nor interfere with anything I do, or I will leave you” (Buck, 18). Although Kings at that time had a number of wives none of them were ignored and each of them was given equal importance. The wives also did not object at all. In Mahabharata it has been said that King Pandu lived happily with his two wives at Hastinapur (Buck, 31). But one bad thing about the society at that time as reflected in Mahabharata is that men considered their wives to be their assets and even did not felt bad about mortgaging them as collateral securities. This is revealed in that part of Mahabharata where King Yudhisthira says, “I stake Draupadi against all five of us” (Buck, 97). Here the king is staking his wife Draupadi in a game of dice even without her knowledge. This has hurt Draupadi a lot as she says, “Who stakes his wife in a dice game?” (Buck, 99). But at that time women had to be obedient to her husband irrespective of their wishes. Although women were treated with respect, undoubtedly even at that time the society was dominated by men. People remained silent and did not protest even in case of men’s ill behavior. Here even though Draupadi had not even played the dice game she was punished by Dushasana who tried stripping off her clothes in front of a number of people. But Lord Krishna applied some magical acts and prevented such a crime from happening. In spite of so many people present in the assembly nobody stopped Prince Dushasana from creating such a sin. Left with no other option Draupadi had to bear the punishment on behalf of her husband for losing the dice game (Buck, 99). This instance shows that women even tolerated all the wrong doings of their husbands as if it was their duty. Importance of woman in Dharma As depicted in the Mahabharata people at that time were extremely religious as well as superstitious. They performed rituals and religious ceremonies for every moments of happiness in their life and also to overcome bad luck. Ceremonies were performed for kingship as we see in case of Karna who was made the king of Anga. Men offered religious prayers to Gods regularly. This we see in case of Karna who regularly worshiped a fatal dart for a year with lights and beads and food (Buck, 288). It has also been shown here that men only performed such religious and any such religious required men more rather than women. But women also used to take part in religious ceremonies. People also believed the existence of evil spirits and demons. In Mahabharata mention has been made of demons very frequently and even in that part where Vibhandaka informs Rishyasringa, “Well let me tell you that was a Rakshasa! Even so do they appear in sunlight” (Buck, 150). A ceremony was performed during Karna’s kingship where Duryodhana gave him the royal parasol and Dushasana fanned Karna with a yak tail fan (Buck, 46). In Mahabharata there are instances of god showing off their power by creating miracles. Lord Krishna prevented Dushasana from stripping off Draupadi’s clothes by giving her an extra dress every time he stripped one (Buck, 99). The Surya god coming down to the earth to meet Princess Kunti as she uttered some magic words taught by Durvasas (Buck, 29). Gods residing in the heaven have been shown as extremely powerful and could cure or give blessings to any human beings according to their deeds. For instance, in one part Lord Indra and Lord Surya are competing against each other. Each of the lords is putting all their efforts to save their sons (Arjuna and Karna respectively) in the war (Buck, 290). So ordinary people always tried to please the Gods and seek their blessings. But male dominance has been revealed even in case of Hindu ‘dharma’. All gods discussed about in Mahabharata are males. No mention of any such powerful female goddess is found here. The male gods are also shown as having similar desires like that of ordinary human being. Lord Indra expresses his desire to marry beautiful princess Damayanti (Buck, 122). Women too are shown to have the desire to meet gods. As princess Kunti tells Lord Surya, “So soon! ….But stay a moment you have come so far to see me here.” (Buck, 30). Such instances as shown in Mahabharata that although women were respected the males were the kings and they ruled even over the society. This dominance is even reflected in ‘dharma’. Conclusion From the descriptions and moral stories available in Mahabharata we find that women were given enough respect during that period. They also received a lot of love from their husbands in return of their devotion. But it has to be said that the society was purely male dominated and women had to be obedient to them and also suffer for their wrong activities. References 2. Bucks, William, Mahabharata. London: University of California Press, 1973 Read More