describe some of the regional and folk variation of the Mahabharata
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Two books containing essays on various aspects and variations of theMahabharata text have been published in 2009. The first, edited by Dr. K.K. Chakravarty, Member-Secretary of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, contains an introduction by him and twenty articles divided into four sections (textual complex, regional traditions, performance andpurushartha). These were presented in a seminar in February 2007 as part of the fourth anniversary celebrations of the National Manuscript Mission. The second volume is a collection of 23 essays with an excellent introduction by the Dr. TRS Sharma of which eight were presented in an international Mahabharata seminar in March 2004 as part of the Sahitya Akademi’s Golden Jubilee celebrations. The first six essays of this book are reproduced from TheMahabharata Revisited edited by Professor R.N. Dandekar, being proceedings of a 1997 seminar. The rest are newly commissioned papers that fall into two broad sections: those that deal with various facets of the epic and those dealing with its regional variations.
What catches the eye at the outset is the striking cover designs of both books. The cover of the first book is the pediment from the National Museum of Phnom Penh portraying Bhima leaping into the air to strike Duryodhana as the other Pandavas watch and Krishna tries to hold back a furious plough-wielding Balarama. The back cover is a miniature from the Kashmiri school depicting Arjuna piercing the earth to provide water for Bhishma lying on the bed of arrows, as Krishna, in his cosmic form, watches. The cover of the second book portrays the Navagunjara, a composite figure comprising parts of nine animals thatKrishna assumes before Arjuna as visualised by Sarala Dasa in his Oriya Mahabharata. For theMahabharata-enthusiast eager to know the variations that exist in the vernacular, oral and tribal versions both books hold great appeal as they provide glimpses of such variations within India and withou
What catches the eye at the outset is the striking cover designs of both books. The cover of the first book is the pediment from the National Museum of Phnom Penh portraying Bhima leaping into the air to strike Duryodhana as the other Pandavas watch and Krishna tries to hold back a furious plough-wielding Balarama. The back cover is a miniature from the Kashmiri school depicting Arjuna piercing the earth to provide water for Bhishma lying on the bed of arrows, as Krishna, in his cosmic form, watches. The cover of the second book portrays the Navagunjara, a composite figure comprising parts of nine animals thatKrishna assumes before Arjuna as visualised by Sarala Dasa in his Oriya Mahabharata. For theMahabharata-enthusiast eager to know the variations that exist in the vernacular, oral and tribal versions both books hold great appeal as they provide glimpses of such variations within India and withou
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