Explain some of the regional variation of the Mahabharata.
Answers
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 without