Yuganta: The End of an Epoch

by Irawati Karve

Yuganta studies the principal, mythical-heroic figures of the Mahabharata from historical, anthropological and secular perspectives. The usually venerated characters of this ancient Indian epic are here subjected to a rational enquiry that places them in context, unravels their hopes and fears, and imbues them with wholly human motives, thereby making their stories relevant and astonishing to contemporary readers.

Irawati Karve, thus, presents a delightful collection of essays, scientific in spirit, yet appreciative of the literary tradition of the Mahabharata. She challenges the familiar and formulates refreshingly new interpretations, all the while refusing to judge harshly or venerate blindly.

Genres: Mythology, India, Nonfiction, Marathi, History, Indian Literature, Philosophy

217 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Karve received a master's degree in sociology from Mumbai University in 1928 and a doctorate in anthropology from a university in Berlin, Germany in 1930.
Karve served for many years as the head of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Deccan College, Pune (University of Pune).
She presided over the Anthropology Division of the National Science Congress held in New Delhi in 1947.
She wrote in both Marathi and English on topics pertaining to sociology and anthropology, as well as on nonscientific topics.

Reviews

[Arun Divakar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note : This is an insanely long review which I did not think much of until I finished and posted. So consider yourself warned !

A short while ago, five of us undertook a road trip which was roughly over 3000 KM in all. As road trips go, it was truly one of the most memorable trips that we had undertaken. Since there was also a lot of driving involved at night, we resorted to telling stories to keep each other awake. Being an incorrigible Mahabharata lover, I chose to tell them in detail of the 18 days of the Kurukshetra war and worked backwards to the beginning of the epic. What started out as a story telling session kept us all awake with a lot of active discussions back and forth. We practically ended up talking almost all of the night. On the one hand it helped all of us stay awake and on the other, I personally got more answers than questions by the time we were done. I wish I had read this before we started the trip !

This book is new set of glasses which are tinted with a hard and unflinching shade with which Irawati Karwe examines the Mahabharata For ease of summing up, some of the major areas the author touches upon are :

1.The Futility Of Human Effort : We struggle all our lives to build name and fame or in corporate lingo, to leave our mark on the sands of time. Yet what happens eventually ? Against the unrelenting blow of the wind called time, the sands scatter and all that were etched in it are wiped out. Yet more and more of us mortals go through the same notions again and again. The Mahabharata has two central characters who depict this to the best : Bhishma and Karna.

Bhishma’s entire life is one that goes to vain in the end. He acquired the name and fame by the iron like vow of celibacy he undertook and then on his only aim in life was the sustainment of his clan at the top of the Kshatriya pecking order. Forever just, pious and morally right Bhishma was said to be the paragon of Kshatriya virtue and yet he never raised a finger against the unruly gang of his great-grandsons, the Kauravas. One thing led to another and against the backdrop of the mighty Kurukshetra war, Bhishma watches the clan he tried so hard to sustain getting butchered to the last man. He had the gift of choosing his own time of death, a terrible gift it turned out to be for he was forced to stay alive watching the bloodbath. Irawati Karve shows a whole new group of perspectives which argue that beyond the guise of a colossus, Bhishma was a failure as a king, warrior and a human being.

There is a lot of lore built around Karna which portrays him as someone who never shied away from helping out others. A powerful warrior and someone who was always at a disadvantage right from his childhood at having been abandoned by his mother. Karna’s life was a struggle to obtain an identity and thereby be treated with respect by a highly caste oriented society. Try as he did, he never did attain what he was looking for. Popular portrayals of Karna have always maintained the wounded hero image of his and yet in portrayals based on the core text of the Mahabharata, Karna is a selfish and entirely self-centered man. The author does a very detailed inspection of this amazing character to arrive at a most human portrayal of him which I have seen very few later day writers do. Drawing a parallel with Bhishma, here too was a man who all his life struggled for an ideal and ultimately failed at it.

2.The Women : The course of the main story of the Mahabharata is driven inexorably to the calamitous end by the designs of its pivotal female characters. Unlike most other tales where women are marginalized presences, here the women give new dimensions and meanings to the entire story line of the epic. The author assesses the impact and effect of three of the most powerful characters in the epic : Gandhari, Kunti and Draupadi.

The warring factions of Pandavas and Kauravas had two powerful matriarchal figures in the forms of Kunti and Gandhari. The whole storyline of the epic boils down to a game of thrones with the Pandavas challenging the right of the Kauravas who held the throne and the inevitable backlash of this action. Through all these intrigues and complexities these two mothers held their clans strong and yet they were vastly different in the way their lives were lived out. Gandhari was the princess of Gandhara (which might have been Kandahar from the modern day Afghanistan) who was brought in to marry the crown prince of Hastinapura – Dhritharashtra. Belatedly she realizes that she was to be married to a blind man and choses a life of darkness with the aid of blindfold. While her son, Duryodhana was born a crown prince, she lives long enough to see him become a villain. What is even more tragic about her life is that she gets to see each and every male member of her family except her blind husband get killed during the war.

Kunti is renowned as the mother of the fabled five brothers. Yet her life from a very young age had been one hardship followed by another where she had to either stand and fight or perish. Whether it was to live with an impotent husband or with sons forever cursed to be deposed and living like ascetics, she chose to stand by the men in her life resolutely. The Pandavas struggled through life and on their way to the throne, they had to withstand social isolation, self-imposed exile and also fighting it out every step of the way. There were times when their morale was rock bottom and the will to survive simply vanished. Kunti was like a tigress in such moments, whipping them up to stand and fight and not to waste time languishing around. Our fabled heroes would never have survived where it not for this woman and her steely grit.

The most famous female character of them all is Draupadi. While I have read and written a lot about her with regards to Pratibha Ray’s brilliant Yajnaseni, there was one difference here that Irawati Karve points out. This was the questioning that she meted out to Yudhishtir at the time when she was to dragged into the court of the Kurus and was insulted in front of the assembled crowd. The situation fully justified her questioning her powerless husband and yet it left an ever widening rift between them. In the whole scheme of things, it was but a little incident and yet it ended up with them throwing poisoned barbs at each other even at their death beds. Draupadi was the singular force that kept the five together and along with Kunti strived to drive them towards their goal. As many an author points out, it is only at her death bed that she realizes that the true love in her life has been Bhima.

3.The Puppet-Master : Krishna has been the architect of the war and the rise of the five brothers in a thousand different ways. If you look at the interpretations of the epic right now, Krishna is a god who walked among men and helped restore order in a world that was slowly going to hell in a handbasket. The core text of the Mahabharata however differs from this version for there are no gods in them. Retellings from different sources has taken the story away from the plausible to the entirely impossible. Krishna was a crafty and highly articulate King of the Yadava clan who is rather mysterious in the way he lived out his life. His way of totally being dispassionate in his actions is a source of bafflement in a society that reveled in being passionately involved in all that it did. A valiant warrior and charioteer, he was also the one man who orchestrated the death of most the famous warriors in the Kaurava clan . The author begins the episode on Krishna by dispelling the myths about him and points out that beyond all the deeds and words, Krishna also had his own selfish ends to meet while helping his cousins ascend to the throne. Ultimately even he and his clan is not spared from the whirlwind of violence that spreads over the land. At my earlier readings of the Mahabharata, I have always been held in thrall by Krishna’s discourse of the Gita to Arjuna before the battle and spurring him into action. Yet if one applies reason to the entire aspect, the Gita does not appear to be a part of the original epic. Krishna speaks to his friend topics that would take a book to cover and in reality such a conversation would last days if not weeks and yet it is said that Arjuna did pick up his weapons and went to war immediately on the first day, so how did this happen ? Krishna and Arjuna were bosom buddies and had a brotherly affection between them and yet later interpretations call Arjuna a devotee of Krishna which all point to the inexorable fact that later representations of the epic gave rise to Krishna as a god and moved away from the true nature of the story.

4.Societal & Class struggles : Being such a massive and intricate story, in the first couple of readings one fails to observe what happens off the main screen. By this what I mean is that it is only rarely that we look at or ponder over what was the effect of this game of thrones on the lives of others who lived at this time. One of the most interesting observations from an anthropological standpoint that the author advances is the rivalry that the Pandavas built with the Nagas. For all the time that I have read this epic, I have taken this word - Naga for its literal meaning which means a snake or a serpent ! At the time of the Kshatriyas of this tale, a good part of India was covered in virgin forests with its own indigenous tribes and other inhabitants. In an episode, Arjuna and Krishna burn down the Khandava forest and slaughter every organism in it for satiating the fire god. According to the author, this puts both of them in list of enemies of the Nagas. What then ensues is a rivalry that is even more bloodied than the Pandava-Kaurava clash. A feud that lasts three generations and one that has a lasting impact on the lives of people who came after the Pandavas with one side trying to out kill the other. The Nagas still exist, for they are the inhabitants of the state of Nagaland in eastern India. If one were to look at this from a social angle, it is the struggle between the settlers and the local populace which sometimes explodes into a frenzy of violence.

The setting of this story is also at a time when the caste system holds sway heavily over the Indian society. In the descending order, the entire society was carved up into : Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Sudras. Brahmanas were men of knowledge and Kshatriyas were the warriors. The essay in question talks of two brahmanas who stepped away from the path of knowledge to the path of the weapon. The father-son duo of Drona and Ashvatthama were in the Kaurava clan and fought on their side in the war. At length the author goes about the purely selfish reasons that motivated the father and son to step into this role and also how Asvvathma, blinded by a quest for glory commits a remorseless massacre post the war. While Drona elicits sympathy for his fickle interest in riches, the warrior Asvvathma shows the early streaks of being someone who shows an insane attraction to violence.

In addition to these, there is also an essay that explores the nature of the half-brother of Dhritarashtra : Vidura who was also the chief minister of the kingdom. It also puts forward a theory that Yudhishtir could have been fathered by Vidura. Pretty much a farfetched theory and I really did not find this to be much beyond speculation.


5.Yuganta : An epoch ends with the Mahabharata in the true sense of the word. An entire nations’s worth of people are wiped out in the great war and the world starts afresh. Across India, the belief systems and the social conditions were also undergoing a massive churn. This could also explain how such a stark and hard boiled story like the Mahabharata could at a later point be transformed into a melodramatic soap opera fit for TV. In most serialized renditions of the tale, the stories are full of miracles and divine interventions and yet in the core text there were no gods who intervened in the affairs of mortals. Men and women lived to eat the fruits of their actions and the epic was ultimately a tragic one. It was only perhaps with the advent of the Bhakti movement that the likes of wish fulfilling gods and dreamy literature entered the fray. This essay is also one that traces the anthropological roots of the epic. Was there a written language at the time of the epic ? If so what was it ? This does not appear to have a definitive answers for the tales were sung by bards across the nation. A well-grounded look at the world of the Mahabharata was this essay!

There is nothing purely black or white in this story. All characters serve their own means and live and die like all of us humans. It is an unflinching and stark portrayal of humanities never ending fascination with destroying all that is dear to them and lamenting it later. This book is also a wonderful reminder of the saying : Big things come in small packages . In approximately 200 pages, it gave me an in depth perspective into my favorite story of all time.

[Riku Sayuj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Irawati Karve strips the great epic of its embellishments and additions to lay out before us this stark, thought-provoking. character study. This picture forces us to expand our views on the epic and the people tossed about in it. Full review to follow.


Edit: Irawati Karve deserves much less credit than I initially attributed to her. Most of the radical ideas were in play in Randamoozham and MT does not even try to sensationalize them as Karve later did.

[Akash Nair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once in a while you read a book you will cherish all your life. This is such a book. It took me a paltry 3 days to read it but the things I have learnt from it will stay with me forever.
The book is a critical analysis of the characters of Jaya(Mahabharatha). All characters are dealt as humans and all divine references are avoided. There are many points in the book which can be contested and debated.
The author highlights the differences between the literary style of Mahabharatha and Ramayana. She argues the literary style of Mahabharatha ,though not flowery and unpolished ,is much more intellectually profound. It is this style which makes it more relevant than other texts such as Upanishads or Ramayana. The author argues that the Bhakti tradition has indeed corrupted the Mahabharatha and our society in particular producing mere idol worshipers. Many such conclusions and accusations are made, none of them baseless. The author states that Mahabharatha marked the end of the traditional Sanskrit literature, end of an epoch. After that came a romanticized style of literature which doesn't stay true to reality but rather focuses on escapism and idealism. Jaya even today remains one of the few original creations. Others are mostly critical and explanatory literature which derives from this original text. Yuganta is one such derivation, but one that does justice to the original.

[Girish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of the many books based on Mahabharata analysis, Yuganta is probably the most dispassionate dissection of the story and characters. And this is definitely recommended for people who have read multiple interpretations of the epic.

Taking away the 'story' and the Bhakti flavours - the book ponders upon the motives, values, fears and shortcomings of it's very human characters. And each of this is a solid case built based on quotes, citations and logical extrapolations.

The book also remains largely unbiased and treats the entire epic as a recorded history in a certain social setting. I loved how the varnas system, the Kshatriya code and the then prevailing values were laid thread bare. The extrapolations and conclusions are extremely convincing including the position of women in the patrilinear society, the different nature of friendships and the impact of hero-worship on the various interpretations.

This book makes you think and question what you have digested as a story. Brilliant!
Thanks to the Biblio friends who brought this book to my notice.

Edit: Mahabharata as one of the earliest Existential literature - what an Aha moment!

[Meem Arafat Manab · Rating 4 out of 5]

অনুবাদকের উপর আমি কিঞ্চিত নাখোশ। এম্নিতে বেশ ভালো অনুবাদ, কিন্তু বাংলা ভাষায় পরপর তিন বাক্য যখন - 'সিরাজ ভাই যুদ্ধে জিতেছিলো। তাকে কাসেম ভাই সাহায্য করেছিলো। এই যুদ্ধে প্রচুর ক্ষয়ক্ষতি হয়েছিলো' - এইভাবে লেখা হয়, আমার পিত্তি জ্বলে যায়। বাংলা ত এতটাও আড়ষ্ট না যে এভাবেই আগাইতে হবে বাক্যের পর বাক্যে। তাছাড়া, 'সে মারা গিয়েছিলো, এই নয়, সে স্বর্গারোহণ করেছিলো' - এইখানে এই নয় অর্থ যে 'এটা নয়' না, এর অর্থ যে '(শুধু) এই-ই নয়', এটা বোঝার পর, অনুবাদকের সাথে পরিচয় থাকলে আমি তার সাথে কথা বলা বন্ধ করে দিতাম।

আরেকটা ব্যাপার হচ্ছে তথ্যগত একটা বিভ্রান্তি। বিদুরের সাথে জুনিয়রদের সম্পর্ক নিয়ে যে একটা সমান্তরাল ধারণা প্রচলিত, পিতৃত্বের ব্যাপারে, হয়ত সেটাকে আরেকটু ঠেলে সামনে আগুয়ান করে দিতেই লেখক বিদুরকে এক জায়গায় কুন্তী-গান্ধারী-ধৃতকাকুর সাথে মৃত্যুর দিকে নিয়ে যান। অথচ আমি যেটা জানতাম, যে বিদুর আগে মরেছিলো, দেখা হয়েছিলো যুধিষ্ঠিরের সাথে, সেই কথাও এসেছে অন্য অধ্যায়ে।

সঙ্কলনের সমস্যা হয়ত এই-ই। বিভিন্ন সময়ে লেখা ছোটো ছোটো প্রবন্ধ, প্রায় ছয় বছর ধরে লেখা, পরস্পরবিরোধিতা স্বাভাবিক। এসব কারণে আমি এই বইয়ের চেয়ে নৃসিংহ ভাদুড়ির বইগুলিরে আগায়ে রাখবো, প্রচুর তথ্য-উপাত্ত থাকে, একেকটা থান ইটের মত বই, ভীমের গদার সাইজেরও মনে হয় কয়েকটা বই আছে ওনার।

তবে এই বই সম্ভবত অন্য অনেক কিছুর পূর্বসূরী, ভাদুড়ি মশায়েরও। এর আগে লেখা এ ধাঁচের বই আমি পড়ি নাই বলেই মনে হয়। লেখক একটা বিপজ্জনক খেলা খেলছেন, তিনি ট্রাপিজ খেলছেন এখানে কথাসাহিত্য আর অভিসন্দর্ভের মাঝখানে। এটা বললে আসলে ধাকটা হারায়ে যায়, তিনি ট্যাং ট্যাং করে হেঁটে গেছেন ফিকশন আর ননফিকশনের মাঝের দেয়াল ধরে। একদিকে নৃতাত্ত্বিক একটা আলোচনা (যুগান্ত, কৃষ্ণ-বাসুদেব অধ্যায়সমূহ স্মর্তব্য), আরেকদিকে তার কিছু কিছু অধ্যায় নিজেই যেনো সাহিত্য (দ্রৌপদী, পিতা-পুত্র, আমি কে অধ্যায়সমূহ দ্রষ্টব্য), পাশাপাশি মহাভারতকে সাহিত্য ধরে সমালোচনাও বটে কিছু কিছু ক্ষেত্রে।

আমি এটারে তবুও সমাজতাত্ত্বিক বিশ্লেষণই বলবো। ততকালীন সমাজ কেমন ছিলো এ নিয়ে লেখকের চিন্তা ছিলো, সেটা স্বাভাবিকও। তিনি খাণ্ডব পোড়ানো বিষয়ে যা কিছুর অবতারণা করেছেন, নাহ্‌, কলেবরের জন্য ভাদুড়ি সাহেব থাকলেও, এরকম, কী বলবো, বৃত্তের বাইরের ত বটেই, মর্ত্যের বাইরে থেকে এসব কথাবার্তা হাজির করবার জন্য লেখককে সালাম দিতেই হচ্ছে।
তাছাড়া পরিচিত মহলের আমরা অনেকদিন পর মহাভারতের এটা সেটা নিয়ে কথা বলতেছি, এ-ও কিন্তু ভালো। এক এক করে অনেকে পড়তেছি, প্রীতম ঘুমকে ধন্যবাদ সকলের তরফ থেকে।

এখন পড়বো কিতনে পাকিস্তান, সেটা-ও ঘুমের। মাঝ দিয়ে উলফ হলে যে কী হয়ে যাচ্ছে খবরই পাচ্ছি না কোনো।

[Ahtims · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was a 'fantabulous' book. I had not even heard of this before being recommended for our Group Read by a fellow member. I am glad to have read it. To my understanding this book is a critical analysis of the characters of the great Indian epic, 'Mahabharata' the true events of which were said to have taken place around 1000 BC. I had read Mahabharata as a child, the abridged version, as well as many stories from it detailed in various other books. I had also imbibed the great Hindu puranas and epics in my childhood as I was fortunate enough to have parents and grand parents who loved to tell stories, and inculcate the reading habit in me. I had never taken Mahabharata seriously, to me it was a fantastic tale which might not have happened. It is chocful of magical incidents like Gods coming as humans, human children being born to divine beings, sorcery etc. to be taken seriously. But this book made me change my mind. Now I am of the opinion that these events did happen, but were perhaps spiced up by addition of supernatural events in the proceeding centuries. I loved reading about the Aryan culture, I loved the character analysis of various prominent persons, I knew of new facts, I was privy to inner secrets. Infact, for the past couple of days, I was transported to 1000 BC and enjoyed every moment. This book is worth a re-read. I would gladly recommend it to all people who are interested in ancient Indian culture, especially Hindu culture and norms. I envy and applaud Irawati Kharve for being the intellect and author she was. Wish I had at least a quarter of her analytical power.

[Gorab · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5
Interesting dissection of Mahabharata from a totally different angle, structured into essays for individual characters.
Leaves you gasping for more with so many new questions :
-Why didn't Bhishma renounce when he had so many apt opportunities?
-What forced Pandu to renounce into forest at such a young age leaving the kingdom behind?
-Why Arjun and Krishna had to burn the Khandavaprastha forest *so mercilessly*?
-Have you noticed the contrast between Drupada-Drona story vs Krishna-Sudama story, both based on friendship?
-Many episodes are recounted, in a manner clearly showing many inconsistencies in Vyasa's epic! Which of them could be later interpolations?

The interpretations of these, and their possible implications would want you to read the Mahabharata all over again with a new vision!
Its a small book, but took a very long time. Most of the time was spent staring at the ceiling lost in thoughts while holding it dearly!
I wish I had read this before Devdutt Pattanaik's Jaya (which by the way is more crisp and informative)
Though few parts are narrated repeatedly, may be to make the essays independently readable. A few slacks and a couple of contradictions (death of Vidura).
But then an extra star for the immense and intensivey rich research in a non-digital age! High respect and salute to Irawati Karve!

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Yuganta' by Irawati Karve is a concise secular analysis of the main characters in the Mahabharata. I did not know what the Mahabharata is until I started reading this book. I do not remember ever hearing of it, either, although clearly many novels and myths I have read by Indian authors have included fictional allusions which originated from the Mahabharata. After discovering Yuganta is a short, but in-depth, academic book of accessible essays about the characters in the Mahabharata, I went to Wikipedia.

Wow. The Mahabharata is an ancient, but famous, Indian epic almost all people from India know. It is similar to Homer's two poems (the Iliad and the Odyssey) if we put Homer's poems together and then adding in many more centuries and generations of war and family strife to it, and then some more. One entire set of books of academic study of the different versions of the Mahabharata actually fills a minimum of ten encyclopedic volumes in length. IMHO, I would LOVE to see these stories in a continuing television soap opera!

The Mahabharata basically consists of 200,000 lines of poetry in Sanskrit. It is a history of two competing families who are fighting over power, like the English Plantagenet War of the Roses, but on steroids. The saga of the Kurus - and the wars of generations between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, cousin branches of the Kuru family - is estimated to have taken place around 1000 bce (there are still lots of arguments), and it is very possible, like Homer's poems, the Mahabharata was slowly pulled together first by storytellers, maybe before writing was invented. One thing I AM certain of, having read Homer, some of the stories in the Iliad and in the Mahabharata seem the same except for names being changed! Same hubris, same lessons learned, same messed-up marriages, same father-son struggles for respect.

With the spread of Hinduism in Asia, many other Asian countries also know of and have adapted many stories from the Mahabharata. Considering India alone is a nation of over a billion people (to compare, estimates of the population of European Union is a little over 511,000,000, the United States has about 328,000,000 people), I am amazed the West mostly knows nothing about the Mahabharata.


Here is a link to the Wikipedia page on the Mahabharata:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahab...


Here is a Wikipedia link to the English War of Roses:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wars_...


Karve's book was recommended to me by Nandakishore Varma, although I suspect he will not remember this. It was years ago. We are GR friends, but we don't know each other. I just got older growing deeper roots into my couch reading books and knitting lap robes in a senior-living park, while I think he has been living a real life, unlike me, since his profile picture shows a young or youngish man. However, I appreciate the time he took to recommend this book to me. It must have been something I wrote which moved him to this recommendation, but I have no idea what I wrote at this late date (practically a decade has passed!). Goodreads didn't forget though, and when I put in I was starting this book, which I discovered on my shelves a couple of days ago (thinking, wtf, what IS this? not remembering when or why I have it), GR showed me "recommended by Nandakishore".

: )

Anyway.

As an American, raised as a Christian, born in a decade when America was racially 97% White and mostly Protestant, and when there was no Internet or computers except huge mainframes two stories large which were programmed by punchcards and had light bulbs for circuitry (kidding, sort of), I have been learning about other cultures late in life. Thank you Nandakishore, even if I yet am abysmally shallow in my surface understanding of Indian myths about cosmology and gods, as well as of India's history, culture and languages. And even if you do not remember recommending Yugānta to me. I certainly cannot speak about this obviously profound cultural saga with ANY intelligence!

; p

[Pritom Ghum · Rating 5 out of 5]

প্রাচীন ভারতীয় মহাকাব্য মহাভারত নিয়ে পড়া এখন পর্যন্ত সেরা অ্যানালাইসিসের বই।
এত অসাধারন যে মহাভারত নিয়ে নতুন করে ভাবতে বসতে হয়। এর ভিতরের ডেপথ, এর ইউনিভার্সাল অ্যাপিল, এর চরিত্র গুলো্র কমপ্লেক্সসিটি, সেগুলোর সত্যের কত কাছাকাছি - এই সকল লিটারেরি লক্ষন গুলো দেখে একে সকল প্রাচীন মহাকাব্যের চেয়ে শ্রেষ্ঠ বলে মনে হয়, এমনকি ইলিয়াডের চেয়েও।
ইরাবতী কার্ভে মহাভারতের সাহিত্যমূল্য নিয়ে সচেতন, তিনি চরিত্র বিশ্লেষন করার সময় এটাকে সাহিত্য বলেই বিবেচনা করেছেন, কিন্তু এর ভ্যালুজ, সে সময়কার ( মহাভারত লিখার) জটিলতা, সমাজ ও যুদ্ধের বিভিন্ন অভিঘাত কে বিশ্লেষন করার সময় নিয়ে এসেছেন নৃতত্ত্ব। ফলে পড়ার সময় একধরনের সৌন্দর্য সৃষ্টি হয়।
মহাভারত পড়ার পর অবশ্যপাঠ্য।

[Manish · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a brilliant work of analysis. Irawati Karve studies the key characters of the Mahabharata, strips them of their mythical powers and presents them as ordinary humans struggling and grappling with issues that are as alive today as they were 3000 years back. Pick of the lot for me was be the essay on Bhishma! Spellbinding.

[Shivsankar S · Rating 1 out of 5]

What started well descended into a chaos, reflective of the reviewer's own confusion - she starts with a moral framework (supplied by modern, western theories) to judge the characters and the interpretations of Dharma as given in the Mahabharata, which ended up in a conflict with the framework of justice, of Dharma, as explained in the Mahabharata itself. She appears confused about the framework she had been using, because the value framework of the Mahabharata is so powerful, it seems to have confused her own initial framework with which she started. The last few pages are a big bundle of nonsense, as she rushes through with just judgments without providing any proper evidence to her claims - what should have been an analysis ends up as just her personal opinions and claims without proofs. This is apparent now, almost 40 years after her book has been published, because new evidences have been unearthed, which prove that her claims regarding the societies of those times, their 'Aryan' origins are wrong.

Frankly, I was advised against reading this book. I should have heeded that advice. So, I would say the same to others who want to read this - unless you are forced (such as part of your coursework) don't read this book. I only ended up spoiling my good opinion of Irawati Karve. May be I should have not read the book, and let my good opinion of her remain.

[Siddarth Gore · Rating 5 out of 5]

How did we accept the dreamy escapism of bhakti or blind hero worship after having faced and thought undauntingly of the hard realities of life? How did the people who used to eat all meats, including beef, find satisfaction in ritually drinking the urine and eating the dung of the cow, and calling this quadruped their mother?

It is irreverent. It is frank and it is original. Perhaps because it is from an era when political correctness had not seeped into our lives. When being honest (without malice) was valued and respected. I wonder if we will ever see such writing again. But it is refreshing to say the least.

She has reviewed traditional heros like Bhishma and Karna and found them wanting. She has followed relationships like that between Krishna and Arjun and found them to be of equals, of intimate friends rather than the Deity-Follower story that is so popular. She has understood the women as real people and pointed out their failings with academic detailing.

But most of all she makes us see the End of a Yuga, Yuganta. How we are used to looking at the past with the eyes of the present. And how we get everything wrong because of that.

[dely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Irawati Karve (antropologa, pedagogista e scrittrice indiana) ci offre un'interpretazione molto interessante del Mahabharata.
I personaggi vengono spogliati della loro divinità e vengono analizzati nella loro umanità mettendo a nudo le emozioni e i sentimenti terreni: rabbia, sete di vendetta, invidia, passione, amore.
Irawati Karve mette a confronto anche le varie edizioni del Mahabharata evidenziando le incongruenze e le parti che sono state aggiunte successivamente sicuramente per mano dei brahmini per aggiungere insegnamenti.
Molto interessanti anche le pagine dedicate ad un confronto con il Ramayana.

Consiglio la lettura di questo libro solo a coloro che hanno già letto il Mahabharata e ne conoscono storie e personaggi.



It was really an interesting read; special thanks to my friends of IR and to Parikhit!

I liked reading this book above all the parts where Karve talks about all the adds that has been made by brahmins; I liked the analysis of the different translations of the Mahabharata; I liked that she wrote about the social customs of Indians pre-Mahabharata and the customs that are used now.
Of course I liked also the analysis of the characters, above all the female characters, though at the beginning of the book it was a little bit hard to understand why Karve wanted to humanize the characters (above all Krishna!) seen that they are divine and a lot of things about them can be understood only if we let them their "divinity". But going on with the reading I started to appreciate also these parts and I understood a lot of things.
It was really worth to be read and I advise this book to who has already read Mahabharata or knows the stories and the characters.

[Suman Srivastava · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the book. I am surprised that it isn't better known. Irawati Karve brings to life (as opposed to caricature) the characters of the Mahabharata and relates their actions to social mores of that period. This is a must read for everyone who is interested in the epics and in Indian cultural history. Good thing that she wrote this in the 1960s. Not sure the Hindutva brigade would have allowed this to be published in today's era.

[Shalini M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yuganta is not an interpretation or a retelling of Mahabharata – it is more of a critical analysis. It makes a systematic and scientific study of the earliest version of the epic available today, and the knowledge of the cultural history, and attempts to isolate the facts (as presented in the original version of the book) from the interpolations added later through the centuries. Through these facts she proposes Mahabharata as a creditable history of events that took place almost 3000 years ago - a story of mortals devoid of any magical or divine influences.

The book includes nine thought provoking essays, each of these a study of one (or more) of the key characters of the epic. The basic story is outlined to provide the context; the author then proceeds to make a rational analysis of the facts to examine their actions and understand their motives. She logically separates the myth, and challenges the mind to question what is familiar (because these myths are so deeply entrenched into the lore that they are inherently accepted?). Her query is critical but balanced, appreciating their positive qualities and identifying their faults without restraint. She presents several points that make one pause and think and wonder about things that we have always accepted – for me, it certainly prompted several new thoughts and questions.

The first, and my most favorite essay, is about Bhishma. The author raises several questions on the (widely accepted) facts about his life and actions, his purpose and destiny, and the appropriateness as well as effectiveness of his actions. For example, how many of us have ever wondered how, from his escalated position, Bhishma wronged several of the women characters - from Amba, Ambika and Ambalika, to Gandhari, Kunti and Madri, and Draupadi? One of the most poignant thought here was if we are justified in doing (selflessly) for others, something which would be criticized if we did it for ourselves?

I liked most of the other studies too, especially the one about Kunti, Draupadi, Karna and Krishna

I have never read much about Gandhari. The author clarifies that there is not much information about her in the epic, and reconstructs one chapter about her from the little information that we can get. However, most of it is speculative fiction, and though I would have been curious to know more about her, this was somehow my least favorite chapter in the book

She also makes a wonderful commentary about the social structure prevalent at the time - the class system and struggles, the societal norms with respect to peers and families, and the cultural habits. She has put forward facts and her theory of how the Indian society has evolved in these millennia. Also interesting to see is how the epic Mahabharata itself has evolved from the original book called Jaya

I would mark this as a must-read for all Mahabharata aficionados, as well for people interested in Indian history and culture.

[Manu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yuganta is not a linear retelling of the Mahabharata, instead it uses a few characters to do a critical analysis of the epic. At a simplistic level, the basic story thread is indeed communicated, while delving into these characters and placing them in the context of the story. But more importantly, the examination of various characters, their motivations and actions, belief systems and relationships with each other, as well as the societal frameworks of class, makes up most of the book.
Irawati Karve begins with Bhishma and I almost laughed out loud at her systematic takedown of one of the epic's revered characters. An observation that I really loved - "When a man does something for himself, his actions are performed within certain limits – limits that are set by the jealous scrutiny of others. But let a man set out to sacrifice himself and do good to others, and the normal limits vanish." The portion on Vidura is also a look into the prevailing caste system, roles in society, and the strict adherence to these rules. This is extended in the chapter on Drona and Ashwathama.
Karna is another fan favourite who is at the receiving end of her rebuke. She is not only absolutely clear that he was nowhere in Arjuna's league as a warrior, she also massively tempers the perception of him as a benevolent person. Krishna, in the original work, is portrayed as an astute statesman with his own self interest in play, as opposed to a God. His relationship with Arjuna is as a friend and equal. All these aspects have been wonderfully studied by the author.
Gandhari and Kunti rarely get the amount of attention in retellings and in this respect, this book is very different. Kunti is actually treated very favourably. The essay on Draupadi is different too, because the comparison is to Sita. The similarities and the disparities are analysed very well.
There is a flow of logic that the author adheres to, and the conviction that the epic is based on real events is thus infectious. (though I am quite a believer anyway) The tone through the book is a mix of several emotions - on one hand, the author clearly loves and respects the book, but on the other, she is also merciless in pointing out its inconsistencies and contradictions. I felt that the mood did tend to become preachy occasionally, but that, I think, is a subjective take. The last chapter - 'the end of yuga' seems to mean at least two things here. The obvious one is the end of the Dwapara yuga. But she also mentions that this work was the last one to display original thinking.
For a book that was published almost 50 years ago, this is a refreshing read that offers unique perspectives.
P.S. There is some inconsistency in how Vidura's death is described. In one section, it is along with Kunti, Gandhari and Dhritarashtra and in another, it occurs a few days earlier. Hope it will be looked into in later editions.

[Shweta Ganesh Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by Irawati Karve, India's first woman anthropologist, this Sahitya Academy Award winning book is an attempt to peel of the multiple layers of the great Indian epic, the Mahabharata.
Yuganta is an effort to delve under the interpolations that have become part of the structure over the years and to get to the actual crux of the story that it was.
And this is the "Eternally human' vivid depiction of the life and ethos of a whole era and class."

It is also an attempt to bring closure to many episodes that readers have always wished had a different ending.
My personal favourite is the imagined exchange between Bhima and Draupadi.

I loved the humanization of the characters and the attempt to trace the beginning of the deification of so many of the personas in the epic, especially the part that focuses on Krishna from the epic and Krishna the God - who seems to be a later avatar.

I highly recommend this book for its interpretations and grounding in critical readings of multiple versions of the Mahabharata. It is a good read for both, those who swear by Hinduism in its current form and those who prefer to practice their own version of it.

[Shinde · Rating 5 out of 5]

She wields the pen like a scimitar and her mind like a microscope.

As she dissects various personas of Mahabharata, she is brutal, incisive and decisive.
Usually, many scholars leave alone Krishna, for fear of a (?religious/fanatic) backlash. But not Irawati. She finds him 'Ambitious' , even a little cold-blooded.' But she sums him up aptly as, 'He did not merely speak the Gita; he lived it.'
Her unemotional perspectives on Bhishma, Gandhari ,Kunti and Karna are equally original and path-breaking.

My only grudge is with her judgment on Draupadi. She finds Draupadi's verbal battle at the dice game improper, thoughtless and smug. Completely disagree. Draupadi won a lopsided battle of violence by resorting to cool logic, a woman who articulated philosophically relevant questions that nobody could answer then or now. Genuflections forever.

Beyond that, Irawati is as precise, unerring and consistent as Arjuna's arrows.

[Vikalp Trivedi · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Yuganta : The End Of An Epoch' by Irawati Karve is a book which studies the pivotal events and characters of the Mahabharata with a logical , analytical and critical point of view . The brilliance of late Mrs. Karve's knowledge and understanding of the epic can be seen by reading this work of hers .

Mrs. Karve has unveiled each of the main character's both virtues and vices [in between these two vices are more because the criticism in the book is mainly negative] with such an ease that the complex characters of the epic becomes easy to understand for any reader .

If one reads 'Yuganta' , the character will never be the same for the reader if he/she reads further point of views and versions of the epic . Book shatters the mythical and traditional images of the characters [how many authors before dared to criticise or even describe Krishna's personal ambitions and desires ?] .

A must read if you want to understand the pivotal characters of the Mahabharata.
5 Stars.

[Apoorva Sripathi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every little flaw of every character in The Mahabharatha is pointed out and I haven't come across such a brilliant piece of work in this genre before. If you're a fan of Indian myth (esp. The Mahabharatha) then I suggest you go for this after you read the epic.

[Nayaz Riyazulla · Rating 4 out of 5]

ಮರು ಓದು - 2

ಪುಸ್ತಕದ ಮೂಲಕ ಲೇಖಕ ಮತ್ತು ಓದುಗನ ನಡುವೆ ಒಂದು ಅಜ್ಞಾತ ಸಂಬಂಧವೊಂದು ಕುಡಿಯೊಡೆದು, ಓದಿನ ಮೂಲಕ ನಡೆದ ಚರ್ಚೆಯಿಂದ ಆ ಸಂಬಂಧ ಹೆಮ್ಮರವಾಗಿ ಬೆಳೆಯುವುದೇ ಇಂತಹ ಪುಸ್ತಕಗಳ ಹೆಚ್ಚುಗಾರಿಕೆ, ಹೀಗೆ ನಡೆಯುವ ಚರ್ಚೆಗಳ ಮೂಲಕವೇ ಮೂರ್ತಿರಾಯರು, ತೇಜಸ್ವಿ, ಕುವೆಂಪು, ಗೌರೀಶ್ ಕಾಯ್ಕಿಣಿರಂತ ಲೇಖಕರು ನಮಗೆ ವ್ಯಯಕ್ತಿಕವಾಗಿ ಪರಿಚಯವಿಲ್ಲದಿದ್ದರೂ ನಮಗೆ ಅತ್ಯಾಪ್ತರಾಗಿದ್ದಾರೆ.

ಈ ಪುಸ್ತಕವನ್ನು ನಾನು ಚರ್ಚೆಯಂದೇ ಹೆಸರಿಸುವೆ, ಕಾರಣ ಇದು ಲೇಖಕ ಮತ್ತು ಓದುಗನಿಗೆ ಪರಿಚಯವಿರುವ ಒಂದು ಕಥೆಯ ಮೇಲಿನ ತಪ್ಪು ಒಪ್ಪುಗಳ ಚರ್ಚೆ

ಇದು ಚರ್ಚೆಯಾಗಿರುವುದರಿಂದ ಲೇಖಕರ ಇಲ್ಲಿನ ವಿಷಯ ಮಂಡನೆ ಸತ್ಯ ಎಂದುಕೊಂಡರೆ ಅದು ತಪ್ಪು. ಇವು ಮಹಾಭಾರತದ ಅಲೌಕಿಕ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗಳಿಗೆ, ಲೌಕಿಕ ಉತ್ತರಗಳನ್ನು ಹುಡುಕುವ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನವಷ್ಟೇ, ಇದೇ ಕಾರ್ಯವನ್ನು ಭೈರಪ್ಪರು ವಿಶಾಲವಾಗಿ ಕೈಗೊಂಡು ಗೆದ್ದಿದ್ದಾರೆ.

ಇಲ್ಲಿನ ಲೇಖನಗಳು ಮಹಾಭಾರತದ ಕಥೆಯ ಸತ್ವವನ್ನೇ ಬುಡಮೇಲು ಮಾಡುವಷ್ಟು ಹರಿತವಾಗಿವೆ. ನಮ್ಮಲ್ಲಿರುವ ನಂಬಿಕೆಗಳನ್ನು ಸಡಿಲಗೊಳಿಸುತ್ತದೆ.. ಉದಾಹರಣೆಗೆ : ಧರ್ಮ ವಿಧುರನ ಮಗನಾಗಿದ್ದಿರಬಹುದು, ಕೃಷ್ಣ ಸಾಮಾನ್ಯ ಮನುಜನಿಂದ ನಂತರದ ಆವೃತ್ತಿಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ದೇವಮನುಷನಾಗುವುದು, ಕರ್ಣ ಉದ್ಯೋಗಪರ್ವದವರೆಗೂ ಖಳನಾಗಿದ್ದು ನಂತರ ನಾಯಕನಂತೆ ಬದಲಾಗುವ ಕಾರಣಗಳು. ಇವೆಲ್ಲವೂ ಉತ್ತಮ ಚರ್ಚೆಯಾಗಿಸುತ್ತದೆ.

ಹಾಗಂತ ಇಲ್ಲಿನ ಲೇಖನಗಳನ್ನು ಓದುಗರ ನಂಬಿಕೆಗಳನ್ನು ಒಡೆಯುವದಕ್ಕಾಗಿಯೇ ಬರೆದಿದ್ದಾರೆ ಎಂದುಕೊಂಡರೂ ತಪ್ಪು, ಯಾಕಂದರೆ ಇಲ್ಲಿನ ಅವರ ಉತ್ತರಗಳಿಗೆ ಬಲವಾದ ಸಾಕ್ಷಿಗಳಿವೆ ಅವು ಭಾರತದ ಕಥೆಯ ಒಳಗೆ ಇವೆ. ಅವನ್ನು ನಾವು ತಪ್ಪಿಸಿಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದೇವೆ ಎನ್ನಬಹುದು. ಯುಗಾಂತ ಲೇಖನದಲ್ಲಿ ಮಹಾಭಾರತದ ಸಾಮಾಜಿಕ ಚಿತ್ರಣವನ್ನು ಕೊಡುವ ಆ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನ ನಿಜಕ್ಕೂ ಶ್ಲಾಘನೀಯ.

ಇನ್ನೂ ಚುಟುಕಾಗಿ ಈ ಪುಸ್ತಕದ ಪರಿಚಯ ಮಾಡುವುದೆಂದರೆ - ಮಹಾಭಾರತದ ಕಥೆಯ ಮುಖ್ಯ ಪಾತ್ರಗಳ ಅಥವಾ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ತೆರೆದುಕೊಳ್ಳದ ಪಾತ್ರಗಳ ಒಂದು ಛೇಧನ ಕೃಂತನ . ಕುಂತಿ ಒಬ್ಬ ಆಸಾಧಾರಣ ರಾಜಕಾರಣಿಯಾಗಿರುವುದು, ಗಾಂಧಾರಿಯ ಕೌರವರ ವಿರುದ್ಧದ ಪ್ರತಿಕಾರ, ಮಯಸಭೆಯ ಹಿಂದಿನ ರಾಜಕೀಯ, ಕಥೆಯ ಒಳಗಿನ ಸಂಬಂಧಗಳ ಹಿಂದಿನ ಕರಾಳತೆ, ಹೀಗೆ ಅನೇಕ ಪಾತ್ರ ಮತ್ತು ಸಂದರ್ಭಗಳ ಒಂದು ಭಿನ್ನ ನೋಟ


ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ಒಮ್ಮೆಯಾದರೂ ಓದಲೇಬೇಕಾದ ಪುಸ್ತಕವಿದು

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s hard to describe the impact of this little book on Indian psyche. Even after the n-th read I had to admit once again that if this book hadn’t happened, a lot of re-evaluation of Mahabharata wouldn’t have been possible. People might have remained hesitant to look at the events and characters with this cool, rational sensibility. But these essays happened and the rest was history.
Along-with a Publisher"s Note and Preface, the book contains the following essays~
1. Introduction;
2. The Final Effort;
3. Gandhari;
4. Kunti;
5. Father and Son?
6. Draupadi;
7. The Palace of Maya;
8. Paradharmo Bhayavahah;
9. Karna;
10. Krishna Vasudeva;
11. The End of Yuga.
The approach taken by the author is not of a mythologist but a historian. She retells the episodes as if they were happening to real-life characters who are flawed. In the process, she brings them closer to us and establishes how the epic showed changes in various aspects of life.
It remains a watershed in the study of epics, especially the Mahabharata. In that sense, this book truly stands tall as a 'Yugantakari'.
Highly Recommended.

[Girish · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is definitely one of the best analysis of the Mahabharata or rather of the major characters from the Mahabharata that I have read. The book is written in the form of various long essays most of which are critiques of different characters such as Gandhari, Kunti, Draupadi, Karna and Krishna while a few dwell on relationships such as the ones between Yudhistira & Vidura or Ashwhathama & Drona.

The original book is written in Marathi, of which I read a translated and revised English version. Usually, after reading any English translations such as those of Shivaji Sawant's Mrityunjaya (originally in Marathi) or Randaamoozham (Vasudevan Nair's Malayalam masterpiece), I tend to get the uneasy feeling that some ideas were lost in translation. This English translation was a welcome change from this usual after-effect.

Like most of the better works on the Mahabharata, the author ignores the possibility of any divine characters/supernatural powers and instead treats all the characters as humans or to be more exact as flawed human beings. The most interesting thing about this book is that it is based on the critical edition (the oldest available edition) of the Mahabharata. This allows the author to compare the "original" version with the various other versions. The reason I found this interesting was that although I knew that there were various versions of Mahabharata, till now I had only read various interpretations of the epic while I had read different versions only of the Ramayana. The difference being that the versions are third party narrations of the Mahabharata which have been edited over the years while interpretations are from one of the protagonist's point-of-view. The various versions of the Ramayana are well known, as are the various modifications by subsequent generations which resulted in Sita accepting her "punishment" calmly as a dutiful wife as opposed to the earlier versions where she vehemently curses Rama for his various follies. I find it interesting to study these changes between various generations/versions as they tend to reflect the changes in society's perception of virtues and vices. Finding a comparison of such versions for the Mahabharata is very rare, which is the chief reason I found this book to be such a gem!

I have listed some of the (previously unknown to me) points from this essay collection below:
1. The significance of Shantanu's boon of "death at will" to Bheesma.
2. The interesting possibility that Bheesma used the cloak of "self-sacrifice" in a very shrewd manner and his true end-game in fighting for Duryodhana was to delay the onset of the "actual" war.
3. The fact that sub-plots such as Parashurama's fight with Bheesma, Parashurama's cursing of Karna, Bheesma's skills as a warrior, Karna's participation in Draupadi's swayamwara, ... were not present in the original version of the Mahabharata but were added later to paint the various involved characters in lighter/darker shades.
4. Gandhari's last dialogue with Dhritarashtra and her untying finally of the blindfold over her eyes. Although, the author makes it clear that this is not present in the critical edition, the touching speech leaves one thinking that it is very likely that Gandhari had been waiting all these years for her husband to command her to open her eyes and he had been unwilling to express his wish for various other reasons.
5. The "diff" of the various changes across generations in the narrative such as the killing of the tribal woman & her children by Kunti
6. The Mahabharata being a struggle not between the sons of 2 brothers but between the sons of 3 brothers.
7. How a terrible question to the assembly proved to be Draupadi's greatest mistake.
8. The author's though provoking interpretation of Draupadi's last moments, her realization that the husband because of whom she had been refused entry to heaven had never really loved her and her reconciliation with the husband who loved her the most, Bhima.
9. The possibility that the burning of the Khandava forest by Arjuna and Krishna, was more of a colonization than a mere burning.
10. "Paradharmo Bhayavahah" or the consequences of the breaking of the Brahmin code by Drona & his son.
11. Unlike most authors of Mahabharata related works who cast Karna as the tragic hero, Irawati takes a sterner view of his actions (once again based on the critical edition and not on the later inclusions which tend to glorify Karna). She also details the various reasons why Karna could never have attained Kshatriya-hood.
12. The paradoxical transformation, by the bhakti cult, of Krishna from a human being to a God.

The highlight of this book is the final chapter which details the changes from the original version of the Mahabharata to the current or popular version of the epic. These changes range from the replacement of "niyoga" with adoption, the linking of the "Samrat" or emperor title with conquest of territory in violation of the actual Kshatriya code which apparently forbade taking over of a foreign king's territory to the tabooing of consumption of beef. The cruelest consequence of the bhakti cult was the resultant twisting of literature to satisfy people's need for "hero-worship" and the implementation of the rule that "a play must not end in tragedy". The author illustrates this principle by narrating the various versions of Shakuntalam, Harishchandra and Ajamila. She ends the book by raising a poignant question:

"A friend wanted to know why, after starting with the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Mahabharata, our whole society turned such a somersault. How did we accept the dreamy escapism of bhakti or blind hero worship after having faced and thought undauntingly of the hard realities of life? How did the people who used to eat all meats, including beef, find satisfaction in ritually drinking the urine and eating the dung of the cow, and calling this quadruped their mother?"

[B Sai Sushma · Rating 5 out of 5]

To think that there can be a critical analysis of the stories we have all been hearing since we were children, and to understand that there can never be anything more dramatic, more insightful and more messed up than the story of Mahabharata once again was an exhilarating experience.

[Salil Kanitkar · Rating 5 out of 5]

"जुने कधीही सर्वस्वी टाकाऊ व सर्वस्वी गैरलागू होत नाही; नवे ते इतके नवे कधीच नसते कि त्यात जुन्याचा अंशच नाही!"

महाभारतामधल्या अमानवी आणि चमत्कारमय गोष्टी बाजूला ठेऊन एका Anthropologist च्या दृष्टिकोनातून रोखठोक आणि तर्कशुद्ध पद्धतीने लिहिलेलं इरावती कर्र्वेचं "युगान्त" म्हणजे माझ्या सारख्या महाभारत चाहत्याला पर्वणीच! १९६० च्या दशकात प्रकाशित झालेले हे लेखं आत्ता ६० वर्षांनी वाचतानासुद्धा थांबवत नाही. सहज, साधी, सोप्पी भाषा आणि तरीही झटक्यात खोल मतीतार्थ स्पष्टपणें मांडणं हि तारेवरची कसरत प्रत्येक लेखात दिसून येतें. विशेषतः "भीष्म" आणि "कृष्ण" यांच्याबद्दलच्या लेखांमध्ये केलेल विश्लेषण आणि मांडलेले विचार हे अंतर्मुख करून सोडतात.

"महाभारताचा अभ्यास व्हावा तो मोकळ्या दृष्टीनें. अभ्यासाआधीच ठाम मते ठरवून भक्तिभावानेही होऊ नये आणि आवेश किंवा द्वेषभावनेनेही होऊ नये इतकीच ती प्रार्थना!"

शक्य झालं तर मूळ मराठी प्रतच वाचा!

[Garima · Rating 3 out of 5]

A critical analysis on Mahabharat, this short collection of essays is an intriguing read. I personally liked how the characters were analysed from a human angle and not through false idealism which forces one to transform every morally wrong act committed by the characters into something else entirely. However, the criticality of the text, though appreciated, sometimes goes beyond the expected nuances. I felt that in some places, subtexts from Mahabharat which would not support the author's line of thoughts, were cited as a later interpolation. I can very much be wrong and I don't mean to undermine the research and intellect of the author, only that it could have been a good debate rather than a single string of thoughts
For instance, there is an intriguing thought wherein the author says how Karn could have been Rishi Durvasa's son instead of the Sun God, and similarly how Yudhistir could have been Vidur's. The points mentioned supporting this fact are also thought provoking but when illegitimacy was openly mentioned and described throughout Mahabharat, what was the need to hide it? There are many other such points made which could result in a book of counter arguments.
Mahabharat for me is absurd and unique in a very poetic way. Obviously there are contradictions, obviously all characters are human making them both good and bad. The later interpretations and adaptations of the text tend to diverge this epic into a simple story of good vs bad, which was definitely not the case. This book, on the contrary, provided a very good analysis on this human aspect which is normally missing (perhaps with the only brilliant exception of The Difficulty if Being Good by Gurcharan Das) and this was what made it a good read.
The debate on the arguments presented is a different story and why I could not give it more than three stars.

[Jaykumar B · Rating 5 out of 5]

after hearing about Irawati Karve endlessly, everyday in college from my Sociology professors and even my English Literature profs, i decided to hunt for this 'classic'...

i stumbled upon it at my favorite store where i'd rather go than DisneyWorld, Crossword. i began reading an hour after i bought it, however, it took me a while to finish the enormously rewarding task it was.

Mahabharata has always been a fascinating piece of work for me with so many characters wherein each of them have a unique to story to tell. while reading the original scripture one gets a perspective only of the philosophical and moral kind which i shall NEVER condemn. Mahabharata is too great an epic to critique for not liking a few aspects. one can argue, disagree but not boycott any word from this seminal of art.

however when i read it as a 13yr old, i wanted another perspective, a voice so as to help me understand the politics better, only then i dint know what i wanted to understand.

as a 21 yr old i heard of Karve's work and i got restless.

there is so much to learn, to understand, to take in and moreover realize when one reads Yuganta.

i would not critique this work instead i will merely mention my favorite parts, i.e., Karna, Kunti, Draupadi, Gaandhari, the Palace of Maya, and many more. i have always been vocal about my preference of Karna to Arjuna, and Draupadi often remains a mystery to me even now, but Kunti and Gaandhari were the real scene-stealers for me in this seminal work...

[Nayaz Riyazulla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bhisma's whole life has been a fruitless sacrifice, but these ten days of his life is a climax of his futility and sacrifice... But, All human effort is fruitless, all human life ends in frustration - was the Mahabharata written to drive home this lesson?...

ಈ ವಾದವನ್ನು ಓದುಗರ ಮುಂದಿಟ್ಟು, ಮಹಾಭಾರತದ ಹಲವಾರು ಪಾತ್ರಗಳ ಮೂಲಕ, ಒಳಸಂಬಂಧಗಳ ಮೂಲಕ ಲೇಖಕರು ನಿರೂಪಿಸಲು ಮಾಡಿರುವ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನವಿದು...

ಲೇಖಕರು ಮಹಾಭಾರತದ ಉದ್ದಗಲಕ್ಕೂ ಸಂಚಾರಮಾಡಿ ಒಂದೊಂದು ಪಾತ್ರದ ಪರಕಾಯ ಪ್ರವೇಶ ಮಾಡಿ ಪುಸ್ತಕದ ಸತ್ವವನ್ನು ಹೆಚ್ಚಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ...

ಆದರೆ, ಕೆಲ ಭಾಗಗಳು ತಮ್ಮ ಅಜೆಂಡಾ ಪ್ರುವ್ ಮಾಡಲು ತಿರುಚಿ ಹೇಳುವುದು ಕೊಂಚ ಬೇಸರ ತರಿಸುತ್ತದೆ...

Father and Son ಎನ್ನುವ ಒಂದು ಲೇಖನ ಇದರಲ್ಲಿದೆ... ವಿದುರ ಧರ್ಮನ ಅವತಾರವಾಗಿ, ಕುಂತಿ ವಿದುರನ ಮೂಲಕ ಧರ್ಮರಾಯನನ್ನು ಪಡೆದರು, ಇದರಿಂದಾಗಿಯೇ ಧರ್ಮರಾಯನ ಮತ್ತು ವಿದುರನ ಗುಣಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಸಾಮ್ಯತೆ ಇತ್ತು ಮತ್ತು ವಿದುರ ಪಾಂಡವರ ಮೇಲೆ ಕೌರವರಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಪ್ರೀತಿ ಇಟ್ಟಿದ್ದ ಕಾರಣ ಎಂಬುದನ್ನು ಬಹು ಅದ್ಭುತವಾಗಿ ವಿವರಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ...

[Avinesh Shankar · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Mahabharata is an Indian classic far more interesting and complex than any other classical indian work and far surpasses the Ramayana. The Ramayana has become a spiritual text with social and cultural implications.

The Mahabharata has many many facets to how one interprets it. part history, part mythology, always moving and always changing, spiritual or devotional, sociocultural or political, it gives us much food for thought.

Irawati Karve has taken a political approach in the of sociocultural context and this is a fascinating read! Highly recommended to readers of Classical Indian literature and especially of the Mahabharata.

[Sagar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a fine analysis of Mahabharata and its characters. The author talks about the inclusions and claims in the epic when it was passed on through generations.

Mahabharata is always interesting in a way that characters are not perfect, they all have their good and bad sides, unlike Ramayana which mostly deals with Rama as an ideal human and author makes clear about this. Though repetitive at times, it was necessary for the narration.