Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata

by Devdutt Pattanaik

Then there was a drought, a terrible fourteen-year drought, when the river Saraswati dried up, the society collapsed, and the Veda was all but forgotten.

When the rains finally returned, a fisherwoman’s son, born out of wedlock, took it upon himself to compile the scattered hymns. His name was Krishna Dwaipayana

His father was Parasara, grandson of the great Vasishtha, one of the seven Rishis ...

In time, Krishna Dwaipayana became known as Veda Vyasa, compiler of...

Vyasa called his tale Jaya, meaning ‘the tale of a victory’. It had sixty portions. Of these, only one part reached humans through Vyasa’s student, Vaisampayana.

Vaisampayana narrated Vyasa’s tale at the yagna of Janamejaya, the great grandson of the Pandava Arjuna.

As Vyasa’s tale moved from one storyteller to another, new tales were added,

it came to be known as Vijaya. Before long

It was retitled Bharata, the story of the Bharata clan and the land they ruled.

the Bharata came to be the Mahabharata,

There was Arjuna’s son, Iravan, also known as Iravat or Aravan, who was worshipped by the transgender Alis or Aravanis of Tamil Nadu and Bhima’s son, Barbareek, who was worshipped in Rajasthan as Khatu Shyamji. In the Mahabharata of Bengal, there surfaced a tale of Draupadi leading an army of women and routing the Kauravas after the death of Abhimanyu.

According to the Aihole inscription of the famous Chalukya king, Pulakesin II, 3735 years had passed since the Mahabharata war. The inscription is dated to 635 CE (Common Era, formerly known as AD), suggesting that the war was believed by ancient Indians to have taken place in 3102 BCE

The fourteen-year drought, the drying of the river Saraswati and the loss of Veda is a recurring theme in the scriptures. This is perhaps a real event that led to the collapse of the Indus Valley civilization in 1500 BCE, as indicated by some geological studies,

The Sanskrit Mahabharata makes no reference to the Rashi or Zodiac, the twelve solar houses of astrology. It refers only to Nakshatra, the twenty-seven lunar houses of astrology. Scholars conclude that Nakshatra is native to India while Rashi came from the West, perhaps Babylon. Rashi became part of Indian astrology only after 300 CE, confirming that the Sanskrit text reached its final form latest by 300 CE after centuries of oral transmission.

The Mahabharata in its current form has eighteen sections, of which the first section establishes the context of the rivalry between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. The next three build up to the war. Then come six sections describing the war in detail, followed by eight sections describing the emotional, material and spiritual consequences of the war.

The epic is made of one hundred thousand verses, making it an epic longer than the Greek epics Iliad and Odyssey put together.

In the Hindu tradition, purushartha or the validation of human existence has four aspects, dharma, artha, kama and moksha, that is, social conduct, economic activities, pleasurable pursuits and spiritual activities. Through the tales of the Mahabharata, Vyasa draws equal attention to all four aspects of human existence, making it a complete epic.

Apsaras

Nagas,

Yak...

Gandh...

Raksh...

Rationalists speculate that these various non-human races were perhaps non-Vedic tribes that were gradually assimilated into the Vedic fold.

The yagna of the Devas was more important than the happiness of Tara; without the power of yagna, the Devas would be unable to shower the earth with light and rain. Without yagna, there would be darkness and drought on earth.

Tara gave birth to Budh, lord of planet Mercury,

Biologically, he descended from the emotional Chandra but as per Indra’s decree, he was raised in the house of the logical Brihaspati.

Since that day, law took precedence over natural phenomena in heaven and on earth; fatherhood was defined by marriage. That is why Janamejaya’s great grandfather, Arjuna, would be called a son of Pandu...

one day Budh saw a woman called Ila, and fell in love.

But Ila was no woman; she was once a man, a prince called Sudyumna, son of Manu, the first king of humans.

They were called the Ailas, the descendants of Ila. They were also called the Chandra-vamsis, descendants of the moon, a title that did not quite please either Brihaspati or the Devas.

The Mahabharata tells the stories of the Chandra-vamsis, descendants of the moon, or rather Budh-vamsis, descendants of Mercury, who were infamous for their moral ambiguity, and quite different in character from the upright Surya-vamsis, descendants of the sun, whose tales are told in the Ramayana.

Manu was the son of Surya, the sun-god. Besides Ila, Manu had another son called Ikshavaku whose descendants came to be known as Surya-vamsis, or the solar line of kings. This line included Ram, prince of Ayodhya, whose tale is told in the Ramayana.

The obsessive passion of Pururava for Urvashi that led to his downfall would become manifest generations later in Shantanu, not once but twice, first in his love for Ganga and then his love for Satyavati, with the same disastrous consequences. Because human memory is short, and history always repeats itself.

Pururava’s yearning for the elusive and ethereal Urvashi forms a dialogue that is recorded in the Rig Veda, the oldest Vedic text, dated conservatively to 1500 BCE. In Kalidasa’s play, Vikramorvasiyam, written in 500 CE, two thousand years later, Pururava is a dashing king who does not chase the nymph. It is she who chases him;

According to the Kalpasutra, Pururava’s first son by Urvashi, Ayu, established the kingdom of Kuru-panchala in the east while their second son, Amavasu, established the kingdom of Gandhara in the west.

A king called Kaushika, a Surya-vamsi or descendant of the sun, wanted to become a Rishi.

Indra sent an Apsara called Menaka to distract Kaushika.

A Rishi called Kanva found the abandoned girl under the wings of a flock of Shakun birds who had surrounded her. So he named her Shakuntala, she who was found sheltered by birds.

Dushyanta fell in love with Shakuntala instantly.

In due course, Shakuntala gave birth to a son who was named Bharata.

Dushyanta apologized for his behaviour and blamed it all on his fear of social disapproval. He then declared Shakuntala his queen and Bharata his heir.

Bharata was one of those unique kings who descended from the solar line of kings through his mother, Shakuntala, and from the lunar line of kings through his father, Dushyanta. Since his descendants ruled all of Jambudvipa, the rose-apple continent of India, the land itself was named Bharata-varsha, or simply Bharata, after him.

Shakuntala’s story in the Mahabharata is quite different from Kalidasa’s very popular Sanskrit play written around 500 CE. In Kalidasa’s play, Shakuntala is brought to Dushyanta as soon as her father discovers she is pregnant but due to a Rishi’s curse Dushyanta is unable to recollect her. In Vyasa’s epic, Shakuntala comes to Dushyanta years later when her son enquires who his father is—Dushyanta pretends not to recognize her to protect his reputation. Kalidasa’s Shakuntala seeks her husband while Mahabharata’s Shakuntala seeks her son’s father. Kalidasa’s Shakuntala is very conscious of social stigma while Mahabharata’s Shakuntala is indifferent to it. This perhaps is a reflection of change in social values

Vitatha was conceived when Brihaspati, in an uncharacteristic moment of lust, had forced himself on his sister-in-law, Mamata, wife of Utathya.

Vitatha grew up to be an extremely capable ruler and so despite being adopted, was crowned king by Bharata.

Though the Chandra-vamsis originally sprang from Devas, Yayati’s marriage to the daughters of an Asura king and an Asura priest, and the marriage of Yadu to Naga women, indicate the mingling of races and tribes. Janamejaya, who performed a sacrifice to kill the Nagas, was actually killing a race of people related to his ancestors by marriage.

Yayati had a daughter called Madhavi who was destined to be the mother of four kings.

Yayati’s tale elaborates the concept of karma. Merit and demerit can pass through generations. A father’s paap can be passed on to his sons and so Yayati’s curse is endured by Yadu and his descendants. Likewise, a father can benefit from the punya of his children. And so, Madhavi’s sons are able to restore their grandfather back to heaven.

The story of Uparichara’s ‘joyful spurt of semen’ in the forest and its consumption by a fish is perhaps an elaborate tale to cover a king’s indiscretion with a fisherwoman.

The tale of Parasara and Matsya-gandha can be seen as a tale of sexual exploitation of a young girl by a powerful elderly sage, or it can be seen as a tale of sex hospitality that was prevalent in the epic age when fathers and husbands offered their daughters and wives to guests, sages and kings. Or it can be seen as an attempt by Matsya-gandha to manipulate a sage by offering him sexual favours.