{"id":822,"date":"2013-07-13T01:30:38","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=822"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:30:38","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:30:38","slug":"27-the-problem-of-the-mahabharata-the-political-story-vol-27-supplement-volume-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/27-supplement-volume-27\/27-the-problem-of-the-mahabharata-the-political-story-vol-27-supplement-volume-27","title":{"rendered":"-27_The Problem of the Mahabharata -The Political story.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n
\nS<\/font>UPPLEMENT TO <\/font>
\n<\/span>
\nV<\/font>OLUME<\/font>
\n– <\/span>3<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\nTH\u00c9  <\/span>HARMONY
\n<\/span>OF   <\/span>VIRTUE<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

     
\n1.The problem of the Mahabharata,
\nThe Political Story: The new passage found in Sri     Aurobindo’s manuscripts seems
\nto be the last passage in The Political Story and should be read in continuation
\nof page 196 of Volume 3. Two more passages from Udyogaparva have also been
\nappended here.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n 2. Sri Aurobindo’s essay ‘On Translating Kalidasa’ is reprinted here,
\nrearranged, with a few more passages found in his manuscripts.<\/p>\n

<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n


\n3. Medical Department: This seems to be a speech prepared for the Maharaja
\nGaekwar. During the Baroda State Service Sri Aurobindo often wrote such
\nspeeches. The present one is reproduced in the form in which it was found in Sri
\nAurobindo’s manuscripts.
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n


\nPage-77
\n <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nThe
\nProblem of the Mahabharata<\/span><\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

\nTHE
\nPOLITICAL STORY<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\n           <\/b>   
\n<\/span><\/font>   <\/font><\/b>        
\n<\/span><\/font>B<\/font><\/b>UT
\n<\/b>the empire of Yudishthira
\nenforced by the arms of Matsya and Panchala or even by their armed threats meant
\nto Bhishma and Kripa something very different from a Kuru Empire; it must have
\nseemed to them to imply rather the overthrow and humiliation of the Kurus and a
\nPanchala domination under a Bharata prince. This it concerned their patriotism
\nand their sense of Kshatriya pride and duty to resist so long as there was blood
\nin their veins. The inability to associate justice with their cause was a grief
\nto them, but it could not alter their plain duty. Such, as I take it, is the
\nclear political story of the Mahabharata. I have very scantily indicated some of its larger aspects only;
\nbut if my  <\/span>interpretation 
\n<\/span>be correct, it is evident that we shall have in the disengaged
\nMahabharata not only a mighty epic, but a historical document of unique value.
\n            What I wish, however, to emphasise at present is that the portions of the
\nMahabharata which bear the high, severe and heroic style and personality I have
\ndescribed, are also the portions which unfold consecutively, powerfully and
\nwithout any incredible embroidery of legend this story of clashing political and
\npersonal passions and ambitions. It is therefore not a mere assumption, but a
\nperfectly reasonable inference that these portions form the original epic. If we
\nassume that the Ramayanistic portions of the epic or the rougher and more
\nuncouth work precede these in antiquity, we assume that the legend was written
\nfirst and history added to it afterwards; this is a sequence so contrary to all
\nexperience and to all accepted canons of criticism that it would need the most
\nindisputable proof before it could command any credence. Where there is a plain
\nhistory mixed up with legendary matter written by palpably different hands,
\ncriticism judges from all precedents that the latter must be later work
\nembodying the additions human fancy always, and most in coun-
\n <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-79<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

tries
\nwhere a scrupulous historic sense has not been developed, weaves round a great
\nevent which has powerfully occupied the national imagination. Moreover in
\njudging the relative genuineness of different styles in the same work, we are
\nbound to see the hand of the original writer in the essential parts of the story
\nas we have it. It makes no difference to this question whether there was an
\noriginal ballad epic or not, or whether it was used in the com- position of the
\nMahabharata or not. We have a certain poem in a certain form and in resolving it
\nto its original parts we must take it as we have it and not allow our judgment
\nto be disturbed by visions of a poem which we have not. If the alleged ballad
\nepic was included bodily or in part in the Mahabharata, our analysis will find
\nit there without fail. If it was merely used as material just as Shakespeare
\nused Plutarch or Hall and Holinshed, it is no longer germane to the matter. Now
\nthe most essential. part of a story is the point from which the catastrophe
\nstarted; in the Mahabharata this is the mishandling of Draupadi and the exile of
\nthe Pandavas; but this again leads us back to the Rajasuya sacrifice and the
\nImperial Hall of the Pandavas from which the destroying envy of Duryodhana took
\nits rise. In the Sabhaparva therefore we must seek, omissis omittendis, for
\nthe hand of the original poet; and the whole of the Sabhaparva with certain
\nunimportant omissions is in that great and severe style which is the stamp of
\nthe personality of Vyasa. This once established we argue farther from the
\nidentity of style, treatment and personality between the Virataparva and the
\nSabhaparva, certain passages being omitted, that this book is also the work of
\nVyasa. From these two large and mainly homogeneous bodies of poetical work we
\nshall be able to form a sufficient picture of the great original poet, the drift
\nof his thought and the methods of his building. This we shall then confirm,
\ncorrect and supplement by a study of the Udyogaparva which up to the marching of
\nthe armies presents, though with more but still separable alloy breaking in, the
\nsame clear, continuous and discernible vein of pure gold running through it.
\nThus armed we may even rely on resolving roughly the tangle of the Adi and
\nVanaparvas and it is only when the war begins, that we shall<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-80<\/font><\/p>\n

\n


\nhave to admit doubt, faltering and guesswork; even here however we shall not be
\nwithout some light even in its thickest darkness. That the poem can be
\ndisentangled, I hold. then to be beyond dispute, but it can only be done by a
\nlong and voluminous critical analysis, and even this must be supported by a
\ndetailed edition of the whole Mahabharata in which each canto and chapter shall
\nbe discussed on its own merits. At present therefore I propose to pass over the
\nmethod after once indicating its general nature and present certain definite
\nresults only. I propose solely to draw a picture, in outline merely, of the
\nsublime poetical personality which an analysis of the work reveals as the
\noriginal poet, the Krishna Dwaipayana who wrote the Bharata of the 24,000 Slokas, and not the other
\nVyasa, if Vyasa he was, who enlarged it to something
\napproaching its present dimensions. And let me express at once my deep
\nadmiration of the poetical powers and vast philosophic mind of this second
\nwriter; no mean poet was he who gave us the poem we know, in many respects the
\ngreatest and most interesting and formative work in the world’s literature. If I
\nseem to speak mainly in dispraise of him, it is because I am concerned here with
\nhis defects and not with his qualities, for the subject I wish to treat is
\nKrishna of the Island, his most important characteristics and their artistic
\ncontrast with those of our other greater, but less perfect epic poet, Valmiki.<\/font><\/p>\n

           
\nI have said that no foreigner can for a moment be trusted to apply the
\nliterary test to a poem in our language, the extraordinary blunders of the most
\neminent German critics in dealing with Elizabethan plays have settled that
\nquestion once for all. Educated Indians on the other hand have their own
\ndeficiencies in dealing with Vyasa; for they have been nourished partly on the
\ncurious and elaborate art of Kalidasa and his gorgeous pomps of vision and
\ncolour, partly on the somewhat gaudy, expensive and meretricious spirit of
\nEnglish poetry. Like Englishmen they are taught to profess a sort of official
\nadmiration for Shakespeare and Milton but with them as with the majority of
\nEnglishmen the poets they really steep themselves in are Shelley, Tennyson and
\nByron and to a lesser degree Keats and perhaps Spenser. Now the manner of these
\npoets, lax, voluptuous, artificial, all  <\/span>outward
\n <\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-81
\n<\/font>
\n <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\n


\nglitter and colour, but inwardly poor of spirit and wanting in genuine mastery
\nand the true poetical excellence,is a bad school for the appreciation of such
\nsevere and perfect work as Vyasa’s.  <\/span>For
\nVyasa is the most masculine of writers….<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-82
\n<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SUPPLEMENT TO VOLUME – 3 TH\u00c9  HARMONY OF   VIRTUE         1.The problem of the Mahabharata, The Political Story: The new passage found in Sri     Aurobindo’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-27-supplement-volume-27","wpcat-16-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}