English
Krishwa and Bala-rama, being relatives of both parties, were re- luctant to fight. KrisliTia conceded to Arjuna and Dur-yodhana the choice of himself unarmed or of a large army. Arjuna chose Kr/sh?za and Dur-yodhana joyfully accepted the army. K7ish72a i8S MAHA-BHARA ta. agreed to act as charioteer of liis especial friend Arjuna. It was in this capacity that he is represented to have spoken the divine song Bhagavad-gita, when the rival armies were drawn up for battle at Kuru-kshetra, a plain north of Dellii. Many battles follow. The army of Dur-yodliana is commanded in succession by his great-uncle Bhishma, Dro72a his military preceptor, Karwa, king of Anga, and ^Salya, king of Madra and brother of JMadrl. Bhishma was wounded by Arjuna, but survived for a time. All the others fell in succession, and at length only three of the Kuru warriors — K?'/pa, Aswatthaman, and K?'ita-varma — were left alive with Dur-yodhana. Bhima and Dur-yodliana fought in single combat with maces, and Dur-yodhana had his thigh broken and was mortally wounded. The three surviving Kauravas fell by night upon the camp of the Pawc^avas and destroyed five cliildren of the Pa7i(iavas, and all the army except the five bro- thers themselves. These five boys were sons of Draupadi, one by each of the five brothers. Yudhi-sh^hira's son was Prati- vindliya, Bhima's Avas /Sruta-soma, Arjuna's was iSruta-kirtti, Xakula's was ^S'atanika, and Saha-deva's was /Sruta-karman. Yudhi-shifhira and his brothers then went to Hastina-pura, and after a reconcihation with Dhr/ta-rash/ra, Yudhi-sh/hira was crowned there. But he was greatly depressed and troubled at the loss of kindred and friends. Soon after he was seated on the throne, the Aswa-medha sacrifice was performed with great ceremony, and the Pa?ic/avas lived in peace and prosperity. The old blind king Dhrita-rash/ra could not forget or forgive the loss of his sons, and mourned especially for Dur-yodliana. Bitter reproaches and taunts passed between him and Bhima ; at length he, with his wife Gandhiirl, with Kunti, mother of the PaTiiZavas, and with some of his ministers, retired to a hermitage in the woods, where, after two years' residence, they perished in a forest fire. Deep sorrow and remorse seized upon the Pawf/avas, and after a while Yudhi-sh/hira abdicated his throne and departed with his brothers to the Himfdayas, in order to reach the heaven of Indra on Mount Meru. A dog followed them from Hastina-pura. The story of this journey is full of grandeur and tenderness, and has been most efi"ectively rendered into EngUsh by Professor Goldstiicker. Sins and moral defects now prove fatal to the pilgrims. First fell Drau- padi : "too great was her love for Arjuna." Next Saha-deva : "he esteemed none equal to himself." Then Nakula : "ever MAHA-BHARATA. 189 was the thought in his heart, There is none equal in beauty to me." Arjuna's turn came next : "In one day I could destroy all my enemies." " Such was Arjuna's boast, and he falls, for he fulfilled it not." '\\nien Bhima fell he inquired the reason of his fall, and he was told, "When thou gazedst on thy foe, thou hast cursed him with thy breath ; therefore thou fallest to-day." Yudhi-sh^hira went on alone with the dog until he reached the gate of heaven. He was invited by Indra to enter, but he refused unless his brothers and Draupadi were also received. " Not even into thy heaven would I enter if they were not there." He is assured that they are already there, and is again told to enter "wearing his body of flesh." He again refuses unless, in the Avords of Pope, " admitted to that equal sky, his faithful dog shall bear him company." Indra expostulates in vain. " j^ever, come weal or come woe, will I abandon yon faithful dog." He is at length admitted, but to his dismay he finds there Dur-yodhana and his enemies, but not his brothers or Draupadi. He refuses to remain in heaven without them, and is conducted to the jaws of hell, where he beholds terrific sights and hears wailings of grief and anguish. He recoils, but well- known voices implore him to remain and assuage their sufferings. He trium^Dhs in this crowning trial, and resolves to share the fate of his friends in hell rather than abide with their foes in heaven. Having endured this supreme test, the whole scene is shown to be the effect of mdija or illusion, and he and his brothers and friends dAvell with Indra in full content of heart for ever. Such is the leading story of the Maha-bharata, which no doubt had a basis of fact in the old Hindu traditions. Different poets of different ages have added to it and embellished it by the powers of their imagination. Great additions have been made in later times. The Bhagavad-gita and the episode of Kala, with some others, are the productions of later writers ; the Hari-vansa, which affects to be a part of the Maha-bharata, is of still later date, and besides these, it cannot be doubted that numerous interpolations, from single verses to long passages, have been made to uphold and further the religious opinions of sects and individuals. To use the words of Max Miiller, "The epic character of the story has throughout been changed and almost obliterated by the didactic tendencies of the latest editors, who were clearly Brahmans brought up in the strict school of the laws of Manu." The date of the Maha-bharata is very uncertain, and is at best 1 90 MA HA-BHARA TA . a matter of conjecture and deduction. As a compiled \york it is generally considered to be about a century later in date than the Ramaya?ia, though there can be no doubt that the general thread of the story, and the incidents directly connected with it, belong to a period of time anterior to the story and scenes of that epic. The fact that the scene of the Maha-bharata is in Upper India, while that of the Ramayawa is in the Dakhin and Ceylon, is of itself sufficient to raise a strong presumption in favour of the superior antiquity of the former. TVeber shows that the Maha- bharata was known to Dion Chrysostom in the second half of the first century a.d. ; and as Megasthenes, who was in India about 315 B.C., says nothing about the epic, Weber's hypothesis is that the date of the Maha-bharata is between the two. Professor Williams believes that " the earliest or pre-brahmanical composi- tion of both epics took place at a period not later than the fifth century B.C.," but that "the first orderly completion of the two poems in their Brahmanised form may have taken place in the case of the Ramayawa about the beginning of the third century B.C., and in the case of the Maha-bharata still later." Lassen thinks that three distinct arrangements of the Maha-bharata are distinctly traceable. The varied contents of the Maha-bharata and their disjointed arrangement afford some warrant for these opinions, and although the Ramayawa is a compact, continuous, and complete poem, the professed work of one author, there are several recensions extant which differ considerably from eacli other. Taking a wide interval, but none too wide for a matter of such great uncertainty, the two poems may be considered as having assumed a complete form at some period in the six centuries pre- ceding the Christian era, and that the Ramaya^za had the priority. The complete text of the Maha-bharata has been twice printed in India, and a complete translation in French by Fauche has been interrupted by his death. But M. Fauche's translations are not in much repute. This particular one, says Weber, " can only pass for a translation in a very qualified sense." Many episodes and portions of the poem have been printed and translated. The following is a short epitome of the eighteen books of the Malia- bhiirata : — I. Adi-parva, 'Introductory book.' Describes the genealogy of the two families, the birth and nurture of Dh?7'ta-rrish/ra and Vimdu, their marriages, the births of the hundred sons of the former and the five of the latter, the enmity and rivalry between MA HA-BHARA TA. 191 the young princes of the two branches, and the winning of Draupadi at the swayam-vara. 2. Sahha-;parvaj 'Assembly book.' The assembly of the princes at Hastina-pura when Yudhi-sh/hira lost his kingdom and the Pawc/avas had to retire into exile. 3. Vana-parva, ' Forest chapter.' The life of the Pa?i(;?avas in the Kamyaka forest. This book is one of the longest and con- tains many episodes : among them the story of IsTala, and an outline of the story of the Eamaya?ia. 4. Virdta-jmrva, 'Yira/a chapter.