I thought I knew a thing or two about Indian epics and classics. Over the past months, two books and a podcast have undermined this notion, and reminded me that my knowledge is, at best, narrow and woefully shallow.
The two books were - S Jaishankar's "The India Way" and Roberto Calasso's "Ka: Stories of the Mind and Gods of India" (Translated by Tim Parks), and the podcast series, "The Vatapi Curry Point" by Krish Ashok and Anirudh Kanisetti.
Jaishankar's book is mainly about the evolving global stance of the Indian state - the way it views itself, and the rest of the world. Much of the book reads like a guide for career diplomats, but still, what is of interest in this context is Chapter 3, titled "Krishna's Choice". In this he lays out observations on India as a civilisational entity trying to fit itself into a narrower idea of a nation state, a concept born from the Peace of Westphalia - 'an international society of sovereign state entities possessing the monopoly of force within their mutually recognised territories'.
He begins with a quote (or admonition!) from Goethe - "A nation that doesn't honour its past has no future", and discusses the importance of dissimulation in statecraft. While most of us may be familiar with Kautilya's 'Sama, Dana, Danda, Bheda' (alliance, compensation, force and trickery), as ways of approaching political challenges, the role of specific characters in the Mahabharata was something I did not know.
Take for instance, the role of Susarma. He was the chief of the Trigarta warriors from a kingdom around present day Punjab:
"Traditional allies of the Kurus, they conceived a special enmity towards Arjuna, who defeated them while preparing the ground for Yudhistira's coronation ceremony....their single-minded hostility proved very dear to the Pandavas. Constantly pouring oil into the Kaurava fire, they collaborated in the effort to smoke the Pandavas from the Virata kingdom during their period of exile...their challenge to Arjuna of a fight to the death diverted him away from the main battle, leading to the capture of his brother Yudhistira alive by the Kauravas...The moral here is of the danger of smaller adversaries whose single-mindedness goes to the extent of destroying themselves to inflict damage."
Obviously the reference here is to Pakistan and the state's attitude towards India. Jaishankar presents other examples as well: Shalya, the maternal uncle of Pandavas, who is tricked by a false flag operation into committing to the Kaurava side; Krishna's brother Balarama, is genuinely neutral as he has taught warfare to both sides and opts out of the conflict by taking a long pilgrimage during the war; and Rukmi of Vidharba, another notable warrior who stays out of the war, by overestimating his own value to both sides and ends up accepted by neither.
Calasso's "Ka", on the other hand, examines the epics from a different dimension. While in Jaishankar's book we can connect to geographical locations that match places in India today, Calasso reminds us that the stars and constellations in their supra-human forms played an active role in the human drama, in this part of the world:
Daksha - "he who is skillful" - emerges from the thumb of the creator, Prajapati / Brahma's right hand. Over time, he becomes a king and weds Prasuti, and the couple have a whole bandwagon of daughters. 27 of these daughters marry Soma, the moon god, who places them in the heavens as dancing troop of 27 Nakshatras/stars. The most headstrong of his daughters is Sati who insists of marrying Shiva, the most reclusive and fiery-tempered of all gods; the one who traps the whole Milky Way (Akashaganga) in his tresses and brings it down to earth as the river Ganga!
The last one, a podcast, is delightfully irreverent. It is a freewheeling discussion on history, food, and science between two authors and social-media-stars, Krish Ashok and Anirudh Kanisetti on Instagram. It pokes fun at the prevailing dogmas, ridicules folks set on creating communal divisions while also asking interesting questions.
Here is one: What is the similarity between Arjuna and Maradonna?
According to Krish Ashok, the Sanskrit name Arjuna is based on the Indo-European word for silver - "Argentum". Arjuna - Argentum - Argentina - Maradonna!
There is certainly a lot more to the epics than meets the eye :)
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REFERENCES & LINKS
- Jaishankar, S (2021): The India Way
- Calasso, Roberto (): Ka - Stories of the Mind and Gods of India
- Vatapi Curry - Insta - https://www.instagram.com/_masalalab/?hl=en
