Mahabharata

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Battle of Kurukshetra in a Mahabharata manuscript

The Mahabharata ( Sanskrit महाभारत Mahābhārata [ mʌhaːˈbʱaːrʌtʌ ] "the great story of the Bharatas") is the most famous Indian epic . It is believed that it first appeared between 400 BC. And 400 AD, but based on older traditions. It includes about 100,000 double verses.

meaning

Great Indian poets such as B. Kalidasa , have repeatedly resorted to the Mahabharata and the Ramayana , India's second great popular epic . The epics, together with the Puranas and other works as components of the Smritis, form the core of the Hindu tradition. The most important philosophical text of the Mahabharata, the Bhagavadgita , is often one of the Shrutis , the writings of revelation. Together with the Tibetan epic of King Gesar , the Mahabharata is one of the most extensive literary works in the world.

The work is one of the most important Dharma books and therefore an important guide for Hindus. It cuts all aspects of Hindu ethics , on the one hand it shows orthodox statements, for example about the tasks of castes and women's duties , on the other hand it raises violent protests against it in many places.

With its large number of stories and motifs as well as its innumerable religious and philosophical parables , the meaning of the epic is best summarized with the sentence from the first book: “ What is found here can also be found elsewhere. What cannot be found here cannot be found anywhere. "

Emergence

The Mahabharata is both a heroic epic and an important religious and philosophical work, the origin of which may be in Vedic times. Traditionally, the mythical sage Vyasa is believed to be the author who plays a role in the story itself. According to legend, he is said to have composed it and dictated it to the elephant-headed god Ganesha . Over the centuries there have been repeated changes and further developments to the work, because for a long time much was only passed on orally. It is made up of many layers that have accumulated over time.

content

The Mahabharata is divided into eighteen chapters and an appendix and contains, in addition to the main story, hundreds of side stories and smaller episodes. Basically, the extensive epic deals with all topics that are important in Hinduism : with the life of creatures, with death and rebirth, with karma and Dharma (righteousness), describes happiness and suffering, the results of good and bad deeds, that Sacrifice, as well as the different ages, it deals with the gods and transmits ancient hymns.

The plot describes the battle of the Kauravas with the Pandavas , two related royal families, on the battlefield in Kurukshetra (north of Delhi ). It is very likely that it is essentially a historical event, for many Indians the events are a fact. The fight is portrayed as a terrible fratricidal war in which many people died. It also forms the dramaturgical background of the Bhagavad-Gita (song of God).

The older generation and family ties

A prince from the ancient Indian ruling family of the Bharatas had three sons: Dhritarashtra , Pandu and Vidura . The eldest, the blind Dhritarashtra, was unable to ascend the throne because of his blindness . Nevertheless, after some time the ruling Pandu transferred the throne to his blind brother and retired to the woods with his two wives Kunti and Madri . There, before he died, five sons were born to him, the Pandavas (sons of Pandu) all begotten by gods : Yudhishthira , Bhima , Arjuna , as well as the twins Nakula and Sahadava. The reigning blind king Dhritarashtra had one hundred sons, the Kauravas (named after the ancestor Kuru ) of which the eldest, Duryodhana, became the main adversary of the Pandavas.

The main narrative thread of the Mahabharata deals with the conflict between these two related families and their allies. The sons of Pandu and Dhritarashtra are brought up together at the court in Hastinapur. Your teachers are Kripa and Drona. It soon becomes apparent that the sons of Pandu are superior to their cousins ​​in terms of strength, dexterity and mentality. The Kauravas under the leadership of Duryodhana try several times to harm their cousins ​​- the Pandava brothers - in order to enforce their own claims. But the Pandavas managed to escape and spent a few years wandering around dressed as ascetics with their mother Kunti. At the end of this time, Arjuna wins the hand of Princess Draupadi on her choice of spouse. But because of her predetermined fate and a misunderstanding by Kunti, she becomes the wife of all five Pandavas. Because when the five brothers came home to their mother Kunti, she said, without looking up and without having noticed the new daughter-in-law, that they should share everything they had brought with them. Since an order of the mother could not be contradicted, Draupadi married all five sons, although this was not the custom, and despite the reservations of the reigning King Dhritarashtra.

The dice game, exile and return

As the story progresses, the Pandavas and Kauravas each have a kingdom so that peace can be secured. But the Kauravas organize a game of dice in which the Pandavas lose their entire kingdom. After all, the Pandavas have to live in exile for twelve years and then remain undetected in society for the thirteenth year. But even after these thirteen years, the Kauravas under the leadership of Duryodhana deny the rights of the Pandavas, with the ruling blind King Dhritarashtra and his advisory staff taking the side of his sons.

Arjuna and his charioteer Krishna meet Karna (miniature painting, Northern India around 1820)

The battle of Kurukshetra

Main article: The Battle of Kurukshetra

So it comes to the great war in which eleven tribes fight on the side of the Kauravas against seven on the side of the Pandavas. King Krishna , who is related to both families and is said to be an avatar of the god Vishnu , also participates in the dispute as the charioteer of Pandava Arjuna. Before the great battle begins, Krishna gives him the teachings of the Bhagavad-Gita. Finally, after unspeakable suffering on both sides, the Pandavas win the battle. All the sons of the blind king Dhritarashtra are dead.

The end of the Pandavas

After a few years, the Pandava brothers go on a pilgrimage to the Himalayas with their wife Draupadi . Except for Yudhishthira, all die one after the other along the way. A dog joins him and follows him to the gate of heaven. Now the Pandava is tested and he has to find his loved ones under agony in Hell . But when it turns out that Yudhisthira would rather stay with his wife, his brothers and the dog than enjoy the heavenly glory without them, his human body finally falls away from him and he realizes that everything was an illusion for his trial.

interpretation

As in all Hindu epics, good and bad are not polarized in the Mahabharata: The “bad” always show good, lovable qualities, whereas the “good” also have weaknesses and, if necessary, resort to cunning and lies: for example, Yudhisthira, the eldest applies of the five Pandava brothers, as the embodiment of Dharma , righteousness. In the desperate fight in Kurukshetra he speaks a conscious lie anyway, so that the invincible Drona can finally lay down his weapons and be defeated. Thereupon his chariot, which until then had always hovered over it, sank down to the earth. This lie ultimately contributed to the fact that the great battle, far beyond any warrior honor, ended in a bloodbath.

Family tree of the Kurus

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Kuru
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Parashara
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Satyavati
 
 
 
Shantanu
 
 
 
 
 
Ganga
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Vyasa 1
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Bhishma 2
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ambalika
 
 
 
Vichitravirya
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ambika
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Kunti A
 
 
 
 
 
Pandu 3
 
 
 
 
 
Madri B
 
Dhritarashtra 3
 
Gandhari
 
Shakuni
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Yudhishthira 4
 
Bhima 4
 
Arjuna 4
 
Nakula 4
 
Sahadeva 4
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Karna 5
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Duryodhana
 
Dushasana
 
Dussala
 
(98 sons)
 
 
 

Legend

  • 1: Vyasa is the son of the sage Parashara and the fisherman's daughter and later Queen Satyavati. According to legend, he is the author of the Mahabharata.
  • 2: Bhisma is the son of King Shantanu and the "goddess" Ganga. So that his father Shantanu can marry the fisherman's daughter Satyavati after “leaving” Ganga, he swears not to lay claim to the throne and to remain childless.
  • 3: In order to preserve the royal line of the Kuru dynasty, Pandu and Dhritarashtra were conceived after the death of King Vichitravirya at the request of the Queen Mother Satyavati of Vyasa.
  • 4: The Pandavas are recognized as sons of Pandu (although they were begotten by different gods).
  • 5: Karna was born by Kunti before she married Pandu; he is a half-brother of Yudhistira, Bhima and Arjuna. However, the three do not know this. They fight against each other.
  • A: Kunti is King Pandu's first wife. She is the mother of Yudhistira, Bhima, Arjuna and Karna.
  • B: Madri is the second wife of King Pandu. She is the mother of the twins Nakula and Sahadeva. After the death of King Pandu, it is she who is burned with the corpse ( widow burning ).

structure

The Mahabharata is divided into eighteen Parvas (books, chapters):

  1. Adiparva - Introduction, Birth, and Early Years of the Princes
  2. Sabhaparva - life in the royal court, the game of dice, and the exile of the Pandavas.
  3. Aranyakaparva (also Vanaparva, Aranyaparva) - The 12 years in exile.
  4. Virataparva - The last year in exile
  5. Udyogaparva - Preparations for War
  6. Bhishmaparva - The first part of the great war, with Bhisma as the commander of the Kauravas.
  7. Dronaparva - The war continues, with Drona as the commander.
  8. Karnaparva - The war again, with Karna in command.
  9. Salyaparva - The final part of the battle, with Salya as the commander.
  10. Sauptikaparva - Ashvattama and the last Kauravas kill the Pandava army in their sleep.
  11. Striparva - Gandhari and other women mourn the dead.
  12. Shantiparva - The coronation of Yudhishthira, and his instructions from Bhishma
  13. Anushasanaparva - The final instructions from Bhisma.
  14. Ashvamedhikaparva - The royal ceremony or Ashvameda performed by Yudhisthira.
  15. Ashramavasikaparva - Dhritarashtra, Gandhari, Kunti go to an ashram, and later die
  16. Mausalaparva - The struggle among the Yadavas.
  17. Mahaprasthanikaparva - The first part of the path to the death of the Pandavas
  18. Svargarohanaparva - The Pandavas reach the spiritual world.

Some important stories and texts that are part of the Mahabharata:

  1. Bhagavad Gita - The teachings of Krishna to Arjuna, in the Bhishmaparva.
  2. Nala and Damayanti - a love story, in the Aranyakaparva.
  3. Savitri and Satyavan - a story of death-defying marital fidelity, in Aranyakaparva
  4. Krishnavatara - the story of Krishna.
  5. Rama - a summary of the Ramayana , in the Aranyakaparva.
  6. Vishnu sahasranama - famous hymn to Vishnu, in Anushasanaparva.
  7. Anugita - another dialogue of Krishna with Arjuna.
  8. Story of Matsya , the fish avatar Vishnus, who teaches in the form of the fish, in the Varnaparva.
  9. The whisking of the milk ocean - appearance of the goddess Lakshmi from the primordial sea and Vishnus
Avatar as a turtle ( Kurma ), in the Adiparva

Historical hypotheses

Some earlier historians saw the fight between Kauravas and Pandavas as the poetic processing of the conflict between Aryan tribes, the Aryas , which, it is assumed, began around 1500 BC. Immigrated to northern India and the "indigenous people" of northern India. This is supported by the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita inserted into the rest of the story , which justifies the fight. However, this theory lost scientific support due to archaeological finds and genetic studies.

Another argument against the theory of a war between Aryans and the indigenous population is that the fight between Pandavas and Kauravas described was a fight between relatives, which would rather suggest that it took place within the Aryan tribes.

The historicity, and especially the dating of the Mahabharata War, is unclear; archaeoastronomical calculations that variously dated him to 1478 BC. Chr., 1924 BC BC or 3137 BC Chr. Are largely discredited. In 3102 BC According to Hindu mythology, the Kali-Yuga , the dark age , begins ; it is said to be the time of Krishna's death at the end of the Mahabharata.

Edits

Literary adaptations

The poet Bhasa (before the 3rd century) created a number of dramatic adaptations of the subject in Sanskrit, including:

  • Madhyamavyayogam
  • Dutavakyam
  • Karnabharam
  • Pancaratram
  • Dutaghatolkacam

The following works by Kalidasa (4th or 5th century) deal with the Mahabharata material:

There are early poetics with Dhvanyaloka by Anandavardhana (9th century) and Locana by Abhinavagupta (10th-11th centuries).

Film adaptations

The epic has seen numerous film adaptations since the silent film era, mostly in the Indian languages. The most important of these are:

Settings

additional

  • Arjun: Warrior of Mahabharat is a role-action game (2013) developed by ServeSilicon Technologies.

literature

Critical edition of the Sanskrit text:

  • Vishnu S. Sukthankar, Shripad Krishna Belvalkar and others: The Mahābhārata. 19 volumes with 2 index volumes. Bhandarkar Oriental Research Inst., Poona 1933-1972.

There is no complete translation of the Mahabharata from the original language into German. The classic translation into English is:

  • Kisari Mohan Ganguli: The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa. India 1883-1896. Most recently as a 4-volume paperback edition: Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi 2004, ISBN 81-215-0593-3 ( online edition )

A summary of the entire epic offers:

German partial translations:

  • Franz Bopp : Nalas and Damajanti . Berlin 1838 (digitized version)
  • Franz Bopp: Indralokâgamanam. Arjuna's journey to Indra's heaven . Berlin 1824 (digitized version)
  • Franz Bopp: The Flood along with three other of the most important episodes of the Mahâ-Bhârata . Berlin 1829 (digitized version)
  • Ernst Heinrich Meier : Nal and Damajanti . Stuttgart 1847.
  • Paul Deussen : Four philosophical texts of the Mahabharatam . Leipzig 1906. (Reprint: Bielefeld 1980, ISBN 3-88302-012-5 )
  • Georg von Simson (ed.): Mahabharata. The Great Tale of the Bharatas. Translated, summarized and commented in excerpts from Sanskrit. Verlag der Welteligionen, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-458-70031-9 .
  • Gitta Haselbacher: Mahabharata. A retelling . Yantra, Bregenz 2006, ISBN 3-901226-39-7 (simplified short version for children)
  • Otto Abt: Of love and power. The Mahabharata . Horlemann, Bad Honnef 2001, ISBN 3-89502-124-5 .
  • Biren Roy (Ed.): Mahabharata. India's great epic. 10th edition. Diederichs, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-424-00576-2 . (first published in English in 1958)
  • Samhita Arni: The Mahabharata. Told and drawn by a girl . Nagel and Kimche, Zurich / Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-312-00516-7 . (Indian retelling from 1996)
  • Krishna Dharma: Mahabharata, short version . Bhaktivedanta 2002.

Studies:

Web links

Commons : Mahabharata  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Text:

Translations:

Others:

Remarks

  1. Actually the half-truth that Ashvattama is dead; Ashvattama, however, was both the name of the son of the invincible Drona and that of an elephant, renamed for this purpose and killed. Drona put down her arms at the news "Ashvattama is dead" and fell because of Arjuna's half-truth or half-lie; the phrase "Ashvattama is dead" has become proverbial for launched misleading information; Book 7, chapter 191.
  2. The first comment on the game is from December 27, 2013, see the presentation page of the game on Google Play .