Mahabharata – Reality or a Made-Up Tale?

As Indians, our entire childhood was spent with our grandparents reciting stories to us about gods and princes and then slowly putting us to sleep. Some of the most basic and common stories that we would’ve heard before those little eye lids of ours shut, were the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. These tales always used to fascinate me as a child and as a matter of fact, they still do. As we grew up, we realised the fact that these “stories” were exactly that – stories. Some of us here may have wondered whether the Mahabharata occurred or was it just another tale, made up to “educate” children as to “what is right and what is wrong”. I for one, have always contemplated and pondered over this thought and have yet not managed to end up with a single, firm decision. Let’s have a look at both the sides of the “story”.

The entire “tale” was narrated by Ved Vyasa and written by Ganesha with a part of his ivory tusk. Sometime after the Vedas were written there was a terrible 14-year drought where the Saraswati river dried up, the society collapsed, and the Vedas were forgotten. This was the time when a sage called Krishna Dwaipayana (later known as Ved Vyasa), a fisherwomen’s son (Satyavati’s to be precise, great-grandmother of the Kauravas and the Pandavas), was born, out of wedlock. The rain returned and Vyasa (meaning the compiler of the books of wisdom), took up the responsibility of compiling the Vedas again. After completing this task, he had an urge to write a “story” to explain one of the most important Vedic truths to every man in every corner of the world. Therefore, Ganesha was called to serve as his scribe and the characters of the “story” were in fact, his grandchildren – the Kauravas and the Pandavas. Both the scholars had certain conditions. Ganesha asked Vyasa to narrate the entire tale without stopping to make sure that everything that was narrated by Vyasa was not affected by human prejudice. Vyasa agreed and asked him to write only if what he said, made sense to him, which would make sure that nothing was a tale of fiction made to entertain humans. So began the “story” of the Mahabharata. Interestingly, only one out of the sixty portions of the Mahabharata is known to us now.

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A table explaining the various chapters of The Mahabharata

Source: Jaya by Devdutt Pattaniak

The reason that a part of me still believes that the Mahabharata could have been true is purely because a major part of it reflects the genuine troubles that every man goes through. No one can be all good or all bad. The Pandavas although described as the “good men” had committed a lot of crimes and they too had their faults. This, I feel, is something that many people don’t realise, and the “tale” is then dubbed as a clichéd one and hence unrealistic. Let’s list out a few examples:

• Number 1, the tale of Eklavya. Once, a dog interrupted Eklavya whilst he was practicing archery.  So, he shot a few arrows in the direction of the bark and they entered the dog’s mouth in such a manner that they only kept his mouth open and did not harm him at all. When Arjuna found out about Eklavya and the fact that he was a much better archer than him, he reported this to his Guru, Drona. To honour the promise, he’d made to Arjun (to make him the world’s greatest archer), as an offering (guru dakshina), he asked him to give him his right thumb and Eklavya did so without questioning him at all. Arjuna knew that without his thumb, Eklavya would never be able to shoot another arrow in this lifetime. Throughout the epic, Vyasa describes Arjun as a very insecure man. He was envious of Eklavya first and then Karna, and he does anything that is possible to pull others down. This proves how Arjuna has been disguised as an ideal child – a focused, determined and disciplined human. However, these parts, the realistic parts of him have always been concealed when the Mahabharata has been recited to us.

• Right before the war, when Arjun felt mentally weak, he tells Krishna that he isn’t ready to wage a war against his elders – Bhishma and Drona, who have always fought for him and his brothers even when no one supported them. This was the time when the Bhagwat Gita is supposed to have been recited by Krishna to Arjun. Krishna, his charioteer, walks him over to the Kauravas’ side and tells him to reflect upon the tortures inflicted upon the Pandavas and their wife. How Duryodhan and Dushasana molested their wife, how Bhishma and Drona sat by idly in the name of Dharma and watched it happen. Arjun then tells him that he feels it now, he feels and realises the need to wage war. Krishna then asks him to look again at the same people. Bhishma, brought up the Pandavas as his own children, made it possible for them to live in a palace wherein the Kauravas made it impossible to even survive. Drona, his guru, who committed a huge sin by asking another archer to cut off his thumb, knowing that he wouldn’t ever be able to pick up another bow again, only to abide by the promise he had made to him. Vikarna, the only Kaurava who opposed his elder brother when Draupadi was being molested. Krishna tells him that all these people will die at the end of the war. His own brothers were no better. They too sat by idly while their wife was being raped, all in the name of Dharma. His children, nephews and countless other soldiers will die, many wives will be widowed, countless children will be orphaned. He asks Arjun once more, “Do you still want to wage a war, knowing the consequences?” Arjuna tells him that he isn’t sure what to believe in anymore. He asks Krishna to help him out, give him the knowledge about what Dharma is. The point that I’m trying to make is that even during the course the of this epic, Krishna himself points out the faults in both the sides. He himself gives Arjuna the reason why this war is necessary. It isn’t because the Pandavas need to avenge the insult and humiliation inflicted upon them and their wife by the Kauravas. It is because a cleansing is necessary. The world has become too corrupt. Only when the world is cleansed, can the next generation start afresh, start right from the scratch.

An Illustration of Krishna reciting the Gita to Arjuna

Source: Jaya by Devdutt Pattanaik

The reason why I gave the above example is because in the Mahabharata itself Krishna gives all the knowledge about Dharma and clears all the misconceptions about it. According to some people, epic was inspired by a real war that was fought amongst the nomadic herdsmen, who followed the way of the Vedic way of life and grazed their cattle in north of modern-day Delhi, probably what is now known as the town of Kurukshetra in Haryana. All in all, according to me, the Mahabharata is too intricate an “epic” to be just a story. The entire “story” feels too real to be just a myth or a “made-up tale”. Also, even if it is a myth, think about how the author of this epic would have thought, to have woven such an intricate and interesting web of various tales, each conveying different lessons, which has absolutely no loopholes and yet conveys “the truth” in a very simple complicated manner. This is what I had to say, but think about it yourself. I’ll leave you with a small poetry that Devdutt Pattanaik had written in his book “Jaya: An illustrated retelling of the Mahabharata”:

Within infinite myths lie the Eternal Truth

Who sees it all?

Varuna has but a thousand eyes

Indra, a hundred

And I, only two

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Sources: Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling Of The Mahabharata by Devdutt Pattanaik.

If any of you guys are interested in knowing more about the Mahabharata, then please do refer to the book above. It’ll give you a lot information and stories about the epic, things that you definitely wouldn’t have known. Happy reading!