Preface to the Mahabharata
C. Rajagopalachari
It is not an exaggeration to say that the persons and incidents portrayed in the great literature of a people influence national character no less potently than the actual heroes and events enshrined in its history. It may be claimed that the former plays an even more important part in the formation of ideals, which give to character its impulse of growth.
In the moving history of our land, from time immemorial great minds have been formed and nourished and touched to heroic deeds by the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. In most Indian homes, children formerly learnt these immortal stories as they learnt their mother tongue at the mother's knee. And the sweetness and sorrows of Sita and Draupadi, the heroic fortitude of Rama and Arjuna and the loving fidelity of Lakshmana and Hanuman became the stuff of their young philosophy of life.
The growing complexity of life has changed the simple pattern of early home life. Still, there are few in our lands who do not know the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Though the stories come to them so embroidered with the garnish fancies of the Kalakshepam (devotional meeting where an expert scholar and singer tells a story to his audience) and the cinema as to retain but little of the dignity and approach to truth of Vyasa or Valmiki. Vyasa's Mahabharata is one of our noblest heritages. And it is my cherished belief that to hear it faithfully told is to love it and come under its elevating influence. It strengthens the soul and drives home, as nothing else does, the vanity of ambition and the evil and futility of anger and hatred. The realities of life are idealised by genius and given the form that makes drama, poetry or great prose. Since literature is closely related to life, so long as the human family is divided into nations, literature cannot escape the effects of such division.
But the highest literature transcends regionalism and through it, when we are properly attuned, we realise the essential oneness of the human family. The Mahabharata is of this class. It belongs to the world and not only to India. To the people of India, indeed, this epic has been an unfailing and perennial source of spiritual strength. Learnt at the mother's knee with reverence and love, it has inspired great men to heroic deeds as well as enabled the humble to face their trials with fortitude(courage) and faith.
The Mahabharata was composed many thousand years ago. But generations of gifted reciters have added to Vyasa's original a great mass of material. All the floating literature that was thought to be worth preserving, historical, geographical, legendary, political, theological and philosophical, of nearly thirty centuries, found a place in it.
In those days, when there was no printing, interpolation in a recognized classic seemed to correspond to inclusion in the national library. Divested of these accretions, the Mahabharata is a noble poem possessing in a supreme degree the characteristics of a true epic, great and fateful movement, heroic characters and stately diction.
The characters in the epic move with the vitality of real life. It is difficult to find anywhere such vivid portraiture on so ample a canvas. Bhishma, the perfect knight; the venerable Drona; the vain but chivalrous Karna; Duryodhana, whose perverse pride is redeemed by great courage in adversity; the high souled Pandavas with godlike strength as well as power of suffering; Draupadi, most unfortunate of queens; Kunti, the worthy mother of heroes; Gandhari, the devoted wife and sad mother of the wicked sons of Dhritarashtra, these are some of the immortal figures on that crowded, but never confused, canvas. Then there is great Krishna himself, most energetic of men, whose divinity scintillates through a cloud of very human characteristics. His high purposefulness pervades the whole epic. One can read even a translation and feel the over whelming power of the incomparable vastness and sublimity of the poem.
The Mahabharata discloses a rich civilization and a highly evolved society, which though of an older world, strangely resembles the India of our own time, with the same values and ideals. When India was divided into a number of independent kingdoms, occasionally, one king, more distinguished or ambitious than the rest, would assume the title of emperor, securing the acquiescence of other royalties, and signalised it by a great sacrificial feast. The adherence was generally voluntary. The assumption of imperial title conferred no over lordship. The emperor was only first among his peers.
The art of war was highly developed and military prowess and skill were held in high esteem. We read in the Mahabharata of standardized phalanxes and of various tactical movements. There was an accepted code of honorable warfare, deviations from which met with reproof among Kshatriyas. The advent of the Kali age is marked by many breaches of these conventions in the Kurukshetra battle, on account of the bitterness of conflict, frustration and bereavements. Some of the most impressive passages in the epic center round these breaches of dharma. The population lived in cities and villages. The cities were the headquarters of kings and their household and staff. There were beautiful palaces and gardens and the lives led were cultured and luxurious. There was trade in the cities, but the mass of the people were agriculturists.
Besides this urban and rural life, there was a very highly cultured life in the seclusion of forest recesses, centered round ascetic teachers. These ashramas kept alive the bright fires of learning and spiritual thought. Young men of noble birth eagerly sought education at these ashramas. World-weary aged went there for peace. These centers of culture were cherished by the rulers of the land and not the proudest of them would dare to treat the members of the hermitages otherwise than with respect and consideration.
Women were highly honored and entered largely in the lives of their husbands and sons. The caste system prevailed, but intercaste marriages were not unknown.
Some of the greatest warriors in the Mahabharata were brahmanas. The Mahabharata has moulded the character and civilization of one of the most numerous of the world's people.
How did it fulfill, how is it still continuing to fulfill, this function? By its gospel of dharma which like a golden thread runs through all the complex movements in the epic by its lesson that hatred breeds hatred, that covetousness and violence lead inevitably to ruin, that the only real conquest is in the battle against one's lower nature.
Mahabharata:The Mahābhārata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the Rāmāyaṇa. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kurukshetra War and the fates of the Kaurava and the Pāṇḍava princes and their successors. The authorship of the Mahābhārata is attributed to Vyāsa.
Preface to Mahabharata is written by C. Rajagopalachari. The Mahabharata by C. Rajagopalachari is a retelling of Mahabharata.
Kunti (The Wife of Pandu): She is best known as the mother of the Pandavas and Karna (who fought for Kauravas).
The Pandavas refers to the five legendary brothers— Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva—who are the central characters of the Hindu epic Mahabharata.
The Kaurava is usually, the term, used for the 100 sons of King Dhritarashtra and his wife Gandhari. Duryodhana, Dushasana, Vikarna and Chitrasena are the most popular among the brothers.
The Kurukshetra War: The war took place between two groups of cousins, the Kauravas and the Pandavas, for the throne of Hastinapura. The war lasted 18 days.
Droṇa, also referred to as Dronacharya: He serves as the royal preceptor (teacher/guru) of the Kauravas and the Pandavas.
Draupadi: She is the main female protagonist of the Hindu epic Mahabharata, and the common consort of the five Pandava brothers—Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva.
Bhishma: He is also known as Pitamaha. He was the supreme commander of the Kaurava forces during the Kurukshetra War mentioned in the Hindu epic Mahabharata. He was born as the elder son of the illustrious King Shantanu and goddess Ganga.
Multiple-Choice Question:
1. Who wrote the Mahabharata?
A. Valmiki
B. Vyasa
C. Homer
D. Dante
Answer: B. Vyasa
2. Who is the author of Preface to the Mahabharata?
A. A.L Basham
B. C. Rajagopalachari
C. Toru Dutt
D. R. N. Tagore
Answer: B. C. Rajgopalachari
3. How did children in traditional Indian homes learn the stories of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata?
A. Through school education
B. At the mother's knee
C. Through formal ceremonies
D. By reading books
Answer: B. At the mother's knee
4. How does the text describe the highest literature?
A. It transcends regionalism
B. It promotes regionalism
C. It is limited to a specific culture
D. It focuses on historical events
Answer: A. It transcends regionalism
5. According to the text, what is a key theme of the Mahabharata?
A. The triumph of good over evil
B. The vanity of ambition
C. The importance of wealth
D. The benefits of anger
Answer: B. The vanity of ambition
6. What kind of poem is the Mahabharata described as?
A. A lyric poem
B. A short poem
C. An epic poem
D. A sonnet
Answer: C. An epic poem
7. Which character in the Mahabharata is described as "the perfect knight"?
A. Arjuna
B. Bhishma
C. Duryodhana
D. Karna
Answer: B. Bhishma
8. Who is described as "the venerable" in the Mahabharata?
A. Bhishma
B. Krishna
C. Drona
D. Arjuna
Answer: C. Drona
9. Who is known as "most unfortunate of queens" in the Mahabharata?
A. Sita
B. Draupadi
C. Gandhari
D. Kunti
Answer: B. Draupadi
10. The Mahabharata reveals a civilization that resembles which time period?
A. Medieval Europe
B. Ancient Greece
C. Contemporary India
D. Modern America
Answer: C. Contemporary India
11. What impact does the Mahabharata have according to the text?
A. Weakens the soul
B. Promotes anger
C. Strengthens the soul
D. Encourages greed
Answer: C. Strengthens the soul
12. What does the Mahabharata teach about covetousness and violence?
A. They lead to prosperity
B. They are necessary
C. They lead to ruin
D. They are harmless
Answer: C. They lead to ruin
13. Who among the following characters is from the Ramayana?
A. Bhishma
B. Arjuna
C. Lakshmana
D. Duryodhana
Answer: C. Lakshmana
14. How many days did the Mahabharata war last?
A. 18
B. 19
C. 20
D. 17
Answer: A. 18
15. Who was the mother of the Pandavas?
A. Draupadi
B. Kunti
C. Gandhari
D. Satyavati
Answer: B. Kunti
16. Who was the father of the Pandavas?
A. Dhritarashtra
B. Pandu
C. Krishna
D. Bhishma
Answer: B. Pandu
17. Who was the father of the Kauravas?
A. Pandu
B. Dhritarashtra
C. Bhishma
D. Vidura
Answer: B. Dhritarashtra
18. Who was the mother of the Kauravas?
A. Kunti
B. Gandhari
C. Satyavati
D. Madri
Answer: B. Gandhari
19. Who was the wife shared by the Pandavas?
A. Subhadra
B. Kunti
C. Draupadi
D. Satyavati
Answer: C
20. Who was the skilled warrior and teacher of the Pandavas and Kauravas?
A. Bhishma
B. Dronacharya
C. Karna
D. Kripacharya
Answer: B. Dronacharya
21. Who was the warrior with divine armor and earrings?
A. Arjuna
B. Karna
C. Bhima
D. Yudhishthira
Answer: B. Karna
){kind=link}
0 Comments