Like millions of Indians, I sat down during the lockdown to revisit the nostalgia of Doordarshan when Mahabharata and Ramayana aired on Indian national television again after three decades.

In 1988 when they were first aired, they brought most of India’s population together, how the times have changed since then. Three decades ago few homes had television screens, now most individuals had to be enticed to look away from their personal screens.

The medium of storytelling has come along way in India from Harikathas at Temples, Natakas, Yakshaganas, Gamakas, Radio, Television to OTT.

But have the stories of Ramayana & Mahabharata also changed? Surprisingly, Yes. Let us take a look

The Mahabharata as an example of Indian mythology/ history has had many retellings over its glorious 4000+ year history. The story remains essentially the same: 2 warrior clans fighting for power.

The basis for the BR Chopra’s Mahabharat serial is based on the Sukthankar edition from The Bhandarkar Institute in Pune, a critical Sanskrit edition compiled from over 60 manuscripts for over 40 years. Not only in Sanskrit are these considered epics, but also in many Indian languages.

In fact, most of the earliest and best works of Indian languages have been the first regional retellings of Mahabharata and Ramayana. For e.g, in Kannada, it is Pampa‘s Vikramarjuna Vijaya, & Nannaya‘s Andhra Mahabharatam in Telugu, both being considered Adikavis or first poets.

In the specific case of Kannada, my mother tongue, Mahabharata has been mainly retold thrice by three great poets in a span of 1000 years.

This has been remarked by stalwarts such as N.S Lakshminarayana Bhatta & Shatavadhani R. Ganesh.

A story set more than 4000 years ago has been retold several times in the last one thousand years. Why?

It turns out even great writers contemporize classical stories to their own times.

1. 1000 years ago, Pampa in the court of Arikesari II wrote the Vikramarjuna Vijaya as an epic tale of warrior splendour and the glamour of military conquest. It is a story of superheroes such as Arjuna who was equated to his patron king Arikesari II. It was the Age of the Kshatriya when Veera (Courage) was the Pradhana Rasa, death on the battlefield was celebrated with Veeragallu or the Hero’s Stone as a monument of bravery and courage. Krishna as God showed the way and warriors charged towards their destiny on the battlefield. It tells a lot about the tenth-century Karnataka which feudatory kingdom striving for domination of a distributed Rashtrakuta empire as seen above. where more than externality forces, curbing internal rebellion and going to battle was the way to glory as was in Pampa’s narrative.

   

   

2. 500 years later in The Vijayanagara empire, times had changed when Kumara Vyasa wrote Karnata Bharatha Manjari, a retelling of Mahabharata as a story of Krishna Bhakti and devotion. Vijayanagara under the reign of Deva Raya II had just witnessed attacks by Malik Kafur of the Khilji dynasty and the spread of invaders till Madurai, only to be brought under the Vijayanagara empire by Kempana as described in the Madura Vijayam. Kumaravyasa’s world was extremely different compared to Pampa’s with external forces threatening their cultural, economic and mortal existence. This called for Dharma to take the front step and Krishna to come forward and revive his “Dharma sansthapanarthaya..” role in his version of the epic.

   

   

3. A 1000 years after Pampa, S.L Bhyrappa gave the world his “Parva”, it talks of the Mahabharata as a human story in which Krishna is no longer God but a mere mortal albeit a wise one. It was the late 1970s, a young independent India looked at emergency and political turmoil. It came down to the choice of the individual to pick his side. Parva tells the story of Mahabharata from several perspectives, firmly rooted in reality. No mythology here, only the solitary journey towards an enlightened decision, even if it means personal loss and conflicts. Krishna via Satyaki becomes a yardstick character in times of turmoil where lines are blurred between Dharma and Adharma. Non-alignment is not an option in this War. Everyone needed to make up their mind on their own and pick their side in Parva.

   

   

What does this have to do with Indian history, one might wonder.

The telling and retelling of our stories have always been subject to the challenges of the current time. We need to revisit Indian History because, the challenges of today’s world are completely different:

The Coronavirus seems to be fast emerging as one of the many defining challenges of our times. A small virus in a Chinese province has brought the entire world to a halt in 3 months.

At no other point in human history has an individual been this powerful or the human network so interconnected and interdependent.

It is in these turbulent times, everyone has to find the courage and their own place in this world from revisiting their history. Indian History has taught us that we can retell our stories to find the courage to fight against new challenges.

No one makes this point better than Rabindranath Tagore in his Bharatbarsher Itihas.

“On a stormy day, the storm itself is not the only event of the day… For human beings, the events of births and deaths, joy and sadness taking place on that day are more important. But a foreigner sees only the storm because he is outside the houses, not inside.”   

Innovation & Indian History Series from The Saranga Project is an attempt to look at how India coped with global disruption from an Indian perspective.

What is this Indian perspective of History?

Find out in the next edition.  I look forward to your feedback, click on the button below. 

Stay Safe & Happy Reading,

Puneeth Chaithanya