‘And you…now that you know, you are not ashamed?’
‘Ashamed? Frankly, I couldn’t care less either way,’ Suka stood up and paced around slowly, weighing his next words. ‘You don’t really know me. I don’t know what you’ve thought of me so far, but whatever it is I assure you that’s not what I am. I am a practical man. But also a patient one, unlike you. Your problem, Sanjaya, is that you don’t deal well with priorities. You’re dedicated and focussed, and you have the resilience of a tiger, but you’re not good at delaying gratification.’
‘Hah!’ Sanjaya did not agree with Suka’s assessment of what he considered his greatest strength. ‘Considering the Firstborn are nothing more than an impotent group of hymn-chanters sired by the blood of Firewrights, a decrepit order led by a feeble, bumbling Vyasa like Markand. I’d thought of letting your lot fade away quietly but I swear by Agni that your arrogance won’t go unanswered, Suka. I will have the Firstborn hunted down, ravaged and tortured and verily plucked off the face of Aryavarta, the way your family had us hunted down during the Great Scourge.’
Suka smiled and Sanjaya could not help but notice how handsome, how impressive he was when he did so. ‘You mean our family, Sanjaya. Our family has been both the hunter and the hunted, depending on how you look at it. As for everything else… Oh well, I suppose I might as well tell you. I wanted Markand to be Vyasa before me. I wanted that docile, god-fearing hymn-reciter to become the Vyasa because I knew the Firewrights would rise again – one way or another. And, finally, when Aryavarta stood fragmented and leaderless with its kings and their mighty armies ready to fly at each other, in threat of war, of foreign invasion and internal dissent, when its kings trembled in fear because each one had outdone the other in a race to weaponize their forces, I would step forward. Yes, I, Sukadeva Vashishta Varuni would become the Vyasa of the Firstborn. Now, do you see?’
‘I…I don’t understand,’ Sanjaya refused to accept it. ‘Why bother to weaken the Firstborn and then rebuild their influence…assuming you could, that is.’
‘Oh but I can, and I will. You see, Sanjaya, despite what everyone says, I don’t take too much after my father or my grandfather. It is my grandmother’s blood that runs true in me…as it does in you.’
Sanjaya tried not to show it, but his eyes held curiosity and uncertainty both. Suka stood up and stepped forward to squeeze his shoulder, the gesture affirming every impossible speculation that Sanjaya entertained.
‘I’m not a man to destroy that which can serve me well, Sanjaya. And that is what you will now do…you and your fellow Firewrights, such as you call them. No…don’t bother to protest,’ Suka held up a hand, shutting the other man off. He said, ‘You and I have our differences. Very simply, we are both men who want the same outcome. Power and peace are mutually compatible ends, Sanjaya. One cannot exist without the other. And so, there is no reason why we both can’t have what we want. Now, who would you rather trust for this trade? A Vyasa you know to be your friend, or a puppet rebel Secret Keeper you don’t even know exists?’
Sanjaya’s eyes shone with frantic curiosity. ‘You know! You know who the Secret Keeper is!’
‘But of course,’ Suka said. ‘Surely you see it too…? Oh, don’t disappoint me, Sanjaya – I had great hopes of you!’
‘Who? Who is he?’
‘Let me finish,’ Suka imperiously cut in. ‘All that I have said so far has been out of courtesy. The fact is, you rolled the dice on this one. You held the secret of your grandfather – my father’s – birth over him and you thought you could hold it over me. But that is no longer a secret, thanks to your dear fellow Wright, Govinda Shauri. Nor can you hold whatever I’ve told you now against me. I assure you, no one would believe you if you told them that I, Suka, am not what I seem. Not my father, not Syoddhan and certainly not Dharma Yudhisthir. You have failed. Unless you have any other tokens to move, I’d say this game is over. It is up to you whether we play the next game as allies or foes.’
Sanjaya sank into a seat and let his head rest in his hands. He was not a man to concede defeat, leave alone doing so in haste, but to see Suka here, this way, speaking as he did… It made him wonder if treachery was less brutal than the sheer shock of having been fooled, of being shown up as a blind imbecile. ‘If…’ he began, but could not put his thought into words. ‘If I…we…?’
Suka said, ‘For now we’d continue exactly as you had planned, Sanjaya. Though my methods might be a little more direct than yours. Building forges, getting into these little skirmishes…the time for that is past. If you truly want these kings, these overlords, to fall at your feet, you need to show them the true reach of your craft. It’s not just one vassal lord here and there who needs to be touched by the Wrights, my friend. It is every man, woman and child in Aryavarta. You see, at the end of the day, these names, these orders – they are just ideals. What matters is power. You have the means, I have the motivation. The Firewrights hold scientific and economic power in their hands, but we, the Firstborn, control the political and the spiritual. It is time we began working together.’
‘And why would I do this when I stand so close to victory? I have brought Dharma Yudhisthir down by my own effort, Suka. I don’t need you to make the Firewrights win.’
Suka laughed. ‘What Firewrights do you speak of, Sanjaya? The ones in Matsya? The Nagas? Or the mercenaries under Devala’s control? There is only so much use he can be to you. With such power at their command, neither Dharma nor Syoddhan can resist the temptation to conquer, and we know where that will lead us all. Yes, either way, the Firewrights will win. But the question is, will you? You need me, Sanjaya. Just as I need you, to keep the legitimacy and influence of the Firstborn alive.’
Sanjaya’s eyes held a calculating gleam. ‘What can you give me?’
‘The one thing you want for yourself, the one thing that was denied you, and given, with what you believe to be no due cause, to your brother… Ah yes. I know. Rather complicated, these secrets of birth and ancestry. Be that as it may, give up this antiquated notion of being the Firewright. It means nothing. Become, instead, the Emperor of Aryavarta. You promised my father, did you not, just as he promised his mother, that a Kaurava would sit on the imperial throne? Are you telling me that you’ve never wanted that? Are you telling me that knowing in your heart that you’d make a better ruler than either of your brothers, you’ve never wondered what it might be like? An incompetent Dharma, an unambitious Syoddhan, both men have the power of the Wrights on their side now. Only I can give you more. And so, that will be our trade, Sanjaya. Help me legitimize the authority of the Firstborn over all Aryavarta. In return, I will legitimize your rule and the power of Wright-craft. Once that is done, nothing, no one, can stand in your way. In return, you will give me the peace I want for Aryavarta. You will do what either of your brothers have failed to do.’
It took Sanjaya a few moments to form any coherent words. When finally he found his voice, he heard himself saying, ‘How can I trust you?’ It was, he knew from experience of having been on the other side of many conversations such as this, the last, defiant question to ask before the final concession was made.
‘Maybe you shouldn’t,’ Suka noted with malicious amusement. He added, ‘But that is not the point, that is not the point at all. We have work to do.’
‘And the plan, Acharya?’
‘History teaches us that there is one thing, above all, that changes the world as we know it. It turns every hearth in every home into the fire of a forge, spurs new inventions, new discoveries and new political arrangements. Few things are ever as revitalizing, and when it is over it brings peace, undisturbed and lasting peace.’
For a while, he fell into a strange silence, as though rolling his next words on his tongue without speaking them aloud because they were strange and new, having never been used before. Finally, he made his peace with them, with nothing less than a childlike amazement of discovery, or perhaps the lighthearted joy of ultimate enlightenment. Sanja
ya did not care. All he knew was that he was on his knees. He would have bowed at the scholar’s feet but for the fact that he could not bring himself to take his eyes off Suka’s face as it glowed with all-pervading joy, the bliss of fulfilling the purpose of one’s existence.
As Sanjaya Gavalgani let his heart brim with adoration – though for an instant he wondered if it were fear – he heard Sukadeva Vashishta Varuni say, matter-of-fact and resolute, ‘Let it come, Sanjaya. Let there be war.’
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
A NOTE ON SOURCES AND METHODS
The Aryavarta Chronicles is the product of research and analysis, with the latter drawing on the former. A slew of work is out there – critical, unconventional, even controversial – that revolves around the world of the Mahabharata. Many are in regional and vernacular tongues, existing as folklore and tales that have never made it into print as a cohesive tome. The Chronicles rely on a mix of these scholarly and popular sources, on histories that tend towards established fact, as well as those based on socially constructed beliefs of what constitutes fact.
THE EVOLUTION OF AN EPIC
The Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) version (also known as the Poona Critical Edition) of the Mahabharata, which remains the dominant source for most retellings and reinterpretations today, is estimated to have been prevalent around the fifth century ce, that is, the Gupta Age. That leaves a fair 3,000 odd years or so during which the story was told over and over, endlessly, forming a final ‘layered’ narrative filled with explanations and interpolations. The bard–narrator of the mainstream edition, Ugrashravas Sauti, states that he recites what he heard from the scholar Vaishampayana, who in turn is one of the five students who learns the epic from its original author, the Vyasa. Add to this the fact that the epic itself recorded its growth from 8,800 verses composed by Dwaipayana Vyasa to 24,000 verses, and then to the 100,000-verse version we have today. Somewhere along the line, the Harivamsa is added on, as an appendix. And there begins a journey – for history is not stagnant, nor is its narration.
Reproduced from The Aryavarta Chronicles Book 1: Govinda.
UNRAVELLING THE EPIC
Bibliographically speaking, my study began with C. Rajagopalachari’s Mahabharata (Mumbai: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 2005). My main source, which forms the broad canvas of ‘canon’ Mahabharata, is the translated version by K.M. Ganguli (The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volumes 1–12, Calcutta: P.C. Roy/ Oriental Publishing Co., 1884–96; Republished, Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1970) available online through www.sacred-texts.com. I read this in conjunction with J.A.B. Van Buiten’s three-volume translation which goes up to the Udyoga Parvan (Mahabharata, Volumes 1 to 3, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975–78); P. Lal’s lyrical transcreation of the epic (Mahabharata of Vyasa, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1986); and Ramesh Menon’s more contemporary retelling (The Mahabharata: A Modern Rendering, Volumes 1 and 2, Lincoln: iUniverse, 2006).
I have relied also on Pandit Ramachandrashastri Kinjawadekar’s version of the Harivamsa (Poona: Chitrashala Press, 1936), as translated by Desiraju Hanumanta Rao, A. Purushothaman and A. Harindranath (http://mahabharata-resources.org/harivamsa), and on M.N. Dutt’s version of the text (The Harivamsa, Calcutta: Elysium Press, 1897). H.H. Wilson’s Vishnu Purana (Calcutta: Punthi Pustak, 1961; original copyright 1840) was invaluable especially when it came to cross-checking genealogies and timelines, as was the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International’s version of the Srimad Bhagavatam, available through the Bhaktivedanta Vedabase Network website (www.vedabase.net).
The subsequent analysis, such as it is, was not without method. D.D. Kosambi notes: ‘Against the hypothesis of “pure invention”, one must ask why the invention took these particular forms …’ (‘The Autochthonous Element in the Mahabharata’, 1964, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 84–1, pp. 31–44). This has been the dominant principle I have chosen to hold on to, focussing on the why.
Two stalwarts have influenced my approach to this issue. First, I have borrowed liberally from Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay’s deductive principles in his Krishnacharitra (trans. Alo Shome, New Delhi: Hindology Books, 2008). Chattopadhyay’s analysis is based on a categorical rejection of supernatural events, interpolations and ‘events that can be proved to be untrue in any other way’ (p. 27). A similar perspective is evident in K.M. Munshi’s series Krishnavatara (Volumes 1–7, Mumbai: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1990). While Munshi admits to using his creativity freely in filling what may be gaps in the facts, he remains true to the notion that Krishna-Govinda was a man who eventually became a legend. In his view Govinda was not god, but a (near-perfect) man. I have gratefully followed his lead in beginning with the premise that this is the story of human beings, exemplary ones who are well-deserving of their consequent elevation to divine status. But it is not a story of gods.
Alf Hiltebeitel, a leading Mahabharata scholar, is one of those who speaks of a symbolism-rich Mahabharata; that is, the idea that many expressions in the Mahabharata cannot be literally interpreted (‘The Mahabharata and Hindu Eschatology’, 1972, History of Religions, 12–2, pp. 95–135). Hiltebeitel’s Rethinking the Mahabharata: A Reader’s Guide to the Education of the Dharma Kings (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2001) also deserves mention for fuelling many ideas; as does James L. Fitzgerald’s broad piece covering many topics on the Mahabharata, including the historical evolution of the text itself (‘The Great Epic of India as Religious Rhetoric: A Fresh Look at the Mahabharata’, 1983, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 51–4, pp. 611–630). Mary Carroll Smith’s analysis of the variation in meter, narrative structure, and the subtle moves from Vedic to Classical Sanskrit in the text as we have it today, to identify possible additions and interpolations (‘The Mahabharata’s Core’, 1975, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 95–3, pp. 479–482) was central to my reconstruction of the story.
Such a reconstruction also requires political, social and even psychological explanations. For this, I have drawn on ideas from many analytical and creative works, first among them being Irawati Karve’s Yuganta: End of an Epoch (Hyderabad: Disha Books/Orient Longman, 1991). Karwe is particularly notable for her critical approach to the question of Dharma Yudhisthir’s father. Buddhadeva Bose in his Mahabharater Katha/The Book of Yudhisthir (trans. Sujit Mukherjee, London: Sangam Books/ Hyderabad: Orient Longman, 1986) attributes to Dharma Yudhisthir’s character the many frustrations and exasperations that I find likely, and though I am less inclined to glorify Dharma as the protagonist of the epic I cannot deny that I benefitted from reading Bose’s book.
Alf Hiltebeitel’s work on Panchali (The Cult of Draupadi: Volumes 1 and 2, Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1988, 1991) and Pradip Bhattacharya’s essay on the Panchkanyas of lore (‘She Who Must Be Obeyed – Draupadi: The Ill-Fated One’, 2004, Manushi, 144–Sep/Oct, pp. 19–30) provides deeper insights into her compelling character and even the intricacies of her relationships. Panchali is symbolically and overtly equated to Sri – the consort of Vishnu in terms of the pantheon and the symbol of nature at a deeper level. This clearly places her as the heroine of a story which has Govinda as its hero; an idealized symmetry that is alluded to in Prathibha Ray’s Yajnaseni (trans. Pradip Bhattacharya, New Delhi: Rupa, 1995.)
The tale, however, unfolds in a different way. The consequent asymmetry, anomaly even, is explained away in canon Mahabharata and its derivative tales (many of which speak of Panchali’s preference for Partha) using the concepts of rebirth and divine manifestation. But, if we do away with such interpolated justifications, what might it mean?
I do not have the answer to this riddle, but only a question. Behind the implied and admitted romances, is there a story of affection so obvious that it is easily overlooked? Is it a kind of Freudian transference, whether in the original itself, or perhaps created post-hoc in the interests of sanitizing and legitimizing the epic but nevertheless hinted at by the triangle of three dark-skinned Kris
hnas – Panchali, Partha and Govinda? Or is the asymmetry itself the story – the tale of a world where many such things are not right? To borrow Govinda Shauri’s words: ‘The world as we know it would not make sense unless Ahalya were turned to stone.’
ALTERNATE MAHABHARATAS
At this point, I shall admit that I was occasionally surprised, perhaps even shocked, at the alternate theories that seemed to suggest themselves, particularly since I had been brought up on strong doses of canon Mahabharata. The ideas, however, were not as ‘alternative’ as I had first thought – I discovered the existence of alternate versions of the Mahabharata, many of which were equally canonical in their own right. These included the Bhil Mahabharata and the Indonesian Kakawain versions, both of which I highlight for a reason – The Bhil Mahabharata was (in my view) the nearest I could get to a subaltern version of the epic, and took a very different view of the socio-political status quo (for variations and tales from the Bhil Mahabharata see Satya Chaitanya’s blog, based on his research of this folklore: http://innertraditions. blogspot.com).
The Indonesian Kakawain version (http://www.joglosemar.co.id/bharatayuda.html) was equally exciting, since it was possibly shipped out of Aryavarta and to Indonesian islands in a form that was closer to the ‘core’ or original Mahabharata – that is, an epic with fewer interpolations. A list of resources and essays on the Mahabharata variations across Bengali, Bhil, Oriya, Tamil, Malayalam and Rajasthani cultures (to name a few) is available at A. Harindranath’s stunning website: (http://mahabharata-resources.org). Essays on the Oriya Sarala Mahabharata are available on B.N. Patnaik’s site: http://saralamahabharat.blogspot.com.
The Aryavarta Chronicles Kaurava: Book 2 Page 41