by Bibek Debroy
1239Meaning a kshatriya.
1240That is, a brahmana.
1241The implication has to be deduced. Had Matanga been a brahmana, thanks to his powers, he need not have asked for a boon from anyone else. If Matanga needed to ask someone else for a boon, he couldn’t be a brahmana.
1242His soul.
1243A sage named Matanga was the author of a work (Brihaddeshi) on music.
1244Vitahavya was a king from the Haihaya dynasty.
1245This is cryptic. Vitahavya is another name for Haihaya and the sons of Vitahavya/Haihaya killed Haryashva.
1246Into Pratardana.
1247That is, Vitahavya.
1248The text actually says Sucheta. This should be Suteja and we have corrected it.
1249Pramati had a son named Ruru. Ghritachi was an apsara.
1250Agni.
1251The lord of speech.
1252They study despite their backs being heated by the sun.
1253Without a false sense of shame.
1254Pigeons pick up grain from the ground. Like that, these people do not accumulate and survive on whatever is available.
1255Dharma, artha and kama.
1256This world and the next.
1257There qualities cannot be immediately discerned.
1258Meaning kshatriyas.
1259Brahmanas.
1260This is a reference to Parashurama killing Kartavirya Arjuna.
1261The Nipas were a mountainous kingdom. Brahmadatta was the son of Nipa and this may mean the defeat of Brahmadatta by Ayasya, the son of Angiras. Alternatively, there was a king named Nipa in the Bharata lineage too and Parikshit was cursed by a sage who was descended from the Angiras lineage.
1262Brahmanas.
1263Acting like a kshatriya. This half of the shloka is not very clear and we have taken liberties.
1264Daksha cursed the moon. The sage Koushika cursed the ocean that its water would become salty. The sage Goutama cursed Indra and later changed the one thousand vaginas into one thousand eyes.
1265A brahmana.
1266Since there was more than one Shambara, it is not obvious which one is meant. The idea clearly is that, in the war, Brihaspati helped the gods and Shukracharya helped the demons.
1267Away from home, to study. With the exception of those born in noble lineages, all other brahmanas should go to the houses of their preceptors to study.
1268Debts to gods are paid through sacrifices, to rishis through studying, to ancestors through offspring, to brahmanas through gifts and to guests through hospitality.
1269In the sense of being difficult to understand.
1270The subject is suppressed in the text. We have expanded it, so that the meaning becomes clear.
1271Maya is the architect of the demons.
1272They have no rites to follow, including the restraint of the senses.
1273Since Devasharma’s departure.
1274That she was kindly disposed towards Indra.
1275Refined words probably means Sanskrit, the implication being that women didn’t customarily speak in Sanskrit.
1276Champaka is a fragrant flower. The city of Champa is in Chhattisgarh. But this Champa is Champapuri, the capital of Anga. The kingdom of Anga is now what is part of the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
1277That is, a gandharva marriage.
1278The numbering is a problem, the prajapatya form of marriage not having been mentioned. Had this been included, we would have had the number five and the three acceptable ones would have been brahma, gandharva and prajapatya. The two condemned ones are asura and rakshasa.
1279The paishacha form has not been mentioned earlier. This happens when a girl is seduced. If the paishacha is included in the list and prajapatya excluded, the permissible ones are brahma, gandharva and rakshasa. The condemned ones are asura and paishacha.
1280Since the kshatra form has not been mentioned earlier, there is another numbering anomaly. The kshatra form is presumably prajapatya. There is a lack of consistency with the eight kinds of marriages listed in the Dharmashastras.
1281Mixed means that a specific wedding can have elements of more than one kind of marriage.
1282In the case of more than one wife.
1283The three wives permitted for a brahmana might not be brahmana. In such cases, the brahmana wife will be senior. This is the logic for a kshatriya too.
1284Nagnika does not mean naked. It means a girl clad in a single piece of garment, that is, a girl who has not yet attained puberty.
1285Stated simply, same pinda means the wife should not be the offspring of someone who is related to the groom’s mother, going up to three generations. Gotra is when there is a common and unbroken male line, going up to a common male ancestor.
1286These shlokas are cryptic. What is probably meant is that different people might offer different things. But when does the actual act of marriage take place?
1287If there has been a promise that a maiden will be bestowed, then breach of contract is a grave sin.
1288With some subjectivity in interpretation, this seems to imply that a girl should not marry someone she does not like. Even if a promise has been made, and the girl does not like the groom, going back on the promise is not a sin.
1289This is the answer to Yudhishthira’s original question. The mantras signify the act of marriage.
1290The wife may have gone back on a pledge made by her relatives, without asking her, to bestow her on someone.
1291This probably means that the payment of a bride price is no guarantee that the maiden will be married to the giver.
1292These are references to the girl’s father making promises, the point being that such promises don’t amount to a marriage.
1293Ambika and Ambalika. This account of Vichitravirya marrying one, and not the other, has not been mentioned earlier.
1294Subsequent shlokas make it clear that by father, Bhishma means Bahlika, Shantanu’s younger brother.
1295This is not a continuation of the argument in the earlier sentence and refers to situations where a marriage has taken place.
1296In the sense of going back on the promise to marry.
1297Seven steps are taken around the fire.
1298The prospective husband may have died, or simply gone away.
1299In certain situations, a wife was allowed to have progeny through others, not just her husband.
1300As long as she is married to another, she cannot be married again.
1301Instructed by her father, Ashvapati, Savitri chose her own husband, Satyavan.
1302Sukratu.
1303Youtaka is exclusively the property of a woman. If consists of the dowry, gifts and property she has obtained at the time of marriage.
1304Other than the mother’s husband.
1305Something that is a gift.
1306The text uses the word svalpakoupina, which translates as lightly clad. The suggestion is that women need to be protected, because they can be easily seduced.
1307The sacred thread ceremony is regarded as a second birth.
1308That is, the remaining part.
1309Through wives who are not shudras.
1310The word dara means wife.
1311What’s probably intended is the following. There are special shares for the eldest, the son in the middle and the youngest. After these have been taken away, the rest of the property is divided equally.
1312The sons born from the brahmana wife and the kshatriya wife have the status of a brahmana. But the sons born from the vaishya wife and the shudra wife do not have this status.
1313Param means no more than and shava means corpse. A shudra woman is as defiled as a corpse.
1314Through the kshatriya wife and the vaishya wife.
1315This is left implicit—the father is a kshatriya and the mother is a brahmana.
1316The father is a kshatriya and the mother is a brahmana. The text uses the word moudgalya and earning a living through moudgalya. What this means
is unclear, though mudgala is a kind of grass.
1317The father is a shudra and the mother is a brahmana.
1318The father is a shudra and the mother is a kshatriya. Bandis and magadhas are synonymous, though bandi is usually gender neutral and magadha is sometimes used for a woman. Both are bards and minstrels. It is possible that bandis recited the compositions of others, while magadhas also composed their own.
1319The taxonomy given isn’t very clear or consistent.
1320Those discarded by others.
1321As was mentioned earlier, if the wife is from one of the sanctioned varnas, the husband is himself born, in the sense of granting his status to his son.
1322The term anantaraja son is used for a brahmana, kshatriya or vaishya father, when the mother is of the same varna, or is only one varna below.
1323Niyukta is when someone other than the husband, for specific reasons, is invited to have a son through the wife.
1324Apadhvamsaja sons are of mixed parentage. An unmarried maiden has a kanina child.
1325We have deliberately retained the Sanskrit words. Kshetra means field, signifying the mother. Kshetraja means someone born from the mother. Shukra means semen/seed, signifying the father. Shukraja means someone born from the father.
1326The text uses the word retaja, but retaja and shukraja mean the same thing.
1327This is a situation where the women become pregnant before marriage and the biological father does not marry her. In such instances, the son belongs to the mother.
1328When the biological father does not marry the mother.
1329Even when the mother has married someone else.
1330Samskaras.
1331Fishermen.
1332Of dragging Chyavana up.
1333Since this is not being addressed to Yudhishthira, this is an inconsistency.
1334As will be told, the Kushika lineage would be responsible for the sin.
1335Kubera.
1336A sahakara is a mango tree, ketaka is the crew pine, uddalaka is probably a typo for uddanaka (mimosa), dhava is the axle-wood tree, ashoka is Saraca indica, muchukunda is the cork-leaved bayur tree, atimukta is the Indian rosewood, champaka is the sampangi flower, tilaka is the bleeding-heart plant, bhavya is starfruit, panasa is jackfruit, vanjula is similar to ashoka, karnikara is the Indian laburnum, varanapushpa is a kind of plant and ashtapadika is the bread-flower tree.
1337Since there is no bird with this name, this is probably a typo.
1338Vishvamitra.
1339The charus were mixed up, a story that has already been told.
Acknowledgements
Carving time out from one’s regular schedule and work engagements to embark on such a mammoth work of translation has been difficult. It has been a journey of six years, ten volumes and something like 2.25 million words. Sometimes, I wish I had been born in nineteenth-century Bengal, with a benefactor funding me for doing nothing but this. But alas, the days of gentlemen of leisure are long over. The time could not be carved out from professional engagements, barring of course assorted television channels, who must have wondered why I have been so reluctant to head for their studios in the evenings. It was ascribed to health, interpreted as adverse health. It was certainly health, but not in an adverse sense. Reading the Mahabharata is good for one’s mental health and is an activity to be recommended, without any statutory warnings. When I embarked on the hazardous journey, a friend, an author interested in Sanskrit and the Mahabharata, sent me an email. She asked me to be careful, since the track record of those who embarked on unabridged translations of the Mahabharata hasn’t always been desirable. Thankfully, I survived, to finish telling the tale.
The time was stolen in the evenings and over weekends. The cost was therefore borne by one’s immediate family, and to a lesser extent by friends. Socializing was reduced, since every dinner meant one less chapter done. The family has first claim on the debt, though I am sure it also has claim on whatever merits are due. At least my wife, Suparna Banerjee (Debroy) does, and these volumes are therefore dedicated to her. For six long years, she has walked this path of dharma along with me, providing the conducive home cum family environment that made undistracted work possible. I suspect Sirius has no claim on the merits, though he has been remarkably patient at the times when he has been curled up near my feet and I have been translating away. There is some allegory there about a dog keeping company when the Mahabharata is being read and translated.
Most people have thought I was mad, even if they never quite said that. Among those who believed and thought it was worthwhile, beyond immediate family, are M. Veerappa Moily, Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Laveesh Bhandari. And my sons, Nihshanka and Vidroha. The various reviewers of different volumes have also been extremely kind and many readers have communicated kind words through email and Twitter, enquiring about progress.
Penguin also believed. My initial hesitation about being able to deliver was brushed aside by R. Sivapriya, who pushed me after the series had been commissioned by V. Karthika. And then Sumitra Srinivasan became the editor, followed by Paloma Dutta. The enthusiasm of these ladies was so infectious that everything just snowballed and Paloma ensured that the final product of the volumes was much more readable than what I had initially produced.
When I first embarked on what was also a personal voyage of sorts, the end was never in sight and seemed to stretch to infinity. There were moments of self-doubt and frustration. Now that it is all done, it leaves a vacuum, a hole. That’s not simply because you haven’t figured out what the new project is. It is also because characters who have been part of your life for several years are dead and gone. I don’t mean the ones who died in the course of the actual war, but the others. Most of them faced rather tragic and unenviable ends. Along that personal voyage, the Mahabharata changes you, or so my wife tells me. I am no longer the person I was when I started it, as an individual. That sounds cryptic, deliberately so. Anyone who reads the Mahabharata carefully is bound to change, discount the temporary and place a premium on the permanent.
To all those who have been part of that journey, including the readers, thank you.
The original ten volumes were published sequentially, as they were completed, between 2010 and 2014.
THE BEGINNING
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This collection published 2014
Copyright © Bibek Debroy 2014
The moral right of the author has been asserted
ISBN: 978-0-143-42522-9
This digital edition published in 2015.
e-ISBN: 978-9-351-18664-9
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