Wednesday, 22 January 2014

Lecture 1
Introduction
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The epics were written in a time period which kind of lies in between the vedic period
and the non-vedic period. This is signicant because, from a scholarly perspective, we
distinguish between the two as two different religions.
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Because these have been adapted (usually because of being passed on as oral
traditions), we will see effects of both the vedic period and pre-vedic period.
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Also, these epics are heavily inuenced by the very many different schools of thought
in the Indian subcontinent.
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Central element of vedic tradition is the sacricial ritual, in which the followers
approached the Gods to ask for things (the usual things long life, children, healthy
life, etc). This nature of this is an exchange ritual, which involved a give and take
relationship. The symbolism of this is the re ((+).
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The early civilisations of Iran (Zoroastrianism) and the early civilisations of North India
had a lot in common, which is apparent in the Rig Veda. One example is the
importance of re in both religions. Zoroastrianism is often called the Religion of Fire
and the re plays an important role in Hinduism.
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The allowance of Gods to manifest in human form, allowed the rituals of the vedic
period to take on symbolic meanings and allowed for a deeper, personal connection
that an individual has with the larger cosmological beings (Gods). In fact, this became
so much central to the idea of Hinduism, that Buddhism, today is based on that
concept.
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The epics reect this kind of symbiosis of the vedic and pre-vedic period. For example,
there is an emphasis on the rituals of the vedic period and features of the post-vedic
periods, such as big beautiful cities and temples (the vedic period was nomadic).
Mahabharata
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Pretty long epic, with a lot of sub plots. Usually, these sub stories have the purpose of
emphasising a point.
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The Mahabharta is, for the most part, is the discourse between Sanjay (giving divine
vision by Vyas) and Dhritarashtra.
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Wednesday, 22 January 2014
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Mother Earth, goes to Vishnu with the plea of removing, somehow the excess of
warriors on Earth. So, Vishnu devises a plan of incarnating on Earth, and ghting the
demons that will incarnate. Then, they will ght.
- The epic has deep undertones of fate, and time. =| is often a synonym of death. You
can prolong life, you can reincarnate, but eventually, you have to die. Everything is
decided and you must follow your role in life. In western philosophy, there is a concept
of free will, and destiny. The central conict, or rather, one of the conicts, is this
constant ght between destiny and free will (or rather, the ability of a person to change
their destiny). For example, Dhritarashtra laments at the fact of his sons and nephews
ghting each other.
Lecture 2
Introduction
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We started looking at the different genres in the Mahabharata. We also talked about
the various sub stories in the mahabharata.
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A lot of devices have been used in the story to justify a lot of the sub-stories. Including,
but not limited to, boons curses, vows and dharmas. For example, a lot of situations
ask for extenuating circumstances that need to be justied by such measures.
- Such boons and extra-human powers are a result of asceticism, rather, 7|!
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However, we need to identify between the general populace and people who have had
the leisure of access to cosmological powers.
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Note that devotion plays a major role in these epics. However, and ask this question,
is there a difference between the devotion that say, a woman might show to her
husband and to the devotion that brahmas and other holy/powerful men display
through their asceticism.
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Vows are also very important because the characters are bound by a code of honour -
that is, their dharma. Characteres are bound by their vows and cannot be freed by it
unless they actually execute their vows. May a time, this is used to explain a lot of
eccentricities in the text.
- In the vedic period, the =+ holds a lot of importance as being the ritual action that is
expected, as a human being to the universe, and to society the purpose of a
persons existence.
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Dharma - the word itself has its origins in the Vedas, however, it doesnt have the
same sense of signicance within the vedic literature and traditions. In the post-vedic
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period, it acquires an expanded connotation, especially in the form of the dharma-
shastra, which is translated into Law-Book(Science). The most important of which
are the Manu/Manav Dharamashastra. Dharma also mean upholding to your social
class. Different social classes have different dharmas. 7 1 7+|4 4 (+ + =| =
+7|7? |+| , 7( | 1 l= + =| + (|| ( l= l7| 4 -(|| 7 17| (?
7( 7 U =| l7| g +(| (||, l=, 7( (|| ( + l7| 7| g 7 !
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You have to differentiate between the denition of Dharma within the Brahmanical
tradition and also than in say Buddhism, and other occurrences.
Lecture 3
Introduction
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Society was divided into a set of classes, the brahmins, the kshtriyas, the vaishyas
and the shudras. Similarly, in a characteristic gender bias fashion, the life of the male
was also divided into different parts, as prescribed by the aptly called purus-artha,
differently for each class of society.
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It progressed with the duty of performing a persons social duties, that is, their duties
towards society. This moved on into the vanvas spelling, where you give up all the
materialistic things in life and lead a more spiritual life, led in prayer and meditation.
The nal stage of life is that of sanyas, which essentially means to deposit, to leave
behind, to move beyond to a higher purpose.
- More clearly, the stages are: , 9+, +. Basically, these three things dene what a
person does in life. means where a person is born. 9+ is where a person
studies, and + is what a person is expected to do in life.
- + means righteousness. It also, in some pseudo sense denes the wealth and power
of a person.
- -| means the law. Therefore, the books of +-| are the technical treatises on
dharma, which dene how people should live their lives.
- Other examples of these -|s are =+, +|, =+ . Of which +| is the most important
which enable people to attain liberation from the cruel existence of life.
- So where does the +(|| t in? It has ALL of these elements. +, +|, =+. Whatever
you will nd in the real life, you will nd in the +(||, and whatever you dont nd the
in the +(||, you wont nd anywhere else. Through the period of time in which this
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Wednesday, 22 January 2014
text underwent transformation, it underwent theologies, gender treatments, social
structures, etc etc, in the form of these stories. The +(|| is a bunch of stories. On
the one hand, there is one central story, part of the core narrative, civil war between
the | kings. The signicance of the | name is that both these rival clan claim
dependence from a lineage of great kings, one of who was |. Therefore, the name
of this l(| is +(||. However, part of this core narrative is also a lot of important
and interesting stories woven into it, for example, when 7l is in exile, and
lamenting on his fate, other people are like, funny you should ask, let me tell you
about Then, there are also large didactic stories woven into the main narrative. For
example, |+ (who is constantly referred to as l|+(), he is an enormously powerful
patriarch. He ability of being immortal is a device of allowing didactic discourse in
which when he is lying on a bed of arrow and the | =|| ended the war for
the day, they would sit around the semi-dying |+ and allow of a lot of religious,
philosophical, martial and social discourse.
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These things (mostly) and others (marginally), are what have led to the massive,
massive, massive size of the +(||. But WHY? Simply because this piece became a
cultural mechanism that inuenced the culture and tradition of Southern Asia, from
Iran in the west, to Philippines in the east. Whether they are hindu, buddhist, jain or
islamic cultures today, there is an incorporation of the +(|| in these. The erstwhile
- were intended for a very narrow, learned audience. The +(|| was moulded itself
into quite an entertaining media, while at the same time, allowing for the incorporation
of the essence of the -|.
- 7+|+, |, l7+|+| - Land, Wealth, Women. Women are kind of objectied as a kind of
property. For example, 7|| is abudted. || is abducted - hence, these have
undertones of women being property.
- Basically, the importance of the +(|| today is the accessibility it provides for the
knowledge of the vedas to the + +|.
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