Jaratkāru’s Brief Marriage
II – Agastya and Lopāmudrā
II – Durvāsas and Kuntī
Supernatural Conception
Durvāsas and Mudgala
Durvāsas and Kṛṣṇa
Durvāsas, Kṛṣṇa and the Pāṇḍavas
King Marutta and Nārada’s advice
Marutta meeting Saṁvarta
Indra’s Counteraction and Saṁvarta’s Defence
Vasiṣṭha Āpava
Vasiṣṭha Suvarcasa
Vasiṣṭha Maitrāvaruṇi and Viśvāmitra
King Kalmāṣapāda
11. Ṛśyaśṛṅga, Yavakrīta and the Brāhmin Saint
I – Ṛśyaśṛṅga
II - Yavakrīta
III – The Nameless Brāhmin Saint
Kriyā Yoga
The Sanatsujātīya
“Distraction is Death”
On the Veda
Śuka’s Birth
At the Court of King Janaka
Nārada’s Talk on Sanatkumāra’s Wisdom
Śuka’s Path to Complete Liberation
Appendix I - Sanskrit Original Texts
1 – Draupadī in the Assembly Hall
2 – Vikarṇa’s speech
3 – The Miracle of endless skirts
4 – Kṛṣṇa’s commentary on the dice game
5 – Yudhiṣṭhira’s sermon on forgiveness
6 – Draupadī’s philosophy of divine determinism
7 - Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma for its own sake
8 – Draupadī’s rejection of fatalism and accidentalism
9 – Śuka’s Life
Appendix II - A Summary of the Mahābhārata
II – The Structure
Preface
The present book is based on my dissertation titled Essential Features of Indian Culture and Spirituality, As Presented in the Mahābhārata, submitted to the University of Pune in 1985 under the guidance of Dr. S.D. Laddu. The text has been newly edited for the purpose of this title; several chapters were omitted and numerous passages have been rewritten. I have also given my own translations of all the Sanskrit quotations in the text.
In the Appendix, I have added a summary of the complete action in the Mahābhārata. Readers who are not familiar with the epic are recommended to read this summary at first. Moreover, I also present some of the more important original Sanskrit texts in full length.1 In this way, the whole book is a new creation which aims at presenting the original content in a more interesting and accessible form.
Wilfried Huchzermeyer
Whenever this is the case, English translations are marked “SKR” at the end and the respective footnote refers to the Appendix.
Introduction
The Mahabharata, although neither the greatest nor the richest masterpiece of the secular literature of India, is at the same time its most considerable and important body of poetry. Being so, it is the pivot on which the history of Sanskrit literature and incidentally the history of Aryan civilisation in India, must perforce turn.2
Sri Aurobindo
Whether we realize it nor not, it remains a fact that we in India still stand under the spell of the Mahābhārata. There is many a different strand that is woven in the thread of our civilization, reaching back into hoary antiquity. Amidst the deepest of them there is more than one that is drawn originally from the ancient Bhāratavarṣa and the Sanskrit literature. And well in the centre of this vast pile of Sanskrit literature stands this monumental book of divine inspiration, unapproachable and far removed from possibilities of human competition.3
V.S. Sukthankar
Vyasa’s epic is a mirror in which the Indian sees himself undeceived.4
P. Lal
With the Greeks the dominant passion was the conscious quest of ideal beauty: with the Indians it has invariably been the quest of ideal life.5
V.S. Sukthankar
The Mahābhārata is one of the most impressive creations of the Indian mind. If it cannot compare with the Upaniṣads in philosophic
