LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 22:6 June 2022
ISSN 1930-2940

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         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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Re-presenting The Mahabharata: Select Plays of Bhasa and their Contemporary Relevance

Himanshu Parmar

Abstract

Indian Literary tradition is rooted in Sanskrit and two finest manifestations comprising both are The Ramayana and The Mahabharata. The two texts stand at the helm of Sanskrit and Indian literature and have, since times immemorial, stood as its flag bearers. So much so that Jonathan Culler marks The Mahabharata as the Foundational Narrative in the Oriental World. The Sanskrit Drama, on the other hand marks its presence with the plays of Bhasa, albeit the oldest treatise on Sanskrit drama, Natyashastra, precedes Bhasa. In his plays can be found the first signs of what contemporaneity calls Alternative Literature, literature dealing with re-renderings of the erstwhile Foundational Epics.

This research paper delves into the deviations that Bhasa incorporates in his plays that adapt The Mahabharata. An attempt has been made to assess how significant the deviations are in comparison to the primary text; and the implications thereof on the stature of the Indian Foundational Epic, as Culler calls The Mahabharata. The paper also strives to ascertain what the discovery of Bhasa’s plays means to the corpus of ‘unchallengeable’ Primary Indian Texts. Finally, the Paper elaborates on the contemporary relevance of these alternative renderings in literature and life.

Keywords: Plays of Bhasa, Mahabharata, Alternative Literature, Re-renderings, Foundational Narratives.

Jonathan Culler, in his Presidential Address in a Seminar said that India has its Foundational Narratives in The Mahabharata. Foundational Narratives are stories that are fixed in time and space, within and without the text. These are narratives in which the representation of the story and its tenets do not change with changes in any of the aspects of plot and narration. Culler also referred to The Bible as the foundational narrative of the Western World. However, the basic premise behind Foundational Narratives is, ironically, that they are not to be treated as narratives as all, and be given a sacrosanct status, because, any narrative, in the domain of narrative is subject to alternative representations. In relation to the idea of literature being an imitation of life, alternative representations, mandatorily deviate from the ‘standard’, if for nothing else then for narratorial compulsions.

In the contemporary times, there has been an increasing trait of authenticating the two major epics in Indian Literature: The Mahabharata and The Ramayana. Consequently, there has been a frantic search for the dates of The Mahabharata and authenticating the existence of Ram Setu. In tandem, the epics have lost their literary quality in favour of a being scriptural, or even more genuine, a historical document. By virtue of being ‘authentic’ they become, what Bakhtin calls the Epic, albeit structurally, “Frozen and unchangeable”, a quality attributed to Foundational Narratives, by Culler. Any attempts to ‘unfreeze’ and re-interpret them, digressions, are vehemently resisted and even labeled as apocryphal. However, just as Gurdial Singh said for good literature in an interview, “good literature has survived not because of but in spite of critics”, the same fits for literatures striving to de-historicize and de-sanctify these texts as mere constructs of literature. Alternative Literatures or Alternative representations, what such reinterpretations are called, have survived, and thrived in spite of the ever-strengthening conglomeration of supporters of ‘authenticity’ of these epics.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Himanshu Parmar
Associate Professor
Department of English
H. P. University, Shimla
himanshuparmar16@gmail.com
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