The historical backdrop of the Epics were more
often veiled by the Stories, Imagination & Poetic Independence, partly
intentionally & partly due to the fact that they being the single source of
literature the responsibility lies with the creator to remind people of the
different moral obligations & ethics and how that can influence life.
Hence, the characters had to be from real life, or real-like for a
story Larger than Life. Inclusion of Women, their plight in the
society, their fortune & struggle would help connect with a larger audience
& hence they became the Centre Point of the Story. This had a double
benefit, one a larger connectivity, secondly a lesson for the society to uplift
itself from the prevalent obnoxious customs. The torch bearers of Women
Empowerment might have objection to this view, but that is the hard reality
& most importantly this is my interpretation of events & facts against
the background of Time. Like it or not....Women are part of the Story.....not the
Story.....Truth is stranger than Fiction!
Troy....the geographical location gave the
kingdom the benefit of charging commercial taxes to anyone trying to do some
business while travelling through the land...this Tax was the major contributor
to the wealth of the kingdom. Hence, if any one was trying to evade or avoid
the taxation had to make sure Troy gets defeated.....and perhaps this was the
intent which resulted in the Trojan War. But a story was needed to justify
this. The culture of Slavery, Concubines, Polygamy was prevalent at that time,
even the buying or selling of slaves etc.....but these were all about common
people.....their story/history was never a point of interest. The story of
abduction of any royal queen was never heard of & whether such a thing
happened or not we don't know....but this story was more appealing. Thus came
HELEN, the immortal queen/symbol of beauty.....and the story unfolded...the
Magnum Opera of Kings, Queens & their Royal Story. The Magic of the
Blinding Dazzle of the glitters created a spectacle behind which the Political
Dream was carefully hidden.
Ramayan, the story of Ram, some say it was
written before he was born, written by the power of future telling...if that is
the case then it has no historical significance. I do have doubts on that, as I
believe it shows a picture of the then society. The truth behind the debatable
theory of Aryan invasion about Ramayan is unknown but......Ramayan is the
history of North vs South. The history of the concept/belief of the superiority
complex of North over South with respect to brain, beauty, colour, appearance
etc...and hence the ones from South are referred to as Apes in the veil of
Monkeys, Rakshas. Hence, to ascertain such superiority Ram needs to defeat a
villain of highest stature.....the stature of power, wealth, shrewdness,
political position & venom. Enters RAAVAN ! And if the hero defeats the
villain with a background of simplicity & skillful leadership...who starts
from zero to create a military army from the otherwise incompetent disorganized
group of people....then we have a real Hero. This would also mean
inclusion & acceptance of South, but only as an Annexure to North. To get
the humble background Ram's 'vanavas' was easy....but how does Ram & Raavan
meet ? Enters Sita...Raavan abducts Sita & the story begins.
Literature has significant contribution in
social arena, it shows trends, revokes trends, suggests improvement....shows
value of compassion, empathy, wisdom etc. Ramayan, the Epic, makes an Orphan
the Heroine of the Story....Raja Janak accepted Sita as her daughter &
Dasarath as her daughter-in-law. Sita, the symbol of good in women,
refused/protested to sit for the Fire-Test on public demand. The failure of Ram
to deal with this, paid the penalty, getting defeated hands of his son
Luv-Kush, raised singly by Sita......poetic justice was done. Those who still
have problems with orphans & single-parent child....or when in the heat of
moment you curse someone as 'bastard'.....think about it.
Ram did not choose forest life or did not
choose a saint's life after Lanka Victory....instead he became the king of
Ayodhya, extended the ties to Lanka, performed Aswamedha.....what is
this.....in the eyes of history this is Spreading the Wings of Imperialism! The
Real Story gets hidden behind the characters & emotions of the
Epic. Ironically/Coincidentally, till the British Empire was
established in India, no other king from North or external invaders
could win the South as a whole.......hence the Story of Ramayan became all the
more important to the people of North.
Mahabharat,
among the Epics this will always have a special place, as the relevance of the
events or stories cited over there to the current time cannot be ignored.
Literature is flooded with the research work or fictions created for the
characters of Mahabharat, there will be more in future too simply because of
the connectivity people can make with real life characters.
History
looks at Mahabharat as the documentation of fight for land...not only extension
of Imperial Powers but also acquiring of land. The vision, idea & skill of
conversion of barren lands like Indraprastha to fertile habitable kingdom is a
lesson learnt from the Epic. The common practice of use of Dice Game or
Betting/Fixing to win wealth or land, trading (not monetary) of Women in such
deals and the roles Women played reflects the history of the time which Mahabharat
acknowledges. To create the Epic for such important events would need Strong
Story & Powerful characters was a great responsibility, challenge &
necessity for the creator....depicting the social practices & requirement
of the reforms...yet not revealing the history.
Talking
of Mahabharat certain characters need to be discussed as only then the
significance of the change of certain rules in the context of political
necessity can be assessed....the changing mindset.
Krishna
: The hero of Mahabharat, is a product of Foster Parenting. People who refer to
him as Womanizer would definitely appreciate his skills as Statesman. The same
man whom some might have had looked down upon as a person best to be avoided, would
have definitely admitted the brilliance in his thought process in re-creating
political boundaries.....the multi-faced talent. Contrary to Sita's abduction
by Raavan, abduction of Subhadra or Rukmini by Arjun or Krishna was now
acceptable.....the necessity to accept the changing requirements of time &
politics. Gita, the speech of Krishna addressing Arjun, was a Motivational
Speech for political necessity by an intellect of highest order.....but the act
of informing Karna about his original parenthood before the war was a demeaning
act on part of Krishna....but it was right from the context of the bigger
picture of Imperialism.
Draupadi
: The practice of polygamy was prevalent among men....women never had that
luxury. On the contrary women were used as commodity in the political deals
& prizes of betting. The requirement to give equal right & opportunity
to women as well as abolishing their misuse the heroine of the story has to
undergo the Acid Tests.......and thus she became Yagyaseni.
Mahabharat
is the story of the requirement of the changes of the society to make it a
better liveable place for all. The stories of inclusion & eradication of venom/stories
of pre-conceived notions of superiority.
Pandavas
were the adopted sons of Kuru-dynasty and hence their right to throne could not
be established in spite of their superiority....the requirement to change this
prevalent trend was a political necessity, hence the war. At the end of the war
of Kurushetra no one was alive as a direct bloodline of Kuru or Pandav
dynasty....even Porikshit was given re-birth (or replaced as may be
interpreted) to re-ascertain the requirement of trend change. On one side Krishna
was fighting for the changing trend, hence either he or his brother could not
use the Dwarka throne from inheritance...so the need of the then democratic
system was established....something similar in the lines of Roman Senate or
Gram Panchayat.
The
acceptance of process of adoption in Royal Blood Line & hence in Society
was a major step that Mahabharat scripted through the characters of Pandav
& Karna. The injustice inflicted on the low castes by the upper caste was portrayed
in Ekalavya's story. The direction of acceptance & inclusion of transgender
as part of society, family, royal line was illustrated through the characters
of Sikhandi, Brihonolla. The acceptance of the unusual yet honest Love Story of
Radha-Krishna was emotionally addressed. All these stories were the reflection
of the Society....existing or desirable changes.
Bhisma
: The only character in the Epic who stood for relentless sacrifices he made
for others. His loyalty & honesty towards the people & ethics, their
well being at no personal benefit or gain is an example of rarest order. The
General who single handedly ensured that no major damage was done to anyone on
either side of the Blood Line or any other Royal figure by virtue of his
military skills in 10 days of an 18-day War is an example of class. The One
whose skills were ahead of Times, whom Krishna wanted to kill himself, gave
away the trick to his own demise for promises of better times....the surrender
of arms at the sight of Sikhandi. Bhisma was the only man who could have
prevented the War, but he got confused in the conflicting interest/thin line of
ethics, loyalty & wisdom.....his indecision led to the partition of Hastinapur,
yet he could not evade a war. His silence at many occasions proved to be the
key reason behind the consequences of time. But why was he not advised by
Krishna, Bhisma always had high regards for Krishna ? Or was it that the
changing times required the wings of Hastinapur to be clipped & re-modelled
according to the new needs of Imperialism. History repeats itself......the
partition of India...1947....did we not see similarly confused minds &
reluctance ?
Behind
the stories of Epics are the real intents, the intents of Imperialism to create
History. The characters in the front & the over dramatization of events used
to hide the real intent devours the events of time, history of the common man
in due course of time.
The old school, who are busy chaining the cultural heritage of our country in the historical manuscripts & Sanskrit slokas.....kindly do not brand the new events/changes of the society as 'degradation'....a lot of these might already be existing in those manuscripts beyond the limitations of your memories & wisdom.
[Disclaimer : The above ideas are solely based on personal interpretations of events, history, stories against the political, social & cultural aspect of the society in a particular time frame. This does not intend to teach, hurt or question anyone's feeling, belief & sentiment.]
