Mahabharata Now

The Mahabharata is at once an archive and a living text, a sourcebook complete by itself and an open text perennially under construction. Driving home this striking contemporary relevance of the famous Indian epic, Mahabharata Now focuses on the issues of narration, aesthetics and ethics, as also their interlinkages. The cross-disciplinary essays in the volume imaginatively re-interpret the ‘timeless’ classic in the light of the pre-modern Indian narrative styles, poetics, aesthetic codes, and moral puzzles; the Western theories on modern ethics, aesthetics, metaphysics, psychoanalysis, and philosophy of science; and the contemporary social, ethical and political concerns. The essays are all united in their effort to situate the Mahabharata in the context of here and now without violating the sanctity of the ‘written text’ as we have it today. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of Indian and comparative philosophy, Indian and comparative literature, cultural studies, and history.

"The Mahabharata Code is a personal account of the main protagonist Narayan Rao (NR), who claims to be an astronomer with NASA. NR and a few other crew members agree to take part in the NASA mission to visit this mystery planet from which they had received mysterious signals. Here, they meet a man with a long flowing white beard, and he introduces himself as Vyasa. He reveals that he has a crazy plan in mind and seeks NR and his members’ help in implementing this plan. He intends to recreate the entire Mahabharata on this planet to restore the faith of the primitive simpletons here. As the Mahabharata incidents start unfolding, NR realizes that Vyasa intends to recreate them page by page here, if not paragraph by paragraph. Also NR begins to realize that his son, Krishna, who is being groomed by Vyasa as Vishnu’s avatar, is nothing more than a pawn in Vyasa's scheme of things. Other incidents of Mahabharata also unfold according to the original epic. Pandavas and Kauravas grow up hating each other and finally the restaging plan culminates with both the warring sets of cousins facing each other in the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Inexplicably, like the original epic, Arjuna develops cold feet seeing his own cousins, teachers and relatives on the opposite side. He seeks Krishna’s divine intervention. Is the brainwashed “alien” Krishna prepared for this intervention? "

The Mahabharata, one of the most popular epics, has had a remarkable impact on literary and cultural thought in India through the centuries. It is also of immense religious and philosophical importance and is considered itihasa, literally 'that which happened', or sacred history. Though the setting of the Mahabharata is distant in time, something of its indefatigable, insistent formulation of the pivotal dilemmas of our shared human moral imagination remains insistent and inextinguishable even today. The Moral Imagination of the Mahabharata closely reads the conceptual and narrative intricacies of the epic through the four foundational terms of dharma (law), artha (worldliness), kama (desire) and moksha (freedom), offering riveting insights on the moral psychology of Indic civilization. Drawing from scholarly forays in philology, history, religious studies and pre-modern Asian traditions, this critical attention by a literary scholar to the Mahabharata's narrative impulses and the internal vigour of select episodes brings to fore the gripping dilemmas that animate the epic. The book travels through an atmospheric and exuberant pre-modern milieu to provoke prescient metaphysical and ethical questions that are only accumulating in relevance in the contemporary world.

First published in 1900, this volume reproduces the key events of the Ramayana and Mahabharata Indian epics. It emerged amongst significant academic interest in Indian culture and literature. Whilst many Indian histories had provided abstracts and full texts of the two epics presented here, this book provided reproductions of the main incidents and striking features of these two otherwise imposing, lengthy works. The volume deals with each text separately and presents several key excerpts along with a general introduction and introductory remarks for both texts.

The Mahabharata is the more recent of India's two great epics, and by far the longer. First composed by the Maharishi Vyasa in verse, it has come down the centuries in the timeless oral tradition of guru and sishya, profoundly influencing the history, culture, and art of not only the Indian subcontinent but most of south-east Asia. At 100,000 couplets, it is seven times as long as the Iliad and the Odyssey combined: far and away the greatest recorded epic known to man. The Mahabharata is the very Book of Life: in its variety, majesty and, also, in its violence and tragedy. It has been said that nothing exists that cannot be found within the pages of this awesome legend. The epic describes a great war of some 5000 years ago, and the events that led to it. The war on Kurukshetra sees ten million warriors slain, brings the dwapara yuga to an end, and ushers in a new and sinister age: this present kali yuga, modern times. At the heart of the Mahabharata nestles the Bhagavad Gita, the Song of God. Senayor ubhayor madhye, between two teeming armies, Krishna expounds the eternal dharma to his warrior of light, Arjuna. At one level, all the restless action of the Mahabharata is a quest for the Gita and its sacred stillness. After the carnage, it is the Gita that survives, immortal lotus floating upon the dark waters of desolation: the final secret! With its magnificent cast of characters, human, demonic, and divine, and its riveting narrative, the Mahabharata continues to enchant readers and scholars the world over. This new rendering brings the epic to the contemporary reader in sparkling modern prose. It brings alive all the excitement, magic, and grandeur of the original-for our times.

Studying The History And Traditions Of Both The Jains And Buddhists, This Three Volume Set Surveys All The Accessible Materials And Provides Authentic Information About The Life And Times Of Mahavira And Buddha. Only Vol 2 Has Been Printed So Far, Other Vols Are Awaited.

Many debates in feminism centre round the issue of subordination of woman. Anthropologists and sociologists have tried to trace the origin of subordinate position of woman by giving various explanatory theories. The author examines the reductionist and constructionist theories and using a hermeneutic device of the Beejakshetra model explores the images of feminity to be found in the Mahabharata and in the rules of conduct in the Manusmriti. She shows how these models of feminity have shaped the life experiences and self-interpretation of woman down to present day. The last part attempts formulation of a feminist ethic of friendship and raises the discussion beyond protest and recrimination.

In a drastic re-evaluation of astronomy observations from Mahabharata, using high-tech tool of modern astronomy and low-tech tool of the logic of scientific discovery, Nilesh Oak's extraordinary book presents ordinary theory of astronomy observations that would lead to a quantum jump in our understanding of the Mahabharata War: How a theory based on single unifying idea corroborates 100+ astronomy observations Where to search for the year of the Mahabharata War - Epoch of 6500 years & Compact time interval of 3000 years How a single observation, previously known but unexplained, falsifies 96% of all proposals for the year of the Mahabharata War Why does it matter how long Bhishma was lying on the bed of arrows How ancient is the tradition of meticulous astronomy observations. Acceptance of his theory leads to surprising conclusions about our current understanding of world civilizations, domestication of horses, dating of Ramayana or Vedas and antiquity of meticulous astronomy observations. Rejection of his theory would compel us to search for the likes of Newton and Lagrange, among the Sages of India, at least thousand years before Sir Isaac Newton & Joseph-Louis Lagrange. Praise for 'When did the Mahabharata War Happen?: The Mystery of Arundhati' "You have done a great job. I requested astronomers to consider if Arundhati had gone ahead of Vasisth in 1971, when I published 'Swayambhu' . But nobody cared. You are the first to do the great job " - P V Vartak (Author of 'Swayambhu' & 'Wastav Ramayana')--- "Grueling and unfaltering logic"--- I have to thank you for being the cause for a quantum leap in my own knowledge of general astronomy as well as Hindu astronomy / calendrical systems over a very short span of time. In some ways the effect of your book has some parallels with Rajiv Malhotra's 'Being Different', though in a very different context. RM never intended his book as a primer on Dharma / Hinduism - but nevertheless it introduced many aspects of Dharma in a light which would be new even to a practitioner. Similarly, even though I am sure you never intended your book to act as an exploration of key astronomical principles and Vedic astronomy - that has definitely been a key side benefit, at least from my perspective.--- "Indology" has been populated by linguists and my respect for their work has gone down by several notches when I look at the shoddy assumptions many are prone to make. Science and rigor the way Nilesh Oak has used seems to be unknown to these Indologists. I bet that not one of those horse bone chewers can understand what Archeo-astronomy means. Their awareness extends to looking at Archeo-asses and saying it was not Equus caballus.--- I am simply 'natmastak' to Shri Oak for the amazing piece of deductive reasoning applied by him in interpreting the 'Arundhati is leading Vasistha' remark. I think Shri Oak is not only on sound footing but also has clearly exhibited every 'lakshan' of a true seeker of knowledge in the finest Indian traditions. I cannot recall if he mentioned whether anybody else (other than him) thought of the EOA approach. If he is the first one, he deserves billions of thanks from all the Bharatiyas in the last 7000+ years. Oak saheb, aamcha maanacha mujra sweekar karava hee vinanti.--- It is interesting how all Indologists the world over talk about linguistics and horse, but never mentions archaeoastronomy Perhaps the focus of the national and international debate on Aryan Invasion/Migration Theory needs to change.--- I do not want to sound obsequious, but the work you have done is nothing less than tremendous. Thank you, and keep it up.--- I have verified Nilesh Oak's elimination of "errors." A bow Excellent --- Your rigorous methodology was simply a pleasure to read and that got me started off on my efforts to dabble in archeoastronomy.