The Kurukshetra War, also called the Mahabharata War, is a war described in the Hindu epic poem Mahābhārata. The conflict arose from a dynastic succession struggle between two groups of cousins, the Kauravas and Pandavas, for the throne of Hastinapura. It involved several ancient kingdoms participating as allies of the rival groups.
The location of the battle is described as having occurred in Kurukshetra in North India. Despite only spanning eighteen days, the war narrative forms more than a quarter of the book, suggesting its relative importance within the entire epic, which spans decades of the warring families. The narrative describes individual battles and deaths of various heroes of both sides, military formations, war diplomacy, meetings and discussions among the characters, and the weapons used. The chapters (parvas) dealing with the war are considered amongst the oldest in the entire Mahabharata.
The historicity of the war remains subject to scholarly discussions. Attempts have been made to assign a historical date to the Kurukshetra War. Suggested dates range from 5561 to around 950 BCE, while popular tradition holds that the war marks the transition to Kali Yuga and thus dates it to 3102 BCE. It is possible that the Battle of the Ten Kings, mentioned in the Rigveda, may have "formed the 'nucleus' of the story" of the Kurukshetra war, though it was greatly expanded and modified in the Mahabharata's account making the Mahabharata's version of very dubious historicity.
Background
Mahabharata, one of the most important Hindu epics, is an account of the life and deeds of several generations of a ruling dynasty called the Kuru clan. Central to the epic is an account of a war that took place between two rival families belonging to this clan. Kurukshetra (literally "field of the Kurus"), was the battleground on which this war, known as the Kurukshetra War, was fought. Kurukshetra was also known as "Dharmakshetra" (the "field of Dharma"), or field of righteousness. Mahabharata tells that this site was chosen because a sin committed on this land was forgiven on account of the sanctity of this land.[citation needed]. About 1.66 billions warriors death was described of war in the Indian epic.
The Kuru territories were divided into two and were ruled by Dhritarashtra (with his capital at Hastinapura) and Yudhishthira of the Pandavas (with his capital at Indraprastha). The immediate dispute between the Kauravas (sons of Dhritarashtra) and the Pandavas arose from a game of dice, which Duryodhana won by deceit, forcing his Pandava cousins to transfer their entire territories to the Kauravas (to Hastinapura) and to "go into exile" for thirteen years. The dispute escalated into a full-scale war when Duryodhana, driven by jealousy, refused to restore to the Pandavas their territories after the exile as earlier decided, because Duryodhana objected that they were discovered while in exile, and that no return of their kingdom had been agreed upon.
Histroicity and dating
The historicity of the Kurukshetra War is subject to scholarly discussion and dispute. The existing text of the Mahabharata went through many layers of development, and mostly belongs to the period between c. 500 BCE and 400 CE.Within the frame story of the Mahabharata, the historical kings Parikshit and Janamejaya are featured significantly as scions of the Kuru clan, and Michael Witzel concludes that the general setting of the epic has a historical precedent in Iron Age (Vedic) India, where the Kuru kingdom was the center of political power during roughly 1200 to 800 BCE. According to Professor Alf Hiltebeitel, the Mahabharata is essentially mythological. Indian historian Upinder Singh has written that:
Whether a bitter war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas ever happened cannot be proved or disproved. It is possible that there was a small-scale conflict, transformed into a gigantic epic war by bards and poets. Some historians and archaeologists have argued that this conflict may have occurred in about 1000 BCE.
Despite the inconclusiveness of the data, attempts have been made to assign a historical date to the Kurukshetra War. Popular tradition holds that the war marks the transition to Kali Yuga and thus dates it to 3102 BCE. A number of other proposals have been put forward:
P. V. Holey states a date of 13 November 3143 BCE using planetary positions and calendar systems.
Aihole inscriptions give the date of Kurukshetra war around 3102 BCE.
K. Sadananda, based on translation work, states that the Kurukshetra War started on 22 November 3067 BCE.
B. N. Achar used planetarium software to argue that the Mahabharata War took place in 3067 BCE.
S. Balakrishna concluded a date of 2559 BCE using consecutive lunar eclipses.
R. N. Iyengar concluded a date of 1478 BCE using double eclipses and Saturn+Jupiter conjunctions.
P. R. Sarkar estimates a date of 1298 BCE for the war of Kurukshetra.
V. S. Dubey claims that the war happened near 950 BCE
Vedveer Arya gives the date of 3162 BCE, by distinguishing between Śaka & Śakanta Eras and applying correction of 60 years to the date given in Popular tradition and based on Aihole inspriction.
Though the Kurukshetra War is not mentioned in Vedic literature, its prominence in later literature led British Indologist A. L. Basham, writing in 1954, to conclude that there was a great battle at Kurukshetra which, "magnified to titanic proportions, formed the basis of the story of the greatest of India's epics, the Mahabharata." Acknowledging that later "generations looked upon it as marking an end of an epoch," he suggested that rather than being a civil war it might have been "a muddled recollection of the conquest of the Kurus by a tribe of Mongol type from the hills." He saw it as useless to the historian and dates the war to the 9th century BCE based on archaeological evidence and "some evidence in the Brahmana literature itself to show that it cannot have been much earlier."
According to Finnish Sindhologist Asko Parpola, the war may have taken place during the later phase of the Painted Grey Ware, circa 750-350 BCE. Parpola also notes that the Pandava heroes are not being mentioned in the Vedic literature from before the Grhyasutras. Parpola suggests that the Pandavas were Iranic migrants, who came to south Asia around 800 BCE.
Puranic literature presents genealogical lists associated with the Mahabharata narrative. The evidence of the Puranas is of two kinds. Of the first kind, there is the direct statement that there were 1015 (or 1050) years between the birth of Parikshit (Arjun's grandson) and the accession of Mahapadma Nanda, commonly dated to 382 BCE, which would yield an estimate of about 1400 BCE for the Bharata battle. However, this would imply improbably long reigns on average for the kings listed in the genealogies.
Of the second kind are analyses of parallel genealogies in the Puranas between the times of Adhisimakrishna (Parikshit's great-grandson) and Mahapadma Nanda. Pargiter accordingly estimated 26 generations by averaging 10 different dynastic lists and assuming 18 years for the average duration of a reign, arrived at an estimate of 850 BCE for Adhisimakrishna and thus approximately 950 BCE for the Bharata battle.
Indian archeologist B. B. Lal used the same approach with a more conservative assumption of the average reign to estimate a date of 836 BCE and correlated this with archaeological evidence from Painted Grey Ware sites, the association being strong between PGW artifacts and places mentioned in the epic. John Keay confirm this and also gives 950 BCE for the Bharata battle.
Style
Jaya, the core of Mahabharata, is structured in the form of a dialogue between Kuru king Dhritarashtra (born blind) and Sanjaya, his advisor and chariot driver. Sanjaya narrates each incident of the Kurukshetra War, fought in 18 days, as and when it happened. Dhritarashtra sometimes asks questions, expresses doubts and sometimes laments, knowing about the destruction caused by the war to his sons, friends, and kinsmen. He also feels guilt for his own actions that led to this war, so destructive to the entire Indian subcontinent.
Some 18 chapters of Vyasa's Jaya comprise the Bhagavad Gita, one of the sacred texts of the Hindus. This work deals with diverse subjects like geography, history, warfare, religion and morality. According to the Mahabharata itself, the Jaya was recited to the King Janamejaya, the great-grandson of Arjuna, by Vaisampayana, a disciple of Vyasa (then called the Bharata). The recitation of Vaisampayana to Janamejaya was then recited again by a professional storyteller named Ugrasrava Sauti, many years later, to an assemblage of sages performing the 12-year-long sacrifice for King Saunaka Kulapati in the Naimisha forest (then called the Mahabharata).
There were nowhere near 1.66 billion people on the entire planet during that time period, let alone concentrated in the Indian area. Fantastic read, but mainly (if not strictly) fiction...sensationalized events at best. But again, a fantastic read.
ReplyDeleteThere is difference between Fiction and Exaggeration. Just like Illiad by Homer, most epic poems will be superlative but it doesnt mean War of Troy didnt happen.
ReplyDelete