Rethinking the Mahabharata: A Reader's Guide to the Education of the Dharma King

by Hiltebeitel, Alf

• ISBN13: 9780226340548
• ISBN10: 0226340546
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-10-30
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

The ancient Indian Sanskrit tradition produced no text more intriguing, or more persistently misunderstood or underappreciated, than the Mahabharata. Its intricacies have waylaid generations of scholars and ignited dozens of unresolved debates. In Rethinking the Mahabharata, Alf Hiltebeitel offers a unique model for understanding the great epic. Employing a wide range of literary and narrative theory, Hiltebeitel draws on historical and comparative research in an attempt to discern the spirit and techniques behind the epic's composition. He focuses on the education of Yudhisthira, also known as the Dharma King, and shows how the relationship of this figure to others-especially his author-grandfather Vyasa and his wife Draupadi-provides a thread through the bewildering array of frames and stories embedded within stories. Hiltebeitel also offers a revisionist theory regarding the dating and production of the original text and its relation to the Veda. No ordinary reader's guide, this volume will illuminate many mysteries of this enigmatic masterpiece. This work is the fourth volume in Hiltebeitel's study of the Draupadi cult. Other volumes include Mythologies: From Gingee to Kuruksetra (Volume One), On Hindu Ritual and the Goddess (Volume Two), and Rethinking India's Oral and Classical Epics (Volume Three).

Author Biography

Alf Hiltebeitel is a professor of religion and director of the Human Sciences Program at The George Washington University. He is the author or editor of numerous books including the two-volume Cult of Draupadi and Rethinking India's Oral and Classical Epics, both published by the University of Chicago Press.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Conventions	x
Introduction	1	(31)
Empire and Invasion	5	(5)
B. Epics and Ages	10	(7)
Gleaners and Huns	17	(15)
The Author in the Works	32	(60)
Epic Fictions	35	(5)
Author as Enigma	40	(6)
Tracking Vyasa	46	(46)
Conventions of the Naimisa Forest	92	(39)
Narrative Conventions and Symposia	93	(4)
The Mahabharata's First Two Beginnings	97	(8)
Reconsidering Bhrguization	105	(13)
Further Sattras at Naimisa Forest	118	(13)
Moving along with the Naimiseya Rsis	131	(46)
The Vratyas: Vedic Precedent and Epic Usages	132	(8)
Moving Sessions along the Sarasvati	140	(14)
Setting the Universe in Motion	154	(7)
The Mahabharata Symposium	161	(4)
What Fits	165	(12)
Don't Be Cruel	177	(38)
The Passing of the ``Old Order''	181	(11)
Vidura's Birth and the Limits of Impalement	192	(3)
Talking with Animals	195	(7)
Noncruelty and Nonviolence	202	(7)
Tempered Cruelties	209	(6)
Listening to Nala and Damayanti	215	(25)
Characters in Search of Each Other	216	(4)
Nala's Possession	220	(16)
Further Prismatics	236	(4)
Draupadi's Question	240	(38)
Hair Pulling	241	(5)
Disrobing Draupadi, Redressing the Text	246	(13)
The Question within the Episode	259	(5)
Before and After the Question	264	(14)
Vyasa and Suka: An Allegory of Writing	278	(45)
Author and Sons	279	(7)
Coming Here, Going There	286	(18)
Wonders upon Wonders	304	(8)
The Other Side of the Mountain	312	(11)
Abbreviations	323	(2)
Bibliography	325	(26)
Index	351