Book Review #9 - JAYA: AN ILLUSTRATED RETELLING OF THE MAHABHARATA

Book Front Cover

If you are from a traditional Hindu family. The stories of Mahabharatha would never escape you. We might have heard it from our parents, grandparents, teachers, relatives, priests, etc… what is more important thing to notice here is, every time you hear a story from Mahabharatha, you will get a new perception which makes you think more and try to adopt to your lives. This is not an exaggeration. The metaphorical references that the epic gives is beyond imagination and that is why, this epic has maintained its cult symbolism. The entire story, the characters, the references, the lessons to be learned is a complete package that anyone would get out of this.

I have read many books on Mahabharatha. And to that list, I have added this amazingly narrated book “Jaya – An Illustrated retelling of the Mahabharata” by the author, Devdutt Pattanaik. Without a doubt, this book is beyond my thoughts and covers every aspects of Mahabharata including how the title of the epic is decided over many centuries, what are the pre-consequences that led to Mahabharatha’s Kuru-kshetra war, who are all the descendants of Kuru and Pandava’s clan. The sheer brilliance of the author comes when, at the end of every chapter, he tries to set some of the current practices which directly links to the ancient Mahabharata times. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who are insisting on reading Mahabharata. You won’t be disappointed at the end. To cover this entire epic in just 370 odd pages with the illustrated picutres (which was drawn by Author’s car driver, who is also an artist) is not an easy job. Author has done enough ground work and referred ample number of ancient reference texts to justify his writings.

This book writing is not a one dimensional; rather, it is very lucid in style and engaging till the end. As I told before, at the end of every chapter, author tries to explain the practical aspects of the story for a better clarity and understanding. For example: Why Draupadi is worshipped in Tamil Nadu, Duryodhan is worshipped in Uttaranchal or Barbareek (The talking head) is worshipped in Rajasthan, etc...

The first section of the book stated that it was Lord Ganesha who, at the request of sage Vyasa, wrote down the entire text of Mahabharatha on Vyasa’s dictation. It was also said that, Ganesha told Vyasa to never stop reciting in between, which was agreed by Vyasa. Also, Vyasa requested God Ganesha to write only when he understands the meaning and intentions of the verses.

The plot opens up when Janamejaya, great grandson of Arjuna, grandson of Abhimanyu, Son of Parikshit was doing a Sarpa-Sattra yagna to kill all the snakes (there is an interesting story of why Janamejaya is conducting this ritual of killing snakes, which can be read in the book). It was stopped by Astika, a descendant from the Naga Clan. Opposing this, Janamejaya asks why this has to be stopped, When Astika tries to explain about his forefather’s sins against the Nagas which led to the great war Kuru-kshetra. Another Sage, Vayshampayana begins to explain the story of Jaya or Mahabharatha to Janamejaya. While all the snakes, which were falling onto the yagna fire were suspended in the mid-air.

The next sub-sequent chapters describes the stories of the innumerable ancestor characters which made it very complicated (rather you will forget most of them) to read. I went back to re-read about some of the characters to make the exact connections.

To make the entire big story as short one, I am going to put forth only the main events of the epic.

The main characters of the Mahabharata were 5 Pandavas, 100 Kauravas brothers, 1 sister, Krishna-Balarama brothers, Shakuni and others.

The story opens up when Panduraja (Husband of Kunti & Madri) was cursed by a sage that he will die the moment he touches his wives. Saddened by this curse, Panduraja along with his wives Kunti and Madri went down to forest.

There is an interesting story of Kunti having a boon that, she can have child from any god with a short recital of a special verse. Due to her very young curious age, Kunti initially tries to test mantra, she invokes the sun god to test it. Due to her astonishment, Sun God Surya descends infront of her and grants her the boon, a child is born, who is none other than Karna. By fearing about the society that will mock her having a child without marriage, Kunti decides to throw that child, she leaves that child in a cradle and leaves it in the river. And, from then on she never reveals about this child, even after she got married to Panduraja.

These 3 people lived in the forest, without any desires for the worldly affairs. Then one day, Panduraja reminds Kunti about her secret boon for having a child. This makes Kunti to invoke 3 other gods. Then the first 3 pandavas were born, Yudhishtira, Bheema and Arjuna.  Also, Kunti prays on behalf of Madri, thus Nakula and Sahadeva were born to Madri.

One day, when Panduraja were roaming in the forest, he sees his wife Madri taking bath in the river. Forgetting about the curse he got, he touches his wife. He dies on the same day. In the funeral process, Madri decides to follow the Sati system and she enters the funeral pyre leaving her kids to the care of Kunti.

As the story further reveals, having lost everything in a game of dice to Kauravas, Pandavas went on to exile for 13 years. During those 13 years, Pandavas listened to various stories from Sages, story of Nala-Damayanti and other important aspects of life. They learnt Humility, wisdom, and learned to be humble because of the tests that they went through. They were truly enlightened morally and spiritually. Whereas, Kauravas went on to becoming more and more selfish, greedy and were following outlaw practices.

After the exile, Pandavas initially seeks out a peace discussions with Kauravas asking them their part of the land, by sending Krishna as a mediator. When they learnt that Duryodhana refuses to give even a needle-tip of land, that’s when the actual war broke out. The battle of Kuru-Kshetra.

The book covers in greater details about the war. And how the war was fought between these 2 clans, who all dies in the war, who led the kaurava side and the pandava’s side. The fallout of Bhishma by Shikandi, Arjuna’s vow to kill Jayadratha, Arjuna’s dilemma to fight their own brothers, uncles, teachers and friends, Krishna’s teaching of following the Dharma through Bhagawad Geeta to Arjuna, the fall out of Karna, Krishna praising Karna, Yudhishtira’s only lie, Killing Drona through Yudhishtira’s lie,  fight between Arjuna and Yudhishtira, Ghatothkacha’s fight, Ashwatthama’s dreadful act of killing 5 sons of Draupadi, Bhima’s vow of killing Duryodhan and presenting his blood to Draupadi, Tale of Barbareek (the talking head), Gandhari’s curse to Krishna, fight between the Yadavas within themselves, Death of Krishna, etc...

At the end of the war, Pandavas have won the battle with the help of Krishna. Eldest Pandava, Yudhishtira became the rightful king. Full of guilt, he thought he didn’t deserve to be ruling the kingdom on the dead corpses, crying widows of Kauravas. But, with the strong persuasion of Krishna and fellow Pandavas he accepted the throne.

According to the book, it is believed that Yudhishtira rules for over more than 38 years after the Mahabharata war. Eventually, Pandavas decides to renounce the world and decides to walk towards the mount Mandara in Himalayas, it was believed that, this mountain leads to Heaven or Swarga, where all their desires are fulfilled. While walking towards the Heaven, a dog followed Yudhishtira till the end, whereas, the other Pandavas including draupadi tired of walking and fell down dead. He alone reached the swarga and even that dog has reached along with him.!!

To his surprise, Yudhishtira finds out the all the Kauravas are there in Swarga. When he enquires about his brothers and common wife draupadi, he was informed that they all are in Naraka or Hell. Having disappointed with this, he was wondering why the criminals like Kauravas are in Swarga, but not his brothers. This shows that, Yudhistira though reached swarga, he is still not detached from the materials desires. When gods explained him everything about the detachment form the worldly affairs, he was convinced and he went to bathe in Ganga to purify himself and eventually renewed and humbled himself.

At the end...

“Jaya” shouted Indra. “Jaya” Shouted the Gandharvas. “Jaya” Shouted the Devas, “Jaya” shouted the Rishis. For Yudhishtira it was ultimate triumph over himself. This is the spiritual victory or Jaya. This is the ultimate aim of the epic “Jaya” or “Mahabharatha”.

Having heard this tale, finally Janamejaya asks “Why do you call this Jaya?, as there in no real victory".

Then Vaisampaayana explains Janamejaya that.

“There are 2 kinds of victories in this world.  “Jaya” and “Vijaya”.

Vijaya means material victory, where there is a loser and a winner.

Jaya means a spiritual victory, where there are no winners, no losers.

In Kuru-kshetra war there was Vijaya and not Jaya. When Yudhishtira overcame his rage and forgave Kauravas, there was Jaya. This is the true ending of the tale.

Janamejaya finally inherited the wisdoms of his forefathers. Peace descended upon Janamejaya, son of Parikshit, grandson of Abhimanyu, Great grandson of Arjuna.

He finally said, “Shanti”, “Shanti”, “Shanti”.

This marks the end of the book.

Some of my favorite quotes from this book:

“..the point of existence in this dynamic, ever-changing world then was not to aspire or achieve, but to introspect.” Pg xi

“Who decides what justice is? How does one end this unending spiral of revenge where everyone believes they are right and their opponents are wrong?” pg 6

“When  I die, eat my flesh and you will be blessed with great knowledge. That shall be your true inheritance.” Pg 53 (Panduraja’s secret message to his sons, the Pandavas; Only Sahadeva manages to do this by eating a piece of his father’s flesh. But, a voice from the air told him not to reveal this until his death. Thus sahadeva remains as a neutral character in the epic, though he knew the exact results of Kuru-kshetra war and other story).

“…Strength alone is not enough in this world; divine grace is needed.” Pg 123

“…Civilization comes into prosper when the small fish is rescued from the big fish; civilization comes to an end when the fish keeps growing bigger than its pond.” ( My Most Favorite Quote) Pg 141

“Thus, conflict comes from rage, rage comes from fear, and fear comes from lack of faith. That lack of faith which corrupted the Kauravas continued to lurk in the minds of the Pandavas. It had to be purged.” – pg 343

My Rating: 5/5