Volume 3 _ BORI Critical Edition of the Mahabharata
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- Опубликовано: 21 сен 2024
- Hi everyone, today I do a book review of the Volume 3 of the BORI Critical Edition of the Mahabharata . This was a great read with lots of philosophical discussions and micro-myths about Sukanya-Chyavana, Savitri-Satyavan, Svaha-Agni, God Skanda, Mudgala and more.
We are now moving onto Volume 4 and inching close to the war.
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**Correction - The Vol 4 contains only Virata Parva and Udyoga Parva, with a few chapters from Bhishma Parva. The major chunk of Bhishma Parva and Drona Parva are in Vol 5.
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Review of Volume 1 - • Volume 1 _ BORI Critic...
Review of Volume 2 - • Volume 2 _ BORI Criti...
Review of Volume 4 - • Volume 4 _ BORI Critic...
Review of Volume 5 - • Volume 5 _ BORI Critic...
Review of Volume 6 - • Volume 6 _ BORI Critic...
Review of Volume 7 - • Volume 7 _ BORI Critic...
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Find Mahabharata reading resources here and learn about this readathon - • Mahabharata BORI Criti...
Review of the The Critical Edition of Valmiki Ramayana here - • Book Review: The Criti...
Read my blogpost on the Sacred Tirthas of Ancient India - storiessowild....
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I watched this entire video at 3:00 am in the night and I loved it.
Thank you so much! 😊 Have a great day!
Thank you ma'am for providing an unbiased and extensive review of the book 🙏
Glad you liked it! 😊
Detailed review liked it, all the best for the upcoming volmes in Mahabharata. Very few of them do this chapter by chapter review, I hope many youngsters start reading these critical editions, and learn about our Indian literature in depth.
Thank you!😊
And mam please read Mahabharat unravelled by amiganatra, and make a video about that book please, you explain very thing verry well and good night i m felling sleepy
Thanks for the book recommendation. Definitely will do so. 😊
Disagree with the manner in which the story of Suryadeva and Kunti has been depicted in this book.
As per K M Ganguli's shloka-wise translation of the Mahabharata, indeed, Suryadeva does threaten Kunti that he would curse her father, family and that Brahmin sage who bestowed her with that Atharvashirsha mantra...if she didn't surrender her body that had just come of age then (she had experienced her first menstrual cycle then apparently), to him! Kunti fears for her family and that Brahmin, and so heeds to his demand. But Surya being a celestial, does not enter into a physical sexual intercourse with her (as an ordinary human being would). He uses his yogic powers to enter her body and place a portion of himself within her womb by touching her navel from within (that's when Kunti falls unconscious). However, Surya does not physically defile her, she retains her virginity even after the encounter.
Further, from K M Ganguli's translation: when Suryadeva tells Kunti that he would confer upon her a son who would be mighty and illustrious, she expresses a desire that the child should be born with a protective coat and earrings! So Karna is born with the kavacha-kundala because that's what Kunti desires! And as for Kunti's virginity, that again is a condition that she puts before Surya: that if he was to bring a child into the mortal world through her, he would have to do it in a manner that does not impact her virginity! So yes, Suryadeva does force a child upon Kunti, but accusing him of "sexual assault" is inappropriate as there is no intercourse!
An interesting perspective. Thanks for sharing.
But I do think we can learn a lot from these stories about how humanity views gender relations and sexual relations. Especially in India, we can see how men and male-bodied folks had much more coercive control over women and female-bodied folks.
It shows how the bodies of women were always viewed as being something to be “conquered”, irrespective of the age of the woman.
Additionally, irrespective of the nature of conquering, i.e. type of demands, it is the truth that making any sort of coercion that forces women and girls to give up control over their bodies to others, is sexual assault.
If we don’t consider what Surya does to Kunti as sexual assault, its akin to saying, only penetrative P-V sex is R***, however, we know that is not true. Non-penetrative acts are also assault.
Additionally, no amount of claims that Kunti will remain a virgin removes the trauma of the act. It only reinforces the toxic belief that the only reason a woman should not be R***d is to protect her “purity” so she does not dishonour the family name. Virginity is a human - male developed concept - and whether Kunti’s virginity remains intact or not, does not matter, because she (a young girl) was still forced to do something under threat by an older and more powerful man.
There is an interesting book on thirthas called-- India:A Sacred geography.
Will check that out. Thanks for the recommendation.
If BORI critical edition volume 3 shows Surya threatening 10 year old Pritha and then impregnating her, then whole thing is totally laughable, because it is BIOLOGICALLY IMPOSSIBLE to impregnate a 10 year old girl with a child. Surya as not so stupid that he did not know biology of human body. Poets often use symbols to say one thing and mean another. So, I believe poet writing that section may have meant that Pritha in her soul was as innocent asa 10 year old girl. Mahabharata cannot be fully understood without immense wisdom of a poet.
@@satishsinghal101 Actually impregnation depends on the age of reproductive maturity and some girls do start their menstruation by age 7. So it is perfectly biologically possible that Kunti was impregnated at age 10. We have seen many cases in India where men have assaulted women and girls, irrespective of their age.
How many pages are in bori including 10 volumes in english ??
Each book has between 500 and 750 pages. So this 10 volume set is somewhere between 5000 and 6000 pages overall.
How did you come on conclusion that mahabharata was written by men only? Just assume by prefeed mind or any concrete conclusion?
The way women are treated in this epic is a clear giveaway that most of it - if not all - was written by men. If women wrote this epic, they would have given women characters a voice, they would have cared about their experiences & feelings & hopes & dreams. If not anything, there would have been some sympathy for the female lived experience in such a patriarchal society. But the absence of ALL of this proves that this is a male-authored epic.