It is not a fight of Mahabharata
proportions over property or assets and liabilities. Just that the great epic
emerged in the warm-up conversation among an invited group last evening. The
trigger? The Upanishad Ganga being aired from 11 March.
By way of anticipatory bail, I must add that the finer
aspects of the epic are not my forte, in anything. I just have a superficial
knowledge. What I essay here is just the gist of what transpired – nothing
more, nothing less.
Most of the invitees were in 30s and 40s, had their
upbringing in India and moved to the US for a living. Only my wife and I
belonged to the senior category.
Any discussion attracts opposing views. Yes, these do add
colour and life. Precisely this is what one youngster did, and with
aplomb. He maintained that
Dhritarashtra was the King, and Pandu was just a caretaker, annexing adjoining territories to the kingdom. Upon Pandu’s demise, therefore, if
Dhritarashtra harboured Duryodhana to take over the reins after him and part
with nothing to Pandavas, he was well within his rights.
Second, during the entire 13years of Pandava’s exile when Duryodhana
ruled de facto Hastinapur and Indraprastha, there had not been a single
complaint from his subjects. That should, the youngster felt, speak volumes of
his acumen as a king-to-be.
Third, more kings of the adjoining kingdoms rallied behind
Duryodhana in the battlefield than Pandavas could muster. This would not have
been possible, he maintained, if they were disgusted and disenchanted with him.
He unfolded a few more, before the topic gradually drifted
to Indian heritage, the Indus Valley Civilization, the meticulous town planning
that the Mohanjo-daro and Harappa excavations revealed, the engineering marvel
of the Brihadeswara temple at Tanjore, the iron steel pillar at Qutab Minar not
getting rusted despite centuries of exposure to all kinds of weather, and the
dating of Mahabharata epic. It is said river Saraswathy had sworn to Brahma (?)
that if the two groups did wage a war, she would go dry in protest. The dating
of the river going dry, he said, has since been established, and it matches
with other evidences of the date of Mahabharata battle.
Delving as we were deep in these, a young mother reminded us
that the kids had exhausted their stock of plays and games and were getting
restive, and directed us to the dining table. We drove back home with our belly
and brain both well nourished.
I know some of you in my Yahoogroups fraternity will be
gunning for a rejoinder on these viewpoints. Please do so by all means, but pack
it more with content than contempt; make it substantive rather than nitpicking.
Thanks.
V.V.
Sundaram
11 March
2012
1 comment:
dear mr sundaram,
a very detailed one i read in US groups about the child's homework which brought me here it is nice to get to know another blogger whose work are filled with humour and simple to follow so well,,,sundari kannan
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