During my business career I worked in a number of countries, and

I found everywhere that middle class parents wanted their

children to grow up more like Arjun and less like
Yudhishthira. They wanted them to be talented
and successful and become winners in life's
rat race. Indeed, the pursuit of competitive
success and status seems to be
hard-wired in human genes.
The Difficulty of Being Good
Gurcharan Das

'What can I do for you?'

The words came out with difficulty.
It was the same question he had asked all his life,
but in this situation it was utterly meaningless and incongruous.
Draupadi smiled.
Bringing Bhima's face close to hers, she said with her last breath,
'In our next birth be the eldest, Bhima;
under your shelter we can all live in safety and joy.'
Yuganta
Irawati Karve

 G .
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5, 3

Hindol
Year 5, No. 3

M, 1420

Editorial Team :
Chittaranjan Pakrashi, Malabika Majumdar,
Maitrayee Sen, Ajanta Dutt, Nandan Dasgupta

October, 2013

E-46, Greater Kailash-I,

New Delhi-110048
ohetuk.sabha@gmail.com
98110-24547

ISSN 0976-0989

Back Cover:
Pulak Biswas

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92131344879891689053

Artists:
Arup Das
Rathin Mitra
V.S. Rahi
Rituparno Ghosh
C.R. Pakrashi

http://www.scribd.com/collections/3537598/Hindol

S
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20
21

- Nandita Mukhopadhyay
- Tanuka Bhowmick Endow

- Books
22
24

L - Antara Chaudhuri
Ajanta Dutt

2S - Cinema
27

Monojit Lahiri

- Mahabharat
31
38
50
68
76
92

- Satkori Mukhopadhyay
- Malabika Majumdar
- Dipavali Sen
- Krishna Lahiri
S - Maitrayee Sen
Subhadra Sen Gupta

- Young Authors
81
82
85

Parnika Jain - Shakuni

Kannupriya Grover - Vidur
Srishti Thakkar - Draupadi

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Dear Jyotirmoy Babu,
I have received the article by Nandan Babu (for the Swamiji issue
- Year 5, No. 1) sent through attachment for my perusal. It is an excellent
article, which I read twice. Please convey my congratulations to Nandan
Babu.
With loving namaskar and prayer,
Swami Medhasananda
President
Ramakrishna Mission, Tokyo
It is excellent that your journal has prepared indexes of the authors
who have contributed to it and also of the contents of the issues.
Congratulations.
Uma Dasgupta
IIAS, Simla

27.8.2013

Hindol's Rituparno segment (Year 5, No. 2) is interesting and

clearly reflects the team's seriousness and thought that went behind
this effort. My congratulations to them for this commendable tribute
to a fine and irreplaceable talent.
20.8.2013

Aparna Sen
Actor & Filmmaker

Dear Nandan,
Though I have been reading Hindol regularly ever since you were
good enough to publish my article 'Tagores Flight to Persia', I have
found that the magazine, with every number, is becoming more and
more attractive in every sense of the term. However, the last issue of
Shravan i.e. July 2013 is the one that literally left me stunned with
admiration.
As a teacher of visual communication, I have been seeing some of

M, 1420

7
Rituparnos films, and also interviews on TV, but after reading this
number of Hindol both my wife Malabika and I found what a genius he
was in all facets of creativity like literature, art, and of course films.
Even in TV serials like Gaaner Opaare his stamp of originality is
what came out in full force, and made that programme so compelling
to all viewers, especially in the first half of that serial. Though all the
articles on Rituparno were really good, however, the last article by his
childhood friend, Rahul Majumder was a really fitting conclusion to
this unusual number of Hindol.
Kindly give my respects to Shri Chittaranjan Pakrashi, whom I
knew well while living for many years in Kailash Colony. All that I
can say in the end is do keep on doing as best as you can with your
editorial team. Here I must mention that Ajantas review of Ashoka
Guptas book was very good.
Dhruva N. Chaudhuri
Faridabad

11.9.2013

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Dear Nandan,
I get the e-mails on Ohetuk Adda regularly and am very happy
with this activity, although I have been able to attend only a couple.
In connection with the mail received after the recent adda on 11th
August on the occasion of Baishey Srabon, I noticed that you have
mentioned Tagore's date of death as 8th August. Although this is
not entirely wrong, it may be of interest for you to know that in
fact he died on 7th night, but after midnight. Once somebody asked
the poet about the date of his birth. He smiled and said that since
he was born during British rule and after midnight, the official date
was noted as 8th, but being an Indian he believed that since day
does not start before sunrise, he was born on 7th. Thus, he was
born on a 7th and died on a 7th and the timing also coincides.
I believe many people are now switching over to these dates. I
found that Visva-Bharati has done so on their website.
God bless.
Krishna Lahiri
Delhi

15.8.2013

I am sure that the small but select regular readership of the

bi-lingual Hindol, of which I am one from the very first issue,
would agree when I say that it is easily the brightest star in the
galaxy of little magazines of Delhi. I do not know of any other
little magazine in our city with such a high production quality and
so much aesthetic appeal, being full of sketches and drawings, with
the back cover always introducing some eminent artist, instead of
carrying a commercial advertisement. Apart from its literary content
it is of a comfortable size, and it is a pleasure merely to hold the
book, let alone browse through it for its artwork. The magazine
is not priced; instead, in keeping with its uniqueness, it is lovingly
supported by its readers, who no doubt appreciate the commendable
effort of its producers.
8.8.2013

Ratna Dasgupta
Delhi

M, 1420

9
I am writing to compliment you on your excellent bilingual
magazine, Hindol. Having been a probashi Bangali all my life, I really
welcome the opportunity to stay abreast of our current cultural issues
through your magazine. Reading Hindol, I feel I am privy to an insiders
viewpoint on whatever is being discussed in the Presidency College /
North Kolkata addas, even if I am thousands of miles away.
Your recent issue on Swami Vivekananda is a collectors piece and
stands next to Romain Rollands and Christopher Isherwoods
biographies on my bookshelf.
Reading Ajanta Dutts paper on The Last Lear in the Rituparno
Ghosh issue, I realized that earlier I hadnt understood what the movie
was about and how the various parts fitted.
Keep up the good work!
Regards.

, 2013
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Delhi

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MRINAL KANTI GHOSH
BIRENDRA KISHORE ROY
AMIT BHATTACHARYA
ANTARA CHAUDHURI

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24

New Delhi Down the Decades:

A Behind-the-lens View of the City
Author: Dhruva N. Chaudhuri;
foreword by Narayani Gupta
Publisher: Niyogi Books, New Delhi, 2013
Price: Rs. 455/-

Captivating Camera: A Book Review

Ajanta Dutt
This is the third book of photographs and stories by Dhruva Narayan
Chaudhuri, and it is as captivating as his first book, Delhi: Light, Shades,
Shadows and the second about his father, the illustrious author, Nirad
C. Chaudhuri: Many Shades, Many Frames. In this latest presentation,
the photo-journalist invites us to walk through the streets of Delhi as
he points to buildings and monuments with his camera and regales us
with stories from his childhood of a colonial Delhi.
The fact that most of the photographs are in black and white, or in
sepia tones gives us the feeling of a romance and adventure that is
almost impossible to capture in colour. Dhruva Chaudhuris collection
of hundreds of photographs from the past half a century must have
taken him down many memory lanes, and those which have been
carefully selected bring out the emotions of a man who has obviously
loved the city well for its arrogance and its beauty.
The early chapters take us for a walk through the Coronation Park
and remind us of a time when the capital was just shifting to Delhi
from Calcutta during the British Raj. There are majestic pictures of the
Vice-regal Lodge which is now a part of Delhi University, housing the
Vice Chancellors office. Chaudhuri juxtaposes people and incidents...
those in the personal family space with those in the public sphere which
makes his narrative fascinating and quite innocently appealing. Thus

M, 1420

25
he writes, almost in the same breath, about his father telling stories to
his young sons of the arrival of the King and Queen and how they were
received by Lord Hardinge, the viceroy, and how Mahatma Gandhi
entered the portals of the Viceroys house to sign the Gandhi-Irwin
pact. The history makers for India, such as Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru walk through this book and share the pages of nationbuilding with the most important architects of modern Delhi. Chaudhuri
introduces us closely, through the lens and through description, to the
work and thoughts of two primary architects of this city, Sir Edward
Landseer Lutyens and Sir Edward Baker. The author recalls the words
of Baker that The new capital of India must not be Indian, nor English,
nor Roman, but it must be Imperial (15).
The light and shade interplay upon the Secretariat building, and
the shadowy mist that seems to hang over the area even today when
you see it very early in the morning when there is no traffic to disturb
the serenity, reminds us of the poet William Wordsworth who wrote
[of another great city] lines that are applicable to Delhi: And all that
mighty heart is lying still. Chaudhuri is equally at home showing the
gathering clouds in the sky over the Secretariat (24), as he is with the
picture of a floodlit Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Many of the old place names are used in this book such as the
Queensway for Janpath. A stately motor car is depicted traversing the
streets of an empty Connaught Place. (51). Many who remember CP as
depicted here, will feel a sense of nearness to see some of the old shops
photographed against the columns of the inner circle (52). The rocky
barren landscapes of Delhi featuring a youngster carrying branches for
firewood with a white donkey ambling along is surely a treat for the
eyes today (63). Chaudhuri talks about trees being watered by Persian
Wheels driven by bullocks, and he takes a shot of this with a box camera!
Most of the phrases in this last sentence are not even a concept that
present Delhiites could possibly understand. Similarly Kotla
Mubarakpur is presented with its old word charm of a village landscape
with goats, not razed but preserved in the midst of the elitist Lutyens
Delhi (73). Indeed Delhi is a city of contrasts.
One of the most brilliant photographs in the book is that of a steam
engine on the train tracks of the New Delhi Railway station. The railway
lines seem to move with speed into the darkness as the train chugs

M, 1420

26
forward to a halt. Chaudhuri also gives us a personal anecdote of dancer
Indrani Rahman holding her baby sonand both being watched by a
bear cub at the Delhi zoo. He remarks that the babys face looked as if
he was far from amused (94). On the following page, he also gives us
a picture by his wife, Malabikaa group of elephants taken against
the southern gate of the Purana Qila with her fixed lens Rolliecord
camera that won her a place in The Statesman (95).
Whichever dynasty or ruler came to Delhi, inevitably one of the
first buildings they put up was an imposing structure for public
worship, says Chaudhuri (107). Along with an imposing picture of
the Birla Temple , which shows immense clarity for architectural details,
the photographer also tells us that Gandhiji agreed to inaugurate the
temple on the condition that people of all caste and creed should be
allowed to enter and worship here (109).
Chaudhuri shows his very human side when he tells the story of a
young man who had stolen his photographs on Delhi and published
them in a book of his own. Because an acrimonious battle of words led
to nothing, Chaudhuri says out of sheer disappointment and frustration,
all my New Delhi negatives, as well as coloured slides went into a
cardboard box (115). Many years later he dug these out for the
Millenium Book on New Delhi. He closes his book by writing about
taking photographs from The Oberoi on the first day of this millennium.
From the five-star into the crowded streets of Delhi he moves, and
from a blue-line bus he notes a traffic jam of auto-rickshaws. He also
notes an elephant waiting with the cars for the light to turn green. He
ruefully acknowledges, New Delhi was the only city where the outer
Ring Road had a sign saying that elephants were prohibited to walk
along the highway (116). This journey with Druva Chaudhuri really
culminates when one closes the book and gazes for long moments at
the back-cover, so gentle, so soothing, and so full of the nostalgic past.
Niyogi Books has once again done excellent work of producing a
narrative and photographs on fine paper that can be easily carried and
gifted across the world, and should take its place in all school and
college libraries. Sometimes the continuity to some of the stories may
have been lost, or anecdotes of personal and public history may have
been randomly merged, but one apprciates it because the subject is so
gripping and one could read much more of the same.

M, 1420

27
Monojit Lahiri
Delhi

100 Years Of Indian Cinema An Over-Heated, Over-Hyped,

Over-Rated Phenomenon??

In recent times, the figure 100 has become sexier than ever before!
Starting from Sachin (100 centuries), to the media-obsessed Rs. 100
crore club of the hottest male stars in B-town, and the dizzy celebration
of 100 years of Indian Cinema it is freakout time! As always, the
sizzle seems to be going through the roof in hype-zone, much more
than the steak! Would the Master Blaster be less of a genius had he not
crossed that century of centuries milestone? Are films ignored and
dismissed despite their quality merely because they havent raced
past the Rs.100 crore mark in record time? Would Indian Cinema lose
lustre and legacy if it had not stepped into its centenary year, inspiring
celebrations across all platforms and formats that might have got Shri
Phalke to wonder whether he made a mistake unleashing this
Frankenstein?!
Respected social scientist, Ashish Nandy believes it has to do with
new-age Indias obsession with figures that drives this madness : Take
the case of Tendulkar. The poor man was going to pieces! Wherever
he went, at home or abroad, there was just one question thrust on his
face When? It can put insane pressure on any superstar expected to
deliver, everyday, all the time, on call! Finally, when he did make it,
his relief was there for all to see! The little big man has charmingly
stated that during that [Hitchcockian?] phase, everyone seemed to have
conveniently forgotten that he had 99 centuries under his belt and was
obsessed with just that elusive one! Switching to films, critic and
scholar Vikas Mankar believes that it is a sign of the times. Says the 58

M, 1420

28

100 Years Of Indian Cinema

year old Mumbaikar, We live in a world where how are you and how
nice have been replaced by how much?! Its a crass bottomline-driven
world ruled by ROI that occupies the space, not quality or content.
He points out that with the exception of 3 Idiots, most other films that
hit the Rs.100 crore mark were consciously pandering to the sadak
chhap lowest common denomination, tickling their baser, cheaper
instincts. Does that matter? No! What matters is something that is
continuously fanned by a hysterically dumbed-down media the first
weekend BO stats, second week stats and so on. What about other
aspects of the film theme, direction, treatment, performances?
Irrelevant. Blasted away by the full page ads screaming Weekend
takings. Terrifying but true. Kolkata-based movie buff Kajal Sen
agrees : It's interesting. In recent times there have been fabulous films
like Paan Singh, Vicky Donor, even Ishaqzaade that have scored big
with the audiences but one Rowdy Rathore knocks the **** out of
these little gems in terms of media-coverage and groundswell, decimates
and drastically reduces the small film wattage! Gigantic budgets,
marketing machinery and blitzkrieg release pattern across every centre,
gobbling up multiplexes and single-screen alike, hardly gives these
small gems a chance. Its nowhere near a level playfield, boss!
Hard-core B-town fan Vinod Lamba cant bear these kill-joys and
whiners! Of course it's not a level playing field. The 100 Crore Club
is for men not bachchas wanting to or pretending to be men, okay?
Bollywood movies are an expensive and glamorous proposition
designed for a pan-India audience not the arty pseudos living in metro
cities and patronizing global cinema. It demands a special kind of skill
to market a brand of entertainment that rocks in New Delhi and New
York, okay? Also, unless youre in the business of philanthropy or
charity, it is normal to seek ROI and profits whats the big deal?
Yesterdays 25 weeks is todays 4 and if the technology and marketing
machinery allows you to hit that button and chance your luck, why the
rona dhona? If you cant stand the heat, leave the kitchen, baby!!
Lamba also takes umbrage about some sections celebrating Indias 100
years of Cinema in their own way and the whiners criticizing it as
inappropriate! He emphasizes that the age of austerity, in-denial and
political correctness mode is over and does not hold while rocking
with the entertainment business.

M, 1420

100 Years Of Indian Cinema

While irreverent Lamba is not totally wrong he is not totally

right either. It is dangerous, unfair and inaccurate to unconditionally
associate popularity with excellence, thereby suggesting that just
because Bodyguard, Rowdy Rathore, Singham and the rest struck the
Rs.100 crore mark, they are superior to the Paan Singhs & Vicky
Donors or the new sensations, Shanghai & Wasseypur. Fact is
mainstream, big-budget, star-driven, sexy, glamorous, item-bomb-vala
products will always be there as will toilet humour and violence
and there will (also, always) be a drooling, gasp-pant wow-kya-fightkiya & Boss-kya-dialogue-mara constituency. Fair enough. However,
100 crore or not, the other new movies mark a wonderful change, offer
glorious variety and present an interesting and viable form of cinematic
experience for all who believe there is life beyond the new chaalu
catchphrase unleashed by Akki in Rowdy Rathore Dont angry me!
The last words must rest with Indias globally respected, muchawarded Film maker Adoor Gopalakrishnan. Confesses the great man,
I am totally confused regarding the basis of this Centenary celebration.
For me, Indian Cinema is not hundred years old. The foundations
were laid in the 1890s by pioneers like Hiralal Sen, who pre-dated
Phalke by over a decade. We are commemorating the 100th anniversary
of the first Indian Feature film, Raja Harishchandra. Adoor is also
upset and bewildered about the way the celebrations panned out. The
plurality and inclusiveness of Indian Cinema is seldom taken into
account, with the perception mark never going beyond the heavily
brocaded borders of Bollywood. Its funny, because Bollywood does
not even really represent Hindi cinema, with its gloss, glamour and
star-studded extravaganzas audaciously hi-jacking the entire space,
totally negating the contributions of the rest of the country. Regarding
the Rs.100 crore club, Adoor shrugs : I believe in making a film only
when I have something to day.

M, 1420

29

30
ARJUN:
And if a man strives and fails and reaches not the End of Yoga, for his
mind is not in Yoga; and yet this man has faith, what is his end, O
Krishna?
KRISHNA:
Neither in this world nor in the world to come does ever this man pass
away; for the man who does the good, my son, never treads the path of
death. He dwells for innumerable years in the heaven of those who did
good; and then this man who failed in Yoga is born again in the house
of the good and the great. He may even be born into a family of Yogis,
where the wisdom of Yoga shines; but to be born in such a family is a
rare event in this world. And he begins his new life with the wisdom of
a former life; and he begins to strive again, ever onwards towards
perfection. Because his former yearning and struggle irresistibly carry
him onwards, even he who merely yearns for Yoga goes beyond the
words of books. And thus the Yogi ever-striving, and with soul pure
from sin, attains perfection through many lives and reaches the End
Supreme.
Bhagavad Gita (6 : 37, 40 - 45)
Translation by Juan Mascaro

This issue of
HINDOL
is supported by

NANDITA ROY
in memory of her father
MANINDRA KUMAR MUKHERJEE
and her mother-in-law
SUDHAHASI ROY

M, 1420

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M, 1420

81

Two Elders of Mahabharat

SHAKUNI, THE EPIC VILLAIN
The legend of Mahabharata, just like any other epic, embodies the
values of a civilization by defining black and white characters, with
their morals in shades of grey. One character assumed as black is
Shakuni Saubala. Vedavyasa had made sure that Shakuni has the typical
characteristics of a villain. He dresses in black clothes, sports a white
beard, rubs dice in his hands and limps slightly as he walks. He has
been discredited as "a cheating gambler," the Mastermind behind the
Kurukshetra War.
Shakuni was born in Gandhar (could be modern day Kandahar in
Afghanistan) the youngest son to King Subala. His sister Gandhari's
astrological signs predicted that her first husband would die very soon
and only her second husband would survive. For this, they first got her
married to a goat and killed it. But this was a secret known only to the
Gandhar royal family.
A few years later, when Dhritrashtra, Gandhari's second husband,
found out about this secret, he became extremely furious and imprisoned
Subala and his hundred sons. Every day, Dhritrashtra would give only
one handful of rice to each of them to eat. Very soon, one by one,
Subala's sons started dying of hunger. This is when Subala realized
that this is not how he wanted his dynasty to end.
He came up with a plan of making everyone in the prison sacrifice
their food in favour of Shakuni. He was the youngest and the wittiest,
and certainly strong enough to take revenge upon Dhritrashtra and bring
about his downfall. When Subala realized that he had no more energy
to survive, he called Dhritrashtra and asked him to be considerate to
his youngest child and allow him to be free. He also promised that
Shakuni would always be like a guardian to his sister's sons.
Subala could now die peacefully. But, before dying, he told Shakuni
to make use of his thigh bone and create a powerful magical dice which
spins the requested number. He wanted this magical dice to be the
reason for the downfall of Dhritrashtra and his successors.
Shakuni survived, and became very close to his Kaurava nephews,

M, 1420

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especially to Duryodhan, the eldest. From then on he wielded his
influence on Duryodhan and played out the great battle of Mahabharata
in microcosm, in the Dicing Game. He played a key role in inciting the
Pandavas to play the game of dice and made them lose their entire
kingdom and everything else to the Kauravas. But it was not because
he wanted Duryodhan to rule the entire kingdom. Shakuni knew that if
the Pandavas lost the game, it would inevitably lead to a war between
the Pandavas and the Kauravas, which the latter would lose. Thus, he
would be able to avenge the death of his father and his brothers.
So, Shakuni was simply following his sacred duty, his own dharma,
by obeying his father's dying wish. Ironically, neither side knew what
he was doing with his magical dice. In reality, he was always on the
side of the Pandavas without their knowledge. He defeated them at
dice only to restore their proper position as the Kings of the Kuru
dynasty by replacing Dhritrashtra during his lifetime. This King had
the same fate as Subala - that is, to experience the deaths of one hundred
sons.
Shakuni will always remain the 'Villain of the Mahabharata'; but
for a true moralist or a judge of virtuous conduct, Shakuni will be
redeemed as a 'Hero.'
- Parnika Jain, English Honours, III Yr
Deshbandhu College, New Delhi

VIDURA - AN INCARNATION OF DHARMA

The Mahabharata is not merely a great narrative poem; it is our
itihasa. It propounds the eternal law of human life in all its aspects of
dharma, artha, kama and moksha of which the first is to be the most
treasured as the permeating note of dharma in Mahabharata gives it
the status of the fifth veda. The character of Vidura was in a way the
incarnation of Dharma in his concern for the Pandavas, his wisdom,
his position in the clan and his relationship with Yudhisthira.
Due to the curse of the sage Mandavya, he was to be born in the
Shudra caste, to the maid of King Vichitravirya's queen, Ambalika.
Thus, he was half-brother to Pandu and Dhritarashtra. He was prudent,

M, 1420

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religious and well-mannered. As a minister to Dhritarashtra, he would
give him good advice. When Duryodhana was born, the baby had
howled like a wild beast. Vidura ominously said, "Like a jackal comes
the killer of Bharata's line. He shall be the fitting cause of our death."
But Dhritarashtra did not pay any heed to his words and as a result
suffered all his life for his over indulgence of his eldest son.
Because of Duryodhana's atrocities, Vidura developed sympathy
for the Pandavas. He knew the Pandavas would win the battle eventually
as they were blessed with long lives. According to Iravati Karve's
Yuganta, Vidura was the one who strove like a father for the good of
the Pandavas. But Vidura's own position was so subordinate that until
Dhritarashtra's cunning and Duryodhana's jealousy became known to
all, he had to be very circumspect in whatever help he gave to the
Pandavas.
In Sabha-parvan, following Shakuni's advice, Duryodhana invited
the Pandavas for the fatal game of dice. Vidura cautioned Dhritarashtra
that such a game would only increase the enmity between the cousins:
The root of all quarrels, the dicing game,
Leads to mutual breach and to a great war;
Dhrtarastra's son now undertakes it,
Duryodhana starts an awesome feud.*
The meaning of Vidura is "one who knows much". His knowledge
was not primarily of worldly affairs, but knowledge of the ultimate
values. When giving advice to Dhritarashtra, Vidura repeatedly stressed
the folly of greed, the need for justice, and the eternity of the soul.
According to him, Dharma was the pedestal of the state. This knowledge
was of no use to Dhritarashtra as he neither listened to nor profited
from it. In another episode after the battle was over, Vidura consoled
Dhritarashtra, explaining that whoever had died in the battle had attained
salvation; hence one should not mourn for them. Vidura is never seen
bewailing his sorrows or loss.
Vidura belonged to the Sutas - the caste that had the burden of its
own sorrows. If Vidura's mother had not been a servant, then he could
have become the king as he was the fittest among the brothers. Extremely
close to the Kshatriyas, of the same blood as they were, his advice

M, 1420

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could be sought without fear for a Suta-putra could never become an
equal. Yet was that fear really absent in Pandu and Dhristarashtra?
They never gave Vidura the command of an army or allowed him to
move far from the palace. They always kept him near, where they could
watch his movements.
Vidura's partiality to the Pandavas was not unknown. When
Duryodhana was plotting to send the Pandavas to a distant town to kill
them, he said, "Vidura outwardly gives no sign of it, but he really is on
the side of the Pandavas."
After the war, when Yudhisthira went to visit the elders in the forest,
he was told that Vidura was practicing terrible penance. Yudhisthira
sought him out, and before dying Vidura invested Yudhisthira with his
life, his organs and his wisdom. This behavior at the time of death is
like that of a father and son, as mentioned in the Upanishads. Yudhisthira
was Kunti's son through the auspices of Lord Dharma. When Pandu
knew he could not father a child to be King, could he not in secrecy
have asked his brother to perform the task of niyoga? This was not
unknown in those times. Again when the Pandavas left for vanavasa
after the disastrous dicing game, Kunti was given shelter in Vidura's
residence.
If Vidura was famed for his knowledge of dharma and right conduct,
so too was Yudhisthira. He had the right to the kingdom after his father's
death, but whatever he got was through the valour of others. Yudhisthira's
life was one of great sadness. Similarly, not getting what he fully merited
was also Vidura's sorrow.
Vidura can be remembered for his wisdom. He affirmed, "To save
a family, abandon a man; to save a village, abandon a family; to save a
country, abandon the village; to save the soul, abandon the earth."*
- Kannupriya Grover, English Honours, III Yr
Deshbandhu College, New Delhi

* The Mahabharata, "The Book of Assembly", edited by J.A.B. Van Buitenen

M, 1420

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Srishti Thakkar
Delhi

Dicing for Draupadi

It is well known that "Human Life and furthermore the human mind
are the most complicated machinery that God has ever built on this
planet." History is replete with examples where the workings of the
treacherous human mind have many a time led to much bloodshed and
war. This fact has been explicated in the most crucial episode of the
Mahabharata, 'The Dicing Game', which resulted in the banishment
of the Pandavas for 13 years. This leads us to the comparison of the
Hindu concepts of Karma and Dharma as well as the psychological
aspects of the individual psyche.
At its most basic level whatever happens to our lives is a direct
result of how we have lived it until now. 'Until now' includes all of
our previous lives too. Karma is the sum total of a kind of spiritual
accounting ledger, which apparently is summed up at the end of each
lifetime. The total determines our role in society in our next life.
Individual souls are all on a journey towards enlightenment. The
journey is about moving through the stages of enlightenment that are
ideal as concepts: the point here is not to be yourself but to be as
perfectly your position as you can be. This is the concept of Dharma
or Duty. Karma accounts for our death, and determines the role or
position we will be born into in our next incarnation. All our actions
in this present existence are dictated to us by the Dharma of that
position - which means 'All is prescribed' and given in exact details,
regarding what our Dharma demands of us in any given situation. It
is our responsibility to perform our duty - the choice of the conscious

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Dicing for Draupadi

soul, and the choice can be made rightly or wrongly. The measure of
the choice is Karma. The answer key to make that choice is Dharma.
The Psychological approach holds the idea of the individual souls
or Psyche moving towards enlightenment, called individuation.
Psychology divides the Individual Psyche into 3 parts.
The first is Ego which identifies with the conscious mind. The
second is the Personal Unconscious, which includes anything which
is not presently conscious, but can be. The Personal Unconscious
includes both memories that are easily brought to mind and those that
have been suppressed for some reason. The third is the Collective
Unconscious, also called 'Psychic Inheritance'. It is the reservoir of
our experiences as a species, a kind of knowledge we are all born with.
And yet we can never be directly conscious of it. It influences all of
our experiences and behavior, most specifically the emotional ones,
but we know about these only indirectly.
The contents of the Collective Consciousness are called
Archetypes, an unlearned tendency to experience things in a certain
way. First, Shadow Archetypes come from our pre-human, animal past
when our concerns were limited to survival and reproduction, and when
we weren't self conscious. It is understood as the dark side of the Ego,
and the evil that we are capable of is often stored there. Actually the
Shadow is amoral - neither good nor bad, as in lower animals. An
animal is capable of tender care for its young and vicious killing for
food, but it doesn't choose to do either. It just does what it has to. It
is 'innocent'. But from our human perspective, the animal world looks
rather brutal, inhuman, so the shadow becomes a repository for the
parts of ourselves that we can't quite admit to.
Next, Persona Archetypes represent our public image: the mask
we put on before we show ourselves to the outside world. Anima and
Animus Archetypes are a part of our persona. The role of male or
female that we must play is determined by our physical gender. The
Anima is the female aspect present in the collective unconscious of
men.
:2:
Now we enter the story of the Mahabharata where the two halves
of the royal family have finally brought their fundamental conflict out

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into the open. Duryodhana, eldest of the Kurus, is tormented by the

power and success accumulated by the Five Pandavas (his cousins)
living in their half of the kingdom. He cannot suffer the thought that
others in the same position of succession as he should have such high
honor. He must acquire it all for himself, or kill himself. So he
challenges Yudhisthira, the eldest of the Pandavas to a game of dice
where everything shall be at stake, and the game will be played until
one owns everything, including the other person/s too. Symbolically,
the antagonists all being the 'sons' of the King Dhritarashtra represent
the psyche or soul in conflict with itself. Ostensibly, this would be the
struggle between the conscious Ego and the unconscious Shadow
elements of the psyche struggling to control the self that will result as
the psyche individuates. This conflict is further complicated by another
important inner conflict. King Dhritarashtra is unable to choose which
of his sons or nephews (whom he treats as his sons) will succeed him
and hence he is blind.
Seeking to avenge the death of his father and brothers, Shakuni
provokes Duryodhana in this struggle to rule the entire kingdom and
determines the strategy of the Dice challenge. Shakuni possesses the
knowledge and skill of rolling the Magical Dice at his will and can
thus defeat the Pandavas and win for Duryodhana all he wants. Shakuni
represents action - how to get what you want. This action is however
devoid of the knowledge of Karma. Thus, it is powerful, but ultimately
it cannot obtain for Duryodhana what he desires. This is the lesson
Karma and Dharma teaches - pursuing what you desire is ultimately
futile. In fact it leads to the destruction of the world.
The problem comes when power is given to Duryodhana who has
no regard for Dharma, or for right action guided by Duty. Without
this, acting and achieving exactly what you want serves only to bind
you to a Karmic consequence in your next life that will take away
from you all you think you have gained by your action. And indeed,
the results of Yudhisthira's desire for gambling, unarmed against
Shakuni's secret knowledge, are almost catastrophic.
The only thing that saves the Psyche from total domination by the
Shadow unconscious is the presence of Draupadi. Ultimately, she is
the key to the Pandavas actually acquiring the secret of the dice, for
by her presence, the ruin of enslavement to Duryodhana is averted.

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Dicing for Draupadi

ARTIST : ARUP DAS

She asks the questions that none of the Elders can answer and as a
solution, the Pandavas are banished to the forest where they encounter
Vyasa who tells them the tale of Nala and Damayanti and eventually
imparts to Yudhisthira the secret of the Dice.
It is often noted that the point of the Dice game in the Mahabharat
is this: Draupadi cannot be staked by one who has lost himself. Perhaps
it was not possible for the divine king to stake Draupadi in this kind
of game. It is only when he has lost himself that it becomes possible
for him to mistakenly think that he can stake Draupadi. As his first act

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of power over the entire psyche, Duryodhana commands the Pandavas

and Draupadi to disrobe. The Pandavas do so unquestioningly but
Draupadi does not. When Dushasan attempts to forcibly disrobe her,
it is literally impossible to do so. Her clothes never diminish, no matter
how many are removed. The answer is clear - it is in the spirit of the
universe that Draupadi cannot be lost, even when everyone thinks she
has been staked and lost. The game of dice cannot rule her fate.
Draupadi in this regard is that aspect of our psyche that acts as a
built-in counter balance to that powerful unconscious shadow that
would consume the whole of the psyche (the kingdom) for its own
ends. In his book Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Carl Jung describes
that aspect of the psyche which appears and connects the blossoming
awareness of the self with the deeper and larger areas of the
unconscious psyche as the Anima (in the male), and represents it as
a female image. Draupadi clearly is the Self saved from complete
assimilation into the illusion of the limited consciousness of Self. This
is the I of the individual separate from the unity with God.
In the Mahabharata, this 'miraculous' event of the unending robe
allows all the other aspects of the psyche to see that Draupadi, the
Anima, is truly Other than I, and thus the self must be larger than
just Self represented as I. This is the opening for the divine to take
over, as the unconscious or as God. This is to be saved, recognized,
and restored - even if it takes a banishment of 13 years and Krishna
is symbolised as sending down an unending array of cloth. This
recognition of Draupadi comes about because we believe that she
cannot be lost and won in a mere Dicing Game.
On account of the treacherous and unruly working of the Human
Mind, we are often led to bloodshed and war. This can be averted if
the human mind could always be directed to acts of goodness. This
can only happen if the individual masters his mind instead of letting
his mind master him. Thus the people in this grand epic are the
characteristics within each individual, and they dominate in variation,
playing out the Kurukshetra war many times during the lifetime of a
person.
(Srishti Thakkar is a student of English Hons.
at Deshbandhu College, New Delhi)

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The Narada Story

Narada with his one-string ekatara goes up to Visnu who
is enthroned in his Heaven, so goes the story, and he asks
Visnu: "Visnu, what is maya?" Naturally the answer to it cannot
be given; so Visnu remains silent. And Narada again asks:
"Do you mean to imply that maya cannot be explained? This
desert of a world into which we have come where illusion
appears to be reality and reality is illusion?" And Visnu says:
"Maya can be experienced but it cannot be explained." "Very
well, then," says Narada, "if you cannot explain what you
make then I refuse to have faith in you." Visnu quickly steps
off his throne because he knows what happens to gods when
human beings refuse to believe in them. The gods simply
disappear. This is the "death of the god" theology. We cannot
worship the gods who make us, we worship the gods we
make. So he quickly steps down and hastily says: "Wait,
Narada! I will tell you what maya is. Come with me."
They walk together. Nothing happens until they come to
the edge of a desert and then he slumps under a tree, produces
a lota from the folds of his dress, gives it to Narada, and says:
"Narada, in the distance you see an oasis. There is a hut there.
My throat is parched. Can you get me some water? I will
explain maya to you." Narada steps forward, saying, "Wait
here, I will get you water."
We know what happens next. Narada goes and notices a
hut in the oasis. He shouts: "Is anyone there?" And the door
opens, and a beautiful girl with compelling eyes of Visnu
opens the door. He is haunted and fascinated, he forgets about
the lota of water and he is entertained by her with food. Her

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parents come. We know what happens whenever parents
come. They ask him to rest. He stays a week, then a fortnight.
This is the man they have been waiting for. One day he asks
for her hand; this is exactly what the parents have been waiting
for, so he marries her.
One year passes; we know what happens when one year
passes after marriage; a son is born to him. Five years pass,
and a daughter is born to him. Ten years pass, twelve years.
Twelve years pass, his in-laws die; they leave property behind;
property is meant to be left behind; and he inherits their land.
Twelve years pass, and the floods come. The floods come and
they wash his wife away, his children away, his hut away, his
field away; he tries to save them and in the swelling waters
he loses consciousness.
He wakes up, he opens his eyes and he finds he is lying
on dry ground, his head on Visnu's lap. Visnu is waiting under
the tree at the edge of the desert. Visnu, looking down at him,
asks: "Where is that lota of water which I asked you to bring?"
And Narada says: "Please don't tell me now, Visnu. I
understand, I know. But don't tell me what happened to me
did not happen to me." A sky-voice recurs in the folk parable:
"Is all this real?" Visnu says: "You wanted to know what maya
is. And now do you know?"
Then Narada realizes the real nature of Heaven and the
real nature of Kuruksetra. Maya is this desert of a world where
we have been thrust to get a lota of water for Visnu, and,
instead of doing that, we have looked into the eyes of girls
who have eyes of Visnu, and we have got sidetracked; or we
have created the endless deserts of bloody Kuruksetra
property conflicts.
(Extract from valedictory address by Prof. Purushottama Lal at the
international seminar on the Mahabharata organized by the Sahitya
Akademi at Delhi on February 17-20, 1987)

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Subhadra Sen Gupta
Delhi

A Charioteer's Song

As the orange ball of the sun dipped behind the grove of trees and
dusk drifted in; the earthen lamps were lit in the sanctum of the temple.
After the puja was over, people wandered out into the temple courtyard
where the balladeer waited for his audience. Then as the darkness
deepened and the lamplight flickered across his animated face, he wove
his magic with tales of gods, goddesses and heroes; demons, warriors
and ancient battles; joyous triumphs and heart breaking romances. His
tales mesmerising the circle of listening faces even when the tale was
one that they had all heard many, many times before.
Unlike most of the world, in India our myths and legends are not
found only in the books, they are still vibrantly alive in the minds of
people. The village barber can tell you where Ram built his first
thatched hut after his exile from Ayodhya. A teashop owner can recite
the tale of Krishna defeating the serpent Kaliya. And children can give
a list of their favourite asuras and rakshasas. And these tales have
survived because of generations of forgotten balladeers of the past.
We called them sutas, sutradhars and kathakaars. They were bards,
minstrels and balladeers and they were our first professional
storytellers. Originally our literary tradition was an oral one, with the
stories being learnt and passed on for centuries by generations of sutas.
It is only around the Gupta period in the 8th and 9th century that we
began to write it all down.
Scholars mention two forms of literature - shruti and smriti. Shruti
is revealed, like the Vedas were said to have been revealed to the

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ancient sages by the gods. So these Sanskrit shlokas were sacred and
they could not be changed. Shruti was recited during sacrifices and it
was jealously guarded by the priesthood as their livelihood depended
on this literature. In shruti memorising and correct pronunciation soon
began to take precedent over understanding the text and when the
shlokas were in an archaic Sanskrit, they were soon inaccessible to
people.
The people's literature was smriti, the words that were remembered.
These included the mythological tales in the Puranas, the technical
treatises of the shastras and the two magnificent epics, the Ramayana
and the Mahabharata. Often they began as purely secular works that
could evolve, change and grow freely and the Mahabharata became a
magical mix of history, legends, mythology and philosophy. As India
never developed a tradition of professional historians, for our
knowledge of the history of ancient India we have to seek it in the
smriti writing and the Mahabharata is also called itihasa, traditional
history.
Historians speculate that somewhere around 1000 BCE there was
a great battle among the kings of the Indo-Gangetic plains and this
story of valour and avarice was kept alive not by the priesthood but
by the sutas. Some sutas were the illegitimate sons of kshatriyas who
were employed in royal households, often as charioteers and the
Mahabharata has many characters belonging to this caste. Vidur, half
brother of Dhritarashtra was born of a suta woman. Karna, though
kshatriya born was brought up by Adhiratha, a charioteer and heard
taunts about his being a sutaputra all his life. Sanjaya, who described
the battle scene to Dhritarashtra was his charioteer. Then a warriordiplomat-king became an honorary suta when Krishna chose to be the
charioteer of his friend Arjun at the battle of Kurukshetra.
Charioteers were important members of a king's household as they
drove the royal men around and became privy to state matters. The
great warriors were called maharathis, those who fought from chariots,
and in a battlefield a charioteer's skills were crucial as a good suta
could save a warrior's life. In the heat of battle they encouraged and
advised their masters and at times taunted them to rouse their anger
and make them fight better. To digress here a little, a few centuries
later Chanakya in his book Arthashastra says that charioteers made

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great spies!
So the sutas could give a first-hand account of the battle and in
peacetime they doubled as story tellers. Many of them became royal
historians who knew the king's genealogy and during important
religious and social occasions like the yagnas they would recite and
sing paeans to their royal masters.
Also many sutas with their facile tongues and worldly tales became
nomadic storytellers, wandering in the company of the kusilavas, who
were itinerant singers. As any storyteller knows, earnings are better if
you spice up the tale. So they would weave in the appearance of gods
and demons and mix in some ancient folk tales. They would exaggerate
and create super heroes and monstrous villains to produce a true masala
plot and that is exactly what they still do in our films. Rajnikanth and
Shahrukh Khan are still being handled suta style and the audience
responds to their exploits like children listening to the story of Bhim
swinging his mace at Duryodhan and Ram showering arrows that hide
the sun as he faces Ravan.
Sutas took a simple tale of a war between two groups of cousins
and transformed it into an immense epic. Originally the story of the
war between the Kauravas and Pandavas was a bardic refrain called
'Jaya', victory. Over centuries of endless additions it became the
Mahabharata with 90,000 stanzas that makes it the longest poem in
the world. Even though it is credited to one writer, the sage Ved Vyas,
the Mahabharata is in fact the result of the combined creations of many
storytellers, priestly editors and philosophers. Vyas is a scholarly title
that means 'the arranger' and as his name suggests he probably compiled
the hymns of the Vedas and then collected and edited the stories of
the sutas. He put it in verse and as a lovely myth tells us, got Ganesha
to do all the hard work of taking dictation.
We still have a few sutas left in the twenty first century. A group
of bards arose who specialised in memorising this immense material
and they are called pandavani singers. Pandavani means the 'story of
the Pandavas' and we have the amazing Teejan Bai who paces across
the stage like a tigress in her bright red sari, nose ring glittering, as
she enacts all the roles of the heroes and heroines and at times breaks
into songs from the Mahabharata.
We even have the history of how the epic was communicated down

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the generations. Ved Vyas taught it to his student Vaisampayana and

he recited the tale at a yagna at the court of King Janamejaya, the
great-grandson of Arjun. Here it was overheard by a suta named
Romaharshana and he narrated it to his son Ugrasravas. Then
Ugrasravas attended a gathering of holy men in the Nimisha forest at
a yagna organised by a Brahmin named Shaunaka. Now a yagna can't
be all solemn shloka chanting, you need some entertainment too and
so the rishis begged Ugrasravas to narrate the tale. Do notice the two
suta names. Romaharshana means his tales made your hair stand up
and Ugrasravas was a teller of stories with a very loud voice. I think
Teejan Bai is both.
Going through the hands of sutas and brahmins the Mahabharata
became an almanac for the people. The sutas added the stories and
the brahmins added the philosophy, morality tales, astrological
predictions, parables and priestly mumbo jumbo. Finally it became this
gigantic compilation and so the Mahabharata says with justifiable pride,
"yadaihasti tad anyatra yan nehasti; na tat kvachit" - whatever is here
may be found elsewhere but what is not here cannot be found
anywhere.
The part of the epic that is the most read is also credited to a suta
by choice - Krishna and his speech that is the Bhagavat Gita. It was
clearly added later and must be the work of a brahmin. No balladeer
worth his salt would have put a complex philosophical lecture in the
middle of a battle. Just imagine the scene - the two warring sides
standing ready to fight and the action is stopped while Krishna talks
of nishkama karma? Bhishma lays down his bow, a bored Duryodhana
leans on his gada and everyone takes a break? It would have ruined
all the excitement as after all the build up of the plot, the tension would
have come down like a punctured balloon.
Scholars feel this sermon was the work of philosophers and one
name that is mentioned is of a rishi named Narayana. If this rishi
decided to place the sermon anywhere in the epic, then of course this
was the best spot. Arjun has put down his bow and is refusing to fight
and Krishna's words gain a poignant power because of the pain being
felt by Arjun. The Gita becomes relevant and resonant because of the
very human dilemma of the hero and Krishna's words are both sensitive
and practical. Also there is urgency in his words because the divine

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charioteer has to
somehow make his
friend pick up his
bow and start fighting.
Before Duryodhana
lost his patience and
came charging up across
the battlefield yelling
ARTIST : V.S. RAHI
bloody murder....
Another long interpolation is Bhishma's lecture on kingship in the
Shanti Parva and again this is clearly the work of a priestly editor. In
the early years, the epic had been the realm of the sutas and the original
story of the battle between the Kauravas and Pandavas is the world
view of kshatriyas. Naturally the brahmins could not allow this to go
on. They have always focussed on monopolising all knowledge and
filling our ancient literature with fulsome praise of the brahmins. Both
the long speeches being given by a kshatriya instead of a bearded rishi
shows a touch of genius.
The bard's 'Jaya' was transmitted orally for a thousand years and
so it was the sutas who kept the story alive. The Mahabharata was
thus created and preserved by low caste storytellers. Every time you
are reading the epic or watching a film or television serial based on
it, remember the tribe of long forgotten sutas. It is they who gave us
the greatest story in the world.
(Subhadra Sen Gupta writes fiction and non-fiction for both adults
and children, often around history. Her books are easy to order on
flipkart.com or landmarkonthenet.com)

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