Yuganta, fabulous book on Mahabharata written by Iravati Karve
Yuganta, a fabulous book written by an anthropologist
Iravati Karve in Marathi language about Mahabharata. Mahabharata teaches us, there
are neither perfectly good people nor perfectly bad people. To understand
it in proper way, one must read book Yuganta, The End of an Epoch.
Form Yogesh Gogwekar
Iravati Karve was student of sociology & anthropology.
This book is nothing but critical study of characters of Mahabharata. Through
this books , she treats these characters as historical figures rather than
mythical characters and interpreted many events of Mahabharata in social
political way. She dissects each protagonists after understanding their
strengths & their weaknesses.
She started from Bhishma who tried his best to save the war
but Mahabharata offers nothing to him after the terrible vow of Chastity.
In father & son chapter, she talks about Yudhister & Vidur. She
is treating Yudhister is son of Vidur due to similarities in their ways &
also because they were related to Yama. She has written fantastic essay on
Drupady & mentioned that Drupadi went through much more strenuousness.
Paradharmo Bhayavahah revolves around class structure in
Mahabharata, Brahmans & Kshatriya. Here she pointed out role of Drona &
Ashwathama. She also mentioned about Karana who dies without knowing his
identity. About Gandhari & Kunti, she shown how both these ladies
responded to their respective situations in different manner.
And above all Vasudev Krishna. For her, Krishna
remains figure for thought & search. He never becomes the hero
of Mahabharata but without him Mahabharat is not possible. She has
also spoken about the friendship of Krishna & Arjuna.
This is fantastic book which I have read again. This book
also raised the question about ideal worship. Even tough ,It is not written in
form story , it is a mirror which shows reflection of different faces we come
across.
Mumbai
02/08/2019
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