Q: Black Draupadi?

[gldnreef at primenet.com]

At 03:04 PM 8/21/97 BST, Lars Martin Fosse wrote:
>At 23:20 20.08.97 BST, you wrote:
>>On Wed, 20 Aug 1997, Dominique.Thillaud wrote:
>>
>>> 	This is an old debat: is the MBh historical or mythical ? The same
>>> thing arise in Greece with the Trojan War.
>>
>>Yes, and the details you give of comparable elements in the two are
>>genuinely interesting. But "is the MBh historical or mythical" sounds like
>>a dangerous question to me. "Is the Bible historical or mythical?" --- "Is
>>this plate round or is it white?"
>>
>>John Smith
>
>Why on earth should any of the questions be dangerous? I think, to the
>contrary, that such definitely should be asked by scholars. The last
>question about the plate is not apt in the context. 

I think it's quite apt.  There is no reason why these epics could not be
both mythological and historical.  The only "danger" in such a premise is in
methodology -- would our bibliographies have references to carbon dating or
the collective unconscious!