Q: Black Draupadi?

[Narahari Achar]

>
>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!
>
>

According to tradition, both RAmAyaNa and MahAbhArata are called "itihAsAs";
and 'the popular memory' or 'smr^ti' would refer to the purANAs. This would
imply that MBh would be more historical and the purANAs would be more
mythological.i.e., if tradition has any significance for Indologists
-Narahari Achar