[INDOLOGY] New Book

Sun Oct 1 10:58:03 UTC 2017

1. Non-violence in Vedic tradition being independent of Buddhism / Jainism
should not be surprising because expressions of non-violence or expressions
such as "Ye, don't commit violence against...." are part of mantras of
Rigveda and Yajurveda themselves. There are several mantras ending in मा
हिंसीः।

2. But the characteristic of Vedic tradition which baffles a non-discerning
observer is the thriving of its ideal of non-violence  always alongside its
allowance to harm, kill, punish etc. There are Vedic mantras instructing to
harm/kill harmful entities. Some mantras express a wish for courage,
strength to succeed in such harming/ killing / punishing.

That one way of looking at 'non-violence' is to save entities vulnerable to
violence from such violence by resorting to violence against those
committing violence against such vulnerable creatures is a subtle
understanding of non-violence inherent in the Vedic world-view. क्षत्त्र or
क्षत्त्रिय is an agent of such non-violence (no violence against the weak /
vulnerable).

3. It is this subtle understanding of violence and /or non-violence rooted
in the Vedic tradition right from the Veda mantras that is inherent in
Mahabharata that fails a superficial reader of it in understanding the
congruence of अहिंसा परमो धर्मः with the remaining parts of the book that
make the book appear to be a book of war.

4. Let us take the portions of the book that can not but be integral to the
book and see if they have vegetarianism and non-violence.

One such portion is  संभवपर्व , शकुंतलोपाख्यानम् । It can not but be
integral to the book because it provides the source of the name of the book
itself. It is the story of the birth of the वंशकर्ता of the वंश after which
the book is named. The book or at least its early chapter is a वंशचरित्र and
is structured as such. Within that वंशचरित्र , this portion is the most
vital one because it is the story of the birth of the वंशकर्ता of the वंश after
which the book is named.

Now, in that story, one of the most significant characters is कण्व महर्षि।

कण्व is described in that narrative as a vegetarian, non-violent sage.

His non-violence is indicated through the description:

तत्र व्यालमृगान्सौम्यान्पश्यन्प्रीतिमवाप सः ||१८||

He (Dushyanta) was pleased to see even wild animals being mild (gentle)
there (in Kanva's ashram)

Entire ashram is described in detail. Not even a single violent activity is
described. Shaastras studied there are described.

in detail. None of them is a shaastra related to wars or such violent
activities.

When asked about Kanva, Shakuntala says,

गतः पिता मे भगवान्फलान्याहर्तुमाश्रमात् | मुहूर्तं सम्प्रतीक्षस्व
द्रक्ष्यस्येनमिहागतम् ||९||

Bharata growing on that campus, is described as

सिंहसंहननो युवा |

षड्वर्ष एव बालः स कण्वाश्रमपदं प्रति | व्याघ्रान्सिंहान्वराहांश्च गजांश्च
महिषांस्तथा ||५|| बद्ध्वा वृक्षेषु बलवानाश्रमस्य समन्ततः | आरोहन्दमयंश्चैव
क्रीडंश्च परिधावति ||६||

This violence by Bharata is not condemned by the extremely non-violent
sages there.

Moreover they praised him for the valour and gave the title Sarvadamana to
him.

ततोऽस्य नाम चक्रुस्ते कण्वाश्रमनिवासिनः | अस्त्वयं सर्वदमनः सर्वं हि
दमयत्ययम् ||७||

Why did Dushyanta go there? For the violent activity of hunting.

But he showed extreme respect towards the extremely non-violent sages lead
by Kanva.

Non-violent sages encouraged violent Bharata and violent Dushyanta showed
utmost respect for the non-violent sages.

(to be continued)

Why non-violent sages encouraged violent Bharata?

Since क्षत्त्र or क्षत्त्रिय as an agent of such non-violence (no violence
against the weak / vulnerable), needs valour.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One of the most prominent faces of movements of non-violent movements and
environmentalist movements today is the anti-war philosophy.

Is Mahabharata an anti-war book?

What is the angirasa of Mahabharata according to Anandavardhana?

śānta.

What is the sthāyībhāva of śānta?

nirvēda or śama.

What does that mean?

Aanandavardhanaachaarya of 9th century AD read the book as the one with
vairāgya as the central emotion, not as a book of war and violence.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is there an internal evidence in the book for the view that the book is an
anti-war book?

What is the udyōga (effort) in udyōgaparva?

The parva has simultaneous efforts of preparation for war and prevention of
war.

Let us take bhagavadyānaparva portion of udyōgaparva.

There is a huge anti-war portion of  the lecture by Yudhiṣṭhira here.

युद्धे कृष्ण कलिर्नित्यं प्राणाः सीदन्ति संयुगे |

-------------------------------- ||४१||

--------------------------------

--------------------------------

जयो वैरं प्रसृजति दुःखमास्ते पराजितः |

सुखं प्रशान्तः स्वपिति हित्वा जयपराजयौ ||५९||

जातवैरश्च पुरुषो दुःखं स्वपिति नित्यदा | अनिर्वृतेन मनसा ससर्प इव वेश्मनि ||
६०||

and so on.

Does this mean that the entire discussion is anti-war? There is a long
debate back and forth for and against war in this episode. Among many
arguments offered in justification of war, the one that repeatedly crops up
is the justifiability of punishment to the offenders of Draupadi.

Then what is the whole context of the anti-war talk ?

The line of argument in all the lectures including that of Sri Krishna is
that to prevent war is the foremost priority as per Dharma. But to allow
the villains to grab the portion of kingdom even after the condition of
vanavāsa and ajñātavāsa is fulfilled is also not Dharma. After all the
Dharmas are balanced, the net result is that war should be executed only as
the last resort only after exhausting all the options available for
preventing the war .

This priority for prevention of war is what is being highlighted here as
part of the discussion on non-violence.

On Sun, Oct 1, 2017 at 10:13 AM, Nagaraj Paturi <nagarajpaturi at gmail.com>
wrote:

> "The quality of India's -military strength was seen very soon after
> Alexander's return and death, when Seleucus attempted another invasion. He
> was defeated by Chandragupta and driven back. Indian armies then had an
> advantage which others lacked; this was the possession of trained
> war-elephants, which might be compared to the tanks of to-day. Seleucus
> Nikator obtained 500 of these war-elephants from India for his campaign
> against Antigonus in Asia Minor in 302 B.C., and military historians say
> that these elephants were the decisive factor in the battle which ended in
> the death of Antigonus and the flight of his son Demetrius."
>
> -- Discovery of India, pp 115
>
> Focus is only on Nehru's awareness of wars in ancient India; not on the
> historical validity of facts mentioned in this dated book .
>
> On Sat, Sep 30, 2017 at 11:55 PM, Nagaraj Paturi <nagarajpaturi at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> The intro to the book begins with the sentence:
>>
>> "Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru helped create the myth of a
>> nonviolent ancient India while building a modern independence movement on
>> the principle of nonviolence (*ahimsa*)."
>>
>> Even if the statement that these two leaders created the myth of
>> non-violent ancient India can be substantiated through proper documented of
>> where and how they created this myth, I can say with certainty that ancient
>> India was never imagined during or later to the independence movement,
>> either by the educated Indians or by the common public as an India without
>> wars or without harsh punishments or without harsh ways of crime control
>> etc. Wars etc. of ancient India were common place from the lowest level
>> history text books, or the most common sense /layman's /non-professional
>> books on history to the most professional university level books on
>> history. Nationalist historiographers glorified the valour of the ancient
>> Indian kings in their history writings. The legends about sahivaji contain
>> descriptions of Jijiabai teaching young Shivaji , the stories of Ramayana
>> and Mahabharata as stories of valour (whereas Anandavardhana looks at the
>> angirasa of these books as S'aanta Rasa and some other authors of poetics,
>> plays or poetry view Ramayana as a book of Karuna Rasa, my teacher views
>> both these books as books of Dharma veera). Even the most ardent followers
>> of Gandhi compared him to Buddha ,  Buddha now newly known as an epitome of
>> non-violence through the modern history works unlike in the pre-modern
>> Indian literature where he was either an avatar of Vishnu or a vaada
>> poorvapakshin for the Vaidika schools of philosophy. The comparison of
>> Gandhi selectively to Buddha was required only because the remaining
>> picture of ancient India was dominated by the incidence of wars etc.
>>
>> I have to read Sri Upinder Singh's book to be able to say if the book is
>> really an attempt to demolish a non-existent impression of India in the
>> general Indian people.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Sep 30, 2017 at 6:59 PM, Olivelle, J P via INDOLOGY <
>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>
>>> With apologies for cross-posting, I want to announce a wonderful new
>>> book by Upinder Singh: Political Violence in Ancient India. It demolishes
>>> the common stereotypes about non-violence etc. Published by Harvard.
>>>
>>> http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674975279
>>>
>>> Patrick Olivelle
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> INDOLOGY mailing list
>>> INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
>>> indology-owner at list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing
>>> committee)
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>>> or unsubscribe)
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Nagaraj Paturi
>>
>> Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.
>>
>>
>> BoS, MIT School of Vedic Sciences, Pune, Maharashtra
>>
>> BoS, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Veliyanad, Kerala
>>
>> Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies
>>
>> FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education,
>>
>> (Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA )
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Nagaraj Paturi
>
> Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.
>
>
> BoS, MIT School of Vedic Sciences, Pune, Maharashtra
>
> BoS, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Veliyanad, Kerala
>
> Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies
>
> FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education,
>
> (Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA )
>
>
>
>

-- 
Nagaraj Paturi

Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.

BoS, MIT School of Vedic Sciences, Pune, Maharashtra

BoS, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Veliyanad, Kerala

Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies

FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education,

(Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA )

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