Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Episode 4 - Shakuntala and King Bharata

Episode 4 - The episodes are getting a little longer now, as the stories get more detailed.  Before the book gets to the "direct line" of characters, it takes a bit of a detour to introduce some of the important ancestors in the Bharata Dynasty.  These include Bharata himself, plus his ancestor Yayati (and his son Puru), as well as Bharata's descendent Kuru.  The sketches are in fact quite brief, and the lengthy portions are generally about very specific aspects of their lives.  In the case of Bharata, we'll hear a lot of information about his conception and the questions of his legitimacy, and that's about all. 
As for Kuru, we only hear that he recovered the throne of Hastinapur sometime after his father lost it to the King of Panchala.  The story of Yayati and his sons is much longer, but it is also quite odd.  I'm going to save it for later because it also bears on the descent of Krishna, plus I'm anxious to get going with the main story!
So for this time, it's the story of Bharata, his mother Shakuntala, and his jerk of a father, King Dushanta...

8 comments:

  1. Couple of quick things:
    Awesome that you call attention to the level of narratives. While reading it is such a pleasure to be reminded, in the middle of a story within a story within a story, that you're in the middle of the telling of a story when they bring it back to the snake sacrifice.
    The other thing is that this scripture cites exceptions to every rule, Hinduism being a very scientifc, rule based tradition. Right off the bat, we've got someone transcending caste.
    Finally, the whole voices of the gods in times of challenge. Socially, if scriptures serve as guidelines, I really dislike that the gods come and verify (throughout the epic) things like Shakuntala's truth here. Mostly, it makes me think that the application will be that if a modern chaste wife is defending herself against invalid accusations and the gods Don't voice an opinion she's SOL.

    root.racine at that thing that google does for mail.

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  2. Yeah, I do call him out on that in the next episode-- what a jerk! I always think of what it would be like to live in a world with kings and nobles. You can imagine that they get away with this crap all the time, and no one dares to mention that he's at fault. Even our storyteller insists throughout the story on ascribing heroic traits to all the Kuru kings, so even when Dhritarastra is allowing Draupadi to be disrobed before the court, Vaisampayan/Ugrasravas/Vyasa refer to the king as "He who sees through his wisdom"! Even though they are talking about the current king (Janemejaya)'s great grand-uncle, he is still reluctant to point out that the king is acting like an ass...

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  3. Is the Critical Edition in Sanskrit?

    Also, is there no mention of a curse (attributed to the irascible Durvasa) that causes Dushyanta to forget Shakuntala in your source? This is the premise of Kalidasa's play and I recall reading elsewhere that this curse business is part of the 'original' story in the Mahabharata.

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    1. I am reading the Vulgate Edition transalation by Ganguly and he too has the tale as this blog has it. There is no curse in it.

      Are you sure the famous story of the curse is actually in the Mahabharta and not an invention of Kalidasa?

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    2. Sorry for the long delay-- I used the Critical Edition as my source for this episode. I'm not sure how they decided it was "original" text...

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  4. The Critical Edition was compiled in Pune, by Sanskrit scholars during the mid-20th century. The first five books of the Critical Edition were translated into English by J.A.B. van Buitenen, which is my source for these books.

    As for the curse-- no curse here! That certainly would have helped cast Dushyanta in a better light. There are so many versions of the epic that I wouldn't be surprised if the compilers of the C.E. didn't decide to throw it out! I'm told the Sanskrit version of the C.E. is full of footnotes delineating what was removed and which sources agree/disagree, but that's beyond my abilities!

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    1. I heard this story from my grandmother who heard it from her grandmother and the version I heard has the story of the curse. After king Dushyant leaves, back at the ashram, shakuntala passes her days thiking about her husband and one day sage Durwasa, who is known for his anger, comes to her door and asks for water/food. But she is so deep in thought that she doesn't notice him. He gets angry and curses her that who ever she is thinking about will forget her. That's why Dushyant doesn't remember Shakuntala.

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  5. Yes, the story of durvasa cursing shakuntala and then dushyant being reminded of his wife through the ring retrieved by a fisherman is the most common one.

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