Many Mahābhāratas

Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration
Foreword
1 An Introduction to the Literature of the Mahābhārata
	Always Wanting These Stories
	The Story
	The Mahābhārata Genre
	A Contextual Introduction to the Essays
		Part I: The Manyness of the Sanskrit Mahābhārata
		Part II: Sanskrit Mahābhāratas in Poetry and Performance
		Part III: Regional and Vernacular Mahābhāratas from Premodern South Asia
		Part IV: Mahābhāratas of Modern South Asia
	A Story’s Cycle of Rebirth
Part I: The Manyness of the Sanskrit Mahābhārata
	2 Ā Garbhāt: Murderous Rage and Collective Punishment as Thematic Elements in Vyāsa’s Mahābhārata
	3 The Invention of Irāvān
		Introduction
		The Texture of Battle Narration in the Bhīṣmaparvan
		The Birth of Irāvān
		The Death of Irāvān
		Irāvān and the Rākṣasas
		Conclusion
	4 Bodies That Don’t Matter: Gender, Body, and Discourse in the Narrative of Sulabhā
Part II: Sanskrit Mahābhāratas in Poetry and Performance
	5 The Remembered Self: Arjuna as Bṛhannalā in the Pañcarātra
		Arjuna as Bṛhannaḍā in the Virāṭaparvan
		Arjuna as Bṛhannalā in the Pañcarātra
		Arjuna as Śiva, Arjuna as Śleṣa
	6 The Lord of Glory and the Lord of Men: Power and Partiality in Māgha’s Śiśupālavadha
		Kṛṣṇa’s Meeting with King Yudhiṣṭhira
		Kingship and Kingdom in the Śiśupālavadha
		Sharing a Single Throne
		Conclusion
	7 What Are the Goals of Life? The Vidūṣaka’s Interpretation of the Puruṣārthas in Kulaśekhara’s Subhadrādhanañjaya
		The Puruṣārthas in Kūṭiyāṭṭam: A Counterpoint Narration of the Goals of Life
		Day One: Preparations
		Day Two: Vivādam—Dispute and Settlement
		Day Three: Vinodam and Vañcanam—Amusement and Deceit
		Day Four: Aśanam—Feasting
		Day Five: Rājaseva—Serving a King
	8 How Do We Remember Śakuntalā? The Mahābhārata and Kālidāsa’s Drama on the Contemporary Indian Stage
		The Three Śakuntalās of Ensemble 86
		Śakuntalā Alone—Rita Ganguly’s Tridhara
		Igniting Cultural Memory in Kirtana Kumar’s Shakuntala Remembered
		Conclusion
Part III: Regional and Vernacular Mahābhāratas from Premodern South Asia
	9 An Old Dharma in a New Age: Duryodhana and the Reframing of Epic Ethics in Ranna’s Sāhasabhīmavijaya
		Dharmic Tension in the Mahābhārata
		Who Killed Droṇa?
		Bhīma’s Heroic “Triumphs”
		Wrestling Gone Wrong: A New Winner in the Kirātārjunīya
		Conclusion: A Different Dharma
	10 Three Poets, Two Languages, One Translation: The Evolution of the Telugu Mahābhāratamu
		Telugu Mahābhāratamu
		Nannaya: Early Experimentations in Telugu
		Tikkana: Dramatic Flair in Virāṭa’s Court
		Ĕṛṛana: An Iconic Return to the Sanskrit Mahābhārata
		Conclusion
	11 The Fate of Kīcaka in Two Jain Apabhramsha Mahābhāratas
		Early and Medieval Jain Mahābhāratas: An Overview
		Two Jain Mahābhāratas in Apabhramsha
		Introducing Kīcaka
		Raïdhū’s Harivaṃsapurāṇa
		Svayambhūdeva’s Riṭṭhaṇemicariu
	12 The Power-Politics of Desire and Revenge: A Classical Hindi Kīcakavadha Performance at the Tomar Court of Gwalior
		A Kauravādi-Vadha: Foregrounding the Martial Mood
		The Martial Context: Claiming a K.atriya Status for the Tomars
		Questioning Masculine Prowess in the Kīcakavadha
		The Performative Tradition of Paṇḍvānī
		Conclusion
	13 Blessed Beginnings: Invoking Viṣṇu, Kṛṣṇa, and Rāma in Two Regional Mahābhāratas
		Layering Kṛṣṇa in Villi’s Pāratam
		Remembering Rāma in Cauhān’s Mahābhārat
		Conclusion: Larger Patterns of Retelling the Mahābhārata in Regional Languages
Part IV: Mahābhāratas of Modern South Asia
	14 How to Be Political without Being Polemical: The Debate between Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay and Rabindranath Tagore over the Kṛṣṇacaritra
		In Search of Prajñā
		Kabitvamay Itihāsa (A Poetic History): Bankim’s Ideological Project in the Kṛṣṇacaritra
		Aitihāsik Kāvya: Tagore on the Mahābhārata
		The Reader’s Prajñā
	15 The Epic and the Novel: Buddhadev Bose’s Modern Reading of the Mahābhārata
		On the Contemporaneity Problem
		On Buddhadev Bose
		On Modern Aesthetic Sensibility
		Bose’s Reading of the Sanskrit Mahābhārata
		Yudhi..hira as the Central Figure
		Yudhi..hira as a Hero in Search of the Self
	16 Draupadī, Yājñasenī, Pāñcālī, Kṛṣṇā: Representations of an Epic Heroine in Three Novels
		A Draupadi Caught in the Chaos of Partition
		A Peacebuilding, Postcolonial Draupadī
		A “Bluer” and Bolder Draupadī
		Conclusion
	17 From Excluded to Exceptional: Caste in Contemporary Mahābhāratas
		Critique from the Margins
		The View from the Forest in Mahasweta Devi’s After Kurukshetra
		Re-reading Ekalavya in Kiran Nagarkar’s Bedtime Story
		Conclusion: Writers from the Mahābhārata’s Margins?
	18 A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: The Mahābhārata as Dystopian Future
		Episode IV: On the Absent Presence of Indian Science Fiction
		Episode V: The Kaurava Empire Trilogy
		Episode VI: Ahead to the Future?
Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index