The Mahabharatha and Ramayana and My Village

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Akanksha Damini Joshi

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Maybe a year or so ago.

She saw a group of smartly dressed young college going women, they seemed to be preparing for a history exam.

One girl was questioning. Others were responding.

Then the girl asked a question that the others had no reply for. She asked,”Who wrote Mahabharata?” Silence.

This was shocking but the next question-response stunned Manju, ”Achha, who wrote Ramayana?” After ummms and errrs one came up with this smart answer,” I know! Ramacharitamanas!” Another perked up,”No! Ramanand Sagar!”

Manju slapped her hand on head and ventured forth to educate them. “Don’t you know the difference between a book and an author?”

The reply she got was a cool shrug of shoulders, ”Who Cares?”

—

In our land, Mahabharata and Ramayana are understood as Itihaas. They have shaped the consciousness of our people since forever. We have understood the synchronicity with life, community, family, nature, proffession through these.

In times of pain, they have given us solace. In times of passion, they have given us composure.

These books have been read out to us when we have been in the wombs of our mothers. Their wisdom stories sung to us to in our softest moments. They encode that essence which makes India, India.

Reflecting back, Manju ji says,”What is the use of education if you don’t know the basics of your own culture.”

There are many ways of changing history. To fade out wisdom epics from cultural consciousness is one of them.

Comments

• Bindhu Balu

  Mahabaratha and Ramayana are " our " culture .. NO.. its only a culture of 3 percent of population - the braminical population. There are myraid of other books and cultures - much better , has better moral stories , far forward plots than these two books. Today read the part where Rama speaks to Sita after rescuing her from Ravana. He literally abuses her and reeks of patriarchy . The tamil Aymperum Kappiyam ( the great 5 epics) - silapathigaram , manimegalai , seevagasinthamani , valaiyapathi , kundalakesi are all women centric , have strong women characters. I would refer this to read to any young men and women of India rather than those epics. 
  • Suresh Boyapati

    May I kindly know how did you arrived st 3%. My village doesn’t have any Brahmin family, however everyone one follows both, have you considered us in 3%. As in above comment, people read 1/100 of total things and express as if they know 100/1 . 
  • Aparna Krishnan

    Those who look into these seriously are taken seriously by the people. The others who cherry pick the Puranas and Itihasas to trash are completely ignored, and are actually irrelevent completely except in their own circles. And are getting more irrelevent with passing days as in many ways people are beginning to claim their own identities. 
  • Suresh Boyapati

    Very well said "Don't judge great literature by whether it fits our current thought process " 
• Aparna Krishnan

  My village is SC. Mahabharatha is the cornerstone of their existance. Remote stories from the puranas that I have never heard of I learn from them. When the Bharatam, an 18 day harikatha, drama programme is enacted the whole village is at the Bharatam mitta, and work ceases. They all contribute time and money. Caste is put aside, and all communities sit and work and pray shoulder to shoulder there. Day to day they refer to Krishnamurthy as if he were a friend.

  People draw the best lesson from every text. They learn lessons of integrity (yudhistra) , generority (karna), wisdom (krishna), courage (arjuna). Incidents like Draupadis vastraharanam are debated into the night, many nights by men and women, and blame assigned for the wrongs done to her. A superior mind behaves thus, drawing the best, and learning from wrongs done in the tales. And the people of India are very superior in their philosophical underpinnings. They may be illiterate, but that may be their strength. Seeing the deracination i see in the educated coconuts.

  I suggest that you enter the heart of India to understand India. Sitting with theories is only good to spin theories for others sitting with theories.People are not seeking recommendations. It is up to us to understand from them of this land, or not to.