Madhuvidya

SR No.: 006525
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S D Laddu, T N Dharmadhikari, Madhvi Kolhatkar, Pratibha Pingle
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 2001
Total Pages: 762
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Literature, & Philosophy
File Size: 17 MB

Page 726

Diverse Treatment / 87
with it or no connection at all.
Writing on "Moral Dilemmas in the Mahabharata", T.S. Rukmani starts with the assumption that there is such a thing as a standard moral behaviour and then says that all acts which deviate from this behaviour give risc to dilemmas. But this statement is vety different from what Matilal and many other participants have to say on what constitutes a moral dilemma. Hence if Duryodhana lists the misdeeds of the Pandavas and of Krsoa (pp.21-22) these cannot be illustrations of moral dilemmas. On account of her very different notion of what a moral dilemma is, Rukmaņi is the sole contributor who feels: "The dilemma is never brought to the forefront as a 'dilemma' and that the question of moral dilemmas in the Mahubharata is difficult to understand" (p.32).3
Rukmani objects to the game of dice because it has been condemned by Manu (9.221 ff). But how does she expect the characters of the Mahabharata to be guided by the rules of Manu who came much later? Rukmani says that Manu permitted gambling, but not betting (p.27) and in support refers to Manu (9.223). But Manu says nothing of the sort in this stanza. What Manu says is
apränibhir yat kriyate tal loke dyūtam ucyale prānibhih kriyate yas tu sa vijñeyaḥ samāhvayah
in which he makes distinction between the gaine to be played with inanimate objects (dyūta) and one to be played with animate objects (samāhvaya). Gambling with betting is known in India since the Vedic period. On p. 32, Rukmani says that the story of Kausika occurs in the Virāțaparvan but does not say where exactly in the Virāfaparvan. Actually it is to be found in the Āranyakaparvan (Adhyāya 197).
A.N. Jani has contributed a paper on "The Socio-Moral Implications of Draupadi's marriage to Five Husbands". This out-of-the-way marriage is not a case of a moral dilemma. For whom could it be a dilemma-for Drupada, Yudhisthira, or
No. 140
Madhu Vidyā/701