Study Of Mahabharata

Author(s): J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong

Page 13

THE STUDY OF THE MAHĀBHĀRATA the text of the Vulgate must on incontrovertible evidence be excised as comparatively late interpolations. Secondly, Sukthankar does not believe that a popular work such as the Mahābhārata was composed with the exclusive object of expounding all the different aspects of Hindu Law. Thirdly, Sukthankar reproaches Dahlmann for having overlooked Sri Krşņa, the most characteristic creation of Indian genius, who was above Dharma and Adharma, beyond Good and Evil.
Contemporary critics of Dahlmann were at pains to point out that neither the early date proposed by Dahlmann for the compilation of the epic nor the unity of the epic could be accepted, because so many elements in the epic clearly belonged to different historical periods. Hopkins was willing to concede that Dahlmann had shown that epic legends and didactic motifs are closely united in the epic as it is today (The Great Epic of India, p. IX). At the end of his long and critical review, Auguste Barth also conceded that Dahlmann had shown up the fundamental unity, and that by eliminating the didactic parts one would mutilate the epic. Also according to Barth, Dahlmann had shown how futile attempts are to try and distinguish all kinds of layers, Brahmanical, Sivaite, Vişnuite (Barth, Oeuvres, t. IV. p. 402). However, Barth totally rejected Dahlmann's theory of the origin and age of the epic. Other critics were even less favourable than Hopkins and Barth. In a later work Dahlmann attempted to refute his critics, but by his many repetitions and exaggerations he only managed to undermine his own point of view (Genesis des Mahābhārata. Berlin, 1899). However, as in the case of the inversion-theory. Dahlmann had the merit of having posited a problem which even his severest critics did not succeed in eliminating.
As we see, the last twenty years of the nineteenth century witnessed great activity in Mahābhārata studies with the publication of works by Sørensen, Holtzmann, Ludwig, Dahlmann and Hopkins. The last-named continued his studies of the epic until his death in 1932, but without bringing any new point of view to its interpretation. Two important and useful tools for the study of the epic which were compiled in the last twenty years of the nineteenth century, appeared in 1903 and in the years 1904-1925 respectively. The first is Jacobi's careful and detailed survey of the contents of the epic: Mahābhārata, Inhaltsangabe, Index und Concordanz. Bonn, 1903. In this book he shows himself also a follower of the analytical method, as he indicates which chapters contain the main Mahābhārata legends, which narrative episodes, and which didactic teachings. The second work is Sørensen's Index to the Names in the Mahābhārata which was published posthumously in fascicles from 1904 to 1925 (reprint Delhi, 1963). This book is an indispensable reference work for the study of the epic.