Priests and PrincesII-the Mahabharata

The Mahabharata is a later, longer and darker epic.Dealing as it does with almost every known human frailty, it has strongly depicted villains, heroic deeds, but no heroes.

The tension between Brahmins and Kshatriyas is seen throughout this epic. Nevertheless they act in unison when they see their privilege under threat from other castes.

The Brahmin sage Parashuram, a powerful man with an irascible temper hated Kshatriyas- was said to have rid the world of Kshatriyas by killing them on twenty-one separate occasions.Like other Brahmins he taught the art of warfare, but he refused to accept a Kshatriya as a disciple- evidence that fighting was not restricted to the Kshatriyas.He teaches Karma, one of the principal characters of the story on the belief that Karma was the son of a charioteer, but warns him that should he turn out to have Kshatriya blood, he would lose his art.On the eve of his final battle with his arch rival Arjun, Arjun's mother Kunti informs him that he is her son, by the god Surya, and Arjun and he are half-brothers. Doomed by this knowledge Karna loses his art, the battle and his life.

Kunti did not particularly admire Brahmins.At one stage, when clouds of war are forming between her sons( the Pandavas) and her nephews(the Kauravas), she tells her eldest son Yudhishthir to act like a decisive Kshatriya, and not an endlessly argumentative Brahmin.

Arjun's teacher, the Brahmin Dronacharya,was priest of the royal court.He taught the young Kaurava and Pandava princes together at the time they were just cousins and not enemies.The young Arjun, whose skill in archery was even then pronounced, was his favourite pupil.

At an archery shooting match organized among the princes, only two arrows were found to have hit the target: those of Arjun and Ekalavya, the son of a hunter.

Dronacharya talked to Ekalavya and asked him who his teacher was."You", was the reply."I found no worthy teacher, but had heard of you.In my heart I considered you to be my teacher". "Very well," replied Dronacharya."In that case pay me my 'guru-dakshina'( the price that a graduated student was expected to pay his teacher)"."And that is?""Your thumbs."The epic goes on to say that Ekalavya cut off his own thumbs as 'dakshina' to Dronacharya, and a low-caste potential rival to Arjun was permanently removed from the scene.

This incident can be interpreted in different ways.One way is to see it as an example of the exploitation of lower castes by the powerful Brahmin-Kshatriya alliance.A more subtle view is that so strong is the injustice of this incident that it is clear where the sympathy of the author lies, and he is trying to draw the attention of readers to the inequities of the practice of caste-- a very plausible explanation if the epic is treated as Myth and not History.A third point of view is suggested by the character of Dronacharya himself.

The Mahabharata records that the Brahmin Dronacharya was once so poor that he could not afford milk for his son, who was brought up on gruel instead.Dronacharya thus comes across as a court official, fearful of losing his job, and sacrificing all principles in an effort to curry favour with his employer the King.

The Mahabharata, as well as the Puranas( which descrbe other myths or legends) has many other instances of poor Brahmins. One such legend tells of the arrogant Brahmin Bhrigu, who went so far above himself that in a fit of anger he implanted his foot on the chest of Vishnu. After profound apologies Vishnu forgave him, but Vishnu's consort Lakshmi( the goddess of wealth and prosperity) cursed Bhrigu and his descendants (the Brahmins), saying that she would never set foot into their households again. Since then, the saying goes, all Brahmins have been poor.

Perhaps the bitterest of quarrels between Kshatriya and Brahmin was that between Sharmishtha, daughter of Vrishaparba,king of the Asuras and Devyani, daughter of Shukracharya, his Brahmin guru.A trivial cause led to hard words between the two.When Devyani claimed superiority of status as a Brahmin, Sharmishtha contemptuously dismissed her as a beggar depending on the king's munificience for survival.In a physical struggle that ensued,Devyani was pushed into a disused well, whence she was rescued by Yayati, a passing prince, whom she agreed to marry.

When Devyani complained to her father, he advised her to forgive and forget.But faced with her strong insistence, he told Vrishaparba to pacify her, failing which he would leave his kingdom.

Vrishaparba , then engaged in an ongoing war with the Devas had no intention of losing the services of the extremely capable and widely respected Shukracharya at this critical juncture: among other things, this particular sage had the miraculous power power to revive the dead. He paid the price for Devyani's pacification, which was to give his daughter in slavery to Devyani as part of her dowry!

As so often happens, it was Sharmishtha who probably had the last word: she seduced Yayati into infidelity.The five sons of Yayati:Devyani's sons Yadu and Turvasu, and Sharmishtha's sons Druhya, Anu and Puru were the progenitors of different Aryan clans.Puru, who inherited Yayati's kingdom, was the direct ancestor of the Kauravas and Pandavas, whose clash forms the core of the Mahabharata epic.

Continued