Chapter 1 Introduction

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The literary importance and magnificence of the ancient classics like the Iliad, the Odvssev. and the Valmiki Ramavana and the Mahabharata have been universally accepted. Their creators, Homer and Vyasa are the greatest and the most revered poets in the respective traditions. No other literary figure in Greek history occupied a place in the life of the people as Homer did. He was the pre-eminent symbol of nationhood, the unimpeachable authority on their history, a decisive figure in the creation of their pantheon as well as their most beloved and most quoted poet. For Aristotle, as to his world. Homer was "the Poet" par excellence. It is said that Alexander carried the Iliad about with him in a jewelled casket. The Iliad is regarded as the beginning of the western literary tradition. It is an epic poem relating a part of the story of the Trojan war which was fought for plundering the prosperous city of Troy and also, supposedly, because of the abduction of Helen. It includes the wrath of Achilles, his withdrawal from the fighting and his return to the battle to avenge his friend, Patroclus. The Odvssev describes the wanderings and adventures of Odysseus trying to return home after the sack of Troy and also Penelope's plight while waiting for him. The epics have been regarded for centuries as a treasure of wisdom and knowledge of human nature. The Greeks regarded the epics as something more than works of literature. They knew much of them by heart and valued them not only as a symbol of Hellenic unity and heroism but also as an ancient source of moral and even practical instruction. The epics had a profound impact on the Renaissance culture of Italy and also of the rest of Europe. The Mahabharata of Vyasa is regarded in the same way in India. It is said rightly in the Aadi Parvan— (O king of Bharata dynasty, in the matters of dharma or path of righteousness, artha or material pursuits, kama or satisfaction of desires and moksha or freedom from bondage, [in short, in all the spheres of life] whatever is here, will be found at other places. Whatever is not here, cannot be found anywhere.) It relates the story of the greatest war of ancient India and the history of the Pandavas and of the Kuru clan. It is the largest epic of the world, with one lakh verses and it is almost an encyclopaedia of political and moral wisdom, psychology, philosophy and sociology. Many parts of this epic such as the Bhaqavat Gita. Narada Niti. Vidura Niti have obtained the status of independent works. Great literary artists like Kalidasa, Bhasa, Magha, Bharavi, Shri Harsha chose stories from it for their works of art. Innumerable plays, novels and poems on the themes of the Mahabharata have been written in the Indian languages. Its popularity in India is unparalleled and the mega-play and mega-film of Peter Brooke on this epic is one of the proofs of its worldwide appeal. What Jasper Griffin says about Homer is true about Vyasa, too. He says, "The Homeric poems do not tell us that the world was made for man, or that our natural state in it is one of happiness. They do say that it can be comprehended in human terms and that human life can be more than an insignificant or ignoble struggle in the dark. The human soul can rise to the height of the challenges and the suffering which are the lot of all mankind. That spirit, chastened but not despairing, which sees the world without illusion and confronts it without self-pity or evasion, was the gift of Greece to the world, and it is the deepest element in the thought of Homer." ^ Griffin has rightly explained why these epics have a perpetual appeal for generations of people. Had Griffin read the Mahabharata. he would have said the same thing about it. The Mahabharata also shows that man is not the master of the world and his life is governed mostly by fate. Perfect happiness is rarely to be found in life and yet man can bear the suffering, fight and meet the challenges with a heroic and noble spirit. Like the Homeric people the Mahabharata people too confront life without self-pity and evasion. Naturally the epics of these great poets are permanent challenges for the researchers and have been studied from various angles. This present study has a further defined scope. It is true that the Mahabharata does not fit in the exact frame of the western definition of the epic. That is why great critics of comparative literature like Auerbach, C. M. Bowra, Northrop Frye discussed the theory of epic without any consideration of the l\/1ahabharata. So it is more right to call it mahakavya but all these classics are referred to as epics because of a large number of similarities between them and for the sake of convenience in this dissertation. All these epics are comparable for various reasons. All of them are primary epics. Homer's epics are the fountainhead of the western literary tradition, and the Valmiki Ramavana and the Mahabharata are the most important landmarks of the mainstream Indian literary as well as cultural and religious tradition. All these four epics are arsha as Lokamanya Tilak calls them in his editorials of Kesari. Arsha suggests that they are composed by rishis and, naturally, it is also suggested that their origins cannot be ascertained because of their ancientness. There are a large number of similarities between them. The themes of feats of a brave hero, his extensive travels, an extraordinarily beautiful woman and a great war for her sake are similar in almost all the epics. These themes express the two dominant instincts of man-love and aggression. These epics have been enjoying a similar status in both the traditions. The excavations and archaeological findings at Troy and those at Hastinapur have shown that they have an historical element in them, although the word history does not have the modern meaning here. All the epics under consideration here invoke notions from the patriarchal Indo-European traditions like manly heroism and manly friendship, and womanly endurance but there is a difference that makes the comparison more interesting. The Homeric epics represent an early, relatively, unsophisticated phase of the Greek civilization while the Mahabharata represents the Indian civilization that has already passed that phase and evinces greater moral and social awareness. These are some of the considerations that induced the undertaking of the present study. What better aspect of the two epic worlds could be thought of for such a comparison than the treatment of the characters? The intention behind this study is to investigate and compare the prominent women characters depicted in the three classics belonging to the two major patriarchies of the past. Comparison of the treatment of women characters in the epics of two ancient cultures can be interesting from many points of view. The study of Homer's characters has been mainly about his men. For instance. Homer in English Criticism was published by Donald M. Forester in 1947. It studies the historical approach of German, Scottish and English critics of Homer. None of these critics made a detailed study of Homeric women. Other critical books show the same lack. Selected women characters in the Mahabharata have been studied well by Indian critics but there has not been any comparative study of the characters of the epics in the two cultures, and of women characters particularly, as far as I know. Monier Williams compared the epics of the two traditions in his Indian Wisdom in 1893 but the characters are not studied there at length. Durga Bhagavat in her Vvasaparva and Iravati Karve in her Yuflanta have passed only some incidental remarks in comparison. Nabaneeta Dev Sen has compared epics in the east and in the west from the point of view of their thematic structure. Maeve Hughes has written a short essay "Epic Women" in Jadavpur Journal of Comparative Literature and compared Draupadi with Deirdre from the Gaelic tradition. The last sentence of the essay is- "These great old tales with their rather uniformly heroic men and their fascinatingly enigmatic women are beyond the reach of our petty questioning. If we approach them with reverence in our critical hearts they will reveal to us something of their magic and mystery, enough, just enough to whet our appetite for more!" ^ So the writer has not studied the characters with a critical spirit. Vijaya Guttal has compared the Iliad and the Ramayana in her Ph. D. thesis in the English Department of Karnataka University. Shilpa Desai has compared the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Mahabharata from the point of view of the heroic concept in her Ph. D. thesis in M. S. University, Baroda. I felt therefore that the comparative study of women in these epics can yield new insights in the study of these three classics. Classics in any culture are the seminal sources of myths and role making. They have a lasting influence on private, social, moral, political, cultural attitudes of generations. Since women have played important roles in many of the classics, it should be interesting and instructive to study the prominent women characters of these classics and compare their feats and fates. Projecting of the women indicates the gender perspective. The three texts need to be placed in the context of literary history and of social attitudes towards women. Classics are a mirror of society. So while studying ancient texts the picture of that society also emerges graphically which can be observed in detail.

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