Mahabharata: A literary bang in the North East

Dr. Jagadindra Raychoudhury

The Mahabharata, a great epic ever written in Indian literature which had been influencing all time each and every Indian people across India and abroad due to its versatile characters and found its reality in practical life.

The impact of the Mahabharata make wider to different literary aspects such as in poetry, drama, stories, novels and many more categories which focused the reality by some expertise hands to be acclaimed as best creation of some writers or scholars. That is the only reason of popularization of epical stories and established in the hearts of all sections of people.

So, we can assert that literature is the reflection of the society. It can also be said that the Mahabharata, one of the greatest literary harvest, thus reflects Indian way of life, their political, spiritual wisdom, noble thoughts superstations and various other aspects.

The Indian outlook to the epic has not changed till date. The complete story of the Mahabharata, somehow relates to various activities of the Indian people and that concept continued from generation to generation. In this regard, Ruth Cecily Katz said, “The Mahabharata may be said to embody the abundance of India, a nation that has been, through centauries uniquely capable of living with untrammeled growth, even contradictions. To this day Bharata is the name for India in the modern Indian languages with the implication that Bharata besides simply having been the distant ancestors of Pandavas and Kauravas was somehow the fore runner of all Indian culture.” (1)

The North-east region which was initially called ‘seven sisters’, yet at present the number has been changed due to addition of another state i.e. Sikkim. At present the states of north east comprises – Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Tripura, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Sikkim.

Mahabharata: A literary bang in the North East

It is evident that the entire region is marked by ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity, yet the epic culture has its impact on literary, religious, social and many more aspects by which a composite culture has been developed since long back. The Mahabharata touched into deep rooted in the life of N.E. people which revealed in literature, food habits, dresses, performing arts, socio-religious practices, customs and festivals etc.

The epic Mahabharata often referred to us as the earliest source literature of Pragjyotishpur (Now Assam). The Adiparva of the Mahabharata refers to Naraka as a great danava, who was the son of Danu. Naraka’s capital was in Pragjyotisha. The Kalikapurana , a Sakta Upapurana of Assam written in the late 9^th century A.D. gives a complete, long and full story of Naraka with the beginning, the middle and the end.(7)

It is to be noted that Prince Arjuna reached Pragjyotisha through the northern mountain and defeated Bhagadatta’s army troop. It is also referred that Arjuna visited Pragjyotisha in connection with the Asvamedha Yajna and defeated Bhagadatta.

The tribal communities who inhabited in the region of Kamrupa(earlier Pragjyotishpur) were known as kiratas. The ruler of kamrupa king Ghatakasura was defeated by Narakasura. According to the Sabhaparvan of the epic the kiratas lived near the Lauhitya river (the Brahmaputra).

In the Adiparva of the Mahabharata, it appears some other references of another state of north east i.e. Manipur. During self imposed exile one of the princes of Pandava, Arjuna reached Manipur when he travelled from Himalayas.

Arjuna met Citrabahana, the ruler of Manipur and later he married to his daughter Citrangada. Arujan spent three years in Manipur and Citrangada gave birth to a son, named Babrubahan, who also became king of Manipur. Babrubahan fought against Kaurava in the battle of Mahabharata.

It is very true that the epic Mahabharata had a great impact on the Indian literature and extended its popularity amongst the Indian masses. In Assam also, poets, scholars tried to popularize its various stories through translation works. In this regard we can mention the translation works of the Mahabharata during Koch dynasty when king Naranarayana was the ruler of that territory.

King assigned Ramasarswati and other scholars for this noble works. It is to be mentioned that Ramsaraswati himself in the names of Aniruddha, Kavi Chandra, Bharatbhusan and Srinath Brahman translated the major portion of the Mahabharata. However, the Assamese version of the Mahabharata by Ramasarswati was not direct translation but with some addition, omission, alteration, compression made it a literary expertise hand for the Assamese literature.

It’s a fact that many Indian scholars are very much influenced on the epic Mahabharata and its ray of friction illuminated in the regional basis also. The great saint as well as scholar of Neo-vaisnavite Srimanta Sankardeva of Assam composed many ankiyanats based on the Mahabharata for spiritual edification of ordinary people.

Beside this, other poets like Sukavi Narayanadeva, Durgavara Kayastha, Mankara who wrote different verses where we find some references of Mahabharata. Some other Assamese writers like Chandra Prasad Saikia wrote a novel called Maharathi, based on the character of ‘Karna’ of the Mahabharata. Likewise, Navakanta Barua wrote a long poem ‘Samrat’ based on the character of Dhritarastra. Dr. Malini, Purabi Bormudoi are specially mentioned.

Another state of north east region i.e. Manipur had also a great impact of the Mahabharata in their literatures. A renowned poet and scholar from Manipur, Angom Gopi , was in royal court during the reign of king Gatibniwas translated Gangadas Sen’s Mahabharata into Manipuri. In Manipur, the Asvamedhaparva was the most popular of all the parvas of the Mahabharata.(2)

The translation of the Mahabharata into Assamese verses was made very early in the 13^th century, and continued till the days of Sankardeva. Another scholar like Kaviratna, who composed Jayadratha-vadha in the reign of king Indranarayana, son of Durlobhanarayana, the ruler of Kamatapur. Some other poets composed verses on popular theme of the Mahabharata to fit to the use of the oja-palis, who sang these at public gathering on festive occasions.

A part of medieval Assamese literature based on the Mahabharata was created mainly to glorify Lord Krishna, nevertheless other poets and play writers tried to highlight some other characters as an elements from the epic. In Assamese literatures, a galaxy of well acclaimed writers wrote novels, poems based on the Mahabharata’s stories.

Among the plays, Jaydratha-vadh was written by Ambikagiri Raichoudhury, Kurukhetra by Atul Chandra Hazarika, Sakunir Pratishodh by Ganesh Gogoi, Mahabir karna by Bhabendra Thakuria etc. gained much popularity amidst Assamese communities.

The character of Draupodi of Vyasa’s Mahabharata remains shadowed in the literature but Assamese poet like Nirmalprabha Bordoloi perceive an eternal woman in Draupodi comes out as a simple manifestation of so many mystical variation of the world.

In Mahabharata, the character of Naraka described as a great danava son of mother earth and king of Pragjyotisha, who was killed by Lord Krishna to restore two kundalinis to Aditi. The epic also narrated the heroic character of Bhagadatta in the Kurukhetra war and was killed by Arjuna in the same war.

Harivara set the fine direction of Assamese poetry and brought the Mahabharata into the life and lore of Assam. Two others poet like, Kaviratna Sarswati and Rudra Kandali writing episodic narratives on the Mahabharata, Jayadratha- vadha.(4)

Ram Saraswati wrote the ‘Adi Parva’ and contributed a major portion to the entire Mahabharata, which can be called as an outcome of the collective exercise undertaken various authors at different period of time. The original name of Ram Sarswati was actually Aniruddha Dvija.(3)

During the composition of Vana Parva by Ram Sarswati which praises Naranarayana, the king of Coochbehar (5) and his brother Sukladhvaja (Chilaraya) for constant all round support and expressed their wisdom in connection of the praise worthy works done by him (6)

The epic Mahabharata is the basic as well as root oriented creation of splendor literature which epitomized the highest position ever written literature in Indian context. The stories, various characters of this epic is all time inspiring episode of Indian people which bound them to think and rethink , analyzing the fabulous characters to make correct images.

The Indian literature which created at the behest of the Mahabharata can broadly be termed as Mahabharatiya Sahitya which enriched day by day with the contributions of different regional writers.

Novels, poems, dramas and stories tellers which were composed by various scholars based on characters of Mahabharata in north east region especially in Assam and Manipur which had been a great impact in our societies with a large extent.

Mahabhratiya literature is really a deep rooted impact in the minds of Indian people from where many literatures evolve in different languages.

References:

Arjuna in the Mahabharata, where Krishna is , There is victory, P-1
The Mahabharata, Adiparva, 2, 389, Adiparva Lx Vi.29, Sabhaparva, Ix.16
Goswami, Narayan Chandra (ed): 2011, Sampurna Asamiya Mahabharata, Guwahati, Banalata p.1-122
Neog, Maheswar (ed): 1959, Reprint 1997, Lava Kusha Yuddhe’ in Sanchayana, New Delhi, Sahitya Akademi p.12-16
Sarma, Nabin Chandra (ed) : 2002, Sampurna Asamiya Mahabharata vol II, Nalbari(Assam). Journal Emporium p. 1437.
Sarma, Nabin Chandra (ed) 2001, Sampurna Asamiya Mahabharata, Journal Emporium p.218.
The Kalikapurana: Nava Bharat publications: also Dr. B.N. Sastri edu.

[Dr. Jagadindra Raychoudhury. Guwahati based columnist; Mob no. 8812011012]

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