Civilization: Mahabharata as a key to our Civilization

I am writing Mahabharata and that is an exciting thought in itself. Well, I am not writing it in the real sense of it -  for Sage Vyaasa alone can claim that distinction. Every writer who subsequently touched Mahabharata is merely indulging in a deritvative reimagination or partial or complete retelling. My language, Kannada, has an amazing and absolute retelling of it by Naranappa of Town Gadag, known to Kannadigas a Gadugina Naranappa. He is also glorified as Kumaravyaasa - the junior Vyaasa and rightly so. He lived sometime in 15th Century. No child of Karnataka, studying the language of Kannada at any level, is left untouched by Kumaaravyaasa - his impact on successive generations for 500 years is such. The text is reverred and read at home...well until recently I must say. The literature of Kannada itself has atleast 3-4 different versions of the epic in the classical era between 10th Century to 16th Century - such has been the love for Mahabharata in my language that every major poet touched it in a major way. Naturally I am a victim of this great tradition of being smitten by the work.

If you take the country at large, Kavi Bhasa wrote an adaption of Mahabharata in the 3rd Century AD. Kalidasa's Shakuntala elaborates short story of Shakuntala into a full-fledged play. Indonesia has one of the earliest known retellings of Mahabharata from the 10th Century AD. In the recent times, Kisari Mohan Ganguly produced the first English version in the Victorian prose of English during colonial times. It has captured the imagination of innumerable number of modern writers who have used it to dwell upon the tradition, the modern and their own philosophical explorations - sometimes throwing light and at other times twisting. If you go to ancient times there are references to characters of Mahabharata right in the Sangam age Tamil poetry.

In the 20th Century, 3 versions are noteworthy from the stand-point of children and story telling - which are my primary areas of interest. 

1. The great C Rajagopalachari has packed the entire Mahabharata into a small book that is a must read for elders and the young alike. He has made it palatable to the modern mind without abdicating the traditional concern and tenor of Dharma, Artha, Kama, Mokha. 
2. Upendra Kishore Roychowdhary, the grand father of Satyajit Ray, has composed a retelling in modern English for children. But the book lacks the traditional tenor - the purpose of the book is not just in words but in the tone. For those who simply want to be engulfed by the story, this book may sound interesting. Yet it may not make a lifetime impact. 
3. The third, of course, is Amara Chitra Katha. That amazing 42 comics is incredibly faithful to Vyaasa, distills the very essence of it with maximum detail - most impactful on children and equally lovable by the elders alike.

Yet here I am retelling Mahabharata and there are reasons for the same.

1. The Personal Ambition: The first is an absolute unadulterated selfish reason. The sheer pleasure of writing and the ambition to belong to a great tradition of Mahabharata writers. If I manage to leave a unique voice of my own that becomes a legacy it is fulfilling. If I fail, what better way to fail than this. Let this be the first reason, unabashed, selfish, personal reason. I am not ashamed of it, rather proud of it. 
2. The Story Telling Ambition: There is an immediate purpose beyond me though. There is a want to convert my story telling experience into a unique retelling of the epic. I firmly believe that there is a dhvani (tone) that emanates from any book of words. Every generation loves a certain tone - that is the sensitivity of that era. The challenge is to ensure that the purpose and the perspective is retold in the tone of the times. I propose to write Mahabharata in a tone that appeals to kids of this generation and kindles the story telling instinct of parents without abdicating the purpose of tradition. That is my endeavour.
3. The Perspective Ambition: Every verse of Mahabharata is an exposition into a unique perspective of life that Indian Civilization strived for - a balanced realization of Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha - the puruShArtha-s. Mahabharata is a brilliant presentation of the kind of ethical challenges humanity faces in life and the analysis of choices made by characters in Mahabharata, within the framework of Purusharthas. In it, it produces the best awareness and warning to future generations. It is my ambition to present a retelling where this perspective can be savoured at each stage without philosophical hairsplitting and is accessible even to the first time reader.
4. The Artistic Ambition: Beyond this, I propose to create a Mahabharata version with all the splendour and glory of every single story within the main story. Mahabharata is a repository of a huge number of stories that are less known or not known at all. A version of Mahabharata containing all that could become voluminous, overloaded and impossible to read. A version is needed that abstracts the main story and adequately presents other stories without becoming very heavy. It must present the richness and it must not lose the larger perspective in its load.
5. The Political Ambition: There is a political ambition too. The larger purpose though is to be able to reimagine the entire history of India through Mahabharata. Mahabharata has an incredible wealth of historical information. The modernists have completely ignored this historical wealth so that it is easy start the Indian history from Buddha - paying merely a lipservice to the Vedic past. For eg., It has more than 200 references to astronomical observations of those times that can throw more light on the time period - Nilesh Oak is an exemplary researcher working in this space. It has very interesting descriptions of River Saraswati that correlates with a certain time in history well into the times of Indus Valley Civilization atleast. Dr. Konraed Elst, Dr. Michel Danino are important academics who have shed immense light on the River Saraswati references in Mahabharata. This list is endless. 
6. The Civilization Ambition: In reality, Mahabharata is the key to our Civilization. While the war is the pinnacle of it, it narrates the entire legacy of Puru-Bharata Kings to which Pandavas and Kouravas belong. The Puru-Bharata lineage of Chandravamsha is the most important Kingdom of India for multiple reasons. It is this lineage that is most prominent in the Vedas - referred to as Aryas. Puranas refer to the subsequent kings post Mahabharata War until the modern Magadha Kings. Although the historicity of this is denied by the modern historians, recent research has rekindled our interest and there is a definite reason for us to be happy about Mahabharata's historicity. It has immense reference to Vedic era deep into RigVeda. It has references to Ramayana as well. At the same time through the Puranas its future too can be visualized. It entangles itself with so many other works of importance through multiple references and the Civilization can be much better understood through Mahabharata. It is my endeavour to produce a Mahabharata for children and parents that is complete with references that truly makes it a key to the Indian Civilization.

It is quite an ambition to produce a version of the book that covers all of these - in as much a concised form as possible and with the concern of story telling. It must both be a reading experience as well as an aid for all story tellers of our times.

My salutations to Sage Vyaasa, Sage Ugrashrava Shouti, Sage Janamejaya and all the later retellers of Mahabharata. Hope they will include me into this tradition of Mahabharata writers even as a simple leaf in a large tree.