Images of Fate in the Maha¯bha¯rata.
The Maha¯bha¯rata (Mbh), great epic of ancient India, is a historical source of tremendous importance, but it is very difficult to use this treasure of historical and cultural data. And the reason that it is that no single piece of historical information drawn from the Mbh can be dated with any degree of certainty.
* By YAROSLAV VASSILKOV
In an oral epic, which is what the Mbh remained for centuries, historically heterogeneous deposits (cultural data belonging to different periods) do not form a stratigraphy, but are, as it were, compressed into one layer. Archaeology supports the notion of a mixed cultural layer, a layer where artefacts of different historical periods lie at the same level. In such a case, it is impossible to cut an archaeological section showing stratigraphy, and archaeologists would have to classify the material by means of historical typology. They can say, for example, that a certain kind of pottery is typical of the Neolithic period, another of the Bronze Age, and yet another is known to represent the Early Iron Age. With this method, they are still able to establish the sequence of cultural periods for this particular site.
In the same way, one cannot cut up the text of the Mbh, with scissors as it were, into 'earlier' and 'later fragments'. In order to penetrate the historical levels of the epic's contents - lying deeper than the most recent level, which represents the classical Hindu value system - we have to use the archaeological method of historical typology.
As the basic element for a typological stratification of the Mbh's world view, I chose the concept of fate, mainly for two reasons. First, the idea of fate is constant and ever present in the epic in all typological stages of its development because it constitutes the integral part of both the world view and poetic system of the epic. Secondly, particular concepts of fate vary at every stage of the epic's development. The idea underlying the project was simple: to reconstruct the evolution of the Mbh's Weltanschauung by way of tracing historical changes in the epic's concept of fate. What follows is a summary of my results.
Archaic three-tier system
The earliest (archaic) concept of fate in the Mbh is represented, first of all, by derivatives of the verbal-root bhaj - 'to divide' 'to give as a share', 'to receive as a share', 'to partake'. These terms are: bha¯gya '[good] share', '[happy] lot' and bha¯gadheya 'predestined share'. The ancient word bha¯ga (meaning 'share, lot, destiny') also survives in the compound word maha¯bha¯ga 'one, whose share/heroic lot is great', which is extremely important, being the epithet par excellence of an epic hero. All the words of this group derive from an ancient IE root *bhag- and linguists say that this root's semantics were originally connected with the distribution of food shares at a sacred feast or a sacrifice. This primaeval meaning was still alive in archaic Indian culture: the basic meaning of the word bha¯ga to the Vedas is 'share of sacrificial food received by a god at a sacrifice'. This basic meaning of bha¯ga as 'share in a sacrifice' and the metaphorical meaning 'heroic lot', 'destiny of a hero', share a direct connection. In India, bards and their audiences always viewed the epic action against the background of ritual sacrifice. While a participant in the ritual performs his share (bha¯ga) of sacrificial actions and every god receives his share (bha¯ga) of sacrificial offerings, in the same way, an epic hero in the Mbh performs his share (bha¯ga) in the ritual of battle, his share of enemy heroes whom he is predestined to kill as his sacrificial victims. This ritual background provided particular symbolic depth to the meaning of derivatives of the root bhaj- in the early epic. But, from whence was sent the hero's destiny, designated by the words bha¯ga, bha¯gya, bha¯gadheyaa¯ Who was the god who appointed and distributed fate?
The epic god of fate is Dha¯ta¯ - an ancient god, well known to the Vedas. Contrary to the commonly accepted point of view, Dha¯ta¯ is not at all an intellectually constructed 'personification' of the abstract notion of establishing or placing (verbal root dha¯-). I have tried to prove that, originally, Dha¯ta¯ was a god with a specific function. He placed, or 'put into right position', an embryo in the mother's womb. With this singular act, he determined a human being's future destiny. This act probably had a parallel in the related cosmic act of the god; in Bçhaddevata, Dha¯ta¯ is described installing the cosmic foetus in the womb of the Earth. In the early epic, as in that of the Vedas, Dha¯ta¯'s function was to predetermine the lot of a human being, and apportion long life and good luck to humans.
However, in the archaic epic, Dha¯ta¯ was thought to be limited in his power. Above Dha¯ta¯ stood the highest principle, which dictated to him the kind of fate, good or bad, he was to apportion to a human; this principle was nothing but the revolving of the Wheel of Time, expressed in terms like Ka¯la '[cyclical] Time', ka¯lapary¨ya 'rotation of Time', ka¯ladharma(n) 'the law of Time'.
So the archaic epic concept of Fate has, as it were, three levels: the highest principle is ka¯lapary¨ya, the law of Eternal Return; the god of fate (Dha¯ta¯) fulfills orders of the Law of Time (middle level); and at the lowest level we see the result - bha¯ga, bha¯gya, bha¯gadheya that is, human destiny.
'Classical heroic' notions
In the course of time, the Mbh developed from forms of archaic epic into classical heroic epic. The outlook of all mature epics is utterly pessimistic, and the Mbh is no exception. The classical heroic concept of fate is embodied in three main images, more or less corresponding to the three levels in the archaic concept of fate. First, the ancient notion of bha¯ga 'share', is now replaced by the basic classical notion of daiva - the blind, all-powerful, and arbitrary fate. Epic daiva acts independently of gods and is able to cancel their decisions, sometimes including even Dha¯ta¯'s. However, in many epic contexts Dha¯ta¯ himself appears as the unpredictable, cruel, and all-powerful god of fate, whom the heroes never stop blaming for their misfortunes. The image of the epic Dha¯ta¯ predetermines the fate of the world and of every living being in it, having ejaculated his seed at the moment of creation. No one can avoid the path Dha¯ta¯ prepared for him, because everyone was 'genetically programmed' by this Creator god at the moment of universal conception.
There is also the third image in which the idea of blind fate found its expression: it is the image of the all-devouring Ka¯la, the god of eternally revolving time. In the present text of the Mbh, one can still find expressions of the archaic, positive view of Ka¯la and his 'circular movement' (pary¨ya) as the guarantor of return of past happy days, but pary¨ya is much more often understood negatively. Time (Ka¯la) is described as a monstrous deity, who bakes the world in his fire and eventually drives it to its end. In the classical concept, these three images - Ka¯la, Dha¯ta¯, and daiva - do not form an hierarchy, as was the case in the archaic system. Of real importance is the concept of blind, cruel, inescapable fate, that each of the three images expresses fully. Thus, all three have become equal and, in a way, reciprocal.
Not only do these images embody the idea of irresistible fate that is scattered throughout the Mbh, but its lengthy texts explicitly discuss the idea of fate in its different aspects, as well. The topics of such speculations in the Mbh grow directly out of mythical concepts of Ka¯la, Dha¯ta¯ and daiva. One group of texts deals with the question: is a man able in any way to oppose daiva or, conversely, to hasten its impact by means of his own 'heroic activity' (puruùakàra)? Texts of another group discuss the power of god Dha¯ta¯: has a man any measure of free will, or is he just a tool in Dha¯ta¯'s hands? And lastly, there are the texts of ka¯lava¯da, the 'doctrine of Time'. I am inclined to combine all texts dealing with daiva, Dha¯ta¯, and ka¯lava¯da into one category, which can conveniently be designated heroic didactics. These are the original epic didactics, which existed in the Mbh before the time when Hindu didactics (with its ideas of karman, concept of a¯tman-Brahman, and so on) began to be incorporated into the epic.
Conflict of world views.
When the epic, having developed this fatalistic philosophy in depth, began to be subjected to the influence of early Hinduism, two world views were destined to come into conflict. In the Mbh's fatalistic texts, one can sometimes come across some anti-Vedic statements. On the other hand, some texts that appear in the Mbh condemn ka¯lava¯da and fatalism in general. In some late epic texts, attempt is being made to interpret key 'classical heroic' notions in light of new, Hindu ideas. But a number of fatalistic ideas greatly contributed to the final formulating of certain important Hindu concepts, such as the doctrine of karma and the teaching of disinterested activity in Bhagavadgž¯ta¯.
At first, the supposed sequence of stages in the development of the epic concepts of fate was built on purely typological grounds. But, in the process of my work, I have found it possible to verify the hypothetical sequence by means of textology. Turning back to our archaeological analogies: excavators are often able to demonstrate in what sequence cultural phases at a particular site 'overlay' each other by cutting a stratigraphical section. Likewise, having made a textological analysis of variant readings in old manuscripts, we can reveal that, in some cases, later 'editors' made, at times, rather clumsy attempts to conceal the fatalistic concepts and to reinterpret them in light of orthodox Hindu doctrines. Surely, this makes our reconstructed 'stratigraphy' of the epic world view more trustworthy. *
From September 2000 to February 2001, a grant from the Jan Gonda Foundation enabled me to work on the above project at the creative and friendly atmosphere of the IIAS and the excellent library of the Kern Institute. As a result, I am now completing work on a project begun about two decades ago.
Dr
Yaroslav Vassilkov is the head of the Department of South and Southeast
Asia at the Institute of Oriental Studies (St. Petersburg), Russian Academy
of Sciences. He specializes in the study of the Maha¯bha¯rata
and ancient Indian culture in general. Dr Vassilkov is participating in
a collective effort to translate the Indian 'epopée' into Russian,
soon to be completed.
E-mail: yavass@yv1041.spb.edu