[Aar-mbh] Mahabharata and Classical Hinduism Seminar 2024 Schedule

[Collins, Brian]

Dear All,

I will send out separate emails for the five papers that we will be discussing is San Diego next weekend, so please look out for those and read them in advance so we can use our limited time to explore the issues they raise. I look forward to seeing you all! Here is the schedule:

FIRST SESSION

A23-422
Mahabharata and Classical Hinduism Seminar
Theme: Fate, Agency, and Love in the Mahābhārata
Saturday, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Convention Center-3 (Upper Level West)
Arti Dhand, University of Toronto, Presiding
 
The three papers in this session all consider issues of human agency and fate in the Mahābhārata. Brian Black’s paper compares the two framing dialogues that introduce the story, finding that one places emphasis on the text’s ontological status and universal appeal, and the other on the genealogical history and the divine plan. He argues that the two frames work together to support the Mahābhārata’s claim to inclusivity and universality. Veena Howard’s paper highlights Queen Gāndhārī’s perspective, shifting the focus from heroism to the value of bodily existence, sensuality, and love. Tejas Aralere’s paper considers the roles of Draupadī, Dhṛṣṭadyumna, and Śikhaṇḍī. Though perhaps fated to be central figures in the bloody conflict, their actions also contribute to establishing peace from multiple fronts, he argues.
 
Brian Black, Lancaster University
 
“Framing the Mahābhārata: How Do Ugraśravas and Vaiśampāyaṇa Characterise the Main Story?”
 
Abstract:
 
It is well known that the Mahābhārata has two frame dialogues that introduce the main story. While some characteristics of the Mahābhārata, such as its Vedic status and authorship, are emphasised in both frame stories, other characteristics are developed in one frame story, but not the other. I will argue that the Ugraśravas narration establishes the text’s ontological status, while also presenting the story as having universal appeal. In contrast, Vaiśampāyaṇa’s narration presents the main story in historical terms, as a chronicle of the king’s own family, as well as in cosmological terms as the unfolding of a divine plan. Addressing the creative tensions between these hermeneutical lenses, I will argue that they work together to support the Mahābhārata’s claim to inclusivity and universality.
 
Veena Howard, California State University, Fresno
 
“Queen Gāndhārī’s Mapping the Battlefield through the ‘Divine Eye:’ Reversing the Masculine Gaze and Affirming the Feminine Bodily Reality”
 
Abstract:
 
This paper focuses on Queen Gāndhārī’s mapping of the battlefield in the “Book of Women” (Strī Parva,). After providing an overview of the narrative placement of this book, I will show how Gāndhārī’s divine vision of the battlefield reverses the gaze from masculine prowess and callous heroism to the reality of destruction and pain as experienced by women. Second, Gāndhārī, who narrates her vision to Lord Kṛṣṇa, does not recapitulate his message in the Bhagavad-Gītā of rising above emotions, rather, she elevates these emotions through the detailed description of the bodies of the dead. Gāndhārī’s lament affirms the value of body and arouses concern for war and violence. Finally, Gāndhārī reveals the cruel reality of the bodily dismemberment of the slain warriors and the unrestrained lament of the surviving women. Through the female divine sight, the Mahābhārata provides a new insight into the value of bodily existence, sensuality, and love.
 
Tejas S. Aralere, University of New Hampshire
 
“The Pāñcālan Role in Fostering Peace”
 
Abstract:
 
This paper suggests that although one could argue that they were “fated” to serve in their roles within Kṛṣṇa’s masterplan for Pāṇḍavan victory, that the epic points to these three Pāñcālans’ as crucial in resolving the Kuru-Pāñcāla conflict by ending multiple multigenerational conflicts. They ultimately make peace possible by ending the looming individual conflicts of their predecessors, thereby contributing to the restoration of the Pāṇḍavas and Pāñcālī-Draupadī on Hastinapura’s throne. Without the Pāñcālan allies, the Pāṇḍavas would not have had a common enemy in the Kauravas, and it’s only through their marriage to Draupadi that they are forced by her - directly and indirectly – to emerge from hiding, return to Hastināpura, and wage war. While their actions certainly help precipitate and conclude the war, I also argue that their actions contribute to establishing peace from multiple fronts.
 
SECOND SESSION

A24-318
Mahabharata and Classical Hinduism Seminar
Theme: Translation, Retelling, and Retranslation of the Mahābhārata
Sunday, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Convention Center-24B (Upper Level East)
Bruce M. Sullivan, Northern Arizona University, Presiding
 
The two papers in this session consider issues in translation and retelling in the tradition of the Mahābhārata. Shankar Ramaswami’s paper compares the account in the Mahābhārata of the snake sacrifice by Janamejaya with the retelling of it in Arun Kolatkar’s English poem “Sarpa Satra.” He argues that while Kolatkar’s poem suggests the contours of a non-anthropocentric vision of dharma (as that which sustains and promotes all life and the earth), this ideal is actually more fully developed in the critical edition of the Mahābhārata. Fred Smith’s paper approaches the ongoing project of translating the critical edition of the Mahābhārata as an effort of retranslation, and describes the current publication plan. He compares examples from earlier efforts at translating segments of the text. Advances in translation methodology and cultural understanding can give greater focus to the meaning, intent, and comprehensibility of a received text.
 
Shankar Ramaswami, O. P. Jindal Global University

“Towards a Non-Anthropocentric Vision of Dharma: Violence, Nonviolence, and the Non-Human World in Arun Kolatkar’s Sarpa Satra (Snake Sacrifice)”
 
Abstract:
 
What is Arun Kolatkar’s reading of Janamejaya’s snake sacrifice and the burning of the Khandava forest, as depicted in the poem, Sarpa Satra (2004)?  If the poem describes the snake sacrifice as “cynical,” a “mockery”, and a “grotesque parody” of a yajna, what would constitute a true, proper yajna?  Why does Jaratkaru advise Astika to stop the sacrifice, not for the sake of the Nagas, but to save “the last vestige of humanity”?  In addressing these questions, I will argue that although Sarpa Satra seems to present an anthropocentric understanding of dharma (in which human beings should live and let other species live), there are materials in the poem that suggest the contours of a non-anthropocentric vision of dharma (as that which sustains and promotes all life and the earth), an ideal that is more fully developed in the critical edition of the Mahabharata.
 
Frederick M. Smith, University of Iowa
 
“Translation and Retranslation: Thoughts on Methodology, with Respect to the Mahābhārata”
 
Abstract:
 
This is a report on the present state of the Mahābhārata translation by Primus Books, Delhi, which is the completion of the translation of the Pune critical edition undertaken by the University of Chicago Press more than half a century ago, but now permanently suspended. At this point, more than half a century after van Buitenen commenced that translation and 140 years after Ganguli began the first translation of the complete Mahābhārata in Calcutta, we are best served by viewing the present project as a retranslation. This paper will examine some of the methodologies or retranslation, a subfield of translation studies, in order to appraise how advances in this field will help us to better understand the Indian national epic. 

Thanks,
Brian


Prof. Brian Collins
(He/Him/His)
Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy
Department of Classics and Religious Studies
234 Ellis Hall
Ohio University
Athens, Ohio
740-597-2103 (office)