Works Based on the Mahabharata

The Mahabharata, perhaps because of its complexity of theme and range of characters, has deeply influenced the Indian literary ethos. This starts from the ancient period of classical literature onwards. If we consider adaptations and rewritings as forms of translation, then the translations of the epic are countless. Kalidasa’s Abhijnanasakuntalam is derived from the Mahabharata, modified to suit the spectators of those days. We have already seen how the characters of Dushyanta and Sakuntala are transformed / transcreated by Kalidasa to become acceptable to the socio-political environment of his time (Lecture # 18: Sakuntala’s Colonial and Postcolonial Versions). Bhasa too had adaptations from the Mahabharata, like Urubhangam, Dutavakyam, Madhyamavyayogam, Pancharatram etc. All of them are Bhasa’s personal interpretations of the characters and story line, thus making major departures from the basic text. Urubhangam is a tragedy that depicts the death of Duryodhana on the battle-field. The villain of the epic is the tragic hero in this gripping two-act play, a flawed figure that evokes respect and sympathy from spectators. In Dutavakyam, Duryodhana is again a figure that matches Krishna in stature. This play is an adaptation of the famous scene in the epic where Krishna arrives in the court of Duryodhana as the messenger of the Pandavas, before the war is formally declared. In the source text, Krishna outwits all attempts to insult him and comes out as the divine messenger. Bhasa, however, has made Krishna very human with all the follies and foibles that could be attributed to worldly men.

Bhishma in Brook’s Mahabharata

Jumping centuries, the epic became the material for an open exhortation against war and related violence in the Hindi play Andha Yug (1954) of Dharamvir Bharati. Peter Brook’s adaptation of the story for his play of the same name, used the basic storyline, but had a cast drawn from all parts of the globe. This was a testimony to the permanence of the epic proving that it was a story that could happen to anybody anywhere in the world.

The novels, short stories and poems based on the story, theme or characters of the Mahabharata are many. All of them are personalized interpretations of the respective authors, based on their personal ideology. In poetry, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar wrote Rashmirathi in Hindi, which was from the point of view of Karna. Novels like M. T. Vasudevan Nair’s Randamoozham (Malayalam), Pratibha Ray’s Yajnaseni: The Story of Draupadi (Oriya), V. S. Khandekar’s Yayati (Marathi), Shivaji Sawant’s Mrityunjay (Marathi), S. L. Bhyrappa’s Parva (Kannada) are but a few examples of retellings of the source text. Shashi Tharoor’s The Great Indian Novel written in English was a take on the epic, placing it squarely in contemporary Indian politics.