Shuklambaradharam Vishnum
Shashi Varnam Chaturbhujam |
Prasanna Vadanam Dhyayet
Sarva Vighnopashantaye ||
Mahabharata (ಮಹಾಭಾರತ / महाभारत) also referred to as ‘Jaya’(victory) contains the story of a race descended from King Bharata (ಭರತ / भरत) , who was the son of Dushyanta (ದುಷ್ಯಂತ / दुष्यंत) and Shakuntala (ಶಕುಂತಲ / शकुंतला). ‘Maha’ means great, and ‘Bharata’ means the descendants of King Bharata, from whom India has derived its name, ‘Bharata’. Mahabharata means Great India, or the story of the great descendants of Bharata.
Bhagavan Veda Vyasa, a great sage, considered as the compiler of Vedas, was the son of sage Parashara (ಪರಾಶರ / पराशर). At this point, it is interesting just to note that Veda Vyasa was the grandfather of Pandavas and Kauravas (the central characters in Mahabharata). He was a very powerful sage who knew all the characters of Mahabharata closely, and had conceived a story of Mahabharata. He meditated on Brahma and the Lord appeared. Vyasa reverently bowed to the creator and said ‘Dear Lord, I have an epic story in my mind. I wonder who is capable of penning down the same.’ Lord Brahma replied ‘O sage, pray Lord Ganapathi and he shall agree to be the scribe’.
In this technological era, a child holds a mouse before holding a pen!
Lord Ganesha too possessed a mouse and a pen, distinct and brilliantly used (mouse is the vehicle of Lord Ganesha).
Vyasa invoked Ganapathi and with all humbleness requested him: ‘Lord Ganesha, I shall dictate the story of Mahabharatha and request you to pen it down’. Lord Ganapathi readily agreed, not before posing a condition, ‘O sage, I accept to write it down, however, at any point of time, you should never pause or hesitate during your recitation. My pen should not stop writing.’ The wise sage thought about it and came with a counter constraint, ‘Fine, I agree to your condition. However, you should first grasp the meaning of my composition before penning it down.’
Ganapathi smiled and agreed to the condition. Whenever Vyasa needed some rest, he threw semantically and grammatically complex compositions, enabling him to buy some time to catch up with the speed of Lord Ganesha’s writing. Lord Ganapathi is also referred to as ‘Ekadanta’ (Sanskrit words Eka - one, Danta - teeth), meaning ‘the one with a single tooth(tusk)’. There are several versions of the story as to how Lord Ganesha lost one of his tusks. One of the versions (probably the least likely version) goes like this:
While writing the Epic Mahabharata, Lord Ganesha noticed that his pen was unable to keep up with the pace and at a point of time it broke. Hence, he cut one of his tusks out and used it as a pen!
Thus the epic, Mahabharata came into writing by Lord Ganapathi under the dictation of sage Vyasa. The original version is said to have comprised of about a hundred thousand verses and 2 million words in all. Comprising of a great number of stories, a lot of characters, Mahabharata has more to offer in terms of complexity, plot, logic, thrill and excitement, understanding life, than any of the modern day works (be it Inception or the Game of Thrones). No wonder it is called an Epic!
The memory of the learned was the only way of passing knowledge in that era with no printing! Vyasa first taught the great epic to his son, sage Suka (ಶುಕ / शुक). He also taught this epic story to his disciples too. Vaishampayana (ವೈಶಂಪಾಯನ / वैशंपायन), one of the chief disciples of Sage Vyasa narrated this epic at ‘Sarpayaaga’(ಸರ್ಪಯಾಗ / सर्पयाग) (a great snake sacrifice) conducted by king Janamejaya (ಜನಮೇಜಯ / जनमेजय) (I’ll post this interesting story next). Later on, sage Suta (ಸೂತ / सूत) narrated this to a group of sages under the leadership of sage Shaunaka (ಶೌನಕ / शौनक) in a forest called ‘Naimisha’(ನೈಮಿಷ / नैमिष). This is the version that is believed to be known to us.
