Mahabharata Character Analysis

843 Words4 Pages

The Great Indian Novel (1993) by Shashi Tharoor is an excellent example of myth from the Mahabharata. It is a satirical novel that compares the after independence political scenario with the Mahabharata. Figures from Indian history are transformed into characters from mythology. In this novel, the writer recasts the story of the nascent Indian democracy as a struggle between groups and individuals closely related to their personal and political histories. Gandhi attending the roundtable conference; Ved Vyas describing the divisions in Indian society, Rabindranath Tagore returning his knighthood are some of the incidents that are interwoven with the characters of the Mahabharata.
Gurucharan Das in The Difficultly of Being Good: On the Subtle Art of Dharma (2012) examines the goal of dharma and moral well-being as presented in the Mahabharata. It analyses the various characters from the Mahabharata. Das brings out the true meaning of dharma and its application in day-to-day life. He finds striking parallels …show more content…

The stories are embellished with 250 line illustrations, the style is unique. It includes not only the classical Sanskrit tales but also regional and folk variants from across India and even South-East Asia including the Pandavani of Chattisgarh, Gondhai of Maharashtra, Terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu and Yakshagana of Karnataka. Devdutt in the 108 chapters illustrates the little know details such as the names of hundred Kauravas, the worship of Draupadi as a goddess in Tamil Nadu, the stories of Astika, Madhavi, Jamini, Aravan and Barbareek, the Mahabharata version of the Shakuntalam and the Ramayana, and the dating of the war based on astronomical data. Devdutt in this volume analysis the perpetual significance of the Mahabharata and its rumination on the human condition that has wrought Indian notion for over 3000

Open Document