Sen, Shekhar Kumar, transcreated, Jaiminiya Ashvamedha Parva, Pradip Bhattacharye ed., Kolkata: Writers\u2019 Workshop India, 2008<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jaimini\u2019s Ashvamedha Parva invites us to have fun but never forgets to remind us of devotion or bhakti to Krishna that needs to be an integral part of our everyday life. Shekhar Sen has done a great service by transcreating Jaimini\u2019s Ashvamedha Parva in English from the available Hindi Text published by Geeta Press. But who is Jaimini who has woven the adventurous, fantastical and often unbelievably funny tales into the post great war scenario of Yudhishthira\u2019s undertaking the Ashvamedha Yagya. Why does Yudhishthira agree to do it and from where does he get the resources? Shekhar Sen has attempted to answer some of these questions in his well researched and elaborate introduction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reading the Jaimini text makes one realize that it has something for everybody from the king to the commoner, the high brow to the low, from the unbeliever to the believer. It is amazing to note that the stories in the Ashvamedha Parva, form a part of what is really a picaresque adventure. These so fascinated the Muslim Nawabs of Bengal that they got them translated into Bengali to enable the common people to understand and enjoy them. Even Akbar preferred Jaimini\u2019s telling of the Ashvamedha Parva to Vyasa\u2019s while getting a Persian version compiled of Mahabharata named the Razmanama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is said that Vyasa taught the Mahabharata to his son Shuka and four of his disciples \u2013 Vaishampayana, Jaimini, Paila and Sumantu. He is supposed to have trashed all others except that of Vaishampayana when he gave him the sole authority to recite the Mahabharata to Janamajeya at the Naga sacrifice. But is Vyasa\u2019s disciple Jaimini the same as the author of the Ashvamedha Parva extant today? There is a Jaimini who is credited to have authored the Purva Mimamsa dated at around 320 B.C. and he is remembered as being one of the earliest major interpreters of the Vedic thought. He is also said to have contributed to Sama Veda and written several other works like the Jaiminya Grihya Sutra, Jaiminyasutram and others. In any case as Shekhar Sen shows, the Jaimini who was Vyasa\u2019s disciple could not have been the same as Jaimini of Ashvamedha Parva that exists in its present form because this work could not have been written before the 10th<\/sup> Century. Sen wonders whether it is possible that an earlier Jaimini, who was Vyasa\u2019s disciple, composed the Ashvamedha Parva and following the guru-shishya parampara, a later Jaimini \u2013 the present redactor \u2013 gave it the current form after updating it with interpolations of his own including contemporary references and the language of his times. Also, surmises Sen, that Jaimini\u2019s composition was probably before Sauti\u2019s telling as whenever Jaimini refers to the war in Jaiminyashvamedha, he uses the word Bharata. It is Sauti who adds `Maha\u2019 to it and calls it Mahabharata for the first time. Hence, feels Sen, there were at least two Jaiminis \u2013 one who composed the original Jaiminibharata and another, belonging to the same tradition, who updated and published it much later. In the Vishnu Purana there are as many as twenty-eight Vyasas and so why not a series of Jaiminis as well? However, Jaimini\u2019s Ashvamedha Parva survived and, as Shekhar Sen shows from the evidence in the text itself, it must have been a part of a much larger work. Jainini\u2019s narration of the Ashvamedha is much longer than that of Vyas and its contents are very different, but there are some commonalities like Yudhishthira\u2019s sorrow; Marutta\u2019s yajna; the story of Babhnevahana and Arjuna\u2019s death; and the Duhshala and the Mongoose episodes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While in Vyasa\u2019s version as told by Vaishampayana, the elders are dominant till the end, in Jaimini\u2019s Ashvamedha Parva significantly a generational change takes place. Here the second and even the third generation play lead and even dominant roles. Some of the main protagonists are Meghavarna, the son of Ghotatkacha; Vrishketu, Karna\u2019s son; Bhishana, son of Baka Rakshasa; and Anushalva, brother of shalva. Vrishketu is convinced that for his father\u2019s death in the war was justified as he accepts that Karna supported injustice and was alienated from Krishna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The style is racy and the attention of the reader is held as he is carried by the flow of the exciting stories. The writer himself seems to be enjoying himself as the horse he describes that is required for the Ashvamedha is almost an impossible one to get. It has to be as bright as cow\u2019s milk. Its tail should be yellow and ears black. But we are assured that it exists in Bhadravati and is guarded by its valiant King Yauvanashva. When Yudhishthira laurents that he is unable to perform the Ashwamedha because he has neither the horse, nor the resources and not even the young men required to carry out the task as they have all died in the great war. However, Bhima immediately offers to go. Throughout the Parva, Bhima emerges as a great hero. He enjoys much respect not only as a warrior but also as a people\u2019s person who is compassionate and loyal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Similarly, with Krishna, while the dominant rasa remains of Bhakti, he is seen both as god and as a human. The Pandavas, for example, argue with him, joke with him and even poke fun at home but they never forget his divinity. There are others who even defeat him in war, but they see even their victory as also an opportunity to worship him. When Yudhishthira worries how can they do the Ashvamedha without Krishna, he gets the news that Krishna has arrived. Draupadi reminds him that whenever not only they but any bhakta is in trouble Krishna comes to his aid. However, on Krishna\u2019s arrival, the atmosphere is of old friends as Krishna teases Bhima for being a glutton and Bhima retorts that since the entire world is contained in Krishna\u2019s stomach, no one could be more gluttonous than him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jaimini\u2019s Ashvamedha is full of adventurous stories with fast paced action. For example, Meghavarna hypnotizes everyone and brews up a dust storm which overwhelms Yauvanashva\u2019s soldiers with fear. He then abducts the horse. Yauvanashva is enraged at the abduction of the horse and calls upon all his chariot heroes. At this four thousand brave warriors leap up to the sky and surrounded Meghavarna. But Meghavarna conquers all of them and brings the horse to Vrishketu and Bhima. A huge fight takes place between the Pandava warriors and Yauvaneshva\u2019s forces. Yauvanashva faints but is revived by surprisingly Vrishketu. Yauvaneshva is very grateful for Vrishketu\u2019s gallantry and code of honour and is completely won over. They all happily go to Krishna and pray to him both as a human and as a god. This pattern of Bhakti and humour is repeated throughout the Parva. There are numerous adventures like Pradyumn and Bhima\u2019s battle with Anushalva, Arjuna\u2019s horse turning into a stone which is variant of the Ahalya story, the battle with Tamtadhvaja and others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Jamini\u2019s Ashvamedha Parva, then, is the work of a master narrator. It evokes the image of a kathakar telling stories round the camp fire in which the listeners are taken on a roller coaster ride with stories full of fun, adventure, magic and fantasy. But through them is taught the value of devotion and bhakti of Krishna. If Krishna is made one of us, we are also inspired to rise above are mundane concerns to meet him half way. Shekhar Sen\u2019s transcreation succeeds in conveying this and bringing alive Jaimini\u2019s Ashvamedha Parva. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Kavita A. Sharma<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sen, Shekhar Kumar, transcreated, Jaiminiya Ashvamedha Parva, Pradip Bhattacharye ed., Kolkata: Writers\u2019 Workshop India, 2008 Jaimini\u2019s Ashvamedha Parva invites us to have fun but never forgets to remind us of devotion or bhakti to Krishna that needs to be an integral part of our everyday life. Shekhar Sen has done a great service by transcreating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drkavitasharma.in\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drkavitasharma.in\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drkavitasharma.in\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drkavitasharma.in\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drkavitasharma.in\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1694"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drkavitasharma.in\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1698,"href":"https:\/\/drkavitasharma.in\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1694\/revisions\/1698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drkavitasharma.in\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drkavitasharma.in\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drkavitasharma.in\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}