First instance of Egalitarianism?
I have started reading "Ka". :), my namesake, it means "what" in sanskrit.
The first chapter begins the story of Garuda. He hatched out of its egg after 500 years. His mother Vinata looked over and protected the egg all these 500 years. When he hatched, his mother told him her story, and gave him his first mission. The mission which would end Vinata's slavery to her sister. Garuda listened and absorbed everything.
Garuda was all set for the mission, only for the fact, that he was hungry. Hungry for 500 years. His mother told him to go to a nearby island, and that he could eat all the nishadas he could. But only thing he had to keep in mind that he should never eat a Brahman. Now Garuda has no clue what a brahman is or what a nishada is. He has just seen his mother, his aunt and his cousins which are snakes. Anyway he hopes when the time comes he will know and flies away.
He comes to the island and picks of hundreds of nishadas with his beak. The nishadas fell down into the endless well that is his empty stomach. Suddenly he feels something stuck in his throat, and an immense pain. He realized that he must have accidently swallowed a brahmin. He tells the brahmin to please come out of his throat, and that he is really sorry. The brahmin is holding onto a nishada woman and says that he won't come out without her. Garuda says whatever, just please come out. When he sees the woman, he thinks she looks just like his mother. And realizes that the thousands he had swallowed must be similar to her. He is overcome with guilt and flies away hungry.
He does get to eat later, an elephant and a turtle. But the main thing which comes out of this episode are these:
1. Brahmins where obviously considered top and even devas could'nt harm them.(pain in his throat)
2. Nishadas were considered lowly so that they could be eaten. (Vinata tells garuda that he can eat all the nishadas he wants)
3. When Garuda sees the similarity between the nishada woman and his mother, he feels guilty. (why does he? what is the point of this in the story? )
4. A brahmin has a nishada woman as his mate and is ready to die with her (how come this cross caste bond)
The only plausible reason is, even in that age some people obviously had egalitarianism on their minds.
Labels: egalitarianism, garuda, myth
posted by kaa at
1:17 PM
2 Comments:
Q 1 & 2: WHILE A CASUAL LITERARY COMPARISON CAN BE DONE, ONE MUST BEAR IN MIND WE CANNOT USE TODAY'S LENS TO ZOOM IN AND JUDGE THE PAST. OUR SCRIPTURES, FOR EXAMPLE, ALWAYS DISCRIMINATED PEOPLE BASED ON GENDER AND VARNAS, BUT THIS WAS ONLY DISCRIMINATION IN TERMS OF DUTIES TO BE ACCOMPLISHED. AND IN PARALLEL, IT EQUALLY DENOUNCED PEOPLE OF ALL GENDERS AND VARNAS (INCLUDING BRAHMINS) TO CLAIM RIGHTS. THE RATIONALE WAS THAT EVERYONE SHOULD DO THE DUTY, WHICH BY ITSELF WILL SERVE THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS. IF EVERYONE CLAIMS RIGHTS AT THE COST OF DELIVERING THEIR DUTIES, THE SOCIETY WILL ONLY WITNESS CHAOS.
THERE IS ONE REASON WHY OUR ANCESTORS NEVER TRIED TO EDIT SEEMINGLY-BAD THINGS OUT OF AN EPIC OR SCRIPTURE TO MAKE IT MORE ACCEPTABLE BY FUTURE GENERATIONS - THEIR FOCUS WAS TO TRANSFER KNOWLEDGE AS THEY HEARD IT. IT IS NO WONDER THAT OUR ELDERS WERE ABLE TO PRESERVE A TEXT LIKE MAHABHARATA WITH 1 LAKH VERSES, ORALLY. HAD THEY TRIED TO EDIT IT, WE WOULD HAVE MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF OUR SCRIPTURES, OR WORSE, THE KNOWLEDGE WOULD HAVE BEEN LOST FOREVER.
Q3. When Garuda sees the similarity between the nishada woman and his mother, he feels guilty. (why does he? what is the point of this in the story? )
THIS FEELING OF GUILT MUST BE THE AUTHOR'S IMAGINATION - PLS REFER TO THE FIRST 60 PAGES OF UNABRIDGED VERSION OF MAHABHARATA BY KISARI MOHAN GANGULI AVAILABLE ONLINE - YOU WONT FIND ANY MENTION OF GUILT HERE
11:15 AM
Dear anonymous commenter, first you say this:
"IT IS NO WONDER THAT OUR ELDERS WERE ABLE TO PRESERVE A TEXT LIKE MAHABHARATA WITH 1 LAKH VERSES, ORALLY. HAD THEY TRIED TO EDIT IT, WE WOULD HAVE MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF OUR SCRIPTURES,"
Which means that you believe their is only one version of the scriptures. Which is quite extraordinary, since it is an oral tradition, and many of the oral version of the scriptures might still not be written down. Let us assume that you are correct, that indeed there is only version.
Then you want me to "REFER TO THE FIRST 60 PAGES OF UNABRIDGED VERSION OF MAHABHARATA BY KISARI MOHAN GANGULI".. why oh why?
It is easy to generalise using words like, "our ancestors" and such, but history is witness that while many of our ancestors supported things like sati pratha, it took a few ancestors to try to stop it.
History as well is mythology is not absolute, both have different versions. It is not of any benefit to argue over the validity of a particular version, but to see it as a moral giving story and learn from it.
11:46 AM
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