8 Questions
Who led the ambitious project of preparing a critical edition of the Mahabharata?
V.S.Sukthankar, a noted Indian Sanskritist
What was the initial task in preparing the critical edition of the Mahabharata?
Collecting Sanskrit manuscripts of the text from different parts of the country
How many years did the project of preparing the critical edition of the Mahabharata take to complete?
47 years
What is reflected in the regional variations documented in the critical edition of the Mahabharata?
The complex processes that shaped early social histories
What is the primary source of understanding social histories in early India?
Texts written in Sanskrit by and for Brahmanas
How did historians in the 19th and 20th centuries initially approach texts written in Sanskrit?
They took the texts at face value
What percentage of the 13,000 pages is devoted to regional variations in the critical edition of the Mahabharata?
More than half
What languages were studied by scholars subsequent to the initial focus on Sanskrit texts?
Pali, Prakrit, and Tamil
Study Notes
The Critical Edition of the Mahabharata
- Initiated in 1919 under the leadership of V.S. Sukthankar, a noted Indian Sanskritist
- Involved collecting Sanskrit manuscripts from different parts of the country, written in various scripts
- Team developed a method to compare verses from each manuscript, selecting common verses and publishing them in multiple volumes (over 13,000 pages)
- Project took 47 years to complete
Characteristics of the Sanskrit Manuscripts
- Showed common elements in the story, evident in manuscripts from all over the subcontinent (Kashmir, Nepal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu)
- Revealed enormous regional variations in the transmission of the text over the centuries
- Variations documented in footnotes and appendices, covering over half of the 13,000 pages
Implications of the Variations
- Reflective of complex social histories shaped by dialogues between dominant traditions and local ideas and practices
- Characterized by moments of conflict and consensus
Understanding Social History
- Initially, historians in the 19th and 20th centuries took Sanskrit texts at face value, believing they represented actual practices
- Subsequent studies of other traditions (Pali, Prakrit, Tamil) revealed that normative Sanskrit texts were authoritative, but also questioned and rejected
- Important to consider this when reconstructing social history
Learn about the ambitious project of creating a critical edition of the Mahabharata, led by V.S.Sukthankar, and the process of collecting and comparing Sanskrit manuscripts. Understand the significance of this project in Indian literature and scholarship.
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