Kurus: Our Contemporaries - Dr. Kavita A Sharma

Introduction

At the core of the Mahabharata is the fratricidal war to annihilation for the throne of Hastinapur. The question is whether it is merely an exciting and grand tale of heroism, war, valor and sacrifice on a vast canvas, or an idealistic allegory of the victory of good over evil or is it a complex tale from which every generation can derive its own meaning and is thus imbued with intense contemporary relevance. Even a cursory survey of the last millennium shows that it has been largely dominated by the West. It has also been engulfed in violent conflicts that had their roots in the West but spread to the other parts of the world whether it was the post Renaissance continental wars of supremacy between the European powers, whether it was the various revolutions gone astray from their ideals, whether it was the colonial exploitation of Africa and Asia by the Western imperialistic powers, whether it was the World Wars followed by the Cold war, whether it was regional strife, boundary disputes, ideological and ethnic cleansing and whether it is terrorism and fundamentalism. Mahabharata has repeated itself over and over again with savageness and butchery all our international humanitarian institutions and conventions notwithstanding.

After the battle of Kurukshetra was over Ashwatthama, in a state of terrible vengeance, butchered all the sleeping warriors in the Pandava camp. The five Pandavas and Vasudeva luckily escaped as they were not there. Krishna cursed Ashwatthama for his sinful act:

© "The Awakening Ray" (Nov./Dec. 2002) published by The Gnostic Centre, H-401, Som Vihar Apartments, Sangam Marg, New Delhi 110 022. Website: www.gnosticcentre.com. Reprinted with permission.

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