Ethics In The Mahabharata: A philosophical Inquiry for today
By Sitansu S. Chakravarti, Munshiram Manoharlal,
Rs 350

There is an old Bengali saying which roughly translates as “what is not in the Mahabharata is not in Bharata.” The embedded suggestion is that the epic is actually a history of India or of the Indian people. But many modern commentators have interpreted the text in innumerable other ways. The Bengali writer, Buddhadev Bose, read the text as an account of Yudhishthira’s personal journey of transcendence. Sitansu Chakravarti looks at the epic as a philosopher and analyses the ethical questions raised by the Mahabharata.

Chakravarti follows the trend of treating the epic as the fifth Veda with the qualification that, according to him, in the Mahabharata, Krishna had introduced a new value system which is described as “a new variety of utilitarianism”.

Quite expectedly, the idea of dharma lies at the heart of Chakravarti’s exposition. He very correctly points out that dharma should not be equated with religion. He treats dharma as more fundamental than religion “insofar as it offers the grounds for the specific practices of a religion in principles not reducible to scriptural dictates.” He goes on to differentiate between what he calls the “act dharmas” and the “attitude dharmas”. The latter constitute the moral tone of an action and point to the goal of human life.

Chakravarti highlights the moral questions inherent in the Mahabharata by contrasting Bhisma with Krishna. He makes the claim that “the Mahabharata is a story of two persons — Bhisma and Krishna. (The point is an important one since Bhisma is the only person against whom Krishna, during the course of the war, takes up arms thus breaking his vow. This can be taken as a symbolic manifestation of the moral conflict that Chakravarti articulates.)

Bhisma is the only character, if one keeps aside the author, Vyasa, who is present from the adi parva to the time when Yudhishthira becomes king after the great war. In fact, two specific parvas, Santi and Anusasana, are concerned with his advice to Yudhishthira on political and administrative matters and on moral issues. Chakravarti sees him as the representative of the olden days of tradition and dynastic grandeur which are falling to pieces in a catastrophe that he is unable to avert. Krishna is a comparatively late arrival in the epic but he envisions a new system which is open to adjustments according to the “ethics of the emergency situation.” Here, of course, the Gita comes to occupy a central place.

Chakravarti believes that the Gita is an integral part of the Mahabharata, and he upholds the text’s message that one must do one’s duty irrespective of the consequences of one’s actions.

It is not necessary to always agree with Chakravarti’s reading and interpretation of the great epic. What is important is that he throws new light on the text and highlights its contemporary philosophical relevance.