Mahabharata: The Great War and World History

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Tattva Prakasha - Illuminations of Truth

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Volume One, Issue Eight - May 30, 2001

 

"Mahabharata: The Great War and World History"

 

[The bi-monthly newsletter of IndiaDivine.com

published by Bhaktivedanta Ashram, Mysore.]

 

Editor: Jahnava Nitai Das (jndas )

 

[3,796 rs as of publication date.]

 

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Welcome to the eighth issue of Tattva Prakasha. This issue is certainly long

overdue. We apologize for not being able to publish an issue for the last

two months. Due to a number of technical reasons (mostly problems with our

computer systems) we fell behind on releasing this issue. In the meantime

the number of rs has more than quadrupled to around 3,500. I would

like to welcome all of our new readers who are receiving Tattva Prakasha for

the first time. In this issue I chose to focus more on historical and

Puranic topics. Those who have received other issues of Tattva Prakasha will

be familiar with our usual content. We try to alternate our writing style,

sometimes giving very philosophical articles, sometimes technical articles,

and sometimes articles on general history. We hope that by this process we

can satisfy all varieties of readers at least some of the time.

 

In a related manner, I would like to personally invite all of you to join

our new discussion forums on spiritual topics, the Audarya Fellowship. For

those who wish to actively discuss spiritual life, hinduism, or indology, it

will be an ideal place to visit. There are many of us who will appreciate

reading your contributions, so please come and share your realizations on

spiritual life. Consider it your own forum to broadcast your views and

experiences, we are just there to facilitate the exchange of ideas:

 

http://www.indiadivine.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi

 

The topic of this issue is the Mahabharata war in relation to world history

and culture. We will begin the topic with a question we received sometime

back:

 

"In the Mahabharata, the war seemed to have affected the whole world. We

don’t find so many references to such of a huge event in other cultures. Why

are there no references to a great world event?"

 

There is reference to a great war both in the Mayan culture and in old

Chinese traditions. They speak about a huge war that happened long, long

ago; but they give no details. They only knew that such a war had occurred.

 

After any war two things happen. In certain regions, nothing develops for a

long time; and in certain other regions everything expands very rapidly. The

same thing has happened after the Kurukshetra war. In some places everything

just stopped; there was no communication. These places became completely

isolated from the rest of the world.

 

You can imagine the situation of those other kingdoms which were working

under the fifty-four kingdoms, the Aryan empire. When a huge war like this

is waged on the other side of the globe, and none of the kings ever

returned, and their armies also didn’t come back, what would be the state of

communication?

 

These kingdoms would have become completely alien to everything. No one

would have known what happened. The king with his entire army went to fight

in the great war, and that's it. They just disappeared, never to be heard

from again. The agents from the ruling kingdoms no longer came to collect

taxes, no information was being sent from the world capital. Suddenly these

former colonies are isolated and free. They don't have to pay taxes anymore,

nor do they have to be subservient.

 

Naturally the new king would try to make a lot of indigenous effort to put

forth their own culture. And if there were any texts left that said his

grand father was a slave of Kaikeya, he would just burn it. They wouldn't

want to keep such information.

 

The same thing happened in the modern World War, which was actually just a

war around the world. But the Mahabharata war was one massacre at one single

place, and nobody went back. None of the kings or soldiers returned to tell

what happened.

 

It is described that the cremations were done there and the rituals were

also done there. Even the widows of the other kings were adopted there by

the capital, Hastinapura. Seven different types of cremations were done,

like mass cremations, individual cremations, etc. After the cremations, the

widows were all adopted by Hastinapura there itself. There was practically

no one going back to their own countries, hardly a single channel of

communication.

 

We can imagine if we were a distant country ruling under one of these

fifty-four kings, the Aryan empire, and we see no one is returning from the

battle, no communication is coming from the battle; what would we do?

Immediately we would destroy the old information, that showed us as slaves

to these Aryan kings, and emerge as a great self-manifesting empire like

Egypt. This is exactly what they did.

 

The destruction caused by the war was not only external. The destruction of

the war was also in the minds of the people. After those heavy astras were

used, in the minds of the people anything subtle, anything delicate,

anything perfectional was completely burnt out. It is just like in Hiroshima

and Nagasaki, till today you find the children are disabled. How many years

has it been? It was only two primitive bombs. They were so gross and

physical, but the radioactivity of that is still being seen today.

 

Then we can understand, according to the descriptions within the

Mahabharata, what was the destruction of the Brahmastras used in the war.

What was the Agni-astras they were using? What was the power of the wind in

the Vayu-astra? It was not only blowing in Kurukshetra, it was blowing all

over the planet. What would have happened to the people’s minds because of

the diffusion of all these energies?

 

Everything became lost. Naturally people would not even be able to think

that they were serving, or they had been paying tax to the Aryan kings of

such and such countries. The whole thing had no meaning any more.

 

This is known as the "dark period" after the Mahabharata war.

Kathacharit-sagara has stories about this dark time. In the Tamil literature

also it discusses this period. There was a dark period in between where no

one knew what happened. Only the thieves, either through ship or through

land, were ruling the world. In Tamil it is known as "kalapirar kalam" which

means the time of the unknown kings, unknown rulers. The Tamil literature

gives 3,000 years for it. And then the Cheras, Cholas and Pandiyas came to

power. In between it was completely dark. And these Cheras, Cholas and

Pandiyas were actually descendants of the original Cheras, Cholas and

Pandiyas who took part in the Mahabharata war.

 

The Chola king was the one who ran the kitchen for the Pandavas. That is

there in the Tamil literature. Those people who ran the kitchen, they were

not just cooks; they were all soldiers. They went to help in the war and

when the division of work was given, they were given the kitchen. So they

were cooking. There are hundreds of Tamil verses glorifying that king who

cooked for the Pandavas during the Mahabharata war. It is there in the Tamil

literature.

 

If this war never happened, if Kurushetra was only symbolic of the body,

mind and senses; why would this Aryan king have spent twenty years of his

ruling time in the North cooking for someone else. These are clear proofs.

There was a dark time in between. The dark time was nothing but the

reactions of the war. After the dark time, those who emerged powerful were

not all the authentic rulers. Some were descendants, but most were just

those who utilized this opportunity to gain power. This is why it is not

mentioned in other cultures, it is not recorded. A great war is mentioned,

but no details are given.

 

Even in the mythology of the Greeks it is there, only the time is looking

different. The time frame does not look like it is the Mahabharata war, but

the great Achilles fighting and other such stories of Greek mythology have a

very close similarity to stories from the Kurushetra war. In Greek mythology

some of these stories are internally dated much before the time of the

Kurushetra war. The reason is because they wanted to have a separate

identity, therefore they told it as though it happened at a much more

ancient time. It may sound like mythology, but its just the histories which

have been handed down from the Kurushetra war by the bards and entertainers.

 

The bards and entertainers were not killed. This is an important point in

understanding how this history has spread. At that time, war meant that

during every evening they had theater, they had dance, they had jokers, etc.

They had all varieties of entertainment, and none of these entertainers were

killed. That was the rule according to dharma-shastra, they were not

supposed to be killed. Everyone died on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, but

all of these bards, poets and entertainers lived. This is how the stories

were spread.

 

The people who did street dances and folk dances, poetry and songs, they all

went back. But because the armies and kings were not there, they did not

reach as far as they had come from. These entertainers had traveled along

with the armies and kings, from distant lands. When the battle was finished,

they had no king or army to take them back to their homeland, which in some

cases was on the other side of the world. They traveled on their own, alone,

and managed to reach some distance, somewhere. They did not make it home to

their own countries, but they traveled as far as they could go alone. And

when they stopped, unable to go any further, there they would have searched

for some patron to perform for.

 

They must have been highly impressed with this war. Whatever had happened,

whatever they saw, the battles between the heroes on both sides; it had

impressed them so much. Naturally they would dramatize this and make stories

of wars, of great battles, of what they had just witnessed.

 

In this Great war, who would have come back? Only the entertainers; the

nandis, vandis and mahatis; those people who woke up the king’s everyday.

They are the one's who lived to spread these stories. When their kings died

they would leave. This was the tradition. The king goes to the battle with a

full entourage . If the king is killed in the second day of the battle, the

king who killed him takes his army. This was the system in those days. This

was not the case for those who made a pact; like Dhristadyumna was in a pact

with the Pandavas. His army would not go to Duryodhana. But those individual

kings who came to the help the Pandavas, if the king is killed then

everything that he has, including his ornaments, dress and animals, belongs

to the king who killed him. Actually his country also belongs to that king.

That was how the war was fought. Everything including the ornaments he was

wearing, his armor, they belong to the winner. Only his astras won't be

taken, because astras won’t serve one unless you have done the proper

upasana. The astras will go back to the rishi or the deva who has given

them. This was the rule of war.

 

Once their king was killed, what would the entertainers do? They would not

continue sitting there glorifying their dead king while the war was still

continuing. As soon as their king died, they would leave the battle field.

So for them, the outcome of the war was not even known. But when they left

they had nothing, no escort, no entourage; they were alone. So they would

travel as far as they could and as quickly as they could, until they reached

whatever place they could find. They would be looking for a new patron. And

if they found one, the first thing they will say is, "Have you heard? There

was a war!" Once they have found a patron they will start performing. But

the war was still running, and they would not want to be involved in

politics, so to protect themselves they will begin, "Long, long ago..." And

that would begin the dramatization of the Great War. This is how the

information spread. You can find in every ethnic culture in the world,

without fail, there is discussion of a Great War. How does that come about?

It may not go by the name Mahabharata, but the great war is there,

everywhere. 

 

There is an entire culture whose literature is based around crying, the

Sumerian culture. All of their ancient writings are the cries of women who

have lost their husbands in the war. Those who can read ancient Tamil will

see that their script is almost identical, it is similar to the Dravida

alphabets; and even the meanings of the sentences can be understood, it is

so similar.

 

Their texts are saying the same thing as the Mahabharata. A city was built,

there was gambling, another city was burnt, a lady was insulted, and because

of that there was fire. The order may not be the same, but the elements are

identical. After the war, there was crying by the widows. And this crying is

the substance of the Sumerian writings. Each song is a cry. It is the same

thing as found in the Mahabharata. There is a chapter in the Mahabharata,

"the crying of the queens in the war after the kings died". It is identical.

Everyone is talking about this same great war.

 

Even in regards to geography, the ancient cultures are speaking the same

thing. There is always mention of a river that is running on four sides of a

mountain. They may make the map based on their own idea of how the river is

coming down from the mountain, but the substance is the same. They may not

understand that it is referring to the four branches of the Ganga which go

to the four different levels of the universe, but they have the basic

concept. In China it is there. In the Maya culture it is there. This is the

same concept as found in the Bhagavatam and other Vedic texts.

 

There are many other parallels between the world cultures, pointing to a

common source. Symbolically the Swastika is found all over the world - in

Native American tribes, in Europe, in ancient India. Hitler was trying to

revive the old Germanic and Norse tales of the Aryan kings, but he failed to

understand the entire tradition. The Swastika represents life, but he chose

to reverse it, thus signifying death. Even linguistically, the Indo-European

languages, such as Sanskrit, Latin, Greek and their many derivatives, have

countless similarities. This all points out that there was originally one

culture, one civilization. The Great War described throughout the world is

the Mahabharata war.

 

One may ask, "Why don't the other countries present it in the exact same

way?" It is because they were countries working under the fifty-four kings.

They were subservient to the Aryan empire, and this war made them free. It

was their chance to rewrite the history, to make their civilization the

center of time.

 

The rulers in Hastinapura allowed it to happen by their negligence.

Parikshit Maharaja did not function as an emperor of the world for a long

time, and as a result there was no unification of the countries done under

him. And after him, Janamejaya spent his whole life trying to kill the

snakes, until finally he became sick of everything and left the kingdom.

Because of this the Aryan kings became weak.

 

According to Kathacharit-sagara, after the dark period it was Bhima’s

grandsons who sprung to power from Ujjain and other places. It was in their

line that Vikramaditya later came. In Arjuna's line there was no powerful

descendant, although there were some in Kundinapura. But their line quickly

became diffused. The Indonesian city, Jakarta, which was actually known as

Yajna-karta, was ruled by Bhima’s grandson. It was there that he performed

one thousand yajnas, and that is how the city was named. That was much after

the war.

 

In some places the remnants of Vedic culture are more powerful. Their

presence is felt more directly. But in other places the remnants are faint

and more difficult to perceive. Just like the Sun worshippers of Japan.

Previously it was part of a huge land mass in the pacific, but by the

movement of the land and the sea it has become a tiny island. In that

ancient land, they were worshippers of the Sun god. It was the same with the

Lemurian land mass that was between Africa and India. The Tamil literatures

describe a massive land going towards the west from the present Indian

coast.

 

After every Yuga there is a change of land and sea. There is one chapter on

this in the pratisarga parva of the Bhavishya Purana. It speaks about how

the land and sea change by the influence of time. This is how the flood of

Noah described in the bible occurred. It was taken as a big dissolution, as

a pralaya, but it was just the change of yugas. When Noah built the Arc, He

was under the mountain Tuhinachala. Today the Tuhinachala is now a desert.

It is no longer a mountain.

 

There is another case from Bhima’s time, when he went for collection for the

Rajasuya sacrifice. He went from Puri to Burma by chariot by crossing two

mountains. There was no Bay of Bengal. And now that there is a bay of

Bengal, we see two tiny islands, Andaman and Nicobar. They were the

mountains that Bhima crossed, today they are just small islands.

 

It is the same situation with New Zealand. They were not islands, but the

peaks of mountains. They belonged to a giant land mass that connected to

what was the Kimpurusha Varsha. But today they are also islands because of

the land changes that occurred when the yugas changed.

 

So, with all this - the Great War followed by massive changes in the earth's

geography - the civilizations were heavily affected. Vyasadeva describes

this war by saying, “There had not been a war as heavy as this at any time

in all the lands.” He describes it this way because all of the demons and

all of the devas took part in this war at one place - Kurukshetra. It was

the heaviest war in the history, fought between universal powers. Thus its

effects were felt in all places throughout the world.

 

 

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Questions and Answers

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Question:

 

Was Sanjaya fighting in the battle of Kurukshetra, or was he with

Dhritarashtra in Hastinapura narrating the events?

 

Answer:

 

Sanjaya fought in the battle, and was one of the few to return from the

battlefield. He was the last person that Sahadeva was going to kill, but

Arjuna stopped him and said, "No. He is our friend. Let him go and report to

the old, blind man, Dhritarashtra." So Sanjaya left the field of battle. On

the way he met Duryodhana before reaching Hastinapura.

 

But there is also another description in the Mahabharata, where Sanjaya is

sitting in Hastinapura and speaking to Dhritarashtra while the battle is

going on. How is it possible that Sanjaya is fighting on the battlefield of

Kurukshetra, and simultaneously speaking to Dhritarashtra in Hastinapura. It

was by the mercy of Vyasa that he was able to expand himself into two forms

and act in both places simultaneously. In those times it was not such an

impossible task, especially for those who were direct disciples of

Vyasadeva. The Gita uses the words vyasa-prasadat. By the mercy of Vyasa it

was possible.

 

Question:

 

What was the role of non-vedic kings in the Mahabharata war?

 

Answer:

 

In the Mahabharat there is mention of kings who were outside the levels of

"civilization" who took part in the Great War. They would belong to the

10th, 11th, and 12th varnas. Vedic civilization is based on four varnas

(divisions of society), but there are people who do not fit within these

four. They can not measure up to this high standard. The scriptures list a

total of twelve designations, the four vedic varnas, and eight additional

non-vedic varnas. In the battle of Kurukshetra, Duryodhana took all of the

lower fighters onto his side. It is stated that none of them fought on the

side of the Pandavas.

 

Their warfare was throwing rocks and other very primitive actions. Among all

of the great maha-rathas, the astra fighters, these others were completely

primitive. For example, they would go into the elephant division of an army

and make the elephants sick. They were humans, but in comparison to the

maha-rathas they were like insects. Duryodhana sent many such people to

disturb Bhima’s movements. Bhima was such a high-class physical fighter that

when he saw these groups of people walking with rocks, trying to hit him, he

would become very much agitated. It would make him do things which were

completely inordinate. Because he was physically too powerful, he would get

upset and throw everything everywhere. Just to disorganize him Dhuryodhana

was using them.

 

They would go and bite the elephant’s legs, and because their teeth were

poisonous, the elephant would faint. This was their fighting. They wouldn't

go in front of the elephants like Bhima and hold them by the trunk to throw

them. They would walk under the elephants, and do all kinds of annoying

things like putting needles in the elephant's tail. In contrast to the great

heros fighting in the war, like Drona and Kripa, who used their powerful

astras, these others were exactly like insects.

 

Question:

 

When Parashurama went around the world killing the kshatriyas, what does it

mean and who did he kill?

 

Answer:

 

Parashurama was killing ruling kshatriyas, which means rulers of all the

fifty-four countries that made up Bharata-khanda and the Aryan empire. There

is an Upa-purana which deals only with Parashurama lila. There it is

mentioned the names of whom he killed, and they are all within these

fifty-four countries. 

 

Parashurama would kill only the kings, nobody lesser than the kings. But the

kings had their armies with them, so ultimately everyone was killed.

Afterwards there was no kshatriya left to whom the planet could be given, so

Parashurama had to give it to the brahmanas.

 

When you take these fifty-four countries, it means you have the entire

world. In the rest of the world there were only subservient kings who ruled

under any one of these fifty-four.

 

Especially the distant kings, like after Kaikeya (Afghanistan) up-to the

middle of Europe; those kings ruled the rest of the continents. If there was

a king ruling in Kashyapa's tank, which is today the Caspian Sea, then he

was also ruling out to the Northern and Western side of Europe. And those

people who were ruling under the Sun flag in Japan, which at that time used

to be a part of the "other land", they were ruling the previous America,

which was in the Pacific ocean.

 

If you take the fifty-four countries, those kings, then you have all the six

continents. The other lands were colonies and subservient kings of these

Aryan kings. In those other lands the varnashrama was either two-thirds or

one-thirds practiced. Accordingly, those rulers were like chiefs. They were

not like kings. They collected tax, they paid tax and then they enjoyed

their ruling. For example, the present Borneo, which used to be Parana

Dvipa, or the present Fiji which which used to be the Ramanika Dvipa. They

were kings who were not in the Sun or Moon dynasties. They were kings who

were working under the rule of the fifty-four kings.

 

When we say world we must also understand that we are not talking about the

world map which is presently in existence. In the ancient times the

geographical regions were completely different. We are not talking about the

present world. England was not an island; it was a part of Europe. We are

speaking of an ancient time, long ago. The geographical regions were very

different. They did not have to travel three months by ship to go to America

from Europe. That was not the way. The way was by land through the eastern

side.

 

Question:

 

Why is varnashrama or Vedic dharma manifested only in India and not in the

rest of the world?

 

Answer:

 

To understand this answer we must study the philosophy of the history of the

world, especially in reference to political geography - the various lands

and countries. At the time of Yudhishthira Maharaja the whole planet, all

the six continents, were ruled under one flag. This rule lasted until

Yudhishthira Maharaja. Before that it was even more perfect, and the

Bharata-khanda or India was from the Caspian sea up to Cambodia; and in the

north, if you want to see in regards to the present countries, you can say

from Lithuania to seven thousand miles south of Cape Comorin (in South

India). That is what is meant by Bharata-khanda; that is fifty-four

countries, the "India"; and then there are other countries apart from India.

 

India was made up of these fifty-four countries, and there were also other

countries existing at that time. In those other countries the varnasrama was

not perfectly practiced. In India (Bharata-khanda) this varnasrama

(Vaidhika-dharma) was perfectly in practice.

 

After the Mahabharata war, and after the "dark age" in between there was a

lot of mixing up - people leaving from here and coming back from there. So

we find that remnants are there only in India. You can practically say that

even in India now it is not there. So, if in India it is not there, then you

can understand why in other places it is not there. India is the heart of

varnashrama, but the heart itself is in a bypass surgery stage. So,

naturally the rest of the body must be mute.

 

It’s only a question of the changes of time. For example, today, due to the

spreading of Krishna consciousness, varnasharama is being more perfectly

practiced in the western countries than in India itself. So this is all due

to the changes of time. If you look back in history, you can see that it was

the other way before.

 

It is not that the varnashrama belongs to one country. Civilization starts

with varnashrama. Sometimes civilization in one part of the world may be

high, and sometimes in another part it may be high. In which ever it is high

or low, the closest remnants will be seen in the heart. This is why it looks

like varnashrama, or caste, or anything is Indian; but that’s not so.

 

Anywhere in the world there is natural divisions - intellectual class,

administrative class, business class and working class. That’s what

varnashrama means in its essence. However you see it, it is only when people

are civilized that it is functional; but if they are not civilized it is not

functional.

 

Civilized means with a spiritual goal for life. This is the indication of

civilization. But when that goal is not spiritual, when it becomes

materialistic, then naturally the divisions of varnashrama end up as castes,

tribes, clans and the like. It again changes wherever the spiritual goal is

pinpointed in a human civilization. There the varnashrama becomes the first

sign of civilization, the division of society. But this is only if the

spiritual goal is put as the target.

 

When discussing varnasrama we must understand the two classifications,

namely daiva (spiritual) varnashrama and arthika (material) or asuri

varnashrama. 

 

Daiva varnashrama is the perfect ideal which we are talking about. Even in

ancient India, it was not that it was always daiva varnashrama being

practiced. That is always fluctuating. And sometimes it is even found that

the demons follow daiva varnashram more perfectly. For example, at the time

of Mahabali, the asuras were following daiva varnashrama more perfectly than

the devas. This is why they were successful. So there are many details we

must take into account.

 

The idea that varnashrama belongs to a particular geographic area is not

correct. It is something to do with the culture of a civilized society. They

may not be having the same name, but still, it is varnashrama. If the

society is distinctly divided into the intellectual class, administrative

class, business class and working class, even though they may not be using

the Sanskrit words, it is still varnashrama. It may not be consisting of the

rituals and other things, such as purificatory processes (samskaras) etc.,

but still it is the same.

 

-------------------------

What's New at IndiaDivine

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This week we have added the following new articles and pages:

 

Why save the Cows?

 

Mystery of Bhagavad Gita Simplified

 

Maunam: To Silence the Wandering Mind

 

The History of the Ancient Deity of Alarnath

 

A Life of Devotion

 

Bhakti-naipunya: The Last Limit of Bhakti

 

 

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The following back issues may be requested by sending us an email:

 

"Gods, Demigods and Incarnations", (Volume 1, Issue 1)

 

"Siddhis, Riddhis and Mystical Experiences", (Volume 1, Issue 2)

 

"From Death to Immortality", (Volume 1, Issue 3)

 

"Incarnation for the Modern Age", (Volume 1, Issue 4)

 

"Peace, Happiness and the Perplexities of Life", (Volume 1, Issue 5)

 

"The Ten Subjects of Srimad Bhagavatam", (Volume 1, Issue 6)

 

"The Vedic Conception of Sound in Four Features", (Volume 1, Issue 7)

 

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