INTRODUCTION:

Asia is a land where almost all messengers of God arrived for guidance. Though that area is part of Arab territory and is now-a-days called Saudi Arabia and Israel and located in Middle East. It show that Asia is a region chosen by God to spread the light of knowledge and wisdom throughout the world where as at that time Arabs were living in dark age. The major part of South Asia is dominated by the countries like that of Pakistan, India, Bangladesh which as a whole was called Sub-continent. South Asia, though not blessed with messengers of God but the whole area is lighted through the teachings of Sufi saints like Mujadid alif Sani, Shah Wali ullah, Khawaja Muinuddin Chishti, Bu Ali Qalandar and several others.

The area is also lighted through the teachings of some noble men like that of Buddha, Guru Nanak, etc. South Asian countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka are still full with Buddhist. Even Afghanistan at a time had Buddhist culture as it is shown through the remains of old Buddhist civilization and statues of Buddha found at many places in Afghanistan. India is main country of South Asian region which is dominated by Hindus.

In ancient times, there was no central government in South Asia. The whole area was divided into small states which were ruled by different princes especially Indian Sub-continent. There was always War between two states as one state tried to dominate over the other. There were hundreds of such states. Each ruled by a different Raja/Prince. There was no set rules and regulations for the administration of a state. The head is sole owner of the states and reserved the right to make a rule or to amend a rule. Most of the states were run by dictators. No authentic record is available to describe the history of the Sub-continent or South Asia As the term historiography tended to be used in a more basic sense, to mean simply “the writing of history”. Furay and Salevouris have defined historiography as the “study of the way history has been and is written, the history of historical writing. When you study historiography you do not study the events of the past directly, but the changing interpretations of those events in the works of individual historians”.(Furay and Salevouris, 2010, 223)

But unfortunately in Sub-continent no one tried to consolidate history and historical events and their interpretation. Further as Sub-continent was divided into small states ruled by Rajas, court(durbari) historian wrote some paragraphs of praise in respect of Rajas which are usually false or biased. Major part of historical record either destroyed due to the weather influence or destroyed by some natural calamity. Though there is available some record which is mostly consists of religious literature. It is important to mention here that almost all civilizations have historical record intact like that of Greek, Persian, Arabs, etc. But unfortunately ancient South Asia has only few historical material and religious literature only to depict the ancient history of the region. It will relevant to mention here that almost all religion have religious books. These books describe past events or history of the nations like that of Bible, Torah, Zabur, and Quran Majeed. But at the same time the followers of these books, wrote different books which revealed the history of their time which is a good source to understand about them. But in Sub-continent no such authentic book is written by the historian of this region other than religious books like that of Rig Veda, Bharaman Ghranth or Upnishad, Ramayan and Mahabharata. In order to study the life of Indian people in the past, we have to rely on different sources of Indian history. Although there is an absence of any historical chronicle, it does not mean that Indians lacked in historical sense. The information derived from literary sources and corroborated by archaeological evidence helps us to form a complete picture of our ancient times. The sources for the reconstruction of ancient Indian history can be studied under three broad headings namely (1) Literary sources (2) Archaeological sources and (3) Accounts of the Foreign historians and travelers.

Thus most of the literary sources of ancient Indian history were predominantly religious and contain less factual data that can be considered as authentic historical source. Some of the oldest sources include the Puranas, the Vedas and epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata. These sources focus more on the civilization and culture of that age instead of the political scenario. Rig veda, the earliest amongst the Vedas, provides information about the Aryans, their relocation to India, and their interaction with other clans. The Vedas generally offer detailed facts about the Aryan civilization. The Puranas, which were prepared during the Gupta era, contain historical facts about the royal lineage and their reigns. Whereas, the Upanishads notify about the religious part of the Vedic period. Furthermore, various Jain and Buddhist literatures and religious texts contain historical materials for reference. The Buddhist literatures, which were written in Pali, contained information about Lord Buddha and various kings of that era. The Jain texts, written in Prakit, provided facts about trade and traders in India. Buddhist Dwipavamsa, Mahavamsa and the Jain Parisistapravana are a few texts that supply some historical resources. The Manu Smriti, Vishnu Smriti, Narada Smriti contained references regarding rules related to the law of the land and duties of kings and other bureaucrats. Arthashastra, a law book, written by Kautilya, states about the economic and legal issues present in the society, during the Maurya Empire. The grammar of Panini and Patanjali, Gargi Samhita also includes adequate historical sources.

Mahabharta is written and composed by Sage Vyasa. However it is assumed that the author of this long epic is some unknown person but Vyasa compiled it. Mahabharata (partly religious and partly secular) throw a flood of light on different aspects of Hindu society before sixth century B.C. The Mahabharata is basically an epic poem. It is a story of War like that of Herodotus’s Persian War. It is a recognized as a longest epic in world literature (100,000 or 88.000 2-line stanzas) making it eight times as long as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and over 3 times as long as the Bible. The main subject of this epic is war between Pandavas and Kauravas. However, myths and teachings dominated the main subject. Mahabharta can be used as source of ancient historiography of India as it revealed a story of different gods like river goddess, Ganga and as majority of ancient sub-continent was Hindu who believed in different gods so it revealed the religious beliefs of the people of ancient India. There are many stories along with different sub stories. Mahabharta revealed beliefs, religion, moral values, habits and customs, culture, political organization of that time. The people of ancient time strongly believe magic as a power which dominated their lives. Almost all population at that time was Hindu.

The people of ancient times strongly respect moral values and they knew the difference between good and evil. They followed traditions, customs and habits of their ancestors and basically ancient India was a traditional society. Politically this region was ruled by small princely states as shown in Mahabharta and these states usually fought with each other and rival of each other. An ancient woman of India may marry many men. The practice of magic was very common and became part of their culture. Socially the society was dominated by idea of revenge and people waited for long to complete revenge. The importance and power of vows are evident throughout the epic. Bhrahmin dominated the society as stated in the epic.

Once stated, a vow becomes the truth and must be fulfilled, no matter what else may happen. The epic further revealed that the society was dominated by rich people and poor were hated by rich men. Like as shown in epic, “the young princess must be given children, but who can father them? There was no other man in the family besides Bhishma, and he had renounced women. So Satyavati, the king’s second wife, asks her first-born son, Vyasa the poet, to give children to the two princesses. He goes to them, but the princesses dislike him, for as an ascetic who had taken a vow of poverty, he was filthy and smell”.

Mahabharta described that magic is considered a power and the people recited mantras to recall gods. Pandu who was king of Hastinapura came to knew that he could not have children. He resigned from the throne and went into a jungle with his two wives. Kunti, his first wife, informed him that she possessed a magic formula. She could invoke a god at will and have a child by him. The mantra’s power was put to the test and three sons were born to her, Yudhishthir, the son of the god Dharma, Bhima, son of god Vayu who was god of wind and Arjuna son god Indra. Madri also used this magic mantra and gave birth to twin sons, Nakula and Sahadeva.

According to Mahabharta the ancient Hindu society followed the strict rule of caste and society was divided in castes. A woman might be shared by different men like for instance when Arjuna announced to his mother that he had won the prize, Kunti told him to share with his brothers. Like an irrevocable vow, her statement, even by mistake, could not be undone, so all five brothers marry Draupadi, the daughter of Drrupada.

Mahabharta reveals that Pandavas kingdom became wealthy and Kauravas were jealous. This epic is a history of downfall of Pandavas and how they regain power. It is a story of Draupadi who married five Pandavas princes. In it, there revealed the harshness of the Kauravas and humiliation of Draupadi. This epic shows that Pandavas believed in righteousness and in moral obligation. It is their righteousness due to which they were exiled for twelve years when they lost game of dice in which other party cheated. It is a story of greed of Kauravas also. We learn through this epic that there appeared a war between Pandavas and Kauravas during the thirteen year of the exile of Pandavas.

Bhagvad Gita reveals Hindu belief regarding life, “Do not worry about death, which is only one small step in the great and endless cycle of life. One neither kills or is killed. The soul merely casts off old bodies and enters new ones, just as a person changes garments. Death is only illusion.”

The epic shows gentleness of Pandavas. Pandavas Prince Yudhishthira went to his teachers who were bound to fight on the side of the Kauravas. He state; “O invincible one, I bow to you. We will fight you. Please grant us your permission and give us your blessing.” For this sign of respect both men prayed for the victory of Pandavas. This epic reveals that in ancient times, gods used their powers to destroy the evil men or forces. The major weapon of war was arrow. There was use of celestial weapons in the story of war. Sacrifice for gods was very common in ancient times like throwing a man or women into fire, etc. Magical mantras were very common, especially during war. Revenge is main theme of the epic. It shows that some very cruel acts were also performed during the war like when Bhima knocked Duhsasana to the ground with his mace and rips opened his chest. He drank his blood and said that it was better than his mother’s milk. At the end of epic it is revealed that the war ended but all those on both sides died in the war except the five Pandavas. The war resulted with a moral that war is an evil thing.

Mahabharta reveals in ancient India truth is highly valued. Kings revere Brahmins. Woman was respected. Cow is considered as a stair that will lead to heaven.

CONCLUSION:

Thus it can be concluded that Mahabharta can be used as a source to understand the ancient Indian history. Though it is part of religious literature but provides information about the different aspects of life of the people of ancient India.

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Received on 30.05.2015 Modified on 10.06.2015

Int. J. Ad. Social Sciences 3(2): April-June, 2015; Page 85-88