Scheduled tragedies and human experiences: notes on the Mahābhārata

Abstract

The Mahābhārata is the story of a massive warrior destruction resulting in a new and worse age. This paper takes as its starting point the Song of the Women, its book 11th, to raise the issues of the different levels of explanation of the slaughter, of the problems on the role of human beings in the context of the divine plan of extermination, and of the role of divinities, particularly Kṛṣṇa. The use of Gāndhārī’s voice and his curse on Kṛṣṇa by the authors of the Mahābhārata is emphasized. Their approaches to this set of issues are consistent with a unitary interpretation of the work as advocated by A. Hiltebeitel.