Mahābhārata: the critical edition and beyond
Indians like me begin their love affair with the Mahābhārata from nānīmā’s stories. Given the bewildering variety and variation in the different recensions of the Mahābhārata, in the late 19th century a movement began to create a “critical edition” of the epic. In Sukthankar’s own words, “What the promoters of this scheme desire to produce and supply is briefly this: a critical edition of the Mahābhārata in the preparation of which all important versions of the great epic shall have been taken into consideration, and all important manuscripts collated, estimated and turned to account.” The general idea is to collect as many manuscript copies from around the country ; to represent as many regions as possible by using Sanskrit manuscripts in different scripts ; and to balance newer, younger well-maintained manuscripts with older ones, which might be partial or even illegible—the latter being considered more valuable. At a recent session of the SOAS Sanskrit Reading Room, an initiative wherein leading academics from different streams of Sanskrit study in the UK present to an academic audience comprising students, teachers and scholars of various proficiencies, Hegarty drew our attention to the extraordinary variety of these footnotes and appendices—material from every manuscript consulted in the process of constructing the critical edition. Here are the two translations: Of Mans First Disobedience, and the FruitOf that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tastBrought Death into the World, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, Sing Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret topOf Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed, In the Beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth Rose out of Chaos: Or if Sion Hill Delight thee more, and Siloa's Brook that flow'd Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song, That with no middle flight intends to soarAbove th' Aonian Mount, while it pursues Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime.
