Mahabharata as relevant today as in past

The world is no more a peaceful place to live in. One is constantly looking for world peace to fight the growing violence. The epic and scriptures may have been written ages back but what they narrate have relevance even today. As one delves further into the Mahabharata, one of the most read epics, one finds it easier to understand the deep roots of violence. Even a spark of incident can cause fire and bloodshed. How different can it be today? And questioning this is the danseuse, choreographer and writer, Mrinalini Sarabhai, in the play titled This Mahabharata, which was staged at Natarani on Wednesday.

The play, moving from the conventional form of depiction, began with the climax and immediately invoked a feeling of lamentation, bloodshed, mass destruction of a family due to jealousy and urge to posses wealth and power. The play began with the question, "What is all the destruction for? What have we gained through this?" - sentiments released by Bhishma on his deathbed.

The play tried to convey the emotions and thought processes with well-composed music and dialogues were used for narrating or communicating important facts only.

The music was a fusion, created with western cymbals and drums indicating world harmony. There were Sanskrit shlokas and Hindi bhajans. The shlokas were directed to question the present situation of the world at large. The music was composed by Jayan Nair and Dineshkumar, Nicholas McBride, T. Palanivelu, Radha Menon and R.K. Perumal.

This Mahabharata targetted the issues that are as much relevant today as they were in the past though the reference may be varied. The issues compared were: Kunti’s giving away of unwanted Karna to present infanticide of unwanted children, the Draupadi vastra haran to present rapes and molestation of women and girls. But the major highlight of the play was the wars for land and how when one penetrates into someone elses boundary there is bloodshed and mayhem. This was brilliantly portrayed in form of wars between China and Tibet and lndia and Pakistan.

The Ekalavya and Dronacharya episode, where the former handed over his thumb as guru dakshina to the latter, was performed through a tribal dance. A parallel was drawn between the exploitation of tribals by the present day politicians and the episode between the tutor and the taught. The director and choreographer, on an ending note said, "We have just one world, can’t we share it with peace and shun the material wealth?"

The end of the play saw the Kauravas’ and the Pandavas’ deciding not to have a war and asking Krishna to show the way. To this Mrinalini said, "Krishna left us with no answer, but there was a man in our very own city who gave us a very important message. The man was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He said Ahimsa (non-violence) is the only answer to all problems of humanity." And the evening ended with Raghupati raghav raja Ram, patit pavan sita ram... Sabko san-mati de bhagwan.

Compiled from local news media