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From the Mahabharata through to everyday life, and from the Gita to Duck Soup



The Mahābhārata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the Rāmāyaṇa. The title may be translated as "the great tale of the Bhārata dynasty".

The Mahābhārata is an epic legendary narrative of the Kurukṣetra War and the fates of the Kaurava and the Pāṇḍava princes. It also contains philosophical and devotional material, such as a discussion of the four "goals of life" or puruṣārtha. Among the principal works and stories in the Mahābhārata are the Bhagavad Gita, the story of Damayanti, an abbreviated version of the Rāmāyaṇa, and the story of Ṛṣyasringa, often considered as works in their own right.

Traditionally, the authorship of the Mahābhārata is attributed to Vyāsa. There have been many attempts to unravel its historical growth and compositional layers. The oldest preserved parts of the text are thought to be not much older than around 400 BCE, though the origins of the epic probably fall between the 8th and 9th centuries BCE. The text probably reached its final form by the early Gupta period (c. 4th century CE). According to the Mahābhārata itself, the tale is extended from a shorter version of 24,000 verses called simply Bhārata.

The Mahābhārata is the longest epic poem known and has been described as "the longest poem ever written". Its longest version consists of over 100,000 śloka or over 200,000 individual verse lines (each shloka is a couplet), and long prose passages. At about 1.8 million words in total, the Mahābhārata is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined, or about four times the length of the Rāmāyaṇa. The importance of the Mahābhārata is comparable in the context of world civilization to that of the Bible, the works of William Shakespeare, the works of Homer, Greek drama, or the Quran. Within the Indian tradition it is sometimes called the Fifth Veda.


Good stories cross many borders
The earliest known references to the Mahābhārata and its core Bhārata date to the Aṣṭādhyāyī (sutra 6.2.38) of Pāṇini (fl. 4th century BCE) and in the Aśvalāyana Gṛhyasūtra (3.4.4). This may mean the core 24,000 verses, known as the Bhārata, as well as an early version of the extended Mahābhārata, were composed by the 4th century BCE. 

Connections across continents
A report by the Greek writer Dio Chrysostom (c. 40 - c. 120 CE) about Homer's poetry being sung even in India seems to imply that the Iliad had been translated into Sanskrit. However, Indian scholars have, in general, taken this as evidence for the existence of a Mahābhārata at this date, whose episodes Dio or his sources identify with the story of the Iliad.

Nevertheless, in the first chapter of Peter Frankopan's book The Silk Roads: A New History of The World he mentions that it has been suggested that the Mahabharata;
"owes a debt to the Iliad and to the Odyssey, with the theme of the abduction of Lady Sita by Ravana a direct echo of the elopement of Helen with Paris of Troy."
(Page 8.)

This is in the context of the legacy of Alexander the Great's military forays into Asia:
According to Plutarch , Alexander made sure that Greek theology was taught as far away as India, with the result that the Gods of Olympus were revered across Asia. Young men in Persia and beyond were brought up reading Homer and 'chanting the tragedies of  Sophocles and Euripedes', while the Greek language was studied in the Indus valley.
 (Page 8.) 

It is not unusual to find echoes of ideas and concepts, values and belief systems communicated across cultural boundaries, and that end up translated, literally, as a result of trade and the projections of political and military power. And a good story travels!

Two of the edicts of Ashoka in Afghanistan have been found with Greek inscriptions, one of these being a bilingual edict in Greek language and Aramaic. This edict, found in Kandahar, advocates the adoption of "Piety" (using the Greek term Eusebeia for Dharma) to the Greek community:

    



Ten years (of reign) having been completed, King Piodasses (one of the titles of Ashoka: Piyadassi or Priyadarsi, "He who is the beloved servant of the Gods and who regardseveryone amiably") made known (the doctrine of) Piety (Greek:εὐσέβεια, Eusebeia) to men; and from this moment he has made men more pious, and everything thrives throughout the whole world. And the king abstains from (killing) living beings, and other men and those who (are) huntsmen and fishermen of the king have desisted from hunting. And if some (were) intemperate, they have ceased from their intemperance as was in their power; and obedient to their father and mother and to the elders, in opposition to the past also in the future, by so acting on every occasion, they will live better and more happily.
Greek communities lived in the northwest of the Mauryan empire,  in present day Pakistan, notably ancient Gandhara, and in the region of Gedrosia, nowadays in Southern Afghanistan, following the conquest and the colonization efforts of Alexander the Great around 323 BCE. These communities therefore seem to have been still significant during the reign of Ashoka. A notable mention references aspects of Greek society.
There is no country, except among the Greeks, where these two groups, Brahmans and ascetics, are not found, and there is no country where people are not devoted to one or another religion. 
Rock Edict 13
 

Buddhist ideas and stories crossed many borders from India to the Hellenistic world as far as Alexandria and the eastern Mediterranean. In order to propagate the Buddhist faith, Ashoka explains that he sent emissaries to the Hellenistic kings as far as the Mediterranean, and to people throughout India, claiming they were all converted to the Dharma as a result. He names the Greek rulers of the time, inheritors of the conquest of Alexander the Great, from Bactria to as far as Greece and North Africa, displaying a clear grasp of the political situation at the time.
Now it is conquest by Dhamma that Beloved-Servant-of-the-Gods considers to be the best conquest. And it [conquest by Dhamma] has been won here, on the borders, even six hundred yojanas away, where the Greek king Antiochos rules, beyond there where the four kings named Ptolemy, Antigonos, Magas and Alexander rule, likewise in the south among the Cholas, the Pandyas, and as far as Tamraparni.
 Rock Edict 13

The distance of 600 yojanas corresponds to the distance between the center of India and Greece, roughly 4,000 miles.

The Mahabharata takes many forms
Many regional versions of the work developed over time, mostly differing only in minor details, or with verses or subsidiary stories being added. These include the Tamil street theatre, terukkuttu and kattaikkuttu, the plays of which use themes from the Tamil language versions of Mahabharata, focusing on Draupadi.

Outside the Indian subcontinent, in Indonesia, a version was developed in ancient Java as Kakawin Bhāratayuddha in the 11th century under the patronage of King Dharmawangsa (990–1016) and later it spread to the neighboring island of Bali, which remains a Hindu majority island today. It has become the fertile source for Javanese literature, dance drama (wayang wong), and wayang shadow puppet performances. This Javanese version of the Mahābhārata differs slightly from the original Indian version. For example, Draupadi is only wed to Yudhishthira, not to all the Pandava brothers; this might demonstrate ancient Javanese opposition to polyandry. The author later added some female characters to be wed to the Pandavas, for example, Arjuna is described as having many wives and consorts next to Subhadra. Another difference is that Shikhandini does not change her sex and remains a woman, to be wed to Arjuna, and takes the role of a warrior princess during the war.[citation needed] Another twist is that Gandhari is described as antagonistic character who hates the Pandavas: her hate is out of jealousy because during Gandhari's swayamvara, she was in love with Pandu but was later wed to his blind elder brother instead, whom she did not love, so she blindfolded herself as protest. Another notable difference is the inclusion of the Punakawans, the clown servants of the main characters in the storyline. These characters include Semar, Petruk, Gareng and Bagong, who are much-loved by Indonesian audiences. There are also some spin-off episodes developed in ancient Java, such as Arjunawiwaha composed in 11th century.

A Kawi version of the Mahabharata, of which eight of the eighteen parvas survive, is found on the Indonesian island of Bali. It has been translated into English by Dr. I. Gusti Putu Phalgunadi.
 


Synopsis
 

Ganesha writing the Mahabharata

The core story of the work is that of a dynastic struggle for the throne of Hastinapura, the kingdom ruled by the Kuru clan. The two collateral branches of the family that participate in the struggle are the Kaurava and the Pandava. Although the Kaurava is the senior branch of the family, Duryodhana, the eldest Kaurava, is younger than Yudhishthira, the eldest Pandava. Both Duryodhana and Yudhishthira claim to be first in line to inherit the throne.

The struggle culminates in the great battle of Kurukshetra, in which the Pandavas are ultimately victorious. The battle produces complex conflicts of kinship and friendship, instances of family loyalty and duty taking precedence over what is right, as well as the converse.

The Mahābhārata itself ends with the death of Krishna, and the subsequent end of his dynasty and ascent of the Pandava brothers to heaven. It also marks the beginning of the Hindu age of Kali Yuga, the fourth and final age of humankind, in which great values and noble ideas have crumbled, and people are heading towards the complete dissolution of right action, morality and virtue. 


The Mahabharata and everyday life
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna explains to Arjuna his duties as a warrior and prince and elaborates on different Yogic and Vedantic philosophies, with examples and analogies. This has led to the Gita often being described as a concise guide to Hindu philosophy and a practical, self-contained guide to life. In more modern times, Swami Vivekananda, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi and many others used the text to help inspire the Indian independence movement. 



India Today
April 18, 2017


The epic narrative of Mahabharata had been written ages ago. Yet the legendary tale continues to find prominence in every form of art, and continues to overwhelm us even today.

The fact that the epic is still revered is not only because of its poetic grandeur. The stories that almost all of us have grown up with hold relevance even during present times. The deeply philosophical ideas that perpetuate throughout the epic have a lot to teach us about the art of living.

So, here are 7 important lessons that we can learn from the Mahabharata.

1. A revengeful instinct can only lead to one's doom




Mahabharata may revolve around the war of duty. But we cannot escape the fact that the major reason behind the destruction of all was revenge. The Kauravas lost everything to their blinded desire to ruin the Pandavas. The war did not even spare the children, including Draupadi's five sons and Abhimanyu.

2. Stand by what's right; even fight for it


Arjuna was initially hesitant to wage war against his kin. But Krishna reminded him that one has to stand by Dharma (duty), even it meant going against one's own family. Therefore, Arjuna had to fulfill his responsibility as a great warrior of Dharma.




 



3. The eternal bond of friendship

The friendship between Krishna and Arjuna is something all of us look up to. It is perhaps because of Krishna's unconditional support and motivation that the Pandavas managed to survive the war. None of us can forget the epic dice scene where it was Krishna who came to Draupadi's rescue while her husbands gambled her away to disgrace. The friendship between Karna and Duryodhan, on the other hand, is no less inspiring.

Also Read:Author Trisha Das' new book explores the life of a Draupadi who's really bored in heaven

4. Half knowledge can be dangerous

Arjuna's son Abhimanyu teaches us how half-knowledge can have an adverse impact. While Abhimanyu knew how to enter the Chkaravyuh, he did not know the way out.

5. Don't be swayed by greed

  
What did Yudhishthir win out of greed? On the contrary, he lost everything he possessed--from his kingdom to his wealth. And to gamble away a woman in the pursuit of hubris! How can one possibly justify that?



6. We cannot give up on life despite all hurdles
  
 
Who can be a better example for this than Karana? Right from his birth, the 'suta-putra' battled his way through life, fighting discrimination and disgrace at every stage. He almost became a puppet in the hands of fate. But no obstacle could ever deter him from pursuing his goal. And his devotion towards his mother knew no bounds, to the extent that he even gave up his kavajkundal (his life-saving power) on her demand.

7. Being a woman does not make you a lesser individual

  
Yes, Draupadi was manoeuvred into taking five husbands, she was humiliated by the Kauravas for the fault of her own husband. She was violated but she was bold enough to take a stand. She ensured she got justice by vowing to wash her hair with the blood of Duryodhana and Dushanana--perhaps another reason that led to the war. A woman like Draupadi will not be passive, she will be fiery, she will fight for herself.

 

  
From Mahabharata to modernity



Translations across the world
The Mahabharata has been translated many times over recent centuries.
   
A Persian translation of Mahabharta, titled Razmnameh, was produced at Akbar's orders, by Faizi and `Abd al-Qadir Bada'uni in the 18th century.

 



The first complete English translation was the Victorian prose version by Kisari Mohan Ganguli, published between 1883 and 1896 (Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers) and by M. N. Dutt (Motilal Banarsidass Publishers). Most critics consider the translation by Ganguli to be faithful to the original text. The complete text of Ganguli's translation is in the public domain and is available online.

Another English prose translation of the full epic, based on the Critical Edition, is in progress, published by University Of Chicago Press. It was initiated by Indologist J. A. B. van Buitenen (books 1–5) and, following a 20-year hiatus caused by the death of van Buitenen, is being continued by D. Gitomer of DePaul University (book 6), J. L. Fitzgerald of Brown University (books 11–13) and Wendy Doniger of the University of Chicago (books 14–18).

An early poetry translation by Romesh Chunder Dutt and published in 1898 condenses the main themes of the Mahābhārata into English verse. A later poetic "transcreation" (author's own description) of the full epic into English, done by the poet P. Lal, is complete, and in 2005 began being published by Writers Workshop, Calcutta. The P. Lal translation is a non-rhyming verse-by-verse rendering, and is the only edition in any language to include all slokas in all recensions of the work (not just those in the Critical Edition).

A project to translate the full epic into English prose, translated by various hands, began to appear in 2005 from the Clay Sanskrit Library, published by New York University Press. The translation is based not on the Critical Edition but on the version known to the commentator Nīlakaṇṭha. Indian economist Bibek Debroy has also begun an unabridged English translation in ten volumes. Volume 1: Adi Parva was published in March 2010.


Many condensed versions, abridgements and novelistic prose retellings of the complete epic have been published in English, including works by Ramesh Menon, William Buck, R. K. Narayan, C. Rajagopalachari, K. M. Munshi, Krishna Dharma, Romesh C. Dutt, Bharadvaja Sarma, John D. Smith and Sharon Maas.

The Mahabharata is an inspiration

Bhasa, the 2nd- or 3rd-century CE Sanskrit playwright, wrote two plays on episodes in the Marabharata, Urubhanga (Broken Thigh), about the fight between Duryodhana and Bhima. Urubhanga focuses on the story of the character Duryodhana during and after his fight with Bhima. Although Urubhanga contains the same core storyline as that in the Mahābhārata, Bhasa’s altering of certain aspects results in a different presentation of the story. 


The most extreme of these alterations is Bhasa’s portrayal of Duryodhana, who, in the Mahābhārata, is viewed as a villain, but in Urubhanga is given more human qualities. While tragedy is rare among Sanskrit dramas, Bhasa’s presentation of Duryodhana’s side of the tale adds certain tragic elements to the play.

The drama Madhyamavyayoga (The Middle One) is set around Bhima and his son, Ghatotkacha.  Madhyama Vyayoga focuses on the name confusion between the priest Keshav Das's middle son and the middle Pandava prince Bhima. Also, the reunion of Bhima and Ghatotkacha as father and son take place. While the characters in this tale are taken from the Mahabharata, this particular narrative is entirely a work of Bhasa's imagination. Madhyamavyayoga falls under a particular type of Sanskrit drama called Vyayoga.
 





Ghatotkacha the chivalrous demon of Amar Chitra Katha's comic book Mahabharata has now become one of the heroes in the multiplayer online battle arena mobile game developed and published by Moonton - Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.






The Mahabharata as a reflection of the partition of India in 1947
The first important play of 20th century was Andha Yug (The Blind Epoch), by Dharamvir Bharati. Andha Yug is the 1954 verse play written in Hindi, by renowned novelist, poet, and playwright Dharamvir Bharati (1926-1997). It was the first important play of 20th century India. Set in the last day of the Great Mahabharat war, the five-act tragedy was written in the years following the 1947 partition of India and the atrocities that followed in its wake, and stands as an allegory of both the destruction of human lives and ethical values. As a metaphoric meditation on the politics of violence and aggressive assertion of selfhood and the consequences of war that dehumanizes individuals and society, it plays out a scenario where eventually both the victor and the vanquished lose.



This anti-war play created a sensation first as a radio play at Allahabad All India Radio. This led to a production by Mumbai-based theatre director, Satyadev Dubey (1962), and subsequent stagings by theatre doyen Ebrahim Alkazi set against the backdrop of historical monuments in Delhi (like Feroz Shah Kotla and Purana Qila). 


It became "a national theatrical event"; his 1963 production was seen by then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. It was subsequently staged by numerous directors and in many Indian languages.
 

Theatre of the roots
This play was part of the "theatre of the roots" movement which began in the Indian theatre in the 1950s, and explored the potential of the Indian epics and myths to shape form, inspiration and content in a modern context.  Andha Yug is today recognised as the "play that heralded a new era in Indian theatre" and became part of the standard repertoire of Hindi theatre. 


Yayati



V. S. Khandekar's Marathi novel, Yayati (1960) and Girish Karnad's debut play Yayati (1961) are based on the story of King Yayati found in the Mahabharat. 

Draupadi - the most important female character in the Mahabharata

Pratibha Ray wrote an award winning novel entitled Yajnaseni from Draupadi's perspective in 1984. 







Later, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni wrote a similar novel entitled The Palace of Illusions: A Novel in 2008. 







Suman Pokhrel wrote a solo play based on Ray's novel by personalizing and taking Draupadi alone in the scene.


 











Gujarati poet Chinu Modi has written long narrative poetry Bahuk based on character Bahuka. 

Krishna Udayasankar, a Singapore-based Indian author has written several novels which are modern-day retellings of the epic, most notably the Aryavarta Chronicles Series.




In Indian cinema, several film versions of the epic have been made, dating back to 1920. In Telugu film Daana Veera Soora Karna (1977) directed by and starring N. T. Rama Rao depicts Karna as the lead character.

The Mahābhārata was also reinterpreted by Shyam Benegal in Kalyug (Age of vice), a 1981 Indian Hindi-language crime drama film, directed by Shyam Benegal. It is known as a modern-day version of the Indian epic Mahabharat, depicting an archetypal conflict between rival business houses. Kalyug went on to win the Filmfare Award for Best Film in 1982.

The screenplay and plot are not obviously reworking the Mahabharata, but the characterization and the critical events have a striking similarity with the epic. The focus of this film a series of events brings the long-hidden feud between the two families to light. Despite Bhishamchand's efforts to mediate between the two, the situation gets out of hand and events take a tragic turn.


Dhanraj's men accidentally kill the young son of Balraj and to take revenge, Bharatraj murders Karan. Skeletons from the family cupboard are then brought into the open and that only add to the tensions and hatred, finally culminating in the destruction of the two families and exposing the brittleness of moral fabric in society. 


Prakash Jha directed 2010 film Raajneeti that was partially inspired by the Mahabharata. Raajneeti (Politics), is a  political thriller film co-written, directed and produced by Prakash Jha, with a screenplay by Anjum Rajabali and Prakash Jha, and starring Ajay Devgn, Nana Patekar, Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Arjun Rampal, Manoj Bajpayee and Naseeruddin Shah in the lead roles. The story draws parallels to the epic Mahabharata where shades of Karna (Ajay Devgan), Krishna (Nana Patekar), Arjuna (Ranbir Kapoor), Bhima (Arjun Rampal), Duryodhana (Manoj Bajpai), and Draupadi (Katrina Kaif) can be seen in the characters portrayed.



and . . .



. . . a 2013 animated adaptation holds the record for India's most expensive animated film.

The Mahabharata has been a staple subject of drama on Indian television since the 1980's . . .



. . . until the present.



The Mahabharata inspiring artists across the world

Indian or universalist?
 


The Mahabharata (French: Le Mahabharata) is a French play, based on the Sanskrit epic Mahābhārata, by Jean-Claude Carrière, which was first staged in a quarry just outside Avignon in a production by the English director Peter Brook. The play, which is nine hours long in performance (eleven with intervals), toured the world for four years. For two years the show was performed both in French and in English (it was translated into English by Brook in 1987). The play is divided into three parts: The Game of Dice, The Exile in the Forest and The War. In 1989, it was adapted for television as a six-hour mini series. 

The screenplay was the result of eight years' work by Peter Brook, Jean-Claude Carrière, and Marie-Hélène Estienne. In a long article in 1985, The New York Times noted "overwhelming critical acclaim", and that the play "did nothing less than attempt to transform Hindu myth into universalized art, accessible to any culture". However, many postcololonial scholars have challenged the claim to universalism, accusing the play of orientalism. Gautam Dasgupta writes that;
"Brook's Mahabharata falls short of the essential Indianness of the epic by staging predominantly its major incidents and failing to adequately emphasize its coterminous philosophical precepts."
The Bhagavad Gita
  
The current Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi has strongly pitched the Bhagavad Gita as "India's biggest gift to the world". Shri Modi gifted The Bhagavad Gita to the then President of the United States, Barack Obama in 2014 during his US visit. With the translation and study of the Bhagavad Gita by Western scholars beginning in the early 18th century, the Bhagavad Gita gained a growing appreciation and popularity. Suprisingly, according to the Indian historian and writer Khushwant Singh, Rudyard Kipling's famous poem "If—" is "the essence of the message of The Gita in English." The Bhagavad Gita, often referred to as the Gita, is part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata (chapters 23–40 of the 6th book of Mahabharata). The Gita is set in a narrative framework of a dialogue between Pandava prince Arjuna and his guide and charioteer Lord Krishna. Facing the duty as a warrior to fight the Dharma Yudhha or righteous war between Pandavas and Kauravas, Arjuna is counselled by Lord Krishna to "fulfill his Kshatriya (warrior) duty as a warrior and establish Dharma". 


At the heart of this appeal to kshatriya dharma (chivalry) "is a dialogue ... between diverging attitudes concerning methods toward the attainment of liberation (moksha)".

The Bhagavad Gita presents a synthesis of the concept of Dharma, theistic bhakti, the yogic ideals of moksha through jnana, bhakti, karma, and Raja Yoga (spoken of in the 6th chapter) and Samkhya philosophy.

Numerous commentaries have been written on the Bhagavad Gita with widely differing views on the essentials. Vedanta commentators read varying relations between Self and Brahman in the text: Advaita Vedanta sees the non-dualism of Atman (soul) and Brahman as its essence, whereas Bhedabheda and Vishishtadvaita see Atman and Brahman as both different and non-different, and Dvaita sees them as different. The setting of the Gita in a battlefield has been interpreted as an allegory for the ethical and moral struggles of the human life.



The influence of the Gita
The Gita has had an influence upon many prominent and influential Indian thinkers and this phenomenon has been replicated in a global context too. Amongst those who have referenced the Gita in their philosophies include Aldous Huxley, Henry David Thoreau, Albert Einstein, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Carl Jung, Bulent Ecevit and Hermann Hesse. Wilhelm von Humboldt pronounced the Gita as:
"The most beautiful, perhaps the only true philosophical song existing in any known tongue ... perhaps the deepest and loftiest thing the world has to show."   
Lord Warren Hastings, the first governor general of British India wrote:
"I hesitate not to pronounce the Gita a performance of great originality, of sublimity of conception, reasoning and diction almost unequalled; and a single exception, amongst all the known religions of mankind."
J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist and director of the Manhattan Project, learned Sanskrit in 1933 and read the Bhagavad Gita in the original form, citing it later as one of the most influential books to shape his philosophy of life. 


Oppenheimer later recalled that, while witnessing the explosion of the Trinity nuclear test, he thought of verses from the Bhagavad Gita (XI,12):

कालोऽस्मि लोकक्षयकृत्प्रवृद्धो लोकान्समाहर्तुमिह प्रवृत्तः। ऋतेऽपि त्वां न भविष्यन्ति सर्वे येऽवस्थिताः प्रत्यनीकेषु योधाः॥११- ३२॥
If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one ...
Years later he would explain that another verse had also entered his head at that time:

We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.
The Bhagavad Gita's call for selfless action inspired many leaders of the Indian independence movement including Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi referred to the Gita as his "spiritual dictionary"
 

The opera Satyagraha by Philip Glass
The inspiration that Ghandi found in the Gita prompted the American composer Philip Glass to compose the opera Satyagraha, a Sanskrit term meaning "insistence on truth". Composed in 1979 it is an opera in three acts for orchestra, chorus and soloists, with music composed by Philip Glass, and with a libretto by Glass and Constance DeJong.

Loosely based on the life of Mahatma Gandhi, it forms the second part of Glass's "Portrait Trilogy" of operas about men who changed the world, which includes Einstein on the Beach and Akhnaten.

The title refers to Gandhi's concept of non-violent resistance to injustice, Satyagraha, and the text, from the Bhagavad Gita, is sung in the original Sanskrit. In performance, translation is usually provided in supertitles.




The video below shows Philip Glass discussing the origin of his Satyagraha Opera, beginning with the story of an Indian man who showed Glass old film footage of the Great Salt March and was thereby responsible for sparking his interest in the life and works of Mahatma Gandhi. Glass continues to discuss his personal inquiries into Ghandi's life and teachings and how these led to the creation of Satyahraha Opera.





From the sublime . . .



. . . to Los Angeles and travels in hyperreality . . .

The Bhagavad-gita Museum was inspired by a diorama exhibit developed by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati in the mid 1930s, consisting of dozens of dioramas dedicated to the philosophy of Krishna consciousness.

The mission initiated by Bhaktivinoda and developed by Bhaktisiddhanta emerged as "the most powerful reformist movement" of Vaishnavism in Bengal of the 19th and early 20th century. However, after the demise of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati in 1937, the Gaudiya Math became tangled by internal dissent, and the united mission in India was effectively fragmented. 

Over decades, the movement regained its momentum. In 1966 its offshoot, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), was founded by Bhaktisiddhanta's disciple Bhaktivedanta Swami in New York City and spearheaded the spread of Gaudiya Vaisnava teachings and practice globally. The Bhaktisiddhanta's branch of Gaudiya Vaishnavism presently counts over 500,000 adherents worldwide, with its public profile far exceeding the size of its constituency. 

In 1973 Sarasvati's student A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), also known as the Hare Krishna movement, sent a group of disciples from the New York temple to Mayapur, India, to study the art of diorama doll making. After fifteen months of studying the team returned and the construction of the dolls in the Los Angeles site began, the museum finally opening in 1977. The museum is located in West Los Angeles near the border of Culver City, where a sizable Hare Krishna population resides.

For the time, the museum was quite sophisticated: a computer was specially designed to synchronize the exhibition which included lighting, a 16-track sound system, numerous film and slide projectors, and special visual effects. New industrial grade projectors and new lighting effects were installed in 1984. However, this sophistication came with a price, and the exhibit was plagued by computer glitches and maintenance problems falling into significant disrepair by 1995. Starting in 1999 the museum was refurbished, and was reopened in 2001 with modern solid state show controls. Further renovations were made in the 2010s and the museum was reopened in 2016.


. . . and back to New York, Woody Allen, Hare Krishna, and the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup 
 








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