Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c29.297

c29.297

Much stress has been laid on the fact, that the Brāhmaṇas and Sūtras make no reference to the Pāṇḍavas and the Bhārata battle,⁶ as throwing doubt on the alleged events, but the explanation is simple. That battle was a purely political contest, had no religious significance, and (though described at great length in the epic) was a brief struggle between the Pāṇḍavas and Dhārtarāṣṭras. All that it decided was which of them should hold the Kuru realm. Hence it did not concern the recluse brahmans who composed the religious literature, and naturally they did not mention it. Moreover, the name Pāṇḍava was a transient one. The sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra and of Pāṇḍu were cousins, all Kurus or Kauravas, and the patronymic Pāṇḍava was needed as distinctive only during their struggle, for the Pāṇḍavas when they conquered succeeded as Kurus to the Kuru realm, their cousins were all killed, and the name Pāṇḍava had no longer any *raison d'être*. Consequently it appears far less often in the last seven books than in the earlier books of the epic, and naturally finds no place in the religious literature which was composed after the kingdom was settled in Yudhiṣṭhira’s successors.¹ This matter is a signal illustration of the difference between kṣatriya and brahmanic thought (p. 59), and of the futility of expecting purely secular history in the priestly books. Politically and for kṣatriyas that contest and its results were a very great event; religiously and for brahmans (especially recluse brahmans) it had no importance whatever.