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Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s3.t6: Mahabharata

Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s3.t6

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English

Mahabharata

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Mahabharata is an ancient Indian epic, and its literal meaning is 'The Great Bharata Family' or 'The Story of Great Bharata Family'. Together with another epic Ramayana, they are called two major Indian epics. Ramayana is “the original epic”, while Mahabharata is the historical legend. The latter includes ancient historical legends since 1400 BCE. It is not only a supreme classic on ancient Indian society but also an important work to know early human culture.

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The main story of Mahabharata elaborates many legends. It is not only of great literary value but also profound religious philosophy and code of law. It is also the longest epic in the world. There are two main editions - critical edition of Pune and collated edition of southern India. The former is seven times the length of the Homeric epics, Iliad and Odyssey combined, and the latter is about 10 times. Critical edition has more than 80,000 odes (verse) with more than 1,60,000 lines. The southern Indian edition has more than 1,00,000 odes with more than 2,00,000 lines. The core part of the epic may originate from the 8ᵗʰ or 9ᵗʰ century BCE. Bharata, the oldest part of the book is composed of 24,000 verses, without episodes. It may have been produced in 4ᵗʰ century BCE, and the full text is shaped in early Gupta Dynasty in 4ᵗʰ century CE. In other words, the epic was formed between 4ᵗʰ century BCE to 4ᵗʰ century CE. According to legends, the author of Mahabharata is Vyasa. In addition to the dialogues between the characters and an individual prose section, the whole epic is in ode style with 32 notes of a verse. Each line has 16 notes, chanted in two separate sentences. Translated into Chinese poetry, it has eight notes of a sentence and four sentences of a verse.

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*'Mahabharata', Sanskrit edition*

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Since 1919, Bhandarkar Oriental Institute, Pune in India invited many Sanskrit scholars to conduct much revision of the epic. In 1966, a critical edition came out with 19 articles and two volumes of Harivamsa and six indexes appended.

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Mahabharata is situated in the period of a national war in Indian society forming the background. It mainly describes war between two descendants of Bharata - Pandava and Kaurava, who fight for the throne. Bharata was a famous ancient king with two sons, Dhritarastra and Pandu. Dhritarastra had 100 sons known as Kauravas, while Pandu had five sons known as Pandavas. After Pandu's death, Dhritarastra inherited the throne. Yudhisthira, the eldest son of Pandu, wanted to win back the throne after he grew up. But Duryodhana, the eldest son of Dhritarastra refused. Hence, both sides declared war against each other. The bitter war lasted for 18 days in Kurukshetra near Delhi. Ultimately, the Pandavas won the war. The Kauravas were defeated with only the eldest son and three soldiers surviving. Three warriors attack the barracks of the Pandavas in the middle of the night, and kill all soldiers. Due to the absence of five sons of Pandavas, they survive. Yudhisthira ascends the throne and then goes to heaven.

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*An illustration of the Mahabharata depicting the war between the Pandava brothers, Bhim and Arjun, and the head of the Kauravas, Duryodhana.*

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Mahabharata is divided into 18 parts: The Book of the Beginning, The Book of the Assembly Hall, The Book of the Forest, The Book of Virata, The Book of the Effort, The Book of Bhishma, The Book of Drona, The Book of Karna, The Book of the Sleeping Warriors, The Book of the Women, The Book of Peace, The Book of the Instructions, The Book of the Horse Sacrifice, The Book of the Hermitage, The Book of the Clubs, The Book of the Great Journey and The Book of the Ascent to Heaven. The preface tells the legend of Bharata's ancestors and birth of Bhishma. The second half of the first book and the second book are the main body of the epic, and they tell the tortuous war declared by Kauravas and Pandavas in their struggle for the throne. The story ends with 12 years of exile of five sons of Pandavas. The third book details the life of exile of five sons of Pandavas with a large number of episodes. The fourth and fifth books elaborate the political struggle. The sixth to eleventh books are the core of the epic, telling the war. Pandavas and Kauravas gather in Kuruksetra, with Kauravas's commanders being killed one after the other. Facing the internecine warfare, Arjuna expresses his sympathy, and hesitates to move forward. Krishna gives him advice and a book having this relevant content forms a separate book, called Bhagavadgita. The 12ᵗʰ and 13ᵗʰ books talk about the aspects of dharma, especially the method of governing the country. The 14ᵗʰ to 18ᵗʰ books tell the consequences of the war.

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Romila Thapar, the famous historian in India, thinks that Mahabharata describes the historical events occurring from 1000 BCE-700 BCE. Rigveda and Brahmana have ever mentioned the warlike Bharata and its branch of Kauravas. After coming out, Mahabharata is thought to be the scripture by Hindus, and is known as the “fifth Veda”. Because the epic covers complex contents, including religion, philosophy, history, politics, ethics, geography, astronomy, legends, myths, nationality, language, literature and many other fields, it is also known as India's encyclopedia of ancient society. It is an inexhaustible source of Indian literature and art of the later generations. This multi-volume epic written in Sanskrit has been translated into several modern languages of India, and also into English, French, German, Russian and even Persian, Javanese, producing long-term and extensive effects in India and the world, directly or indirectly.

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Translation and influence in China

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Chinese people have known about the Mahabharata and some of its contents since early 5ᵗʰ

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*An illustration of the 'Mahabharata', depicting Krishna preaching the 'Bhagavadgita' to Arjuna.*

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century CE. The fifth volume of *Dazhuangyan Sutra* written by Bodhisattva Asvaghosa and translated by Kumarajiva in later Qin Dynasty said that, “Among the tribes, there are more belonging to Brahmins, and people tell the leader of the tribe that the book is named as Luomoyanshu or Poluotashu, and tells the story of the dead ascending to heaven”. Poluotashu is Mahabharata, and “the dead ascending to heaven” refers to the main content of the last book of Mahabharata - The Book of the Ascent to Heaven that after 36 years of reign, Yudhisthira finally gets rid of human hatred and worries, meets his brothers in heaven and all dead relatives of the Pandavas and Kauravas. They all become gods. In Chinese ancient Buddhist sutras and other literature, Mahabharata has missing information. However, because it has nothing to do with the main theme of Buddhism, it does not receive any attention from those translators, and no one translated it into Chinese.

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Since the beginning of 20ᵗʰ century, Chinese people's attention to India is growing. Lu Xun (Chinese writer) highly praised the ancient Indian literature including Mahabharata. He said in his book *On the Power of Mara Poetry* written in 1907 that India has four kinds of Veda that were brilliant, profound and world masterpieces. Among them, Mahabharata and Ramayana were the most wonderful. Monk poets Su Manshu has a good knowledge of Sanskrit and keen interest in Indian literature, hitting on the same idea with Lu Xun. In the same year, he said in the preface of Literature Karma that Mahabharata and Ramayana were the masterwork in China. Even Chinese works such as *The Peacock Flies to the Southeast*, *Northward Expedition and South Mountain* cannot compare with them”. In 1911, he said in Discussion on Buddhism that Mahabharata and Ramayana are long narrative poems, and even Homer cannot match up to it. Research on both epics can be traced back to the Shang Dynasty of China. At that time, there were no translations, and only the *Avatamsaka Sutra* mentioned their names. It is said that this was translated by Bodhisattva Asvaghosa. After a long time, Buddhist Yizanggong (Xuanzang) thought it had nothing to do with Buddhism and did not translate them into Chinese. In 1913, Su Manshu praised in his *Essay of Swallow Shrine* that Mahabharata and Ramayana were profound and elegant, seen as a treasure by European scholars, and were as important as Iliad and Odyssey of Greece. China did not have any translation with them but only *Avatamsaka Sutra* had mentioned the name of Mahabharata and Ramayana. Europe had their translation, and the translation of Mahabharata by an Indian scholar was the best with Max Muller writing the preface. Su Manshu was aware of the value of these two epics, and had a strong desire to translate them into Chinese. However, it was a pity that this undertaking was left incomplete due to his early death. In terms of two Indian epics, he was undoubtedly of important significance to contemporary scholars.

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In 1950, *Two Indian Epics* translated by Mi Wenkai was published by Taiwan Commercial Press and was republished by Beijing Indian Study Press the next year. Although the book only had 1,20,000 words, its main readers in Taiwan and Hong Kong came to know of these epics. In March 1962, Lamayanna, Mahapalada translated by Sun Yong was published by People's Literature Publishing House, with “Lamayanna” meaning “Ramayana” and “Mahapalada” meaning “Mahabharata”. Its reference was *Ramayana* and *Mahabharata*, with the translator Ramesh Dutt who was known as “Indian scholar” by Su Manshu. For the translation edition of Sun Yong, each line has 16 Chinese characters and each verse has two lines. He tried to express in the same ode meter of the epic. His translation has about 2,000 odes and 4,000 lines, and is equivalent to one fiftieth of the original Sanskrit version. In 1958, *Story of Mahabharata* translated by Tang Jiyong and collated by Jin Kemu was published by China Youth Publishing Group, and has been reprinted twice thereafter. It is still very popular. Its reference is the English abridged edition *Mahabharata* (1951) of India's famous statesman and writer C. Rajagopalachari. This abridged edition itself became a classic. It has been reprinted more than 40 times with a lasting influence all over the world.

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The Chinese translation of the original Mahabharata of Sanskrit began from the 1950s. In 1954, Jin Kemu first translated the famous episode Savitri into Chinese with the style of verse, and published it in the magazine *Translation*. In 1979, after 25 years, he translated the *Origin of Snake Offering* and wrote an article for analysis, and

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*'The Mahabharata', the Chinese edition*

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published it in the periodical Foreign Literature Studies. In 1982, Zhao Guohua translated another episode Nala - Damayanti in verse style, and it was printed by China Social Sciences Publishing House. In 1987, volumes I and II of *Selection of Mahabharata Episode* edited by Jin Kemu and translated by him and his disciples Zhao Guohua, Xi Bizhuang and Guo Liangyun in the style of verse were listed in the Foreign Literature Books, and were published by People's Literature Publishing House. This book included 15 important episodes with more than 1,000 pages, and was a significant breakthrough of Chinese translation of Mahabharata. At the same time under the support of Jin Kemu, Zhao Guohua, Huang Baosheng, Xi Bizhuang and Guo Liangyun decided to translate the entire book with the style of prose. Although Jin Kemu was old, he still completed the first four chapters with the most difficulty. Subsequently, the first book *The Book of the Beginning* (Adi Parva) translated by Jin Kemu, Zhao Guohua and Xi Bizhuang was completed and published in December 1993. Zhao Guohua said in the postscript that he wrote for the book on January 8, 1991 that “when I was translating the great epic, it was as if I was walking in a boundless desert. After exhausting the full zeal and paying the whole life, what I can see may be only the vague green of Alhagi. Well, just for that vague green!” Zhao Guohua, a prominent scholar who devoted himself to the translation of Mahabharata and made the pioneering contribution, died of myocardial infarction in the early winter of the same year, at only 48. Huang Baosheng was obligatory to take such huge and difficult translation project. Subsequently, Ge WeiJun, Li Nan and Duan Qing joined the translation team. In 1999, Bhishma Parva translated by Huang Baosheng was listed in the “Collection of world heroic epic translations”, and was published by Yilin Press. In 2005, the cover-to-cover Chinese translation of Mahabharata accomplished by three generations of scholars for more than 10 years was published by China Social Sciences Press, which was a great event in Chinese translation literature history, and also a monument of India-China cultural exchanges history. The book was divided into six huge volumes, with about five million Chinese characters.

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*Programme list of the performance on 'Mahabharata' by the School of Drama, Taipei National University of the Arts*

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Bhagavad Gita, a famous long verse about religious philosophy in Mahabharata has had three verse translation editions in China. In 1957, Bhagavad Gita translated by Xu Fancheng in the traditional verse was published in Pondicherry, India, but this edition was little known in China for a long time. In 1989, Bhagavad Gita translated by Zhang Baosheng in the modern verse was published by China Social Sciences Publishing House. In 2010, the translation edition of Huang Baosheng in the modern verse was released by Beijing Commercial Press. Xu Fancheng said in the postscript of his translation of the Messenger of Clouds that “one masterwork having more translation editions is very common for classical literature”, which showed that many translation editions of one masterwork was normal and was the results of academic efforts. The new cover-to-cover English translation editions of Mahabharata in the style of prose and verse emerged continuously. China may also have the cover-tocover translation in the style of verse in the future.

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Research on Mahabharata in China can be seen in various prefaces and postscripts of translation edition and all kinds of related literature. Jin Kemu used one chapter to comprehensively discuss many aspects of the epic in his Literary History of Sanskrit (1964). The preface of his Selection of Mahabharata Episode and other essays were full of insight. In addition, Huang Baosheng’s Introduction of Mahabharata (2005) and other works are helpful for readers to understand the epic.

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(*Liu Jian*)

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