The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s2.10

c2.s2.10

From another point of view, efforts have been made to prove not only a change, but a complete inversion (in our present story) of the original theme. This criticism bases itself on the want of unity in the characters. Starting with the two-fold nature of Krishna-Vishnu as man and god,* and with the glossed-over sins of the Pāndus, the critic argues that the first poem was written for the glory of the Kurus, and subsequently tampered with to magnify the Pāndus; and that in this latter form we have our present Epic, dating from before the fourth century B. C.; since the worship of Vishnu was in Megasthenes' time triumphant over that of Brahmā, and it is with the cult of the former god that the Pāndus are bound up. The first poem would thus be completely changed, or, as Schroeder in describing the theory says,† ‘set upon its head.’ Schroeder’s exposition of the theory, being the latest outcome of this criticism (we are indebted to Adolph Holtzmann for its tone), will serve as at once the clearest and most recent explanation of how the Epic may thus have been inverted. ‘The original poet (he says in substance) lived at a time when Brahmā was the highest god (700 to 500 or 400 B. C.); and this singer was a child of the Kuru-land. He heard reports of the celebrated Kuru race that once reigned in his land, but had been destroyed by the dishonorable fighting of a strange race of invaders. This tragical overthrow he depicted in such a way as to make his native heroes models of knightly virtue, while he painted the victors (Pāndus, Panchālas, Matsyas), with Krishna, hero of the Yādavas, at their head, as ignoble and shamefully victorious. This is the old Bhārata song mentioned in Āçvalāyana. After a time Krishna became a god, and his priests, supported by the Pāndus, sought to make Krishna (Vishnu) worthy to be set against Buddha. Their exertions were successful. Vishnu in the fourth century became the great god, and his grateful priests rewarded their helpers, the Pāndus, by taking the Bhārata poem in hand and making a complete change in the story, so as to relieve them of the reproaches of the old poet. Finally they worked it into such shape that it praised the Pāndus and blamed their opponents. About this time they inserted all the episodes that glorify Vishnu as the highest god. The Pāndus then pretended that they had originally belonged to the Kuru stock, and the cousinship portrayed in the poem was invented; whereas they were really an alien, probably a southern, race.*