Yuganta: The End of an Epoch by Irawati Karve

Title: Yuganta: The end of an epoch (Marathi)

Author: Irawati Karve

Genre: Mythology, Nonfiction

Rating: 5/5

I read this book in marathi. It is one of the most thought provoking books I have read. It is about the characters and incidents in Mahabharata and Irawati Karve’s take on them. One can appreciate her depth of knowledge about the subject and authenticity in her writing.

The parts that hit me most are about Draupadi’s character. How she is the only one in the meeting of learned to pose a question to Yudhishthir how he, being a slave himself has a right to stake her in the gamble. How this act of her had hurt Yudhishthir and he nursed his hurt until Draupadi’s last few breaths and chose that time to hurt her back saying she fell first because she did not love all pandavas equally and how she loved Arjun the most. Inspite of him saying this, it was Bheem who went near Draupadi as usual.. he was the one who loved Draupadi the most, he was the one who fought Mahabharatbwar only for her, whereas other pandavas fought it for kingdom. In the end when he asked what he could do for Draupadi while she was counting her last breaths, she told him, in the next birth, please be the eldest of the pandavas.. That incident is described so beautifully by the author, it brought tears to me..

In chapater on Vidur, she has hinted that Vidur may be actually the biological father of Ydhishthir, whi was a scandalising thought for me.

In the chapter on Bheeshma, she has described how his oath became more important to him than the purpose of the said oath!!

About Karna, it resonated with me that, although his character is portrayed as a selfless generous person, he was in fact selfish. His whole life he kept struggling to get a recognition as a kshatreeya and kept failing. He never fought fir the rights of ‘sootas’ the caste he was brought up in, nor did he fight that Kshtreeya status should be on one’s ability and not by birth.

When Kunti goes to Karna to request him to join pandavas, he is thinking of his loyalty to Duryodhana. He says to her that he promises her that she will have five sons, he will not kill her other sons except Arjun, or he will get killed by Arjun. He implies that other pandavas are not a competition to him. In making such a promise, is he not in fact being disloyal to Duryodhana? As killing or capturing Yudhishthir will essentially end the was and ensure win for Duryodhana..

Most disturbing chapter for me was ‘Mayasabha’ where Krishna and Arjun burn down Khandav vana, along with the creatures and possibly people in it. This act is so unimaginably cruel, and to think someone as beloved to me as Krishna could have done it seemed unacceptable to me. But the author has an explanation to this act, that this was probably the norm to form a civilisation at the time. Burning trees makes sense to acquire the land, and killing the inhabitants of that land was to ensure they do not claim the ownership on that land later. It is horrible. But after reading ‘Sapiens’ it is believable. The moral codes and rules of war apply to own community, not ones outside of it.. Sadly, and scarily, some of the concepts are relatable even today. Anyway, it just underlines that Krishna was a human with influence on him of the customary traditions of the time.

The author has talked about the social structure at the time, how the people might be using chariots but did not ride the horses, whether the written script might be available or not, what was the produce of agriculture, did they eat beef!!? She has mentioned how women’s feeling, or even the fact that women had feelings were not worth considering at that time! It was thought provoking and interesting.. to know how far we have come in thousands of years and yet how relatable the characters and their innermost feelings are still today..

It is a must read for every person who loves Mahabharat. English edition by the same author is also available.