Magic realism with a vengeance
PREMA NANDAKUMAR
JAIMINI ASHVAMEDHA PARVA IN THE MAHABHARATA: Transcreated by Shekhar Kumar Sen; Writers Workshop, 162/92, Lake Gardens, Kolkata-700045. Rs. 50
When a translator comes forward to render into modern English an ancient Sanskrit work like Jaimini’s ‘Ashvamedha Parva,’ he has to use his creative faculties to avoid the narrative from becoming tiresome. This could easily happen with Jaimini’s work. For, it is magic realism with a vengeance.
We have no clue to this in the beginning. The conversation between the dejected Yudhistira and Sage Vyasa, the decision to embark upon a ‘horse sacrifice’, and the banter between Bhima and Krishna could well be from a fun movie released today. While Krishna teases Bhima as being fat, a glutton who has no intelligence, Bhima’s repartee is a lovable ‘ninda stuti’: “When the entire world is contained in your stomach, who can have a bigger belly than yours and who can be a bigger eater than you?” Krishna is delighted and directs a Jaiminian charama sloka to Yudhistira telling him not to feel remorseful at having killed his kin: “I will destroy all sins and you will be purified.”
Exciting
From then on we suspend our disbelief from the highest branch of the Mahabharata tree. It really begins with Bhima’s grandson, Meghavarna abducting Yauvanashva’s horse for Yudhistira’s Asvamedha. For us there is now no looking back. We are like the little children sitting around a great-aunt telling stories. It is intriguing, exciting, unnerving, electrifying. Reading the verses in the literal, prose translation of Major General Shekhar Kumar Sen coming like the constant waves of an ocean, don’t we wish we were little children to jump up suddenly and say: “Hey, Arjuna’s head has returned to his body!”
All events are tuned to drive home the importance of bhakti for Vasudeva and the need to uphold dharma. Dharma is a stern master and calls for self-control and self-discipline all the time. After taking us triumphantly through the Ashvamedhika Parva, Jaimini gives us a much-needed lesson in humility by recounting the tale of the brahmin who lived by gleaning like a pigeon. All the earlier drama of following the sacrificial horse is set behind us now, as we close the book with sombre thoughts about the golden-headed mongoose speaking of dharma: “He who conquers that unconquerable hunger, conquers heaven.”
Popular
Not only has Shekhar Sen given the first-ever English version of Jaimini’s work, he has also written a detailed introduction which is packed with information. The present work is “quintessentially different” from Vyasa’s Asvamedha Parva, and the translator has listed the differences. Jaimini’s version was so popular in later times that even Muslims loved it and we have Chhuti Khan getting it translated into Bengali. Indeed, Shekhar Sen has created a Sherlock Holmesian experience that is fascinating no end. The five illustrations from Razmnama add to our wide-eyed amazement.
In these days of speed and hurry, do we have time to read such sumptuous works produced in close print? Jaimini answers through Partha: “He who does not find time to hear good tales is deprived by time. A man’s life is very short on this earth. Therefore, make all efforts to narrate this story in detail.”
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