Mahabharata

The Mahabharat is a world of its own, vast, immense, rich, deep, essential, thoughtful, philosophic, pure, intriguing, engaging and magnanimous. There isn’t any emotion that is left unfound or unspoken, as each character in this colourful yet tragic poetic gem is a kind of its own. Each relationship is vividly expressed, yet exists on a complex note. F. Woods elucidates the riveting Mahabharat, “what is not here, is nowhere else”.

The great Sanskrit epic of India, Mahabharat, compiled by Vyasa between 700 BCE and 300 CE, is considered to be our Puranic Period. The Bhagvad Gita is narrated during the Bhisma Parva, just before the euphanic moment of beginning the great war.

If we look at the history of culmination of this sacred text, it is a compilation of ideas beginning from the earliest phase of Indian civilization. It includes the Vedic philosophy, the poet Vedic, the Upanishadic thoughts, upto the Itihas Puranic narratives.

All these developments culminating the essence of Indian philosophy constitute the Gita. It entails Lord Krishna’s revelation of his divine nature to Arjuna. As a result Arjuna is able to decide on a course of action that was any way rendered inevitable by the complex sequence of events. Lord Krishna counsels Arjuna on the mandates of Dharma and the necessity of action, finally relieving him of his emotional dilemma.

According to Nick Sutton in the essay, ‘What is Dharma?’ Ethical tensions within Mahabharat, “the Mahabharat dramatises this tension between moral and ritual ethics and perhaps it is through the discourse of the Gita that the epic is able to explore further on these grounds.”

The philosophical setting of Gita and Mahabharat is evocative of the interconnectedness within the universal cosmology, as both the divine and the human world tend to co-inherit. Herein there is violence in both domains, emotional turbulence in the form of inner crisis. Duryodhana and Shakuni, deceit, hatred and victimization of the righteous Pandavas.

The position of Draupadi within the epic is a complex one, on one hand, she suffered relentlessly, while on the other hand, she was a woman with a mind of her own, assertive and unflinching. Mahabharat operates on the concept of power, state and kingdomhood which is intricately tied to matters of inheritance and lineage. As the inevitability of fate determines events, in this duel between Karna and Arjuna, Ghatotkach falls prey to Karna’s attack from the infallible weapon blessed to him by Indra, thereby, sacrificing his life for Arjuna. Son of Bheem and Hidimbi, he was of a bold built, exemplifying a ghatan (a deep pot).

The Lakshagriha episode is a result of Duryodhana’s wrath and hatred for the Pandavas. He conspires an evil trap in the form of House Of Lacquer to burn his enemies to death, but is himself befooled as Pandavas manage to escape through a secret tunnel, due to Vidura’s prior symbolic warning to Dhritrashtra.

If we explore the role of cosmology within Mahabharat, the best would be to refer to Bheema and Shikhandi. Their encounter with each other in the forest episodes bring out their transformation based on the motif of revenge and fate. Having known that Bhisma’s ethical principles would prevent him from confronting a woman at the battlefield, Arjuna used Shikhandi as a shield to defeat the mighty Bhisma.

Interestingly, Mahabharat apart from being a Mahakavya narrating the great war, it is also a bildungsroman which is a *“narrative tracing the development of a protagonist’s character from childhood to maturity through varied experiences as seen in the epic, the life of the five brothers, Pandavas and Kauravas since the childhood till they transform as skilful warriors.

The Mahabharat, as a text, raised punctures a human being’s consciousness to the extent that its destruction of land and property haunts him throughout. The epic at its is marked by its multifaceted characteristics including the result of immense pride and unique generational vengeance. The epic has an incredible way of unfolding destiny, its metaphors and the voice of time has anchored it to eternity. As is today we see adaptations of Mahabharat in different regional languages, it is interpreted and reinterpreted. In India only it has bestowed its glory on art form. Some of the country adopted cast its spells across time and space, as different part of the country has interpreted it worldwide, wholly or coursing on parts, to suit their own cultural identities. Almost every State has some relics dedicated to Mahabharat from the great epic. The spatial vastness of this story, eventually is a reflection of spread of a religion as well as religious ideology in different architectural, sculptural, folk and other forms of artistic expressions.

The Mahabharat is an epic that has permeated life and culture far beyond the Indian subcontinent. It is the source of epic in prose, song, dance, film, literature, painting, sculpture, and everyday conversation. These stamps depict but a few strands of the art forms which continues to influence and inspire learning, and politics. They aim to celebrate and homage to its immense living tradition by offering a selection of works which represent the Mahabharat from different parts of India.

The set of stamps being brought out by the Department of Posts is an attempt to portray this rich variety of expressions of different events and episodes of the story. Department of Posts issues one sheetlet with 18 stamps and two miniature sheets which are described in the forthcoming paragraphs.

As we count the stamps as they are arranged in the sheetlet in the second row from top to bottom, counting from left to right in each row, the cosmic form of the creator in traditional Rajasthani pichwai style is depicted in the large top stamp #1 in the sheetlet. Raja Ravi Verma brought his distinct style to the royal depiction of the five Pandava brothers with Draupadi in stamp #4. Draupadi appears as a leather shadow puppet from Andhra-Karnataka region which is depicted in stamp #5. Stamp #9 is an illustration of the Pandavas in their Pural incarnation during their exile from an authentic folk scroll painting from Bihar-Bengal region. In stamp #10 and #13, Miniature paintings done in the Mughal style to illustrate their transformations to Persian have been depicted. Stamp #10 is the illustration from the Persian illustrated version of Mahabharat at Hastinapur as Bhishma, Dhritrashtra and Vidur try to avert the war. Stamp #13 is the illustration from Razmnama, depicting Bhisma on a bed of arrows, awaiting further outcome from the inevitable rolls of time. Hindu and Jain manuscripts were also illustrated in watercolour styles of northern India in stamp #16 & #17. Stamp #16 is the illustration from 1540 Bhagvat Purana manuscript, depicting a vital battle during the great war, when Karna used up his most powerful weapon to subjugate Ghatotkach which is depicted in stamp#17.

The sculptors chiselled stone at Halesibidu, depicted in stamp #7 showing Arjun at the swayamer; stamp #12, depicts the chakravyuha that Abhimanyu is on the other battle; stamp #14 is the battle scene showing Arjun, the skilful archer and Arjun’s presence to earn divine weapons, from Mahabalipuram in stamp #8. Kalamkari artists of Andhra Pradesh were able to retain full scenes from the epics which is depicted in stamp#18.

Many of the pictures used in the stamps (stamps #2, #3, #6, #11, #15) and in accompanying philatelic material including the background and borders on the sheetlet of 18 stamps, are adapted from the huge body of work done by an ‘illiterate’ folk artist from the heart of central India who dedicated to representing this epic. Sonika Ba painted a collection of 12000 meters depicting the Mahabharata’s every part of it. This huge scroll painting is part of the IGNCA, Delhi and the Department of Posts is grateful for the opportunity to present some of her work to the world. Sonika Ba’s family supported and supplemented her efforts and they deserve credit too, as do all the unnamed anonymous traditional artists who have kept the stories alive.