Evil in the Mahabharata
Price: 1495.00
ISBN:
9780199477746
Publication date:
09/02/2018
Hardback
376 pages
Price: 1495.00
ISBN:
9780199477746
Publication date:
09/02/2018
Hardback
376 pages
Meena Arora Nayak
The Mahabharata has served as a primer for codes of conduct to generations of Hindus. However, in its telling over time, the story has lost much of its richness and nuance, and the characters have become one-dimensional cut-outs—either starkly good or irredeemably evil.
In this reinterpretation, Meena Arora Nayak analyses how the values espoused in the Mahabharata came to be distorted into meagre archetypes, creating customary laws that injure society even today.
Rights: World Rights
Meena Arora Nayak
Description
Good and evil, loyalty and treachery, faith and doubt, honour and ignominy—the Mahabharata has served as a primer for codes of conduct to generations of Hindus. Over time, the epic has also fascinated those who love a tale well told. In its telling, however, the story has lost much of its richness and nuance, and the characters have become one-dimensional cut-outs—either starkly good or irredeemably evil.
In this reinterpretation, Meena Arora Nayak analyses how the values espoused in the Mahabharata came to be distorted into meagre archetypes, creating customary laws that injure society even today.
About the Author
Meena Arora Nayak is a professor of English at Northern Virginia Community College, USA. She is the author of the novels In the Aftermath (1992), About Daddy (2000), and Endless Rain (2006). She has also penned the children’s book The Puffin Book of Legendary Lives (2004). She is currently working on a book of Indian myths and folktales.
Meena Arora Nayak
Table of contents
Acknowledgements
Note on the Text
Glossary
Introduction
1. Nāgas and Asuras: The Origin of Evil
2. The Ethical Framework of the Mahābhārata
3. Dharmakṣetra and Adharmakṣetra: Framing the Kṣetra
4. Dharmakṣetra and Adharmakṣetra: Delineating the Kṣetra
5. The Ideal of Dharmayuddha and Its Practicability
Conclusion: Questioning the Tradition of the Mahābhārata
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Meena Arora Nayak
Description
Good and evil, loyalty and treachery, faith and doubt, honour and ignominy—the Mahabharata has served as a primer for codes of conduct to generations of Hindus. Over time, the epic has also fascinated those who love a tale well told. In its telling, however, the story has lost much of its richness and nuance, and the characters have become one-dimensional cut-outs—either starkly good or irredeemably evil.
In this reinterpretation, Meena Arora Nayak analyses how the values espoused in the Mahabharata came to be distorted into meagre archetypes, creating customary laws that injure society even today.
About the Author
Meena Arora Nayak is a professor of English at Northern Virginia Community College, USA. She is the author of the novels In the Aftermath (1992), About Daddy (2000), and Endless Rain (2006). She has also penned the children’s book The Puffin Book of Legendary Lives (2004). She is currently working on a book of Indian myths and folktales.
Table of contents
Acknowledgements
Note on the Text
Glossary
Introduction
1. Nāgas and Asuras: The Origin of Evil
2. The Ethical Framework of the Mahābhārata
3. Dharmakṣetra and Adharmakṣetra: Framing the Kṣetra
4. Dharmakṣetra and Adharmakṣetra: Delineating the Kṣetra
5. The Ideal of Dharmayuddha and Its Practicability
Conclusion: Questioning the Tradition of the Mahābhārata
Bibliography
Index
About the Author