An international meet on the Mahabharata began at Thunchan Paramba, the home of Malayalam patriarch Thunchath Ramanujan Ezhuthachan, at Tirur on Thursday.
Inaugurating the meet, Sri Lankan scholar and former Vice Chancellor of the University of Jaffna N. Shanmughalingam said that Mahabharata was not a text, but a tradition.
Citing many examples, Prof. Shanmughalingam said that the culture of Mahabharata had been assimilated in the life of Sri Lankan people.
According to him, the epic would never get old, but would continue to be retold and reinterpreted. He said that it would continue to have interdisciplinary and cross-cultural dimensions.
Delivering the keynote address, novelist C. Radhakrishnan found limned interesting allusions linking the current political scenario to the readings of Mahabharata. “We can say it is as good as a science fiction, but quite different from the science fiction of the West,” he said.
Conquering nature
Speaking on the importance of imbibing the ideals and teachings of the Mahabharata, Mr. Radhakrishnan said that the very idea of having power was against the welfare of human beings. “Both the Mahabharata and the Ramayana showed us how the characters tried to conquer nature,” he said.
Mr. Radhakrishnan said that none in the country had written anything without being influenced by the Mahabharata.
K. Satchidanandan, poet and convener of the conference organised by the Thunchan Memorial Trust, delivered the concept note. Jnanpith laureate M.T. Vasudevan Nair presided.
Book released
Mr. Vasudevan Nair released a new critical edition of ‘Thunchath Ezhuthachante Mahabharatam’ prepared by P.M. Vijayappan.
Mr. Vijayappan handed over the papers to Mr. Vasudevan Nair giving the reprint right of the Mahabharata to the Thunchan Memorial Trust.
Ashuthosh Dayal Mathur, head of the Department of Sanskrit at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, spoke on the Mahabharata in the Sanskrit poetry tradition. C. Rajendran, former head of the Department of Sanskrit at Calicut University, spoke on Sanskrit plays based on the Mahabharata.
The PSV Natyasangham of Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala presented a Kathakali on Duryodhanavadham.
