Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Mahabharata, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Dharma
Pursuing Enlightenment
Heroism and Warfare
Grief, Loss, and Mourning
Stories and Storytelling
Summary
Analysis
THE HERMITAGE. The Pandavas rule over the earth for 15 years. Yudhishthira tries to make sure that Dhritarashtra doesn’t suffer any more grief than he already has. Bhima, however, remains defiant, and Dhritarashtra, Vidura, and Gandhari all dislike Bhima’s manner.
Although Yudhishthira’s respect for his former enemies seems to be more honorable than Bhima’s lingering grudge, this passage again hints at how individuals have different dharma, perhaps suggesting that Bhima is only living up to his role to have the most violent personality of his brothers.
Themes
After 15 years, Dhritarashtra asks Yudhishthira if he and Gandhari can go retire into the woods and lead a life of asceticism (with Vidura, Samjaya, and a couple others). Yudhishthira is upset, believing Dhritarashtra is unhappy about something. He tries to talk Dhritarashtra out of the idea but is unable to. Eventually, Vyasa comes and persuades Yudhishthira to grant Dhritarashtra’s wish.
Although Vidura advised Yudhishthira against living an ascetic life earlier, now Vidura joins Dhritarashtra to go retire in the forest. This may seem hypocritical, but in fact, it’s perfectly consistent with the idea that dharma differs depending on a person’s stage of life. With the Kaurava lineage mostly exterminated, all that’s left for Dhritarashtra to do is to reflect on the mistakes that led him to his current situation, and so by turning to an ascetic lifestyle, he actually does act according to his dharma (even though he used to have the dharma of a king in an earlier phase of his life).
Themes
Before he goes, Dhritarashtra gives Yudhishthira advice on running a kingdom, with the biggest piece of advice being to trust wise and educated advisors. Dhritarashtra then offers gifts to Yudhishthira’s subjects in honor of Dhritarashtra’s many dead sons. Dhritarashtra takes responsibility for the destructive war in a speech, but a wise Brahmin interrupts him and says that the real cause to blame for the war is fate.
Dhritarashtra may not seem like the best person to be giving advice about wise leadership, but as this book shows, the 15 years since his failure to restrain Duryodhana and stop the Kurukshetra War have given Dhritarashtra ample time to reflect on his previous leadership failures and grow. He demonstrates this newfound maturity by finally taking responsibility for the destruction of the war rather than simply lamenting it as bad luck. While the Brahmin blames fate instead of Dhritarashtra’s actions, ultimately, the poem has already established that fate requires human action in order to come to fruition.
Themes
Dhritarashtra sets a date to go live in the forest. Before he goes, he asks the Pandavas to perform a śraddha for his many family members and allies who died in the war. While Yudhishthira, Arjuna, and some of the others are willing to do so, Bhima refuses. Yudhishthira apologizes for his brother, and they go ahead with the śraddha anyway. Dhritarashtra gives away so much wealth that it seems to flood the whole world.
Despite Bhima’s refusal to accept it, Dhritarashtra seems to have undergone a remarkable personal transformation, with his lavish gifts seemingly attempting to compensate for his earlier failures as a leader as well as signifying how he’ll no longer need his wealth after he begins living an ascetic life in the forest. Dhritarashtra’s willingness to give up his material possessions shows that he is sincere about his new commitment to austerity.
Themes
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At last, the time comes for Dhritarashtra and Gandhari to leave for the woods, and many residents of Hastinapura come out of their homes to grieve their departure. Kunti insists on going into the forest with them. They thus part ways with the Pandavas at last and go to a hermitage in the forest, where they learn a new way of life. The Pandavas are so sad to see them all go that they neglect some of their daily tasks.
The departure of their mother Kunti symbolizes how the Pandavas have finally learned to stand on their own, with no remaining parental figures or elders around to offer them advice. Although Kunti and the others aren’t dead, the Pandavas mourn them anyway, suggesting how an isolated, ascetic lifestyle can be its own sort of death.
Themes
Eventually, the Pandavas decide to go into the forest for a visit. They happily reunite with Kunti, then they pay respects to Dhritarashtra and Gandhari. There, they also meet up with Vidura, who is very thin and who has been taking asceticism to the extreme, eating nothing but air. Vidura uses his yogic power to enter the body of Yudhishthira, leaving his own body behind as a corpse. A voice tells Yudhishthira not to cremate Vidura’s body, since Vidura’s body is now linked with his own body. Everyone else is astonished when Yudhishthira tells them this.
The visit in this passage confirms that Dhritarashtra and the others were wise to devote themselves to asceticism. Vidura’s decision to leave his own mortal body and inhabit Yudhishthira’s provides a literal example of how the wisdom of an older generation can continue to live on in the minds of the new generation.
Themes
THE VISION OF THE SONS. Vyasa comes to the hermitage and tells Dhritarashtra he knows the grief he must be suffering still. Dhritarashtra and Gandhari say that what really pains them is not knowing about the brave men who died due to Duryodhana’s foolishness. Vyasa tells them not to worry, that what happened was fate and that those who died were mortal incarnations of heavenly or demonic beings, and after a brief time on earth, now they have returned to their rightful realm.
For all his achievements in asceticism, Dhritarashtra can’t escape his guilt for his actions from long ago. Vyasa gives advice that has already appeared in many forms throughout the poem: that death is inevitable and serves a purpose. Like Yudhishthira, Dhritarashtra has to learn how to overcome his grief.
Themes
That night, Vyasa plunges into the Ganga and comes back with all the dead warriors from the war, who are now living together in harmony. Although they appear lifelike, Vyasa makes them all disappear again in an instant. Vyasa says that any women who want to be reunited with their dead husbands should plunge into the Ganga, and many of them do so, taking on heavenly forms. Vaiśampayana interrupts the story to say that whoever hears this part of the story will prosper in this world and the next.
This passage features the striking imagery of grieving women throwing themselves into the Ganga in what resembles suicide but is ultimately more of a peaceful ascent to heaven. Vyasa provides a visual example of how death isn’t as permanent as it seems, temporarily showing countless dead soldiers in a lifelike state, perhaps to suggest how they will all one day be reborn.
Themes
Vaiśampayana continues the story. Although Dhritarashtra remains blind, Vyasa gives him sight of his dead sons’ true forms. Now Ugraśravas, who has been narrating the story of Vaiśampayana and Janamejaya this whole time, tells about how king Parikshit came down from heaven to see Vaiśampayana and Janamejaya at this point in the story. Janamejaya is in the middle of his last ritual bath as part of the snake ceremony. Astika, who is there to stop the snake ceremony, also comes and praises Janamejaya.
Parikshit is in heaven because he was killed by a snake (hence the reason for the snake ceremony in the first place). His appearance to his son Janamejaya resembles the previous passage about the dead soldiers reappearing in the Ganga to their wives, connecting the interior story of the aftermath of the horse sacrifice to the frame story of Vaiśampayana talking to Janamejaya. Parikshit’s reappearance once again suggests how the dead are never truly gone, both figuratively (in terms of how they live on in the minds of their descendants) and literally through rebirth.
Themes
Honored by Astika’s words, Janamejaya now asks to hear more from Vaiśampayana about Dhritarashtra’s life in the forest. Back at the hermitage, Dhritarashtra sends the Pandavas away. Yudhishthira doesn’t want to go, particularly not without Kunti, but Dhritarashtra insists that he has to get back to his people. The Pandavas head back to Hastinapura.
Yudhishthira once again hesitates to do his duty and leave behind his mother Kunti, but Dhritarashtra encourages him to get back to his role as king. The fact that Dhritarashtra has reached a place where he can offer advice on dharma to Yudhishthira shows how much Dhritarashtra has grown as a character, particularly since starting asceticism.
Themes
THE ARRIVAL OF NARADA. Two years later, Narada visits Yudhishthira. He reports on what he saw when he recently visited Dhritarashtra and the others in the forest. They increased their austerities, going without a proper home to live in. In the process they became so weak that, when a fire ripped through the forest, only Samjaya was strong enough to outrun it—the others perished in the fire. Narada tells Yudhishthira not to be sad, but he and the other Pandavas can’t help grieving, particularly for their mother, Kunti, who is one of those that died. Yudhishthira sends someone to gather the bones and perform a purification ritual.
In a way, the Pandavas have already mourned the death of Kunti and Dhritarashtra, accepting that they would die out in the forest while performing austerities. While it's possible this passage is warning about the dangers of taking asceticism too far, it seems more likely that in fact it's a celebration of Kunti and Dhritarashtra’s last days, showing how they gave up everything in their pursuit of asceticism, finally achieving total detachment from the world and accepting their inevitable deaths.
Themes
