Essays on the Mahabharata.

THIS volume is a collection of twenty-three articles on the Mahabharata and its roles and ramifications in Indian life and history. Some of the contributions had been published before in a special issue of the Journal of South Asian Literature (vol. 20, pp. 1-168). Although the present volume greatly exceeds the scope of its predecessor, it still reflects its original focus: It deals, above all, with the Mahabharata as an extraordinary piece of literature -- and far less with its religious, philosophical or other doctrinal aspects. To be sure, this does not mean that it treats the great epic as one single, codified, clearly identifiable text. On the contrary, through the contributions collected in this volume, the "text" appears as a dynamic totality of more or less distinguishable written and oral versions, and a tradition of uses and adaptations, applications and manifestations. While numerous articles do, indeed, focus on "the" Mahabharata, as it appears in the critical edition published in Poona, many others deal with various affiliated themes and phenomena.

B.S. Miller and E. Gerow present short dramas on Mahabharata themes attributed to Bhasa. I.V. Peterson deals with Bharavi's Kiratarjuniya, D.L. Gitomer with Bhatta Narayana's Venisamhara, and V. Aklujkar with modern adaptations of the Savitri theme. G.A. Tubb discusses the poetic evaluation of the Mahabharata by two great theoreticians, Anandavardhana and his commentator Abhinavagupta. B.N. Sumitra Bai and R.J. Zydenbos deal with the Jaina Mahabharata, and W. Sax and J. Leavitt with "folk" adaptations and traditions of performance in Indian vernaculars. Most of the other contributions focus on various special problems and observations concerning the structure and genesis of the Sanskrit epic itself (K. Klostermaier on Daksa, M.C. Smith on "epic parthenogenesis," C. Minkowski on snakes and sattra, R. Katz on the Sauptika episode, A.K. Ramanujan on repetition in the Mahabharata, B.K. Matilal on Krsna as a "devious divinity," and M.M. Deshpande on the epic context of the Bhagavadgita). Some articles take a more comprehensive approach and address more general and fundamental questions. J.L. Fitzgerald deals with "the Mahabharata's presentation of itself" and its designation as the "fifth Veda." D.H.H. Ingalls and D.H.H. Ingalls, Jr. give an account of their joint project of a computer analysis and concordance, and of comprehensive metrical and formulaic statistics, of the Mahabharata. Compared to earlier versions, the original intention of the project (i.e., to circumscribe or even identify the oral core of the epic) is less conspicuous in this current account. J. Dunham presents a "survey and discussion" of the manuscripts used for the critical edition of the Mahabharata. He relies on the data provided in the critical edition itself and does not refer to other relevant materials, for instance, the ancient fragments from Central Asia on which D. Schlingloff and others have reported.

The volume under review is a collection of articles which reflect the personal interests and approaches of their authors. It does not offer a comprehensive documentation of our current knowledge and understanding of the Mahabharata, nor does it provide a systematic introduction to its study. Nonetheless, it illustrates, in an exemplary fashion, the great vitality and diversity of Mahabharata studies in our time, and the abiding fascination with the great epic.