1st Edition
The Mahabharata Patriline Gender, Culture, and the Royal Hereditary
By Simon Pearse Brodbeck
Copyright 2009
344 Pages
by
Routledge
344 Pages
by
Routledge
344 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
The Sanskrit Mahabharata (which contains the Bhagavad Gita) is sorely neglected as a classic - perhaps the classic - of world literature, and is of particularly timely human importance in today's globalised and war-torn world. This book is a chronological survey of the Sanskrit Mahabharata's central royal patriline - a family tree that is also a list of kings. Brodbeck explores the importance and... Read more
Contents: Preface; Part 1 A Royal Patrilineal Model: Analogical deceptions; Wide shots; The Mahabharata patriline; Sraddha in the Mahabharata; Marriage and the heir; The royal hunt. Part 2 The Distant Ancestry: Female links; Yayati; The Paurava stretch; Duhsanta, Sakuntala and the Bharatas; Samvarana; Kuru. Part 3 The Pandavas and their Proximate Ancestry: Samtanu and Bhisma; Dhritarastra and Pandu; The Pandavas. Part 4 Janamejaya and the Sarpasatra: Pariksit; Janamejaya; Conclusion. Appendices; Glossary; Bibliography; Index..
Biography
Simon Brodbeck was educated at the universities of Cambridge and London. He has worked as a lecturer (University of Edinburgh, 2002-4), as a researcher (SOAS, University of London, 2004-7), and as a translator (Clay Sanskrit Library, 2007-8). He is currently a Reader at Cardiff University. Previous publications include Gender and Narrative in the Mahabharata, Simon Brodbeck and Brian Black (eds), Routledge, 2007.
'In this challenging and well-researched book, Brodbeck squarely confronts one of the most daunting aspects of the Mahabharata: the vast tangle of characters, their lineage or clan affiliations, and the problem of patrilineal succession when the necessary presence of women as aids in the generation process presents the risk of supersession by matrilineal affiliations... [This book is] essential for scholars of the Sanskrit epic as well as scholars of regional and local Mahabharata text and performance.' Religious Studies Review 'The Mahabharata Patriline should be on the shelf of any scholar of the Mahabharata and/or related literature. [Brodbeck’s] approach is fresh and brilliantly argued... it will stimulate a lot of thought among those who want to delve deeper into the universe of the Mahabharata.' Journal of Hindu Studies 'This is a book that no serious student of the Mahabharata (MBH) can afford to ignore. It is enormously informative, challenging and provocative.' The Statesman
