Dhrumil was a pampered child as the oldest son of his disabled, but affluent parents. He got all he wanted from birth as such. Though they were rich, his parents were always conscious of their physical disabilities and did not want their child to feel inferior because of anything. Nevertheless, along with the riches, they also ensured that Dhrumil was educated and also imbibed with the right knowledge and behaviour to treat his friends well and run his parents business justly.
Dhrumil, however, had a lifelong issue. His cousins from supposedly his father’s brother’s side were always jealous of him. They believed that the business – which was a joint family one and the consequent riches belonged to them. From a young impressionable age, Dhrumil was constantly asked to part or share his father’s business with these cousins. Dhrumil could never understand why or how. After all, even the parentage of these cousins was in doubt – how were they even part of the family? But his mother and father always egged him on to share. However, over time, Dhrumil decided not to… he felt it was enough and started resenting this constant pressure. He tried avoiding and getting the cousins out of his life – desperately at times by means that were not always correct. But his cousins were no pushovers. They were physically well built, persistent and were aided as well by elders of their family. Dhrumil increasingly became insolent and felt aggrieved. Why would he not – what was rightfully his, was suddenly being taken away from him and he was endlessly being called out as being a spoilt person – whilst all this while, he was being a good friend to his friends, a good boss, a good husband, a good brother to his own siblings, etc… just because he could not stand his cousin’s who had dubious claims, he kept feeling maligned. He was even laughed and mocked at by his cousin’s wife when he went there to celebrate their success one time… How was he supposed to feel… a pampered child who was being constantly harassed like this from a young age into adulthood…
Things kept getting worse and the cousins decided that for the business, they will go to court. They were aided by the shrewdest lawyer who knew all the tricks on how to circumvent the law and break them whilst still being called legal. And guided and assisted by the shrewd lawyer, these powerful bullies bend or broke many laws, with the assistance of the elders of Dhrumil’s family as well. And in the end, poor Dhrumil lost and was left with nothing. How wronged was he his entire life. This is a tragic story of loss by wins begotten by powerful and sinful people over a tormented soul.
Some of you may have understood what the story is about… and may feel its a wrong and stupid way of presenting it… Others who did not get it, its Mahabharat from Duryodhan’s viewpoint.
History, as we know it, is the perception of events written from the winner’s viewpoint. As a saying goes –
“Until the Lion Learns How to Write, Every Story will Glorify the Hunter”
If Hitler would have won the world war, today the world would have believed in genetic supremacy as a valid science. If communism in USSR would have succeeded to overcome capitalism of the west, the world would have believed that the free economy concept was an unequal and a blatantly evil concept.
Every existing account of history is written from a winner’s standpoint and the winner’s doctrine becomes the right rule, law, morals and ethics that are to be followed exactly as the winner wished for. History is hence never an account of reality, but that of the winner.
And in that route, mythology is even worse – for humans did not even learn to read or write – there was no script till 5000 years before… stories of accounts before or around that time are all corrupted by hearsay and muddled up by passing from one speaker to the other over generations and generations… The game of Chinese whispers in all its glory!
And to add to the messed up account, the language of mythology is not understood in entirety and hence its interpretations are hence multiple based on each one’s own speculation.
Think of something like this – say 5000 years from now – when English has become a dead language and no one really speaks it or knows it… like a language of a bygone era… someone gets hold of a newspaper of today’s age which has an article which reads – “Jonty Rhodes the rubber man – flew like an eagle and knocked the player out”… It is very much possible that the beings of the future might believe that there used to be a superhuman who was made of rubber and could fly like an eagle and knock others out… no reference – no context… to make it worse, if this was on the internet of today and cricket crazy lovers wrote pagan’s about Jonty Rhodes, the beings after 5000 years might find phrases like – Jonty Rhodes was the god of fielding… And they would start believing that Jonty Rhodes was a god… That cricket was actually a religion… and that all other countries other than South Africa were actually evil whom Jonty Rhodes vanquished over.
Was Mahabharat really what its made out to be? Did it even happen in reality? It’s very difficult to know or tell… We have been told that story so many times by so many people over the last two millennia that it is accepted as an account of reality in its current form… That Krishna was god and not just a smart, shrewd and cunning person who got his cousins to win a fight… that Pandav’s did really have a legal right to the kingdom and were all very just and fair in their life, not well built powerful bullies who came with a disputable claim and persisted with it… that Kauravs and Duryodhan were evil and were at fault and did, in reality, all the wrong things – but never ruled justly or were good with anyone else…
Mahabharat is known to be read to understand dharma – the story to read to understand how to live life with virtue… and its a fascinating story by all means. Fantastically written with layers and layers within each character – that put forth so many questions about the human psyche and life… A story in which you can lose yourself in the characters and the narrative and start finding answers you want – as if it reflects your reality…
But it is a story… maybe an account of an event that did really happen within a powerful family but has been polluted, exaggerated over the centuries… and is in its current form from the winner’s viewpoint – one which could also have been narrated in a different way to find a different meaning altogether 🙂
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