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ArtConnect: The IFA Magazine, Volume 6, Number 1
heroes continue to be their
recalcitrant, internally inconsistent
selves. In recent times, some scholars
have tried to identify and edit out the
‘inconsistencies’ as interpolations.
They too have been ineffective. Some
of them know what they are doing but
have nonetheless given in to the
temptation to make the epics a more
respectable enterprise of our
forefathers, ignoring reasons why the
inconsistencies might have been
accepted by generations of Indians. In
the puranic world, perfection must
include within it a touch of
imperfection. Even gods and demons
mark out not a clean dichotomy but
two ends of a continuum. Many
modern scholars might agree that the
Mahabharata should have no space for
dying Duryodhana’s majestic
chastisement of Krishna, towards the
fag end of the last battle. But in the
popular consciousness, that Krishna
too has his space. People know how to
balance this part of the
story by granting
greater sacredness to
the child Krishna,
Balakrishna, than to
Krishna the king.
Krishna’s story is not
complete without his
last encounter with
Duryodhana. Certainly
his humble death, which he accepts as
the consequence of a curse, and the
destruction of his entire community
are also essential parts of his life.
But even that idea of the death of a
god has become less acceptable now to
many educated Hindus. The life-story
of a god, with a beginning and an end,
looks like the attribution of human
imperfections to a god—a blasphemy
and an obvious interpolation. But, as I
have already mentioned, there is a
temple for Duryodhana in Himachal
Pradesh, as there is one for Karna not
far away from that of his loyal friend
and benefactor. They were deified
much before the moderns thought of
them as possible modern heroes. The
diversity of Hinduism takes good care
of not only the epics but also of many
ideological sects and reform
movements that have sought to reengineer
Hinduism and its sacred
texts featuring innumerable gods and
goddesses during the last two
centuries.
Qualities of Epic Heroes
Despite manifest differences, there
are some common qualities in epic
heroes the world over, and these
perhaps make the epics identifiable as
epics even outside their cultures of