Raja Yudhisthira : Kingship in Epic Mahabharata / Kevin McGrath.
Material type:
- text
- computer
- online resource
- 9781501708220
- Mahābhārata
- Mahābhārata
- Mahābhārata -- Critique, interpretation, etc
- Mahābhārata
- Mahābhārata -- Criticism, interpretation, etc
- König Motiv
- König
- Yudhiṣṭhira (Hindu mythology)
- Kings and rulers in literature
- Rois et souverains dans la litterature
- Kings and rulers in literature
- Yudhiṣṭhira (Hindu mythology)
- Yudhiṣṭhira Fiktive Gestalt
Machine generated contents note: 1.The Beginnings -- i.Early Kingship -- ii.The Associates -- iii.Duality -- iv.Magadha -- v.The Dharmaraja -- vi.The Text -- vii.Terms -- 2.Kingship -- i.Early Kings -- ii.The Associates -- iii.Duality -- iv.Magadha -- v.The Dharmaraja -- 1.The Rajasuya Sequence -- 2.War as Royal Rite -- 3.The Asvamedha -- 3.Ideals of Kingship -- i.Archaic Ideals -- ii.Installation -- iii.Classical Ideals -- 4.The End.
Open Access Unrestricted online access star
In Raja Yudhisthira, Kevin McGrath brings his comprehensive literary, ethnographic, and analytical knowledge of the epic Mahabharata to bear on the representation of kingship in the poem. He shows how the preliterate Great Bharata song depicts both archaic and classical models of kingly and premonetary polity and how the king becomes a ruler who is viewed as ritually divine. Based on his precise and empirical close reading of the text, McGrath then addresses the idea of heroic religion in both antiquity and today; for bronze-age heroes still receive great devotional worship in modern India and communities continue to clash at the sites that have beenfor millenniaassociated with these epic figures; in fact, the word hero is in fact more of a religious than a martial term. One of the most important contributions of Raja Yudhisthira, and a subtext in McGrath's analysis of Yudhisthira s kingship, is the revelation that neither of the contesting moieties of the royal Hastinapura clan triumphs in the end, for it is the Yadava band of Krsna who achieve real victory. That is, it is the matriline and not the patriline that secures ultimate success: it is the kinship group of Krsnathe heroic figure who was to become the dominant Vaisnava icon of classical Indiawho benefits most from the terrible Bharata war. -- Amazon.com.
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