text:
Critical Edition
Revising the Critical Edition of the Mahabharata: An Approach through the attempt to strip Draupadī
C.E. vol.2 stripping Draupadi
The Critical Edition (CE) of the Mahabharata published by the Bhandarkar Oriental Institute (BORI), Pune (1933-1966) is generally regarded as the last word in arriving at the textual canon of the epic. Half a century later, however, enough justification exists for taking a hard look at its claim to provide the best manuscript version extant. The fact is, as Mehendale[1] points out, that the oldest manuscript by far— a 12th century, Nepali palm-leaf manuscript— was not available for study. Nor, admitted Sukthankar,[2] were Kannaḍa, Oḍīya and Nandināgarī manuscripts examined. Edgerton, editor of the Sabhā Parva of the CE, refers to a complete manuscript, a continuous roll in Devanagari, in the Bharat Itihasa Sanshodhaka Mandal of Pune, which he could not obtain for study.[3] The National Mission for Manuscripts has to find and document it for the revised edition of the Mahabharata.
The CE also did not take into account the earliest version of the epic in a foreign language: Abu Saleh's Instruction of Princes (1026), an Arabic translation from the Sanskrit. Preceding the oldest manuscripts depended upon by the CE by centuries, this is an astonishing account of the Kurus and Pāṇḍavas as viewed from Sindh with no mention of Kr̥ṣṇa.[4] Had Ruben known of it, it would have added grist to his mill in arguing that originally the epic was Kr̥ṣṇa-less.[5]
Further, the editors did not study the Razmnama (1584), the Persian version of the epic (including Harivaṁśa) that Akbar commissioned, although it was contemporaneous with the manuscripts depended upon for the CE. Sukthankar was mistaken in rejecting it as merely a "free rendering of the original."[6] Neither is it "an abridgement" as Adluri and Hiltebeitel claim.[7] A comparison with the CE would reveal the departures in the Persian version, which would throw light on the status of the text followed under Akbar's direction. For instance, its Aśvamedha Parva follows Jaimini's composition, not the Vaiśampāyana recital.[8] The scholars Akbar gathered for this massive enterprise formed an editorial board that was the precursor of the CE's and included Debi Misra (author of Bhārata artha dīpikā ?) and Chaturbhuja Misra (author of Bhārata upāya prakāsaka bhārata tātparya prakāśikā) from Bengal, Satavadana, Madhusudana Misra (editor of Mahānātakam), Rudra Bhattacaraj and Sheikh Bhawan (a Dakhini Brahmin convert). The selection shows Akbar's awareness of the existence of the Bengal, Northern and Southern recensions. His orders were to establish exactitude so that nothing of the original would be lost. The work was often read aloud to him, followed by discussions. Badauni records that once Akbar lost his temper on hearing certain passages and accused him of inserting his own bigoted views. Thus, the fidelity of the Persian version to the original was carefully verified.[9]
What the editors of the CE have done now, Kālīprasanna Siṁha did in Calcutta by the age of 30 for his Bengali translation of the Mahabharata (excluding Harivaṁśa, which he stated was clearly a much later composition) in 17 volumes (1858-1866) omitting and adding nothing. He had a team of 7 pundits. Manuscripts from the Asiatic Society, Shobhābāzār palace, the collections of Asutosh Deb, Jatindramohan Thākur and his own great-grandfather Shāntirāma Siṁha's collection in Benares were collated. For resolving contradictions in the texts and making out the meaning of knotty slokas he was helped by Tārānātha Tarkavācaspati of the Calcutta Sanskrit Vidyamandir. Every evening the translation, as it progressed, was read out to prominent leaders of Hindu society.[10]
Thus, like the CE, both the late 16th century Persian version and the mid-19th century Bengali translation were prepared by collating Mahabharata manuscripts from different regions. However, issues of repetition and inconsistency were not resolved in the Bengali translation. Without studying the Razmnama we cannot say what had been done there. One would expect that 20th century scholars would try to make good these lacunae. Instead, the CE contains contradictions that are the result of the rigid[11] application of the principle that whatever appeared in the largest number of manuscripts was to be included, irrespective of intra-textual consistency, which was rejected as "the realm of higher criticism."[12] Yet, Sukthankar himself set aside his own cardinal principle when he chose to begin the CE text with the benedictory invocation, despite its absence from the entire Southern recension. His reason: all Hindu texts invariably began thus.[13] No one has dared to criticise this departure.
Some unresolved contradictions and repetitions
Bankimchandra Chatterjee argued in his masterly Krishnacharitra (1886-1892):
"Those that contradict each other, of them one must necessarily be interpolated…No writer indulges in unnecessary repetition or creates a situation of contradiction through such repetition."[14]
A good example of repetition is the two occasions on which Arjuna prevents Kr̥ṣṇa from killing Bhīṣma at VI.55 (the third day) and VI.102 (the ninth day). Lexical analysis suggests that the latter is added on, whereas the context suggests that the former is the addition. The CE editor sought to resolve this by proposing that originally it was the third day that was the penultimate day of Bhīṣma's command and, therefore, he fought for only 4 not 10 days. His arguments are far from convincing.[15]
A few of the unresolved internal contradictions in the CE are enumerated below which appear to be "passages, which were composed at a very early date and hence found time to creep into all versions," writes Mehendale, but "the transmitters of the epic tradition…did (not) deliberately omit what they had received by tradition." He explains that the CE retained these "since such contradictory passages occur uniformly in all the versions of both (North and South) recensions." He adds that decisions about these "will be the task of later researchers who have to take recourse to higher criticism (emphasis mine)." [16]
In the Ādiparvan (207.14), Arjuna visits Maṇalūra during his twelve-year long exile, while in the Āśvamedhikaparvan (77.46) it is named Maṇipūra. The former indicates southern influence as Southern manuscripts locate Maṇalūra near Madurai and make Citrāñgadā a Pānḍyan princess. One of these has to be emended as a scribal error by comparing with other references to Citrāñgadā.
According to the Ādiparvan (116.31), Mādrī mounted her husband's funeral pyre in the Himalayas. This is reiterated at 117.28. However, at the beginning of section 117 we find Kuntī and her sons entering Hastināpura with sages who have brought along the bodies of Pānḍu and Mādrī. Then, section 118 provides a description of their ornamented, anointed and perfumed bodies and states that Pānḍu's body looked as if he were alive. So, the corpses had been preserved for over 17 days (117.27)? Surely, either the corpses had been cremated in the Himalayas or they were brought to the capital for funeral, remaining un-decomposed for over a fortnight. One of these accounts is an interpolation.
In the Sabhāparvan (61. 35-38), Draupadī is dragged into the gaming hall and Karṇa directs Duḥśāsana, pānḍavānām ca vāsāṁsi draupadyāś cāpyupāhara, "Strip the Pānḍavas and Draupadī of their garments!" (61.38). Hearing this, the Pāṇḍavas cast off their uttarīya (upper garments). Duḥśāsana pulls at Draupadī's single cloth in the midst of the assembly hall. However, almost nowhere subsequently is there any reference to the attempted stripping. We will examine this contradiction in depth.
The attempt to strip Draupadī
The CE omits Draupadī's prayer to Kr̥ṣṇa for succour but not the miracle of unending garments. The Sabhāparvan editor, Edgerton, writes, 'It is apparently implied (though not stated) that cosmic justice automatically, or "magically" if you like, prevented the chaste Draupadī from being stripped in public…later redactors felt it necessary to embroider the story.'[17] The CE text reads thus in van Buitenen's translation[18] of II.61.40-42:-
"40. Then Duḥśāsana forcibly laid hold of Draupadī's robe, O king, and in the midst of the assembly began to undress her.
But when her skirt was being stripped off, lord of the people, another similar skirt appeared every time.[19]
A terrible roar went up from all the kings, a shout of approval, as they watched that greatest wonder on earth."
In the CE (II. 43-47) Bhīma vows to taste the blood of Duḥśāsana after he pulls at Draupadī's sole cloth and a fresh one appears.
As she is dragged from the inner apartments, Draupadī appeals to Duḥśāsana to refrain (II.60.25), as she is menstruating (rajasvalāsmi) and is clad in just a single cloth (ekaṁca vāso). Duḥśāsana responds that regardless of whether she is menstruating, wearing a single cloth (ekāmbarā) or none (vivastrā), she is their prize and their slave, "And one lechers with slaves as the fancy befalls!" (van Buitenen, 60.27). As he shakes her about, there is a reference to half of her cloth slipping (patitārdhavastrā 60.28).[20] She pleads with Duḥśāsana again, "Don't render me nude, do not debase me!" (mā māṁ vivastrāṁ kridhi mā vikārṣīḥ, 60.30). When she is dragged into the assembly hall, Bhīma notices that her upper cloth is slipping (strastottarīya, 60.47). This refers to the portion of her garment covering her torso and not to a separate cloth for the upper-half of the body since she is ekāmbarā. The painting commissioned specially for the CE shows, in the background, four Pāṇḍavas bare-bodied and Arjuna seated with his back to the scene, naked; in the foreground Duḥśāsana pulls at a single cloth wrapped around Draupadī.[21]
In the "Vulgate,"[22] Draupadī calls out to Govinda, Kr̥ṣṇa, Keśava Dvārakāvāsin, Ramānātha, Janārdana Vrajanātha and Gopījanapriya, the last two epithets indicating a post-Harivaṁśa addition by a poet familiar with Kr̥ṣṇa's childhood dalliance with the milkmaids of Vraja as Bankimchandra Chatterjee noted back in 1886.[23] Kr̥ṣṇa springs up from his bed in Dvārakā and rushes on foot, deeply moved by Draupadī's appeal, which reaches him telepathically.[24] This recurs when she, faced with Durvāsā's untimely demand for food in the forest, invokes Kṛṣṇa. Referring to these two passages Sukthankar comments, "They undoubtedly represent a later phase of Kṛṣṇa worship."[25] Some vernacular versions elaborate this further along the lines of the gopī–vastraharaṇa episode in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa (X.22): so long as Draupadī clutches on to her sole covering there is no response to her outcries; it is only when she lets go and lifts her hands in total surrender that the miracle occurs.
How Draupadī's modesty was saved is hinted at in verse 544* in the footnotes of the CE, which might be the earliest interpolation:
"Yājñasenī cried out for rescue to Kr̥ṣṇa, Viṣṇu, Hari and Nara. Then Dharma, hidden, the magnanimous, covered her with a multitude of garments."
This is repeated in 553*:
"Thereupon hundreds of garments of many colours and whites appeared, O lord, due to the protection of Dharma."
These refer back to II.60.13 where, when summoned to the dicing hall, Draupadī reflects, "In this world Dharma alone is supreme. Observed, he will bring peace."
The enigmatic statement gives rise to many speculations, one of which possibly led to the interpolated passage bringing in Kr̥ṣṇa as saviour along the lines of yato dharmas tataḥ kr̥ṣṇo yataḥ kr̥ṣṇas tato jayaḥ (VI.41.55). Further, the god Dharma incarnated as Vidura who was the first to protest against the dice-game and the summoning of Draupadī before the assembly. Does he, Dharma-incarnate, clothe her? Significantly, later in the Udyogaparvan when Kr̥ṣṇa reminds Saṁjaya of her sufferings, he refers to her casting piteous glances all around the hall to find only kṣattā Vidura as her protector, nānyaṁ kṣatturnāthamadr̥ṣṭaṁ kañcit, who alone spoke in condemnation, ekaḥ kṣattā dharmyāmarthaṁ bruvāṇo (V.29.33, 34). Or shall we imagine 'Dharma' as referring to the outraged sensibilities of the assembly who throw off their upper garments to cover Draupadī, as narrated in Ayyanappilla Asan's Malayali Bharatam Pattu (c.1500 CE, contemporary with the CE's manuscripts)?[26] Ultimately, as Duḥśāsana tires, evil omens erupt—jackals howl and asses bray—whereupon Gāndhārī and Vidura succeed in persuading Dhṛtarāṣṭra to intervene.
Hiltebeitel (2001)[27] argues that Kr̥ṣṇa's intervention to protect Draupadī's modesty is very much envisaged in the CE, citing two verses from the Udyogaparvan in which Draupadī, exhorting Keśava (V.80.26), and Kr̥ṣṇa speaking to Saṁjaya (V.58.21), refer to her appeal, "O Govinda," for rescue. He admits that neither Draupadī nor Kr̥ṣṇa mentions the attempted stripping. If, then, Draupadī was not being stripped, why should Kr̥ṣṇa have intervened miraculously? Moreover, when they meet for the first time after the dice-duel in the forest-exile, Draupadī specifically mentions having been manhandled, kr̥ṣyeta (III.13.60), and "dragged around in their hall with my one piece of clothing" while menstruating (stridharminī vepamānā śoṇitena samukṣitā / ekavastrā vikriṣtāsmi duḥkhitā kurusamsadi // III.13.68), being "molested," parikliśyantīm (III.13.107) and "laid hold of by my hair" kacagrahamanuprāptā (III.13.107, 109). However, she makes no mention of any attempt to strip her. Kr̥ṣṇa responds that, had he been present, he would have prevented the fraudulent dice-game, but he was far away battling Śālva who had sacked Dvārakā (III.14.1). He mentions neither any attempt to strip her, nor any appeal from her reaching him—telepathically or otherwise. In his 1976 study on the burning of the forest, Hiltebeitel wrote that the CE is not to be followed blindly.[28] Here he is doing precisely that.
Other Evidence
At the very beginning of the Mahabharata in the Anukramanikā Parvan, Dhṛtarāṣṭra laments that Draupadī was dragged into the assembly hall but does not mention any attempt to strip her:-
yadāśrauṣaṁ draupadīm aśrukaṇṭhīṁ; sabhāṁ nītāṁ duḥkhitām ekavastrām /
rajasvalāṁ nāthavatīm anāthavat; tadā nāśaṁse vijayāya saṁjaya //
"When I heard that Draupadī, tears in her throat, had been dragged into the assembly hall grieving, in a single garment, and she in her period, while her protectors stood by as though she had no one to protect her— then, Sanjaya, I lost all hope of victory." (I.1.106, van Buitenen).
Nor does he refer to Bhīma's vow to drink Duḥśāsana's blood. Arguing that the vow is a subsequent addition, Bhatt writes that this is "wonderfully supported by the omission of the event from the summary of the Karṇa Parvan given in the well-known Parva-saṅgraha Parvan."[29]
In the Virāṭaparvan, Draupadī, while lamenting her condition before Bhīma, refers only to a prātikāmin (servant/messenger) dragging her into the hall by her hair and being called a dāsī (IV.17.2).
Aśvatthāmā refers to the incident (IV.45.11-12) while reprimanding Karṇa for boasting: "Likewise, where was the battle in which you won Kṛṣṇā? In her single garment she was dragged into the hall, miscreant, when she was in her month, ekavastrā sabhāyām nītā duṣṭakarmaṇā rajasvalā" (van Buitenen).
Arjuna upbraids Karṇa: "You watched how evil men molested (kliśyamānāṁ) the Princess of Pāñcāla in the assembly hall" (IV.55.4), but he does not mention the ultimate outrage of his command that she be stripped, or even to his abusing her as a prostitute.
In the Udyogaparvan (V.29.31, 33) when Kr̥ṣṇa mentions to Saṁjaya the atrocities suffered, he refers only to Duḥśāsana dragging menstruating Draupadī into the hall before elders.
Whenever Yudhiṣṭhira recounts the sufferings they have undergone, he always mentions Draupadī having been dragged by her hair, but never to any attempt to strip her. In his message to Duryodhana through Saṁjaya, he refers only to her hair being violated in the hall, keśeṣva dharṣayat (V.31.16).
When Kr̥ṣṇa and the Pāṇḍavas consult before the peace-embassy (V.70-79) they do not mention avenging any attempted stripping. Of them, Arjuna alone speaks of Draupadī's trials and this is limited to "how that fiend molested Draupadī in the middle of the hall" parikliṣṭā sabhāmadhye (V.76.18).
Even when Draupadī herself, furious with everyone favouring peace, lists her sufferings (V.80. 24, 26), "grabbed by the hair and molested in a men's hall" (sāham keśagraham prāptā parikliṣtā sabhām gatā) and states how she invoked Govinda mentally for succour (trāhi māmiti govinda manasā kaṁkṣito'si me), she does not mention any attempt to strip her, although that would have been the sharpest goad to spur them into battle.
In his embassy to the Hastināpura court when Kr̥ṣṇa tells Dhṛtarāṣṭra all the suffering Duryodhana has imposed on the Pāṇḍavas, including dragging Draupadī into the court (V.93.58), he makes no mention of the attempt to strip her, which would have been the greatest crime.
When Kr̥ṣṇa rebukes Duryodhana during the peace embassy, enumerating all his ill deeds, he refers to his abusing and maltreating (vinikr̥tā) the queen of the Pāṇḍavas (V.126.8-9), but makes no mention of the supreme outrage of attempting to strip her.
Kuntī, listing her sorrows to Kr̥ṣṇa several times over, laments that her greatest sorrow is Draupadī being abused verbally and molested (parikliṣṭā), dragged into the assembly hall draped in a single cloth while menstruating, but does not mention any attempt at stripping her daughter-in-law, which would surely have been the greatest torment by far (V.88.50, 56; 85-86; 135.15-18, 21).
Ghaṭotkaca, assailing Duryodhana, charges him for dragging and insulting Draupadī in her period in a single garment in the assembly-hall, with no mention of attempted stripping (VI.87.26).
The Karṇaparvan begins with the Kauravas musing over how they dragged and demeaned Draupadī. Dhṛtarāṣṭra tells Saṁjaya how his son had the wife of the Pāṇḍavas violently brought into the assembly where Karṇa abused her as "Wife of slaves" (dāsabhāryeti5.79). Although at different stages in the battle Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Bhīma, Duḥśāsana and Kr̥ṣṇa all recall the dragging and insulting of Draupadī, none refers to any attempt to strip her.
In the Karṇaparvan verses relegated in the CE to footnotes (VIII.61.934* and 935*), when Bhīma rips off the arm with which Duḥśāsana boasts he had dragged Draupadī by her hair, neither refers to the grosser outrage of attempting to strip her.
When Kr̥ṣṇa recounts Karṇa's misdeeds to goad Arjuna into killing him, he refers to single-cloth-clad, menstruating Draupadī being summoned to the sabhā and mocked (VIII.67.2-3), but does not refer to Karṇa instigating any stripping, which would have surely been the sharpest goad to spur him on.
Bhīma enumerates Draupadī being dragged by her hair among the sufferings imposed by Shakuni, Duryodhana and Karṇa but not any attempted disrobing (Vulgate, VIII.83.46).
At the end of the war, when Yudhiṣṭhira provokes Duryodhana to emerge from Dvaipāyana lake, he mentions Draupadī being verbally abused and dragged, but says nothing about any attempted disrobing (IX.30.187*).
Bhīma, while kicking Duryodhana's head, refers only to single-garment-draped Draupadī being mocked in the hall, not to any attempted stripping (IX.58.4).
Even at the very end, in the Svargārohaṇaparvan, Yudhiṣṭhira, outraged on seeing Duryodhana in heaven, refers to his having caused Pāñcālī to be afflicted, parikliṣṭā (XVIII.1.9) in the sabhā, but nothing more.
Adluri and Hiltebeitel peremptorily dismiss the evidence of the passages involving Duryodhana as "karmically irrelevant" because of a philosophical proposition "that blame-casting must necessarily be agent-specific in a karmic universe." This is resorting to the same "higher criticism" which they frown upon instead of tackling the contradictory evidence. They also feel that some of the others are "broadly worded enough to include an allusion to the disrobing," though they do not explain this.[30]
Textual disconnect
Satya Chaitanya's study of the sequence of events brings to light a major hiatus in the text.[31] A similar disconnect can be found in the Bhīṣmaparvan where the text-block VI.95.4-23 repeats the portion at 16.11-20+42.2, indicating an adding-on of verses 16.21 to 42.1.[32] In Draupadī's case, after Duḥśāsana failed in his attempt, 'The people shouted, "The Kauravyas refuse to answer the question," and condemned Dhṛtarāṣṭra' (II.61.50). This refers to Draupadī's question to the assembly (II.60.44), repeated at II.62.13, which remains unanswered in the epic. Strangely enough, the audience neither censures the king for allowing the attempted stripping, nor criticises Duḥśāsana for making the attempt. Even more puzzling is everyone's silence about the unending stream of cloth, whether emanating from Dharma or Kṛṣṇa. Instead, Vidura's speech, which follows, states that Draupadī is awaiting a reply to her question, weeping like an orphan (II.61.52). Surely, Vidura would have been the first to protest against any attempt to disrobe Draupadī publicly and to extol her miraculous escape in response to her appeal to Kr̥ṣṇa? It is significant that he refers neither to Vikarṇa's response in support of Draupadī nor to Karṇa rebuking him and directing that she should be stripped. It is as though these speeches have not happened at all. We have noted above that even Kr̥ṣṇa, while listing Karṇa's misdeeds, does not mention his having ordered the disrobing (VIII.67.2-3). The sequence of events indicates that originally there was no hiatus between Draupadī's query and Vidura's exhortation to the assembly to provide an answer. Whatever we find now, in-between, is a subsequent addition.
There are three parallel accounts of Draupadī's coming to the dicing hall in chapter 60, which need to be reconciled.[33]
Duryodhana sends the prātikāmin to fetch her but she sends him back with a question to Yudhiṣṭhira.
Duryodhana sends him again to tell her to come and state her case in person. She, thereupon, expresses her faith in Dharma.
Now in slokas 14-15 Yudhiṣṭhira sends his trusted attendant to her, whereupon she appears in the hall.
But in sloka 16 onwards Duryodhana asks the prātikāmin to fetch her and, on his hesitating, orders Duḥśāsana to do so. He, then, drags her by her hair into the hall.
The accounts at 3 and 4 are contradictory and the latter has possibly been added subsequently along with Bhīma's blood-drinking vow for greater dramatic effect.[34]
What happens thereafter?
When Draupadī herself speaks, after Karṇa bids Duḥśāsana take her away to the Kaurava apartments, she voices her bewilderment at being dragged into the assembly but utters not a word about any attempt to strip her, which is most unnatural. Nor does she refer to Kṛṣṇa's response to her prayer and the abject failure of the attempt to disrobe her (II.62.1-14), about which Hiltebeitel is insistent.
Subsequently, disturbed by the ominous howling of beasts, when Vidura and Gāndhārī press Dhṛtarāṣṭra to intervene, neither refers to any attempted disrobing (II.63.24).
Dhṛtarāṣṭra rebukes his son for his wicked speech to dharmapatni Draupadī, but not for any heinous attempt to strip her.
Even the vow that Bhīma makes refers to her hair having been touched, parāmr̥śya (II.62.34), while Nakula's vow mentions her being verbally abused, yairvācaḥ śrāvitā rukṣāḥ (II.68.43). Neither refers to any attempt to disrobe her, which would surely have been the gravest provocation for swearing vengeance.
When Draupadī proceeds on exile, she is described as wearing a bloodstained cloth (II.70.9). If Kṛṣṇa or Dharma had continuously replaced what Duḥśāsana kept pulling away, how could she still be wearing this cloth stained with menstrual blood?
In the last chapter of the Sabhāparvan Dhṛtarāṣṭra laments that they "dragged the wretched Draupadī to the middle of the hall…clothed in her single garment, stained with blood…Duryodhana and Karṇa threw biting insults at the suffering Kr̥ṣṇa" (van Buitenen II.72.12-18). There is no mention of what should have been the greatest crime: the attempted disrobing and its miraculous failure.
Dhṛtarāṣṭra also tells Saṁjaya (II.72.19-20) that the Bharata women and Gāndhārī cried out in anguish and Brahmins did not perform the sandhyā rituals on the day of the dice game, furious with the dragging of Draupadī. Again, there is no reference to disrobing.[35]
In the Vanaparvan, Saṁjaya repeats his master's word parikarṣaṇe to describe the outrage but makes no mention of disrobing.
L. Vaidya, editor of the CE's Karnaparvan, held that a verse referring to her being stripped (VIII.85.15) was an interpolation and left it out of the CE text.[36]
Hiltebeitel has overlooked two confirmations of stance in the Śalyaparvan. J. D. Smith[37] pointed out to me that as "Bhīma is gloating after fulfilling his vow to overthrow Duryodhana and tread on his head," he says,
"Those who brought the menstruating Draupadī and who made her naked (avastrām) in the assembly—see those Dhārtarāṣṭras slain in battle by the Pāṇḍavas because of the torture on Yājñasenī." (IX.58.10)
Yet, in an earlier verse (IX.58.4), while kicking Duryodhana's head, Bhīma refers only to Draupadī clad in a single garment being mocked in the hall, not to any attempted stripping. Smith acknowledges that a contradiction exists, but is helpless because of the principle followed by the CE: "…it is strange that Bhīma says this at this point and does not say anything similar after fulfilling the more relevant vow against Duḥśāsana. But again, this is what the text actually says."[38]
Secondly, earlier on in the same parvan (IX.4.16-17) Duryodhana tells Kr̥pācārya that there is no point in seeking peace because,
duḥśāsanena yat kr̥ṣṇā ekavastrā rajasvalā
parikliṣṭā sabhāmadhye sarvalokasya paśyataḥ
tathā vivasanāṁ dīnāṁ smaranty adyāpi pāṇḍavāḥ
na nivārayituṁ śakyāḥ saṁgrāmāt te paraṁtapāḥ
"Wearing a single cloth and covered in dust, dark Draupadī was wronged by Duḥśāsana in the middle of the assembly hall under the eyes of the entire world. Even today the Pāṇḍavas still remember how she was naked (vivasanām) and wretched (dīnām); those enemy-destroyers cannot be turned from war."[39]
This is the solitary reference retained in the CE to Draupadī having been stripped naked (not to an attempt to strip her), but it is devoid of any mention of re-clothing. That implies that she remained naked thereafter and there was no miracle of endless garments. On the other hand, all recensions of the text agree that she proceeds on exile wearing a bloodstained garment.
This prompts examination of the annotations, which reveals that some manuscripts have vimanasā (dejected, bewildered) instead of vivasanā. Vimanasā is textually more consistent with Duryodhana's description of her condition in the earlier line (parikliṣṭā), but the editors of the CE did not accept this reading that is more consistent with what has gone before and comes after. Thus, they ended up with a text that renders Draupadī naked without any re-clothing.
There has been no attempt to reconcile these contradictions although the overwhelming evidence is weighted against any incident of trying to disrobe Draupadī.
Collateral Evidence
The earliest post-Mahabharata evidence is in the plays of the first Sanskrit dramatist Bhāsa: Dūtavākyam, Dūtaghaṭotkacam and Ūrubhangam (c. 4th century BC-1st century CE?).
In the first, Duryodhana displays to Kr̥ṣṇa a vivid painting of the dice-game showing draupadī keśāmbarākarṣaṇam, "Draupadī dragged by the hair and garment" (prose passage following sloka 6) and duḥśāsano draupadīm keśa haste grihītavān, "Duḥśāsana seizing Draupadī's hair in his hand" (prose passage preceding sloka 7). Kr̥ṣṇa exclaims, draupadī keśadharṣaṇam "Draupadī's hair being violated!" In 1916 Winternitz, comparing Bhāsa's Dūtavākyam with the Mahabharata, demonstrated that Kr̥ṣṇa's reclothing of Draupadī was an interpolation introduced after the 4th century CE.[40]
In the second play, Ghaṭotkaca upbraids Duryodhana saying, śirasi na tathā bhrātuḥ patniṁ spriśanti niśācarāḥ, "nor do night-wanderers (Rākṣasas) ever touch the brother's wife on the head" (sloka 47), referring to her having been dragged by her hair. This is an echo of what he says in the Bhīṣmaparvan87.26.
In the third play, Duryodhana says, yat kriṣṭa karanigrahāncitakacā dyūte tadā draupadī, "How Draupadī was dragged by the hair in the dicing" (sloka 63).[41]
Rājaśekhara's Bālabhārata (c. 10th century CE) is unaware of the re-clothing of Draupadī by Kṛṣṇa.[42]
Neither the Vaishnava Bhakti cult's Bhāgavata, nor the appendix to the epic, Harivaṁṣa, mentions any attempted stripping, despite their focus on the miraculous deeds of Kṛṣṇa. The former refers only to the heinous act of the Kuru lady being dragged by her hair (keśabhimarśam) in the assembly hall but not to Kṛṣṇa rescuing her miraculously from being stripped (I. 86; I. 15.10; III.1.7; XI.1.2.).
In the Devi Bhāgavata Purāṇa Janamejaya refers twice only to Draupadī being dragged by her hair (IV.1.36 and 17.38), using the word dharṣitā (IV.1.38), which also means "violated", for what Kīcaka did to her. Yudhiṣṭhira uses the same word while giving Saṁjaya his message, keśeṣvadharṣayat (Mahabharata, V.31.16).
It is later, in the Śiva Purāṇa (c. 11th century CE) that we find a reference to the incident (III.19.63-66). Here the stream of garments is the result of Durvāsā's boon to Draupadī for having torn off part of her dress to protect the sage's modesty when his loincloth was swept away in the Ganga.[43] Kr̥ṣṇa plays no role in this. There is also the popular tale of Draupadi binding up his bleeding finger with a strip of her garment because of which he provides her an endless stream of cloth in the dicing hall.[44]
Satya Chaitanya[45] has pointed out that the Jaiminīya Aśvamedhaparvan again a late work (c. 10th-12th century AD), carries a reference to the disrobing (2.62). Here Kr̥ṣṇa pays the Pāṇḍavas a surprise visit as they are wondering how to go about the horse-sacrifice. Draupadī says that they ought not to be surprised because earlier Kr̥ṣṇa had appeared to save them from Durvāsā and, "Before that, Hari appeared in the form of clothes in the assembly (vastrarūpī sabhāmadhye) to save me from shame."[46] We have noted above Sukthankar's rejection of both incidents as interpolations.
Adluri and Hiltebeitel have sought to bolster their argument in favour of the disrobing episode by citing a painting of the incident possibly by Nainsukh (c. 1760/65). On the other hand, the much older sculpture in the Hoysaleshwar temple in Halebidu (c. 12th century) reproduced below only depicts Draupadī being held by her hair, one woman approaching her while another restrains the male tormentor.[47]
We do not find any depiction of the dice game in sculpture or painting after this until we come to Akbar's Razmnama (1598-99).
It is here that, for the first time, the stripping of Draupadi is portrayed. That is why comparing its text with the Sanskrit manuscripts is so important.
To sum up, intra-textual evidence supporting the attempt to strip Draupadī is available in only two passages in the Śalyaparvan (IX.4.16-17 and IX.58.10), of which the former has a more consistent variant reading available. Even these do not refer to her being re-clothed, whether by Kr̥ṣṇa or otherwise. The passages upon which Hiltebeitel depends refer only to her having invoked Govinda in her distress, but not to any disrobing-and-re-robing. With overwhelming consistency (at least 27 times), the text refers only to her being dragged by her hair into the royal assembly-hall while in her period, wearing a single bloodstained cloth and being insulted. She leaves on exile wearing the same bloody garment. Further, there is no mention of the attempted disrobing in early Sanskrit literature. It is only a couple of late texts that mention the attempt and how it was aborted miraculously.
Both the internal and the external evidence, therefore, indicate that the incident of attempted stripping that has ruled the popular imagination so powerfully, featuring on stage, in paintings, films and television as the fuse that detonated the explosion destroying the Kshatriya clans, is a later addition by one or more highly competent redactors.[48] That would imply that the three verses (II.61.40-42) retained in the CE, quoted at the beginning of this paper, are part of the interpolation that the editors rejected.
Janamejaya, who is listening to the recital, is familiar with only one version in which Draupadī was dragged, not stripped (cf. the Devi Bhāgavata Purāṇa above). That is why he never questions Vaiśampāyana about the contradictory accounts about how Draupadī was outraged.[49] How is this "the kind of ideologically motivated, idiosyncratic" approach that Adluri and Hiltebeitel condemn so vehemently?[50]
Revising the Critical Edition
The first scholar to have expressed serious reservations about the CE was Sylvain Levi, the doyen of French Indologists, who argued in favour of using the Nīlakaṇṭha text showing all other variants alongside.[51] Madeleine Biardeau, the leading French scholar, questions Sukthankar's basic premise that the Śārada version is the genuine product just because it is the shortest and apparently earliest. She writes, "I do not give much heuristic value to the reconstituted text of the critical edition of Poona."[52] She felt the editors were blindly devoted to an outdated German philological approach. She is the first to ask bluntly why the text should be dated between 4th c. BC and the end of the 4th c. AD, as maintained by so many. Georges Dumezil preferred the Calcutta edition to the CE.[53]
Wendy Doniger, calling the CE "no text at all,"[54] urges that "any structural analysis of the epic would of course demand all available variants of the text."[55] Mincing no words she writes, "The critical edition…is like Frankenstein's monster, pieced together from various scraps of different bodies; its only community is that of the Pune scholars, the Frankensteins."[56]
Julius Lipner criticizes the imposition of the Western paradigm of a "critical edition" based upon a supposed "original version" since "popular oral tradition…which is the very lifeblood of Hinduism, does not work in this way…the text itself transcends the critical edition both as sacred narrative…and as a seed-bed for the literary imagination."[57]
Arvind Sharma comments, "…it is clear that, at every step, the idea of a critical text seems to go against the grain of the tradition— it is an example of pratiloma Indology."[58]
Simon Brodbeck has pointed out the basic flaw in the assumption of the CE, viz. that scribes only add to and do not subtract from texts they copy. There is a case for re-examining the decisions of the CE's editors about both including as well as leaving out passages.[59]
Alf Hiltebeitel has argued strenuously that Belvalkar, editor of the CE's Shanti Parva, made a mistake in following the Malayalam manuscripts to alter the frame narrative as well as splitting a section into two, changing the Nārāyaṇīya portion's 18 sections (an epitome of the MB's structure, like the Gita) to 19.[60]
Instead of regarding the CE as sacrosanct and arguing that we ought to accept that the epic knows of two versions of the outrage Draupadī suffered, we surely need to weigh the comparative evidence delineated above and then decide which way the scales dip. It is time to re-examine the CE adopting the "higher criticism" route. Even Brockington, who has subjected both epics to minute analysis under the lexical microscope, has come to a conclusion that echoes the "higher criticism" approach.[61]
Use has not been made of the valuable guidance available in Sri Aurobindo's notes written in 1902. He approached the epic "from the point of view mainly of style and literary personality, partly of substance" deferring "questions of philosophy, allusion and verbal evidence" and ignoring "the question of minute metrical details on which they (Western scholars) base far-reaching conclusions."[62] Submitting everything to the ultimate test of style, he identified that the Sabhāparvan carries "the hand of the original poet…that great and severe style which is the stamp of the personality of Vyāsa" and stated that, except for certain passages, the Virātaparvan and Udyogaparvan were also Vyāsa's work.[63] As an example he quotes from the former (IV.16.9) Draupadī's outcry to the sleeping Bhīma,
uttiṣṭhottiṣṭha kiṁ śeṣe bhīmasena yathā mr̥taḥ /
nāmr̥tasya hi pāpīyān bhāryām ālabhya jīvati //
He writes, "The whole personality of Draupadie breaks out in that cry, her chastity, her pride, her passionate and unforgiving temper, but it flashes out not in an expression of pure feeling, but in a fiery and pregnant apophthegm. It is this temperament, this dynamic force of intellectualism blended with heroic fire and a strong personality that gives its peculiar stamp to Vyasa's writing and distinguishes it from that of all other epic poets."[64] Similar is Kr̥ṣṇa's exhortation in the Udyogaparvan (V.73) for shaking Bhīma out of his pacifist mood.
It is remarkable that this selection of verses on stylistic criteria as pristine Vyāsa is matched by their inclusion in the CE many decades later on the basis of manuscript evidence. Surely, where two approaches agree, there is adequate justification for giving equal weight to each. Brockington has urged the need for "a coordinated approach to a particular text. This is where in particular the future lies…different approaches can be combined in order to provide greater illumination."[65]
Sri Aurobindo pointed out that there is also the hand of an inferior poet clearly visible who delights in the miraculous and whose style is highly coloured.[66] This stylistic difference is apparent in the Sabhāparvan in the portion beginning with Vikarṇa's speech and ending with the miraculous re-clothing of Draupadī. In addition, we have to take into account Kr̥ṣṇa's assertion —consistently borne out in the epic—that he can do all that a man can, but the miraculous is beyond him:-[67]
ahaṁ hi tat kariṣyāmi paraṁ puruṣakārataḥ /
daivaṁ tu na mayā śakyaṁ karma kartuṁ kathaṁ cana // V.77.5
Incidents like those involving Durvāsā in the forest and the re-robing of Draupadī are inconsistent with this. "If we find grave inconsistencies of character…we are justified in supposing two hands at work."[68] Therefore, on the grounds of both style, content and textual consistency, the incident is liable to be considered as the work of a different, later, poet. In 1916 Winternitz showed that Kr̥ṣṇa's re-clothing of Draupadī was an interpolation.[69] In 1949, in a different way, G.H. Bhatt argued for the same conclusion at the 15th All-India Oriental Conference, Bombay.[70]
M. Singhvi,[71] writing in 2008, recommended "another encyclopedic project of preparing a comprehensive Mahabharata Bibliography in all the Indian languages as well as other European and Asian languages." Strongly endorsing the views of Bankimchandra and Sri Aurobindo regarding the stylistic layers in the Mahabharata, he urged:-
The rigid exclusion and abandonment of the Ugrasrava recension and some of the later additions and accretions would be ruinous. What we need is a continuous discourse of scholarship and a host of scholarly guides to tell us of the architectonics of the Mahabharata and the historical and literary background of different accretions, additions and interpolations…. (that) represent the history as well as legend and myth of India and the confluence of the so called classical and the folk. The interwoven tapestry of MB made it a veritable people's Epic reflecting the social and cultural reality of different periods of Indian history and different perceptions of the Indian people at different stages."
An example of the need for this is seen in Hiltebeitel's comment in Dharma (2011) that Ashvaghosha's reference in Buddhacharita to Karalajanaka is "unknown and uncertain,"[72] whereas a discourse with this king exists in the Mokshadharma Parva of the MB in the Haridāsa Siddhāntavāgīśa edition[73] which the CE has not covered. In his recent book on nonviolence in the MB Hiltebeitel (2016) uses the story of rishi Parnada in deer form and the gleaner Satya which is not in the CE, taking it from "the northern Vulgate of the seventeenth-century compiler Nilakantha." He even suggests that the tale was inserted by Nilakantha, concluding that with such "improvisations" the MB "both as text and tradition…puts both ahimsa and gleaning into the consciousness and unconscious of Hindus."[74] That reminds us of Sukthankar's insertion of the invocatory benediction into the CE violating his own editorial principles.
Surely, the CE is not beyond all question! Even with the Bible, after the Authorised Version (1604-11) there was the Revised Version (1881-94) followed by further revised editions. It is the German philological approach to the Bible that was adopted in preparing the CE, labelling the others as "Vulgate" as in the case of the Biblical project. The central problem lies in mapping the inter-relationships among manuscripts. Wendy Phillips-Rodriguez has put forward a fascinating schema called "uprooted trees" like the Gita's cosmic tree whose roots are upwards and branches downwards. Through this paradigm she finds that the southern manuscripts are more widely dispersed than the northern, indicating their independent evolution. This upside-down tree model opens up the study of the epic's variations as having "an independent cultural value". Very pertinently she asks, "Why privilege one version over the others?"[75] The variations are separate interpretations, and the study of how each evolved will enable greater understanding of the cultural roots of the epic.
The Revised Edition announced by the BORI, however, raises concerns.[76] Their website states:-
"Revisions to the edition will be limited to incorporating the addenda and corrigenda for each volume into the text and either correcting or pointing out minor errors in the editor's apparatus or comments (e.g., misprints, dittographies, confusion of manuscript sigla, etc.). The edition will not undertake to revise the constituted text nor will it emend the form of the edition."[77]
However, it is time to take another look at the CE taking into account not only the many manuscripts left out, but also the contents of the adaptations in Arabic and Persian that pre-date or are contemporary with the manuscripts, as well as ancient commentaries that have much to reveal regarding the state of the text. The findings of Mehendale, Dhavalikar, Bhatt and Brockington should not be ignored. The Mahabharata is the national epic of India and the largest in the world. National resources must be made available for this challenging and critical project.
Asan, Ayyanappilla. 1988. Bharatham Pattu (A Mahabharata retelling in Malayalam before Ezhuttacchan, with commentary by Dr. P.K. Narayana Pillai). Kottayam: National Book Stall. Extracts at http://mahabharata-resources.org/variations/vastraharana_BP.html
Chatterjee, Bankim Chandra. 1991. Kr̥ṣṇa Charitra. P. Bhattacharya (trans.). Calcutta: M.P. Birla Foundation.
Jaiminīya Aśvamedha Parva. 2008. S.K.Sen (trans., ed. P. Bhattacharya). Kolkata: Writers Workshop.
Mahabharata, Book Two, The Great Hall. 2006. Paul Wilmot (trans.). New York: Clay Sanskrit Library & New York University Press.
Mahabharata, Book Nine, Shalya, Volume One. 2005. Justin Meiland (trans.). New York: Clay Sanskrit Library & New York University Press.
Mahabharata: The Book of the Assembly Hall. 1975. J.A.B. van Buitenen (trans.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
The Mahabharata, Volume 2. 2010. Bibek DebRoy (trans.). New Delhi: Penguin Books.
The Sabhāparvan. 1944. Franklin Edgerton (ed.). Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.
Adluri. Vishwa ed. 2013. Ways and Reasons for thinking about the Mahabharata as a Whole. Pune: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.
Adluri, V. and Hiltebeitel, A. 2017 in press. "Redressing the Undisrobing of Draupadī," in Indology's Pulse: Arts in Context: Essays Presented to Doris Meth Srinivasan Felicitation in Admiration of Her Scholarly Research. Edited by Gerd J. R. Mevissen, Arundhati Banerji, Vinay Kumar Gupta, Corinna Wessels-Mevissen. New Delhi: Aryan Books International.
Bandyopadhyay, Indrajit. 2013. "Mahabharata: Draupadi's Single Garment, and Disrobing in Dice Game Sabha," http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=14497 accessed on 22.06.2017.
Bhattacharya, P. 2003. "Was Draupadī ever disrobed?" Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, LXXXVI: 149-152
Review of Brockington's Epic Threads at www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=3919
"The Mahabharata in Arabic and Persian", www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=752
"The first Bengali Mahabharata in prose and verse", www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=7371
"Problems with the Critical Edition: the attempted disrobing of Draupadi". Presented at the 15th World Sanskrit Conference. New Delhi, 5-10 January 2012.
The Mahabharata of Vyasa: Mokshadharma Parva, translated from the Sanskrit. Kolkata: Writers Workshop.
Bhatt, G.H. 1951. "The Draupadīvastraharaṇa Episode: An interpolation in the Mahabharata." 15th All-India Oriental Conference, Bombay, 1949. Journal of Oriental Research XVIII, Part III, pp. 170-178.
Biardeau, Madeleine. 1997. "Some remarks on the links between the Epics, the Puranas and their Vedic sources," in Studies in Hinduism, ed. G. Oberhammer. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Brockington, J.L. 1998. The Sanskrit Epics. Leiden: E.J.Brill.
_________ 2000. Epic Threads. G. Bailey & M. Brockington (eds.). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
__________(ed.) 2012. Battle, Bards and Brahmins. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Brodbeck, Simon. 2013. "Some textological observations on the analytic and synthetic modes," in Adluri 2013.
Chaitanya, Satya. 2005. "Was Draupadī disrobed in the dice hall of Hastinapura?" www.boloji.com/hinduism/094.htm, accessed 22.10.2013.
Dange, S.A. 2001. Myths from the Mahabharata, vol. 2. New Delhi: Aryan Books International.
Deb Roy, Bibek. 2010. The Mahabharata vol. 2. New Delhi: Penguin Books.
Dhavalikar, M.K. 1992. "Draupadī's Garment," Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Institute, Amr̥tamahotsava volume, LXXII & LXXIII (1991 &1992): 523-526.
Doniger, Wendy. "How to escape from the Curse." London Review of Books 32/19:17-18.
Harindranath, A. http://mahabharata-resources.org/variations/vastraharana_BP.html
Hiltebeitel, A. 1988. The Cult of Draupadī. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
____________2001. Rethinking the Mahabharata. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
____________2011. Reading the Fifth Veda. Leiden: Brill
____________2011. Dharma. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
____________2016. Nonviolence in the Mahabharata. Oxford: Routledge.
Lipner, J.J. 2010. Hindus: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. 2nd edn. London: Routledge: 148-149.
Mehendale, M.A. 1986. "Draupadī's Question." JOIB. XXXV. Nos 3-4. Mar-June: 179-194.
_______________2001. "Urubhanga and the critical edition of the Mahabharata," in Madhu-vidya. L.D. Institute of Indology. Ahmedabad: 91-97.
_______________2005. "Did Bhima vow to drink Duḥśāṣana's blood?" ABORI. 86: 93-97.
_______________2009. "The Critical Edition of the Mahabharata: its constitution, achievements and limitations." In K.K. Chakravarty (ed.), Text and Variations of the Mahabharata. New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre of Arts & Munshiram Manoharlal.
Meiland, Justin. 2005. Mahabharata, Book Nine, Shalya, Volume One. New York: Clay Sanskrit Library, New York University Press.
Menon, K.P.A. 1996. Complete Plays of Bhāsa, vol. I. Delhi: Nag Publishers.
O'Flaherty, W.D. and J. Duncan M. Derrett, eds., 1978. The Concept of Duty in South Asia, New Delhi: Vikas.
Phillips-Rodriguez, Wendy 2012. "Uprooted Trees: a way around the dilemma of recension," in Brockington, J.L. Battle, Bards and Brahmins, pp. 217-229.
Sen, S.K. 2008. Jaiminiya Ashvamedha Parva (ed. Pradip Bhattacharya). Calcutta: Writers Workshop.
Sharma, Arvind. 2008. http://arvindsharma.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/25-against-the-critical-edition-of-the-mahabharata/#_ftn25_1 accessed 22.10.2013.
Singhvi, L.M. 2008: "Mahabharata: texts and contexts in a perspective". In Neo Indika, Bharatayan, essays in honour of P.D. and S.S. Halvasiya, vol. 1. Ed. Dr Vasudev Poddar. Kolkata: Rai Bahadur Vishweshwarlal Motilal Halwasiya Trust, 15 India Exchange Place, 700001.
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______________1957. On the meaning of the Mahabharata. Bombay: Asiatic Society.
[1] Retired from the Indian Administrative Service as Additional Chief Secretary, Government of West Bengal. Author and Editor of 33 books. PhD on "Narrative Art in the Mahabharata." International HRD Fellow (Manchester). Member, Board of Governors, IIM Calcutta. An earlier version of this paper was presented in the 15th World Sanskrit Conference, New Delhi, 2012, which the editors did not include in the papers awaiting publication as it questioned the CE.
[1] Mehendale 2009: 5; 21 note 5. Adluri and Hiltebeitel (2017) assert, "Sukthankar did examine the Nepali manuscript and found that it confirmed his reconstruction," but do not cite any evidence to controvert Mehendale's statement.
[2] Sukthankar 1933: vi.
[3] Edgerton, "Introduction," p. xxii quoted by Mahadevan T.P. "The Southern recension," p. 105, in Adluri, Vishwa ed. 2013. Ways and Reasons for thinking about the Mahabharata as a Whole. Pune: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.
[4] Bhattacharya 2009.
[5] Brockington 1998: 55.
[6] Sukthankar 1933: xxviii. Quoted in Adluri and Hiltebeitel. 2017.
[7] Adluri and Hiltebeitel 2017 ibid.
[8] Sen, S.K. 2008.
[9] Jaiminiya Aśvamedhaparva 2008: 69; Bhattacharya ibid.
[10] Bhattacharya 2010.
[11] Adluri and Hiltebeitel, op.cit. plead for the word, "rigorous" instead
[12] Edgerton 1944: xxxiii.
[13] Sukthankar 1930: 268-69 quoted by Adluri and Hiltebeitel 2017 in press.
[14] Chatterjee 1991: 61-62.
[15] Brockington 1998: 146.
[16] Mehendale 2009: 15.
[17] Edgerton 1944: xxix.
[18] van Buitenen 1975: 146.
[19] Why "skirt"? The Sanskrit is vasana and vastram. Deb Roy's "garment" (2010, p. 235) is accurate.
[20] van Buitenen mistranslates this as "her half skirt drooping."
[21] It is not a skirt-cum-stole ensemble as van Buitenen's translation has it, but a single cloth whose upper part covers the torso, as the sari does today.
[22] Imported from Biblical scholarship referring to the popular Sanskrit text.
[23] Chatterjee 1991: 113, 247.
[24] Wilmot 2006: 68.45. p. 449.
[25] Sukthankar 1942: xiii note 1.
[26] Asan 1988: 222
[27] Hiltebeitel 2001: 246-259.
[29] Bhatt 1951: 172.
[30] Adluri and Hiltebeitel op.cit.
[31] Satya Chaitanya 2005.
[32] Brockington 1998: 147
[33] Bhatt 1951: 176-177
[34] Mehendale 2005 shows the vow is an interpolation.
[35] Satya Chaitanya, ibid.
[36] Bhatt 1951: 174
[37] Professor of Sanskrit at Cambridge and author of the abridged Penguin translation of the Mahabharata. He maintains the online digital text of the CE.
[38] J.D. Smith, personal communication.
[39] Meiland 2005: 77.
[40] Brockington 1998: 258 note 53; Dhavalikar 1992: 523.
[41] Menon 1996: 266-677, 274, 332, 411.
[43]Dange 2001: 231.
[44] Hiltebeitel 1988: 226-27.
[45]Satya Chaitanya op.cit.
[46] Jaiminīya Aśvamedha Parva 2008: 90.
[47] Indrajit Bandyopadhyay 2013.
[48] Bhatt 1951: p. 178: "The examination of the whole evidence available…leads us to the irresistible conclusion that the Dv. (Draupadīvastraharaṇa) episode did not form part of the original epic…"
[49] I am indebted to Simon Brodbeck for this insight.
[50] They write, referring to me: 'uses the self-designation "mythographer,"' "ideologically motivated, idiosyncratic… unphilosophical and unthinking approaches," "vapid arguments," "most senseless examples" in Adluri & Hiltebeitel op.cit.
[51] Levi, Sylvain. 1929. Review of the CE in Journal Asiatique 215: 345-48, quoted in Hiltebeitel 2011, p. 17.
[52] Biardeau 1997: 85-86.
[53] Hiltebeitel op.cit. p. 17.
[54] O'Flaherty, W. D. 1978:22 quoted in Hiltebeitel 2011: 16.
[55] O'Flaherty, W.D. 1978 ibid.
[56] Doniger, Wendy. "How to escape from the Curse." London Review of Books 32/19:17-18 quoted in Hiltebeitel 2011 ibid.
[57] Lipner 2010: 148-149.
[58] Sharma 2008
[59] Brodbeck 2013.
[60] Hiltebeitel 2011: 192-4
[61] Bhattacharya 2003 on Brockington 2000.
[62] Sri Aurobindo 2007:11-13, 68. Western Indologists have even dated the epic from the single occurrence of words like suranga (from the Greek suringks?), antakhim (Antioch?) and roma (Rome?) cf. CE 02028049a antākhīṁ caiva romāṁ ca yavanānāṁ puraṁ tathā.
[63] Sri Aurobindo 2007: 28. He brings out the features distinguishing Vyāsa's style at length with examples.
[64] ibid. p.47.
[66] Sri Aurobindo 2007: 13.
[67] Chatterjee 1991: 210
[69] Note 30 above.
[71] Singhvi 2008: "Mahabharata: texts and contexts in a perspective". Neo Indika, Bharatayan, essays in honour of P.D. and S.S. Halvasiya, vol. 1. Ed. Dr Vasudev Poddar. Rai Bahadur Vishweshwarlal Motilal Halwasiya Trust, 15 India Exchange Place, Kolkata-700001.
[72] Hiltebeitel 2011: 636 n. 34.
[74] Hiltebeitel 2016: 31.
[75] Phillips-Rodriguez, Wendy 2012: 228
[76] The editors are V. Adluri of Hunter College USA and J. Bagchee of Freie Universität Berlin.
[77] http://www.bori.ac.in/Mahabharata-Project-Revised-Second-Edition.html accessed on 19th June 2017.
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The Mahabharata as a Whole
RECONSIDERING THE MAHABHARATA
Vishwa Adluri (ed.): Ways and Reasons for thinking about the Mahabharata as a Whole, Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, 2013, pp. xxv+201, Rs.500/-
One of the signal achievements in Indology that Indian scholars can be proud of is the publication by the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, of the Critical Edition (CE) of the Mahabharata (MB) and the Harivansha (HV) in 22 volumes, along with a Pratika Index and a Cultural Index. However, scholars the world over have turned this into another instance of "Others abide our question; thou art free!" It was the French scholar Madeline Biardeau who, in the 1990s, stated her preference for the Vulgate text, free of the CE's excisions and for treating the MB as a whole instead of as a hotchpotch of materials. Actually, way back in 1901-2 Aurobindo Ghose, had done this in his Notes on the Mahabharata" which scholars are unaware of. A case for taking a second look at the CE was made out by Alf Hiltebeitel, the American scholar and the most prolific writer on the MB. Wendy Doniger and David Shulman "have also expressed reservations about the CE." A justification for revising the CE was advanced by me in a national conference held by the National Mission for Manuscripts in 2007. Papers relating to this trend of thought, which is gathering momentum, have been compiled in this important publication edited by Vishwa Adluri of Hunter College, New York, with an elaborate Introduction and a 16 page Bibliography. Two essays bring out the thematic unity of the epic while others explore historico-textual issues and the question of Greek influence.
In a thought-provoking lengthy Introduction, Adluri critiques the tradition of "higher criticism" (a philological term denoting matters influencing the text) and prefers the "hermeneutic method" which focuses on the CE text to interpret it. This approach takes the epic as a whole, discounting the theory of "layers" and the search for the "Ur text" exemplified by Hopkins and German scholars who were importing Biblical research methodology on the Old Testament into the MB.
The first essay is a riveting study of the Uttanka story at the beginning of the MB, recurring in the Book of Horse-Sacrifice, which apparently has nothing to do with what follows, bringing out its symbolism as an "education in becoming" and its relevance in the epic. All on a sudden, why should Sarama, the hound of heaven, curse Janamejaya that his sacrifice will face a serious impediment? Here Adluri painstakingly lays out the narrative structure of the Adi Parva, the Book of Beginnings, showing how Vyasa's epic has two sacrifices (Shaunaka's and Janamejaya's) in two tales, one embedded within the other. There are other sacrifices he overlooks: Parashara's to annihilate rakshasas, Drupada's two rites birthing Shikhandi, Dhrishtadyumna and Draupadi leading to the Kurukshetra war, repeatedly referred to in terms of a holocaust. And it all has its origins in yet another yajna: the sacrificial ritual the gods hold in Naimisha forest with Yama as the butcher-priest. Adluri highlights the multiple levels of the text: Vaishamapayana's narrative; the allegorical sacrificial rites and, thirdly, Uttanka's interpretative tale, the last providing the key to how the story is to be read. Besides this, however, the Uttanka tale also contains Vedic symbols related to a spiritual journey, which Adluri does not touch upon. Vyasa states he has retold the secrets of the Veda in the MB, an aspect explored utilizing nirukti (etymology) in my Secret of the Mahabharata (1984).
Hiltebeitel's fascinating paper investigates the possibilities of the MB as history, itihasa, as it calls itself 8 times (which the Ramayana never does, always referring to itself as kavya). From 2001 onwards, several Western scholars besides himself, like Biardeau, Fitzgerald and Sutton, have agreed that the MB is a post-Ashokan composition. He argues that references to Cinas suggest a date post 221 BC of China's first emperor. It is curious that he does not cite the reference to denarius, which would also date the MB to early Roman times in the 3rd century BC. Hiltebeitel shows why the MB predates Ashvaghosha's Buddhacharita (1st-2nd century AD), suggesting that it was composed between 150 BC and 100 AD.
Hiltebeitel accepts T.P. Mahadevan's thesis that the MB was composed by Purvashikha Brahmins (wearing tufts on the front of their heads) of the Kuru-Panchala area, taking historical data from the Vedas, between 300 and 100 BC. The Yuga Purana dated around 60-25 BC has 12 slokas on the MB, refers to Greek-Panchala-Mathura forces sacking Pataliputra (the end of the Mauryas c. 190 BC), to Shaka invasions and to safe havens in the south where the Purvashika Brahmins migrated during the Tamil Sangam culture, carrying the MB. From this, written on bark or palm-leaf in Brahmi script, the elaborate Southern recension was created, drawing upon the HV, in Grantha script in the Tanjavur area. A subsequent migration from eastern Haryana and Malva, fleeing the Huna raids c. 6th century AD, occurred in the 7th century AD by Aparashikha Brahmins (wearing tufts on the back of their heads) carrying the Northern Recension of the MB text in a northern variety of Brahmi that influenced Tamil script. under the Pallavas who produced the inflated version in Telegu Grantha script. Meanwhile, in the 5th century AD, in the context of the Kalabhra Interregnum, a chaotic period in Tamil history, some Purvashikha Brahmins (the future Nambudiris) moved to Malabar region carrying the MB where it is found in the Aryaeluttu script. Here an entire section, the Sheshadharmaprakaranam, was added to the Harivansha (available thanks to Purshothaman Avaroth at http://www.dvaipayana.net). One branch of the Purvashikhas remained under the Cholas creating the Krishnaism of the MB borrowing from the HV. Mahadevan analyses as a case in point the presentation of argha to Krishna in the Sabha Parva (2.35.6-29). He shows that around 300 CE three texts exist simultaneously in the Sangam Tamil region: a Sharada text (the foundation of the Critical Edition) with an additional Krishna-bhakti portion called "A-21", a similar section in P.P.S.Sastri's Southern Recension in the process of construction drawing upon the Harivansha's sections 38, 41 and 42 in response to the Alvar bhakti movement. The killing of Madhu and Kaitabha is the main part of this insertion. Mahadevan draws attention to an untraced complete text of the MB lying in the Bharat Itihasa Sanshodhaka Mandal of Pune referred to by Edgerton, editor of the Sabha Parva of the CE. It is a great loss that the National Mission for Manuscripts has not pursued this. An exciting development is mention of a joint project by Hiltebeitel and Mahadevan to compare the Sastri southern recension with the CE to reveal how the text took shape.
Taking off from an earlier paper by Adluri on Ruru and Orpheus using etymology (nirukti) to plumb the symbolism, Joydeep Bagchee shows that the myth of Ruru is part of the epic's response to the philosophical problem of time and eternity. The introduction itself states that one who knows the etymology of the MB is liberated from all sin, niruktam asya yo veda sarvapapaih pramucyate (1.209). Salvation inheres in turning to self-knowledge. The entire Bhrigu cycle (Pauloma and Astika Parvas) is about a fall from being into becoming. It is the snakes who form the interpretative apparatus for comprehending the action of time amongst humankind.
Simon Brodbeck analyses the analytic and the synthetic approaches to the MB suggesting that with the CE it is the latter that is appropriate. The former seeks to outline the historical process by which the MB came to be built, varying from a thousand years (400 BC to 400 AD) to a couple of generations (150 BC to 100 AD). The focus is on the "original" form of the MB. He critiques Tokunaga's paper on Bhishma's advice to Yudhishthira to expose weaknesses in the analytic approach, such as Yudhishthira being enthroned twice, which does not occur. The search for historical clues within the text blinds the analyst to narrative subtleties within it. Brodbeck points out the basic flaw in the assumption of the CE, viz. that scribes only add to and do not subtract from texts they copy. There is a case for re-examining the decisions of the CE's editors about including and leaving out passages.
The book ends with F.W. Alonso's paper arguing that the MB drew upon a vast quantity of Greek materials, particularly the Homeric cycle and the myths about Heracles. He finds as many as seven parallels between the former and the design of the MB. There are numerous commonalities between Achilles and Bhishma, Helen and Draupadi, Alcmaeon and Parashurama, the lament of Yudhishthira over Karna and of Menelaus over Agamemnon, Arjuna and Rama with Odysseus in the contest for Draupadi/Sita/Penelope. Alonso finds as many as 11 themes common to the tenth book, the Sauptika Parva, and the tenth book of the Iliad. He claims there are 8 clear borrowings from the account of the fall of Troy. But why can it not be the other way around? From this evidence, Alonso suggests that the epic was written after Alexander's invasion which provides the historical basis for relationships with Greek and early Roman culture. During the same time (1st century BC), writing pervades Roman culture and the Aeneid is composed with Greek materials.
This is truly a very important book, which every Indologist dealing with the epics ought to study. Unfortunately, for such a significant collection, BORI has produced a disappointingly shoddy publication. There is not a word about the editor and any of the six contributors, nor any index; the cardboard covers are of the poorest quality; the typeface used is shabby; some articles are followed by a blank page, others by none, suggesting that each article was printed separately and the lot stitched together without regard to consistency in composition and printing. For an institution that will be a hundred years old in 2017, this is a lamentable display indeed.
Filed Under: BOOK REVIEWS Tagged With: Critical Edition, Mahabharata


pictureDRIFT created a global promo opener for the documentary "Super Flu" on National Geographic Channel. The promo builds on the historic children's rhyme "Ring around the Rosy". A gritty black and white treatment was designed to draw reference to memories of the Bubonic Plague.


text:
Badgers skid continues with last-minute loss to Terps
Wisconsin battled back from big halftime deficit, but couldn't find a way to win in a close one to the Maryland Terrapins.
The Wisconsin Badgers erased a 10-point halftime deficit, but couldn't find a way to win as the Maryland Terrapins snapped a three-game losing streak with a 68-63 victory at the Xfinity Center on Sunday afternoon.
Point guard Anthony Cowan Jr. led all players with 23 points and Kevin Huerter came up big late to help out with 19 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists in the win for Maryland.
Ethan Happ paced the Badgers with 18 points and 9 rebounds. He was joined in double figures by Nathan Reuvers (13), Brad Davison (12) and Aleem Ford (12) in the losing effort.
Ultimately, the Badgers inexperience in close games haunted them, while Maryland finally found a way to win a close one.
UW has made a habit out of being cold from the start of games, but that wasn't the case on Sunday in College Park. It seemed like the insertion of freshman Aleem Ford in to the starting lineup in place of Brevin Pritzl was the spark the Badgers needed.
Wisconsin jumped out to an early 11-4 lead as Maryland shot just 1 of 7 from the field and 0 of 5 from beyond the arc.
Aleem Ford opened the scoring with a triple, while Brad Davison and Nate Reuvers also hit early three-pointers to help Wisconsin earn the 11-4 lead.
Maryland would make its own run later in the half though, as UW's lead never went beyond the 18-11 lead it had after Happ completed an old-fashioned three-point play with 9:24 to play in the first half.
However, that was the end to the fun for the Badgers in the first half. UW managed just five more points the rest of the way and allowed Maryland to end the half on an 11-0 run to take a 33-23 lead in to halftime.
The run had an exclamation point on it, as Anthony Cowan picked off a Brevin Pritzl pass with just seconds left in the half and laid it in for an easy transition bucket. It was also the last time we saw Pritzl in this game.
Wisconsin came out hot to start the second half, working hard down low and getting shot to fall once again. It led to a 21-9 start to the half that saw Wisconsin earn its first lead (44-42) since the first half with just 9:24 to play in the game.
Maryland responded after that big run though and the two teams battled for the lead back-and-forth. There were 5 lead changes in a 1:15 stretch following UW's run.
The game remained tight the rest of the way, as the two teams traded big bucket after big bucket. However, Wisconsin was the one that blinked at the end.
Wisconsin came back from a 5-point deficit with 3:36 to play, as Aleem Ford hit his fourth three-pointer of the game to tie it at 60-60 with just 2:39 to play.
Huerter broke the tie with a clutch jumper with 1:26 to play, while the Badgers missed their first two shots after tying the game up and gave away any advantage it could've had after Huerter followed that up with a scoop and score to make it 64-60 with 27 seconds left to play.
UW took a bit too much time off the clock, but Davison rose for a tough three-pointer and pulled the Badgers back within one point. Anthony Cowan made a pair of free throws for a 66-63 lead with 9.8 seconds to play.
Davison took the inbounds after Cowan's made free throws, but chose to drive to the basket down three and had his shot blocked.
It was a sad ending to a game for a team on a sad streak, as the Badgers have now lost five in a row and eight of their last nine.
UW will stay on the road to take on the last place Illinois Fighting Illini on Thursday night. Tip is scheduled for 8pm and can be seen on BTN.
Related Topics:Maryland TerrapinsWisconsin Badgers
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The Starting 5: Wisconsin vs. Maryland basketball preview
Badgers Basketball Preview: 5 things to know vs. Maryland (2nd edition)
Badgers late comeback falls short against Terps
Badgers Basketball Preview: 5 things to know vs. Maryland
Badgers advance in Big Ten tournament thanks to free throws

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Makeup Brush made with synthetics hair, soft and comfortable; wooden handle, lighweight.
6 Pieces Powder Brushes Set: A various of makeup brush, application for suitable for eyeshadow,BB cream, powder, foundation, blush.
Black Synthetic Leather Makeup Bag: Roll Up foldable design, easy to carry in any occasion, for example, party, workplace, cocktail.


text:
Entertainment Bollywood 15 Aug 2019 Section 375 is topic ...
Section 375 is topical: Akshaye Khanna
DECCAN CHRONICLE. | UMA RAMASUBRAMANIAN
Akshaye Khanna, who is an extremely reserved actor, will now be seen as a lawyer in Section 375.
Akshaye Khanna
Akshaye Khanna, who is an extremely reserved actor, will now be seen as a lawyer in Section 375. The actor, who has earlier played a lawyer in Deewangee (2002), says this film is completely different from what he has done before.
"Deewangee was a thriller, but this is a proper courtroom drama and I am experiencing this for the first time. It was a terrific experience because it's a different world altogether. When we step into that world as an actor you learn a lot and experience a lot of emotions, thoughts and ideas," he shares.
"The story is not only topical but relevant, no matter which year you are living in. How such cases are looked upon, whether you are a part of the prosecution or a normal person...all the angles have been taken under consideration. The film gives you a holistic view of the case," he adds.
Section 375 is centered around the much-needed discussion on consent. Richa Chadha plays a public prosecutor fighting to get justice for her client. Her client claims to have been raped by a movie director, whom Akshaye's character defends in court.
Tags: akshaye khanna, section 375
'Kick 2' starring Salman Khan will happen in December 2021: Sajid Nadiadwala
Ranveer Singh presents Chirag Patil as Sandeep Patil in new '83' character poster
Gangubai Kathiawadi: Alia Bhatt looks fierce in SLB's next
Jacqueline Fernandez shares pic with John Abraham after reuniting for 'Attack'
Jab Kartik and Sara met again


Lovely weather, cool, nice wine and top class entertainment. That's what we got last night at Mälarpaviljongen.
Alcazar performed seven of their songs unplugged with a trio of musicians. As an encore we got to hear "I'm yours" by Jason Mraz.


Diarrheal disease is the second-leading cause of childhood mortality. In countries that cannot afford to provide piped water to dispersed, rural households, increasing access to safe drinking water remains a challenge. In a paper recently published in Science, SIEPR fellow Pascaline Dupas and her coauthors found that that targeting coupons for water-treatment solution to mothers through rural clinics provides a particularly cost-effective way to deliver the solution to households which need and will use the product but cannot afford it. Building on this, this new project aims to understand how coupons can be integrated into existing health infrastructure systems at scale, including public health centers as well as network of community health workers. The study will be conducted in Southern Malawi in partnership with Partners In Health (PIH). Its objective is to provide PIH and other NGOs, bilateral and multilateral development agencies, funders, and developing country governments with rigorous evidence on how to cost-effectively scale up coupon-based delivery of life-saving water treatment solution.


text:
/*
 * ip/udp_format.c: udp formatting
 *
 * Copyright (c) 2008 Eliot Dresselhaus
 *
 * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
 * a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
 * "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
 * without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
 * distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
 * permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
 * the following conditions:
 *
 * The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
 * included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
 *
 *  THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
 *  EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
 *  MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
 *  NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE
 *  LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION
 *  OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION
 *  WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
 */

#include <vnet/ip/ip.h>

/* Format UDP header. */
u8 * format_udp_header (u8 * s, va_list * args)
{
  udp_header_t * udp = va_arg (*args, udp_header_t *);
  u32 max_header_bytes = va_arg (*args, u32);
  uword indent;
  u32 header_bytes = sizeof (udp[0]);

  /* Nothing to do. */
  if (max_header_bytes < sizeof (udp[0]))
    return format (s, "UDP header truncated");

  indent = format_get_indent (s);
  indent += 2;

  s = format (s, "UDP: %d -> %d",
	      clib_net_to_host_u16 (udp->src_port),
	      clib_net_to_host_u16 (udp->dst_port));

  s = format (s, "\n%Ulength %d, checksum 0x%04x",
	      format_white_space, indent,
	      clib_net_to_host_u16 (udp->length),
	      clib_net_to_host_u16 (udp->checksum));

  /* Recurse into next protocol layer. */
  if (max_header_bytes != 0 && header_bytes < max_header_bytes)
    {
      ip_main_t * im = &ip_main;
      tcp_udp_port_info_t * pi;

      pi = ip_get_tcp_udp_port_info (im, udp->dst_port);

      if (pi && pi->format_header)
	s = format (s, "\n%U%U",
		    format_white_space, indent - 2,
		    pi->format_header,
		    /* next protocol header */ (udp + 1),
		    max_header_bytes - sizeof (udp[0]));
    }

  return s;
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Elizabeth K. Englander Reveals the Myths of Bullying and Cyberbullying
In this interview, Dr. Elizabeth K. Englander talks to Alexander "The Engineer" Lim, host of AuthorStory by alvinwriter.com, about her book, 25 Myths About Bullying and Cyberbullying.
"Myths can really hold you back." ~Dr. Elizabeth K. Englander
Dr. Englander is a researcher, trainer and college professor who has been studying children and violence for some 25 years. She applied for a fellowship in 2004 to found the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center, a center which presently works with schools around the world, creating programs designed to deal with bullying and cyberbullying, which enables the center to reach some 200,000 children a year. Dr. Englander noted that a lot of violence that, while most of the violence students experienced was violence in the school, compared to violence in the streets, for example, cyberbullying really began to pick up in 2005, due to the increasing prevalence of social media. She had always been interested in technology and how people worked with it, and she combined these two interests into her present research into cyberbullying.
Dr. Englander differentiates being mean from bullying, as being mean is an occasional or unintentional act, whereas bullying is when a more powerful individual or group targets someone who can't defend themselves, in a continuous campaign of repeated targeting. Such campaigns are destructive and difference from mean things that happen just once, and Dr. Englander points out that what is done is less important than how it's done and how often and how consistently it's done, citing the example of consistent staring as one such method. She also remarks that, when a child complains about such non-physical acts, adults tend to brush off this off without asking the child the context in which such acts took place, which leads to a lack of understanding about what is going on and what the impact is on the child.
Children always give signs when they struggle with something, such as changes in their eating or sleeping patterns, or change the people they interact with, and the lack of information on what's causing this can confuse parents, Dr. Englander notes, which means that parents need to talk to children to find out what is going on. She also remarks that this is particularly confusing with teenagers, who don't want to talk to their parents about what goes on in their lives, but while this is so, teenagers also appreciate it when parents try to keep the lines of communication open. "You get credit, just for asking," Dr. Englander comments, giving the example of one of her kids.
Bullying, Dr. Englander remarks, might not be rare, but it's also not commonplace, adding that, while all kids experience meanness at some point in their lives, one in four children will be affected by bullying at some point in their lives. This is "exacerbated" by the way parents raise children nowadays, she notes. Where a parent being told that their child is being bullied is concerned, Dr. Englander remarks that the parent should stay calm and talk to the child to get the details of what is going on. The way to move forward becomes clear once such details are known, particularly since the circumstances of bullying differ from one child to another. Such details need to include where and when and how often such acts occur, as well as who is involved, and who are those who know what's going on. Letting the school know about cyberbullying can also enable the school to help out, even if they don't have total control over the situation, and letting the child know one can handle the situation, and creating a plan to work on, gives the child more confidence that they can be supported. "The number one reason children don't tell their parents," Dr. Englander says about her research, "is that their parents run around and get hysterical."
Dr. Englander remarks that she wrote the book to help make clear what does and doesn't work, where responding to bullying is concerned, citing the myth of bystanders stepping in to confront a bully as being effective, as such a strategy could backfire. (In that situation, Dr. Englander notes that bystanders helping the target and ignoring the bully would be far more effective.) Where cyberbullying is concerned, the concept that the school can't do anything is a myth, particularly since, among teenagers, the target is very likely to be bullied by someone they know in school, rather than an anonymous person.
The most common way for the target of bullying to get through the situation is by getting social support - being around friends and family and people who can show that one is a likeable person - as well as pursuing one's own interests, which help one feel good about oneself. "This is true for adults as well as for kids," Dr. Englander also adds, remarking that such is a learned skill that needs to be taught to kids. She also remarks that these are "anxious" times for parents, and that focusing on human connections and getting away from screens really pays off where creating more resilient and more able children are concerned.
Purchase from Amazon:
25 Myths About Bullying and Cyberbullying by Dr. Elizabeth K. Englander
Labels: alvinwriter.com, author interview, AuthorStory, being an author, books, Bullying, Cyberbullying, Dr. Elizabeth K. Englander, inspiring story, Myths, writing inspiration
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When we made the transition from a traditional academic advising center to the Office of Professional Development, we went looking for career coaches. We wanted to hire people who had current experience helping employers find talent to staff their companies. In short, we wanted people who had "Street Cred" — Professionals who could share this first-hand knowledge with our incoming juniors as we challenge students to make their own career management a priority as soon as they enter the College. To underscore the importance of keeping their knowledge current, we told our new coaches that we didn't want them to stay with us too long. Instead we hoped that they would use this new experience as a stepping stone to their next opportunity, perhaps with a company or as a disciple who could help another school start down the same path as us. We thought that our coaches should exhibit the same proactive career management qualities that we seek to instill in our 8000 students.
So, it should come as no surprise that they listened to us. This week, Kelly Bogey is moving on. Kelly is a graduate of the college. She is the very first alum I met after arriving at UCF. She came to us from WilsonHCG where she helped companies develop and implement their talent acquisition strategies. Kelly has worked primarily with our accounting students and created our very popular #UCFBizChat Twitter chats that give students the opportunity to get quick advice from thought leaders in the career management field. She will be taking these experiences to Grant Thornton where she will recruit students from a number of universities including UCF. So even though she will not be with the college anymore, Kelly will still be helping our students launch their professional careers. Her last day with us is Wednesday.
If you are one of the many students Kelly has helped along the way, send her a thank you note. If you are one of the few skeptical students who told her (or another career coach) that you didn't think you needed this form of help, you probably shouldn't apply to Grant Thornton. If you are Mitch Less, you are smiling, knowing your firm just made a terrific hire with a lot of insider information about where talent lies at your alma mater.
We expect great things from you Kelly. Please visit early and often. To repeat what Dr. Hitt told you at graduation: You are now and will forever be, a UCF Knight. Charge On, girl.
Among the many hands I shook last Saturday were two that left the stage and went straight to the airport. They were headed to Europe together to backpack for a few weeks and meet the locals. No they are not rich kids or slackers. These two guys already had jobs lined up before they graduated. They were just taking a few weeks to continue to do what they had already done while at UCF: Enjoy their first mover advantage.
Both of these guys got after it early and often. Anthony had internships at Aon Hewitt and Verizon. He rose to be president of our FMA student chapter and after meeting someone from Bloomberg in a New York bar and telling them what we were doing at UCF, got an invitation for the entire FMA group to tour their offices. Anthony also got his classmates to take the BAT exam and generated lots of buzz for our CFA track. Would it surprise you to learn this landed him a finance job in NYC? For his part, Dionte interned at Florida Hospital and Siemens. He also found the time to undertake research on the correlation between dementia and falls in long-term care facilities as part of the RAMP program at UCF. Dionte talked his way into becoming a College of Business Student Ambassador (where he joined Anthony) even though he was a healthcare administration major. He showed so much charm and swagger as a student with a business minor that we just adopted him. He took all these experiences and landed a spot in the Commercial Leadership Program with GE Healthcare.
As my Aussie friends would say: good on you, mates. Life is cumulative and your fast starts have you two well in the lead. I plan on sharing your travels with the 800 or so students I'll greet at our summer version of "Welcome to the Majors" this Friday. You may have graduated, but you continue to be great ambassadors for the culture of engagement we are creating in the college. Thanks for giving me two great examples of the value of getting off to a quick start.
My blog posts usually come out on Monday, but I'm making an exception today.
To my son, there are many instructors in the College of Business who are one of a kind. Dr. R who taught Derivatives, Dr. Steiger from Professional Sales, Dr. Sweo who taught international business, and many more who brought real world experience to the classroom and challenged him academically. Jamie took advantage of two out of hundreds of job placements that are available. In the fall he will attend his number one choice of schools for a Masters in Finance.
While our son is one in a million to us, we think UCF is number one for providing him, and many others, a rich and rewarding college experience. Thank you for all you, your faculty and staff do on your student's behalf!
Her kind note was on my mind as I shook 800 hands Saturday morning. I had always questioned why Spring graduation typically falls the day before Mother's Day. It always seemed to me like it was just too much for one weekend. But as I exited the arena and saw the smiles on faces, it occurred to me that graduation is, in many ways, an early Mother's Day present to all those ladies who worked tirelessly to put their child in the position to walk across the stage and into a better future.
So Happy Mother's Day to all 800 of those mom's in attendance yesterday: You did good. Take the day off. And, thanks for letting us help shape the lives of your sons and daughters. They will be forever Knights. I didn't get pictures from all of them, but I'd like to share a few of my favorites below. After all, I consider them my kids too….
We graduate more than a thousand students from the college each year. About 70% stay in Florida, about 50% stay in Central Florida. A few venture far and wide.
Three of my favorites: Evan, Anthony and Renee are headed to the Big Apple. Yelp, Citibank, and McGladrey will never be the same. Yes, I know Renee will be back in the fall for her Masters in Accounting, but three months in New York City and I'm guessing she'll be itching to get back there in a year. Evan is starting in sales, but I see him owning a company very soon. Anthony, well he's a great example of a risk-taking, data-driven decision-maker. He's also got that Wall Street swagger. He's going to do more than be just fine.
Graduation, young Knights, isn't the end. It's not an "is that all there is??" moment. It's an "I've got next" moment. So where's next for you graduates? Tweet me your answer all this week using the link below.
And don't forget to use #UCFBUSINESS. I'll give you a tweet back during graduation.


GREENVILLE, S.C. – A 10-by-20 billboard truck is driving around the Upstate as another way to let people know about the promos and offers on the Locally Epic app as well as put money in your pocket.
Locally Epic has more than 30,000 users and 45 categories for them to find the best offers around, said Chase Michaels, the company's CEO and founder. The mobile billboard is another way for people to learn more about the app, which can be downloaded here or found on Itunes or GooglePlay.
People who spot the Locally Epic billboard need to download the app, take a picture of the truck and then post the photo to social media with the tags #locallyepic and #letskeepitlocal. All entries will be eligible for weekly prizes from Locally Epic partners. For the next few weeks, if a person snaps a picture of the truck's Papa John's logo and downloads the app, they can win a free pizza.
The app also is creating mass way for small business to get noticed. A lot of people are deleting apps from their phone, while many small businesses don't have the resources to create new apps to meet market needs. Locally Epic allows companies to share the app, and by creating value to consumers the app is more likely to get added – not purged.


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LyondellBasell Announces Plans for NGL Fractionation at Corpus Christi
HOUSTON, April 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- LyondellBasell (NYSE: LYB) announced the signing of agreements with TexStar MidStream Services, LP under which TexStar will install two natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionation units adjacent to the Corpus Christi, Texas, plant of LyondellBasell affiliate Equistar Chemicals LP.
The fractionation units will be capable of processing a combined 63,000 barrels per day of NGLs produced from the Eagle Ford shale into ethane, propane, butanes and natural gasoline. Equistar will operate the fractionators for TexStar and will provide various utilities to the facility from its adjacent Corpus Christi olefins facility. In addition, Equistar will purchase ethane and propane produced from the units under a long-term agreement. The NGLs will be used as feedstocks for Equistar's olefins unit to produce ethylene and propylene.
The fractionators will be located on a 40-acre site owned by Equistar and leased to TexStar. Construction will commence in April 2013 with startup projected for late 2013.
"The fractionation facilities will enable us to diversify and increase our NGL feedstock supply from nearby shale formations in the region in advance of our upcoming capacity expansion at Corpus Christi, and provides TexStar the benefit of our existing infrastructure at the site," said LyondellBasell CEO Jim Gallogly. "This is another example of a project that can bring efficiency and value and be quickly implemented to take advantage of low-cost natural gas and NGLs in North America," Gallogly said. The company recently announced plans to expand ethylene capacity at Corpus Christi by 800 million pounds per year.
TexStar Midstream Services, LP, based in San Antonio, Texas, provides a full range of midstream services to its customers including gathering, treating, and processing of natural gas and NGLs.
LyondellBasell (NYSE: LYB) is one of the world's largest plastics, chemical and refining companies and a member of the S&P 500 Index. LyondellBasell (www.lyondellbasell.com) manufactures products at 58 sites in 18 countries. LyondellBasell products and technologies are used to make items that improve the quality of life for people around the world including packaging, electronics, automotive parts, home furnishings, construction materials and biofuels.
Media Contact: David A. Harpole +1 713-309-4125
Investor Contact: Douglas J. Pike +1 713-309-7141
SOURCE LyondellBasell Industries
LyondellBasell grants LDPE and EVA Copolymers License to Hyundai Oilbank Co. Ltd
LyondellBasell Announces Construction of New Small-Scale Molecular Recycling Facility
LyondellBasell Advances Crop Protection with New Hostalen High Density Polyethylene Grade
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Browse: Home / 2017 / July / Using Games and Gamification for Natural Language Processing (Games4NLP)
Using Games and Gamification for Natural Language Processing (Games4NLP)
By Jon Chamberlain on July 22, 2017
Games4NLP was an independent symposium co-located with the 15th European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (EACL) Conference that took place on 4 April 2017 in Valencia, Spain.
The symposium aimed to promote and explore the possibilities for research and practical applications of using games and gamification for Natural Language Processing (NLP). The main objective was to provide a forum for researchers and practitioners to discuss and share ideas regarding how the NLP research community can benefit from using game/gamification strategies. For example, games can be used to collect large numbers of annotations of human language provided that there are sufficient numbers of players who are motivated to play, and these annotations, when aggregated, can be used as labels that replace or compliment the effort of expert annotators.
In the first session games that were under development were presented. Michael Föls presented the uComp Language Quiz, a multilingual platform for gathering natural language resources. Users are recruited via the CrowdFlower platform through financial incentivisation, but continue to play and contribute to a variety of tasks in a variety of languages. Chris Madge presented TileAttack, a game-with-a-purpose approach to annotating text segmentation that also sets out to study the effect of using different game mechanics in that domain. Kevin Forand presented three separate games with a purpose for knowledge base curation. These include a pinball game, and a balloon game. The games are being used on top of an information extraction pipeline to filter out noisy triples.
The second session focused on player motivation. Bruno Guillaume discussed the results of a player survey carried out on their ZombiLingo game (a GWAP for dependency syntax annotation). Surveys on GWAP players are something of a rarity and the ZombiLingo team find some interesting trends. Alice Millour presented Bisame, a gamified crowdsourcing platform for part of speech annotations for the Alsatian language. Jason Radford discussed his exploration of user behaviour in games for science and the challenges in quality of participation in large paid subject pools that many services now offer.
Dagmara Dziedzic and Wojciech Włodarczyk take a different approach to motivating contribution in through use of games, by applying the Free-to-Play mechanic in their game RoboCorp. Rather than presenting the task in its entirety as the game, RoboCorp presents a game in which the player performs the task in a mini-game to enhance their main game experience. This is similar to the payments made by players in Free-to-Play games, but players contribute work instead of play. Their work also tied into the theme of the final session: methods for evaluating game performance. Jon Chamberlain discussed the adaptation of Free-to-Play metrics for evaluating games-with-a-purpose and, finally, Pontus Stenetorp presented the lessons learned from the first version of Word Sheriff, and plans to incorporate social features and target the mobile platform in version 2.
During the panel session (and over lunch) lively discussions were had regarding using a gaming approach for language processing and resource creation. To break the ice all presenters were asked for their reasons for choosing games with a purpose. For Bruno Guillaume from the ZombiLingo team, one of those reasons was the challenge. Pontus Stenetorp from the WordSheriff team mentioned the link between how languages are about communication, and how games can also be about communication. Jon Chamberlain spoke about how games are effective in encouraging collaboration and design opportunities that match the semi structured nature of language.
One of the key questions for a games-based approach is whether the participants want to play the game or whether they want to help with the research that is behind the game. Games like Phrase Detectives have a hardcore community of players who are driven to participate because they enjoy being part of the language research, and the interface amplifies that enjoyment with leaderboards, high scores, inter-player competitiveness etc. On the other hand, RoboCorp is designed specifically to be an enjoyable platform-type game, but in order to play the game the participants must complete language tasks.
The conversation then shifted to the opportunities games provide for the study of language, including language that is scraped from in game discussions. It was proposed that a larger online presence should be created to discuss and advertise games of this nature, including a specific subreddit on the popular bulletin board like website, Reddit. Massimo Poesio mentioned the plans of the Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC) to set up a portal for this very purpose. It was questioned whether such collections of games may dilute player bases and suggested that we gain a greater understanding of what motivates the players to play to mitigate this and similar problems.
Many other experiences were shared by the presenters and one that stood out was from Wojciech Włodarczyk who described a simple game he built called "Watching Grass Grow". The game was a single image of a lawn that never changed but he reported that some people played the game for several hours waiting, and hoping, that something might happen. The use of "cheap psychological tricks", as described to vivid effect by Richard Bartle in his book "Designing Virtual Worlds", may be an important method to engage people in games for language processing and other crowdsourcing tasks.
About Jon Chamberlain
Research at the University of Essex and UXLabs with an interest in social networks, collective intelligence, search strategies and biotechnology.


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Wondering how you'll store your fantastic vintage figure collection? Visit your local Wal-Mart this Fall and get the exclusive carrying cases! There are 2 cases to collect: C-3PO and Darth Vader.
* New waves of the C-3PO and Darth Vader carry cases with different bonus figures are planned to arrive in stores late this year.


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