An epic festival

A term used extensively in daily parlance, ‘hero’ has fascinating interpretations and interesting theories. A day-long festival, Aakhyaan, organised by the department of Sanskrit of Mumbai University, delved into and celebrated the archetype of a hero in a one-of-a-kind discussion based on Comparative Mythology. It discussed the concept of a hero established by renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell while drawing parallels between Greek gods and Indian nayakas.

The programme, organised on the sprawling Kalina campus saw noted scholars, thinkers, writers and various other artistes come together.

The day took off with an academic discussion, themed around the Journey of a Hero in mythology, and its implications. Through the discussion, the panellists cited the various heroes that we find in religious and mythological texts.

Popular mythology writer, Devdutt Pattanaik took centre stage in the afternoon with his discussion on ‘Heroes in Indian mythology’. Giving an overview, Devdutt said, “The foundational problem with us that we often forget that ‘hero’ is not an Indian concept. It is a Greek concept introduced by Aristotle. In the Greek tragedies, you have a hero, who needs to qualify certain criteria — usually the hero sets on a journey, he overcomes a series of crisis, eventually he experiences catharsis, and then when he returns to his village, he finds that nothing has changed and therefore he becomes a larger-than-life character. But in the Indian context, Ram and Krishna are not heroes in that sense.”

If ‘hero’ in the Greek sense doesn’t find resonance in India, the concept of infinity doesn’t do so in the West, he pointed out. “They don’t have this idea of infinity. Our nayakas, who are much different from traditional heros, have the knowledge of infinity — they are avatars, and there’s a reason they are called uttampurushas.” On a lighter note, he gave an example from popular Indian television. “Arnab (Goswami) knows the rasa theory too well — what he displays is vir rasa, the audience feels karuna rasa, and his critics feel vibhatsa rasa,” he said to resounding laughter in the hall.

Mahesh Samat, managing director of Epic Television Network, who had joined Devdutt on the dais, spoke on how the Indian narrative begins from Bharata’s Natyashastra. “Unfortunately, not many screenwriters follow the Indian tradition,” he lamented. By the end of their discussion, the duo requested the scholars in the Sanskrit department to make the traditional Sanskrit texts and theories more accessible to general readers.

Though there were several thought provoking discussions throughout the day by eminent educators and scholars, the most jolting was the concluding event of the day — a lecture by economist and author of The Incredible History of India’s Geography, Sanjeev Sanyal. “The problem with mythologists is that they are quite apologetic of their discipline, but I don’t think it should be that way,” he began. In his lecture, Sanyal stated how a historical character is almost created through mythological devices. “Let’s take Ashoka – The Great, for example. We have been taught that Ashoka was a great king and how he had almost become an ascetic after he witnessed the massacre at Pataliputra, a consequence of his own selfish deeds. But my argument is that this is far from the truth.” Through the rest of the lecture, he elaborated on the alternative theory on how Ashoka was almost forgotten and was revived as a conscious effort by Jawaharlal Nehru in an effort to build a socialist country. “Our history is mostly the history of our invaders, but hardly do we talk about the country’s real history,” he stated.