Framing the Mahabharata : Against the Evolution of Early South Asian Society

It all probably was a tale.
However, serious research does identify some events, from about a thousand years before the Common Era, that qualify as the bases of the epic’s plot. Apparently, collective memory evolved significantly through the centuries before their stories, legends, and allegories took the forms that we know from the epic today.
And yet, even if no set of historical events can be found to correspond with epic episodes, its many stories, legends, and allegories nevertheless conform to themes that were at one time authentic. In other words, whether or not epic episodes were historical, the ideas and concepts they represent were.
It is with these ideas and concepts that Framing the Mahabharata weaves the pattern of South Asian society as it evolved through the cusp of the Bronze and Iron Ages, developing motifs we are familiar with today. Against this pattern, it reconstructs the military tactics, technology and sociology that marked the interplay of nomadic and sedentary folks, most poignantly depicted in the career of war-chariotry.

• Author Name: Saikat K Bose

• Book Details
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Vij Books

• Pages: 388
• 9789386457554 • HARDBACK • Apr 2018 • Rs.995
• 9789386457578 • EBOOK • May 2018 • Rs.650
• Subjects: Indian Epic
• Framing the Mahabharata : Against the Evolution of Early South Asian Society

author detailsCol Saikat K Bose (Indian Army) survives from personal crisis to personal crisis in the Army. An avid traveler, he loves to nose around places associated with battles and combat, and hopes to make the subject of Battlefield Archaeology popular in his part of the world.

Preface

Acknowledgment

Pronunciation Guide

Abbreviations

List of Maps and Figures

Map 1: Migratory Corridors and Zones of Conflict xvii

Map 2: Places and Polities in the Mahabharata

Map 3: The Indo–Gangetic Divide

Map 4: Sites Traditionally Associated with the Battle

Figure 5: Anatomy of the Vipatha Chariot

Introduction

Chapter 1 Format, Structure and Growth of the Epic

Chapter 2 The Backdrop of the Proto-Indo–Iranian Migrations

Chapter 3 Imperial Assimilation by the Bharata

Chapter 4 Formation of the Kuru–Pañcala Moiety

Chapter 5 The Pa??u and the Yadu

Chapter 6 The Armies, and Nature of Combat 

Chapter 7 Reconstructing the Battle

Chapter 8 The Fallout

Epilogue

Bibliography

Index