Krishna's Mahabharatas Devotional Retellings of an Epic Narrative

Recognized as the longest poem ever composed, the ancient Sanskrit Mahabharata epic tells the tale of the five Pandava princes and the cataclysmic battle they wage with their one hundred cousins, the Kauravas. This story is one of the most popular and widely-told narratives in South Asia, let alone the world. Between 800 and 1700 CE, a plethora of Mahabharatas were created in Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Tamil, Telugu, and several other regional South Asian languages.
Krishna's Mahabharatas: Devotional Retellings of an Epic Narrative is a comprehensive study of premodern regional Mahabharata retellings. This book argues that Vaishnavas (devotees of the Hindu god Vishnu and his various forms) throughout South Asia turned this epic about an apocalyptic, bloody war into works of ardent bhakti or “devotion” focused on the beloved Hindu deity Krishna. Examining over forty retellings in eleven different regional South Asian languages composed over a period of nine hundred years, it focuses on two particular Mahabharatas: Villiputturar's fifteenth-century Tamil Paratam and Sabalsingh Chauhan's seventeenth-century Bhasha (Old Hindi) Mahahbharat.
Through close comparative readings, this book reveals the similar ways poets from opposite ends of the Indian sub-continent transform the story of the Sanskrit Mahabharata into devotional narratives centered on Krishna. At the same time, it also shows how these Mahabharatas are each unique pieces of religious literature that speak to different local audiences in premodern South Asia.

Sohini Sarah Pillai is Assistant Professor of Religion and Director of Film and Media Studies at Kalamazoo College. Her co-edited volume (with Nell Shapiro Hawley), Many Mahabharatas, was published in 2021 by State University of New York Press.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments
Note on Terms and Transliteration

Introduction
Part I
1. Setting the Scene: Interpretations of Krishna in the Sanskrit Mahabharata
2. Many (Krishna-Centric) Mahabharatas: An Overview of Premodern Regional Retellings
Part II
3. Commencing and Concluding the Carita of Krishna: The First and Final Books of Villi's Paratam and Chauhan's Mahabharat
4. Prayers and Protection: Draupadi's Disrobing and the Book of Effort in Villi's Paratam and Chauhan's Mahabharat
Part III
5. Beginning with Bhakti: Invocations and the Shrivaishnava Tradition in Villi's Paratam
6. Remembering Rama: The Role of Tulsidas's Ramayanas in Chauhan's Mahabharat
Conclusion

Appendix: Glossary of Characters
Bibliography
Index