The Critical Edition of the Mahabharata

The critical edition of the Mahabharata is the authoritative reference edition. #BORI was founded to create this project, and the work took 50 years from ~1917 to ~1967.

#Lecture 1: The Making of the Critical Edition
- In this lecture, we will talk about the making of #The Critical Edition of the Mahabharata We will cover the need for the project, the history of the project and also a little bit about other editions and stories based on the Mahabharata.
- The #BORI was set up as a Birthday gift to Dr Ramkrishna Gopal Bhandarkar on his 80th Birthday, 6th July, 1917. Work on the #Critical Edition started in 1919.
- Dr V S Sukthankar was the first editor of the #Critical Edition. He said, “The Mahabharat is an amazing mixture of versions”. This was because it was handed down from bard to bard by word of mouth.
- Before the #Critical Edition, the most popular editions of the Mahabharata were the Bombay, Calcutta, Kumbhakurna, Madras editions. These are known as recensions. They are so diverse from each other that there prevailed much uncertainty regarding the correctness of the text (which incident happened when and so on)
- The Virata Parvan Critical Edition was based on the vulgate text of the Bombay edition with Neelakantha’s commentary (published in 1883). Sukthankar decided to use this same text as the starting point for the #Critical Edition.
- Proper and systematic collation is the key to creating a #Critical Edition! Collation allows other academics to cross-check and verify work.
- In addition of manuscripts, the #Critical Edition also considered other testimonia - i.e evidence of a partial nature, other than found directly in the manuscripts. These included famous commentaries and poetry written all over India.
- Thus, when making a #Critical Edition, all evidence, even defective evidence, needs to be captured by the editor so that the reader has access to it. All variants and scribe errors are recorded faithfully so that the methodology can be determined as reliable independently at a later time. This is the Critical Apparatus
- “The Adiparvan in Dr Suktankar's #critical edition of the Mahabharata is now complete and I have no hesitation in saying this is the most important event in the history of Sanskrit philology since Max Muller’s edition of the Rigveda with Sayana’s commentary” ~ Prof Winternitz.
- The work on the #Critical Edition was finally complete in 1969, through two generations of scholars. It was unveiled to the public at the hands of the then president of India: Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.
- Like any other sacrifice, the project of the #Critical edition was a huge cooperative enterprise and the credit for it’s fulfilment belongs collectively to all the workers of #Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.
- This #great work of Indian scholarship is a landmark in the history of Sanskrit textual criticism. It seems hardly likely that this book will ever be replaced, it will remain for centuries as a permanent memorial to the scholarship and patience of a devoted band of Sanskritists.

The Opening Ceremony
- A brief history of the #Critical Edition:
Lecture 2: The Mahakavya of the Mahabharata
- When I started reading the #Critical Edition, I realized that there are things in it that are not known to us at all, and there are not things in it which we have been told about since childhood. Hence, my request to you is to approach this Mahabharata reading with a clean slate. Keep your traditional knowledge behind.
Neelakantha Chaturdhara
- Neelakantha’s commentary on the Mahabharata, the Bharatabhavadipa#, is one of the most referenced and used source for understanding the Mahabharata in modern times (apart from the #Critical Edition itself)
Bhawanrao Shriniwasrao Pant Pratinidhi
- His personal art collection is now the Shri Bhavani Museum and Library, known as the Aundh Museum. You can see the paintings he commissioned for the #Critical Edition here.

Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute#
- BORI was founded to achieve the goal of creating a “Critical Edition” for the Mahabharata. The publication of the #Critical Edition, in 1969, is it’s largest achievement to date and has received global recognition.
Mahabharata#
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