Moral Complexities and Dilemmas in Vyasas Literary and Legal Perspectives

Abstract

This work will attempt to closely examine the intervention of two disciplines, law and literature, thereby analyzing the concepts of legal frameworks in the Mahabharata. The study will further examine the transcendental nature of both history and mythology in understanding contemporary concerns and how both find resonances in the present. There shall be a humble attempt to decode why and how can a historical text function as a model for contemporary analysis and an understanding of gender, law, politics, questions of ownership and primogeniture. It will speculate how a historical text can be serviceable to qualify or disqualify the contemporary state of existence. It will further attempt to explore the elements of humanness in the text by referring to an array of characters and episodes in the course of the discussion. The endeavour is to situate the traits of humanness in more than a single character or event and thereby de-compartmentalize it. It would stimulate the identification of the grey areas of human existence rather than the mere slotting of characters and events as black and white and showcase the humanness of each character, making them an quotEverymanquot. The process will eventually lay bare the moral complexities and dilemmas that govern human existence. Once the understanding and identification of the moral complexities and dilemmas in the Mahabharata is established, it becomes easier to relate them to global concerns such as gender disparities, human rights, disarmament and propagation of peace. These global concerns are intertwined, and therefore offering solutions to one leads to the resolution of another. For instance, the idea of world peace is consequential to the discourse and implementation of disarmament. Similarly, the understanding of gender becomes more comprehensible when studied in the light of human rights. The agendas are interrelated, and so are their solutions. newline