Dictation

Fyodor Dostoevsky was in deep debts. With no money to pay off the creditors, he entered into a contract with a local publisher. As per the contract , Fyodor has to complete a novel within a stipulated period of time.

The publisher , knowing very well about Fyodor's infamous indiscipline wanted to cash in on his talents. He introduced a clause in the contract based on which the publisher could claim rights of all future works by Fyodor if he fails to deliver the novel within the specified time!

Living by his reputation, Fyodor , after signing the contract continued with his drinking and gambling binges. As the due date neared, caught between his waywardness and the binding contract, Fyodor decided to employ a stenographer. Anna Smitkina took up the job.

Her discipline and  admiration -which later developed as love helped Fyodor complete the novel on time.
Fyodor later married Anna.

Perumbadavom Sreedharan has penned a novel , Oru Sangeerthanam Pole (malayalam tr: Like  A Psalm) which chronicles the times when  Fyodor dictated the novel "The Gambler" to Anna. Fyodor (one who had God's signature on his heart- perumbadavom) would be quoted several times in future pagesof this blog .......

Vyasa through his meditation summoned Ganapathy. Ganapathy accepted to do a  stenographer's job for Mahabharata- on one condition : Vyasa should continue to dictate without taking any break at all!

Vyasa accepted Ganapathy's proposal and put forth his condition too! Ganapathy should write down whatever he dictates only after fully understanding the meaning! 

Thus started the dictation of epic proportions. Vyasa managed to take  intermittent breaks while Ganapathy pondered over the intrinsic meanings of difficult slokhas (verses). They together completed  Mahabharatha in three years. 

My Daily Mahabharatha - Day 1

On this day I start 'read-document' the epic Mahabharatha , stumbled upon a blog by noted Tamil writer Jeyamohan.

Excerpts (translated by me - E&OE) :

What is that literature offers us? 
Awakening of the mind. This awakening could evolve as philosophy for one person, and as politics for another . A different social thought for somebody else. An awakening  similar to the one we have while going through  a real  life experience.
Thus, literature is a parallel life experience.


Good literature presents life as  a  visual experience. I have never seen Russia. But I have walked through the chilling snow of St. Petersburg. I have never seen a war. But  I could visualise the way a huge army encounters another- through the stories of Dostoevsky  and Tolstoy.

Literature induces our imagination and enables our senses to attain the same experience as if in a real life actuality. We enter another existence  and commence being there. And that is the first plane of literature.

Secondly, literature travels deeply into the human minds. It carefully evaluates the different dimensions of human emotions and thoughts and records them minutely. A better author is capable of entering the minds of any person. And its simple too. He manifests himself in all the characters. Deep down, all minds are alike. Hence, if he writes about himself, he writes about the whole world.


Finally, the author is the one who documents  'moments of life'. By observing  life within his environment and involving himself   with an emotional participation, he happens to continuously watch  'human moments'. He recreates them in his works. He refines it. Imagines it anew.

That which forms  itself as a similar, parallel  life experience  and generate thoughts in us is called literature.
(complete text can be viewed in jeyamohan's blog . ) 

One of those days, the four vedas were weighed against 'bharatham' and it was found to outweigh all the four vedas put together. Hence the name "Maha Bharatham" . ('Maha' roughly translates to Mega)

MahaBharatham was written by Vyasa. Vyasa Maharishi was born to Parasara Maharishi and Sathyavathi (also known as 'Machagandhi' - one who smells of fish).
It was Vyasa who categorized the plethora of documents available at that time into the four vedas- Rig, Yajur, Sama & Adharva.

Even after indexing the vedas, he felt the common people could not access the vedas and understand the implicit meanings. Thus he embarked on writing a simpler version and that is Mahabharatha.

After several years of meditation, he was ready with a mental version of the epic, but could not find out a suitable person to whom he could dictate it for posterity. Lord Brahma was impressed with his efforts and appeared before him. Upon being requested to suggest a suitable person who can write down thousand of slokahs (verses), Lord Brahma suggested the name of Ganapathi.
(....to be continued)