On Shoulder of Giants

When one begins to think about any human endeavor, one feels a deep reverence for the amount of work, different people have done over their lifetimes. If one takes neurology - Korbinian Broadmann, (while inspired by people before him) classified human brain regions based on their cellular architecture. For people who haven't done microscopy or prepared histological slides - it is hard to describe the amount of labor and careful work over hours, days and months that goes into achieving this kind of feat.

If one takes neuroscientists studying language, their work further rests on neurosurgeons who carefully studied the pre-operative brains of epileptic patients, physicists who studied magnetic resonance, engineers and scientists who developed imaging techniques to study the human brain, "online" and non-invasively.

Neuroscientists who work on functions that are also observed in animals, have spent years studying these animals and training them, hoping to polish earlier knowledge and get a better understanding of brain. (Gratitude to animals who are sacrificed.)

Shifting to a different field - algebra. Though most of the books don't mention any history of mathematical workers - a little bit reflection is enough to know that these theorems and proofs have taken time and effort of many human minds. Elaborate proofs, theorems which build on previous theorems, connections which are brought up between different constructs were not made in a day.

These are the things which inspire a student.

The literary, metaphysical origins of Mahabharat

This is a speculation and represents my preliminary thought-processes on the matter. This might turn into scholarly work if Lord permits.

As the epic is so complex both in scope of fantasy and range of human condition, this question naturally arises. How did the creative framework and plots arise?

One solution would be that people wanted to write about experience of God. (Arjun's senses getting overpowered by God's vision in Gita, Book of Bhishma.) Those who achieved God vision, wrote a chronological description of their experiences creating a story with life events and other mythological frameworks. (How Vishnu became the Supreme Gdd and history of Vaishnavism from Shatpatha Brahmana is not discussed here.)

But, what solution is provided by Mahabharat, itself? In Adivansavatarana Parva in Book of Beginnings, the initial point is kept as Earth getting exploited by sons of Diti(demons). Sons of Diti were being reborn on Earth, because they were dying in wars against celestials(sons of Aditi) in heaven. Demons created oceans as boundaries and ravaged the environment with their strength and haughtiness. So, Earth requests the Creator Brahma for a solution.

The creator(Brahma/Prajapati) asks different celestials to take the war from heaven to Earth. How? The creator asks the gods to get birth on Earth and seek conflict with demons. Sakra(the king of gods) then goes to Vishnu, and asks him to be born. Vishnu agrees.

Again before the final great war, Vishnu(as Krishn) tells Arjun, that he is born again and again for the benefit of righteous and destruction of non-righteous.

Interestingly in story of Ram(son of Janmagdani, carrier of axe) also kills kshatriyas and makes a lake out of blood of countless kings. The lake(called Samanta panchaka) coincides with the battlefield of Kurukshetra. As if the same place/location/arena is being used again and again for the conflict resolution between good and evil.