Conference: 221st Meeting of the American Oriental Society, Chicago, Illinois, March 2011
"Divine Continuity and Redaction: Purāṇic Critiques of the Mahābhārata in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa: Skandha 1 Adhyāya 5"
(Benjamin J. Fleming)
Abstract:
Recent scholarship on the Mahābhārata has asserted the homogeneity of the text's core narrative, questioning previous assertions that the divinity of Kṛṣṇa was a late redactional addition. Indeed, debates about the theology of the Epic and the nature of Vaiṣṇava worship in the text have engaged scholars for decades, and continue to hold interest for our understanding of the history and development of the religions connected to Viṣṇu and Hinduism broadly. In this paper I hope to offer a new approach to these debates by considering mediaeval, Purāṇic critiques of the Mahābhārata as it was received, in particular, by the authors and redactors of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa. I show how these authors and redactors appear to question the Epic's authority and especially its presentation of the theology of Vāsudeva, which is argued to be insufficient and incomplete. More than mere self-promotion, I hope to suggest that the evidence of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa gives support to the theory of theological additions to the Epic itself. I will look at manuscript variants of Skandha 1 Adhyāya 5 from the University of Pennsylvania Sanskrit manuscript collection in the hopes of illuminating new textual complexities within this famous Purāṇa.