Evolutionary Psychology in Mahabharata

By Indrajit Bandyopadhyay

The book contains two essays - 1. Mahabharata and Evolutionary Psychology; Lessons in Male-Female Psyche
2. Mahabharata: Draupadi, Body Language, Eyes, and Vyasa’s Poetry. In the first essay, the writer casts insightful light on the wisdom on Evolutionary Psychology in ancient Indian literature, Mahabharata in this case - a subject that is comparatively new in the academic field. In the second essay, the writer takes a new approach to Mahabharata to find how Body Language operating in silence plays a crucial role in the unfolding of the character of the principal heroine - Draupadi.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 24, 2013
• ISBN: 9781304742483

Book preview

Evolutionary Psychology in Mahabharata

Evolutionary Psychology in Mahabharata

Indrajit Bandyopadhyay

Copyright © 2013 Indrajit Bandyopadhyay

All rights reserved.

ISBN: : 978-1-304-74248-3

Dedication

I dedicate this work to the lotus-feet of my father Shri Tarun Kumar Banerjee and my mother Smt. Pampa Banerjee

Contents

Acknowledgments

1. Mahabharata and Evolutionary Psychology; Lessons in Male-Female Psyche

2. Mahabharata: Draupadi, Body Language, Eyes, and Vyasa’s Poetry

About the Author

Acknowledgments

I have taken all translations of Mahaabhaarata from translations by Kisari Mohan Ganguli [published between 1883 and 1896] available at . However, I have occasionally discarded the archaic usages.

I express my gratitude and debt to GRETIL - Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages and related Indological materials from Central and Southeast Asia .

I also express my gratitude and debt to ‘The Machine-readable Text of the Mahaabhaarata based on the Poona Critical Edition’, Produced by Muneo Tokunaga, Kyoto, Japan.

I am a member of Mahaabhaarata Study Group at , and I am especially indebted to the group.       

I am indebted to Mahaabhaarata Resources .

1. Mahabharata and Evolutionary Psychology; Lessons in Male-Female Psyche

Of late (certainly it is never too late to learn) I have been studying "evolutionary psychology" – a comparatively new (well, not very ‘new’ – it took birth before my birth) - academic discipline and entrant in academia and Culture, at least in its present garb and name, and from the moment of its claimed birth, it has been like the Enfant Terrible finding itself – whether willingly, inadvertently, or otherwise - locking horns with various "ism" like Feminism, Marxism etc. and more prominently with Politically Correct-ism!

It has to be so, because its subject matter and predictions (claimed to be based on empirical research and findings) are bound to shock-jerk many a pious (read, Static) souls out of Complacent Political Correctness, particularly regarding the Narrative of Man-Woman Heterosexual Love Relation[i] – so carefully and cautiously built up by Elite Culture or High Culture that dominates so-called Mainstream Culture.

The academic discipline of "evolutionary psychology" tries to be aware of the Primitive past (happy old hunting-fishing-gathering days) Always-Already in us. That past exists like a Script that can be read, and predicted. It traces all our psychological traits back to hunting-gathering times, and suggests the evolution of Male-Female Psychology with marked differences, that is, Male-Female Psyche are two Different Systems, complementary, but never the same. This is of course unpalatable to Orthodox Feminism that insists on sameness, because it is always suspicious of the Narrative and discourse of Difference as Patriarchal ploy to subjugate Woman. Similarly, it has to be unpalatable too to Patriarchy because "evolutionary psychology" predicts Woman as an individual who is Free in aspects that the Patriarchy has tried over the ages to suppress.

Well, let us remember that Patriarchy and Male are not synonymous; Patriarchy includes Woman as well. Further, let us be aware that use of the term to define a situation of Human Reality (e.g. the statement – "The World is Patriarchal") might itself be a Strategy of Subversion of Patriarchy or plain mischief– as in the case when a Woman blames Patriarchy for victimizing her, yet surreptitiously enacts the Bengali proverb "gaachher khaoyaa talaaro kudaano" (eating fruits from the tree and collecting fallen fruits as well), or as in the case when a man criticizes Patriarchy for a glossy Social Image but exploits and subjugates Woman in his own household etc.

Studying "evolutionary psychology I cannot but feel it has several serious shortcomings at least until now. First, it has not learnt yet to take account of Spiritual Psychology" – that superior urge in Human to transcend "evolutionary psychology". [Dharma or Spirituality is not the same as Religion in the sense Marx and Freud used it, or in the sense, Richard Dawkins has used it in his The God Delusion (2006)]. Secondly, and this has been felt by some famous proponents