Les multiples voix du Mahâbhârata

 

“But the Mahâbhârata is full of multiple voices; there is no focus on a single character for the whole text; it does not flow like a single river, but is distracted, diverted by a number of streams that replenish and recharge the swollen flood… But Vyâsa… is able to contain it and avoid any confusion; all the upâkhyânas [subplots] are in a way independent of the story of the Pândavas but in actual narration they are subordinated to it.”

“The tree of the Mahâbhârata is a concept that helps us to grasp the text in its entirety; the innumerable characters are clearly located in their individual contexts; the forward movement, sometimes slow, sometimes fast, keeps its momentum; and the interpolated episodes, which themselves are well-knit in structure, provide a spaciousness to the whole narrative. A series of narrators intervene from time to time to maintain the vibrant tone of narration: Sauti to the ascetics, Vaisampâyana to Janamejaya, Sanjaya to Dhrtarâstra, Dhaumya to Yudhisthira, etc. The dialogues throughout the text reinforce the dialogic nature of the author's / narrators' imagination. This is also one of the main differences between the Râmâyana and the Mâhâbhârata, although the Itihâsa like the Purâna is by definition impersonal, anonymous, and ideally of communal authorship. Hence perhaps the multiple voices in the Mahâbhârata. The Râmâyana, of course, is a straightforward narrative with a single dominant heroic figure, with a single central episode, with a focal point, which is unfettered by side issues or subplots. The Mahâbhârata bristles with subplots and is hence a multiplex narrative, multi-focal, multi-character, polyphonic, multi-layered: Vyâsa calls it Jaya, we call it the Grand Indian narrative, like India's history, geography, culture, linguistic composition, customs, manners and art forms. The Mahâbhârata is a tale of many tales told by many tellers.”

K. Ayyappa Paniker, Indian Narratology, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 2003, pp. 54-56.