Mahabharata Condensed in the Poet's Own Words /4

iv
 
FOREwithout our consent. WORD
 
without our consent. When Shelley

remarked that poets are the unacknow-

ledged legislators of the world", he meant

that by their works they stir the imagination,

move the mind, mould the will, in &
a
word, change our life. Great poets are

life changers.
 
66
 
and
 

 
The literature of each generation reflects

the turbulence of its times. It often echoes

the stress in which it has been conceived.

The Mahabharata takes up the original saga

of the struggle between the Kauravas and

the Pandavas, and weaves round it a mass

of legendary lore and tradition as well as
ethical

ethical and philosophical material. It

describes to us an interesting period of

Indian History when the country was

parcelled out into little states under warlike

kings, rivalling each other in the arts of

peace and of war. It gives a just and

illuminating account of the Indian genius

both in its nobility and greatness and

in its tragic weakness and insufficiencies.

A strange slavery to ideas, hero worshipping
and legend creating tendencies, which

and legend creating tendencies, which
are still at work with us, are found

there in plenty. It was the ambition

of the author to take men and women as

he found them and give a higher purpose

to their lives. He describes the strong

passions in the human breast, greed, jealousy,

sensuality, addiction to drink, love
 
of
 
of
gambling, with
 
great truth and terrible

power. He yet shows that in the midst of