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Reason, Death, and the Animal: The Mahābhārata and the Eruption/Interruption of the Ethical

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Abstract

The article attempts to deal with the proposition that human being’s incapacity to imagine its own death, the state of non-being necessitates the thinking of the animal. A critical and close reading of specific Brāhmaṇa and Mahābhārata texts would spotlight that it is man’s rationalizing capacity that disavows and denies the question of intelligibility of the actions of the animal. The animal is the undisclosable which man keeps and brings to light as such. The article would further investigate if the question of our forgetfulness toward the fact that we are born in debt to death has any linkage to the sacrificial logic of killing animals as elaborated in Brāhmaṇical hermeneutics. It examines how the ethical is thoroughly coextensive with the animal’s act of hospitality/hostility as an affective, purposive and reasoned response toward the other. In the course of the analysis of the jantu and pakshî upākhyāns in the Àraṇyak and Śanti Parvas of the Mahābhārata, the article tries to understand and explore if the experience of the animalitas is intrinsic to the structure of human reason, complicating the nature and notion of a priori.

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Notes

  1. The Mahabharata, Translated literally from the original Sanskrit Text, Ed. and Tr. by Manmatha Nath Dutta, Elysium Press, Calcutta, 1895, P. 450.

  2. Ibid.

  3. Ibid. P. 2575.

  4. The Mahabharata, Translated literally from the original Sanskrit Text, Ed. and Tr. by Manmatha Nath Dutta, Elysium Press, Calcutta, 1895, P. 450.

  5. The Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (III. 6. 2. 16) articulates an intriguing idea of ‘a debt to death’ in this way: “Man, as soon as he is born, is to be regarded, his whole person, as a debt owed to death”. See: Raimundo Panikkar, Ed. and Tr., The Vedic Experience: Mantramanjari: An Anthology of the Vedas for Modern and Contemporary Celebration, Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass, 1977, P. 393. For a detailed discussion see: Dalmiya, 2001. “Dogged Loyalties: A Classical Indian Intervention in Care Ethics” in Ethics in the World Religions, Ed. by J. Runzo , Nancy M. Martin, One World, Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 293-306.

  6. See: Levinas, 1998. Otherwise than Being, or Beyond Essence (1974), Translated by Alphonso Lingis, Duquesne University Press, PA, 1998.

  7. Descartes, 2009. A Discourse on the Method, Translated by Ian Maclean, Oxford University Press.

  8. Nietzsche, 1996. On the Genealogy of Morals, Translated by Douglas Smith, Oxford University Press, New York and London, pp. 39-42.

  9. See for a detailed discussion: Nietzsche, 2002. Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future, Ed. by Rolf-Peter Horstmann, Judith Norman, Tr. by Judith Norman, Cambridge University Press, New York and London.

  10. Derrida, 2002. “The Animal That Therefore I Am”, Translated by David Wills, Critical Inquiry, Vol. 28, No. 2 (Winter, 2002), pp. 369-418, Published By: The University of Chicago Press, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1344276. Interestingly, the French title of Derrida’s article is “L’Animal que doncj e suis (ti suivre)”. It is an obvious play on Descartes’ definition of consciousness (of the thinking animal as human); it also takes advantage of the shared first-person singular present form of itre (to be) and suivre (to follow) in order to suggest a displacement of that priority, also reading as “the animal that therefore I follow after”. Throughout the translation, as the translator states, ‘I am’ can very often be read also as ‘I follow’, and vice versa.

  11. “The impropriety [malseance] of a certain animal nude before the other animal, from that point on one might call it a kind of animalsdance: the single, incomparable and original experience of the impropriety that would come from appearing in truth naked, in front of the insistent gaze of the animal, a benevolent or pitiless gaze, surprised or cognizant. The gaze of a seer, visionary, or extra-lucid blind person. It is as if I were ashamed, therefore, naked in front of this cat, but also ashamed for being ashamed”. Jacques Derrida, “The Animal That Therefore I Am”, Translated by David Wills, Critical Inquiry, Vol. 28, No. 2 (Winter, 2002), pp. 369-418, Published By: The University of Chicago Press, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1344276.

  12. Agamben, 2004. The Open: Man and Animal, Translated by Kevin Atell, Stanford University Press, pp. 57-62.

  13. Ibid.

  14. Arednt, 1998. The Human Condition, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, London. For a detailed analysis see the discourse of Dharmavyādh in the Âraņyakaparvan of the Mahābhārata: But, even though men of learning and wisdom have advocated non-violence from the earliest times, anyone who thinks hard enough is bound to reach the conclusion that there is none who is non-violent (3.199.28). See: Critical Edition of the Mahābhārata published by the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune; The English translations, in the article are mostly based on (a) The Mahabharata, Translated literally from the original Sanskrit Text, Ed. and Tr. by Manmatha Nath Dutta, Elysium Press, Calcutta, 1897-1909. (nine volumes) and (b) Kisari Mohan Ganguli, The Mahābhārata (four volumes), Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 2004. Also see: Bandyopadhyay, 2010. “A Critique of Nonviolence”, Seminar, 608, 2010, https://www.india-seminar.com/2010/608/608_sibaji_bandyopadhyay.htm

  15. See: Doniger, 2009, The Hindus: An Alternative History, Cp. 5. “Humans, Animals, and Gods in the Rig Veda”, New York: Penguin Press, pp. 103-134.

  16. For Śabara in his commentary on Mimāṁsā Sūtra, apurva is the supersensuous result or the after-state of an action (yajna) performed, the connecting link between the empirical spheres of action and the non-empirical adŗst (invisible). See: Ray, 2002, Mīmaṃsā Paricay, Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar, Kolkata, pp. 252-285.

  17. See: Doniger, 2009, The Hindus: An Alternative History, Cp. 5. “Humans, Animals, and Gods in the Rig Veda”, New York: Penguin Press, pp. 103-134.

  18. Ibid. Rg Veda 6.17.1. See: The Hymns of the RigVeda, Tr. By Ralph T. Griffith, Vol. I & II, Benares: E. J. Lazarus & Co., 1889-1897.

  19. Ibid.

  20. See: The Hymns of the Atharva-Veda, Tr. By Ralph T. Griffith, Vol. I, Benares: E. J. Lazarus & Co., 1895.

  21. See: The Hymns of the RigVeda, Tr. By Ralph T. Griffith, Vol. I & II, Benares: E. J. Lazarus & Co., 1889-1897.

  22. See: A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science & Ethics, Ed. by Paul Waldau & Kimberley Patton, Columbia University Press, New York, 2006, pp. 397- 403.

  23. See: The Hymns of the RigVeda, Tr. By Ralph T. Griffith, Vol. I & II, Benares: E. J. Lazarus & Co., 1889-1897.

  24. See: Doniger, 2009, The Hindus: An Alternative History, Cp. 5. “Humans, Animals, and Gods in the Rig Veda”, New York: Penguin Press, pp. 103-134.

  25. See for a detailed discussion: Doniger O’Flaherty, Wendy. 1985. Tales of Sex and Violence: Folklore, Sacrifice, and Danger in the Jaiminiya Brāhmaṇa, University of Chicago Press; Das, 2013. “Being Together with Animals: Death, Violence and Noncruelty in Hindu Imagination”, Living Beings: Perspectives on Interspecies Engagements, Ed. by Penelope Dransart, Routledge, London, pp. 17- 30. Also see: Doniger, 2009, The Hindus: An Alternative History, New York: Penguin Press; Das, 1983, ‘The Language of Sacrifice’, Man, New Series, 18 (3): 445-62.

  26. Ibid. Also see: Doniger, 2014. On Hinduism, Oxford University Press, P. 413.

  27. Interestingly, to avoid the onus of violence the ritual sacrificers employed “acts of appeasing” (şānti), though these seem to have been constituted of little more than verbal substitute: “When the tree that is to serve as the sacrificial post in the animal sacrifice is felled, precautionary measures are taken to prevent it from being injured” ‘O, Plant, protect it’, he (the adhvaryu) says in order to protect it”. See: Hermann W. Tull, “The Killing that is not Killing: Men, Cattle and the Origins of Non-violence (Ahimsā) in the Vedic Sacrifice”, Indo-Iranian Journal 39: 223-244, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands, 1996.

  28. Manusamhitā, ‘V.39 & V.44’, ed. Panchanan Tarkaratna, Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar, Kolkata, 2000, p. 129 and p. 130. For English translation see, The Laws of Manu, ‘V.39 and V.44’, tr. Wendy Doniger and Brian K. Smith, Penguin Books, New Delhi, 1991, p. 103 and p. 103.

  29. The Mahabharata, “Anuśasana Parva”, Translated literally from the original Sanskrit Text, Ed. and Tr. by Manmatha Nath Dutta, Elysium Press, Calcutta, 1905, pp. 253-253.

  30. Ibid, P. 256.

  31. Non-injury is the ethical centerpiece of the heterodox or Śrāmaṇical schools of thought; it is the greatest of the ‘Great Vows’ (mahābrata). As the Śvetāmbara canonical text, the Sütrakŗtanga (I.3.4.20), pronounces, the monk “should cease to injure living beings where they move or not, on high, below, and on earth. For this has been called the Nirvāṇa, which consists in peace.” It is also to be noted that innumerable adjustments were made over time with respect to the details of monastic life. The Vinay Pitaka records precisely the softening of the unwavering code of ahiṁsa, most famously at Mahāvagga VI.31.14: the Buddha is textually explored as having given permission for the bhikkhus, despite their their vow of ahiṁsa, to accept fish in their begging bows under three conditions, that they had not seen, heard, or suspected that it had been caught for them. See: Gail Hinich Sutherland, Nonviolence Consumption and Community among Ancient Indian Ascetics, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, 1997, pp. 41-43.

  32. See: Ṛg Veda, Vol 1 & 2, Kolkata: Haraf Prakashani, 1976; The Hymns of the Rigveda, Translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith, Vol. I & II, E. J Lazarus & Co, Beneras, 1897.

  33. Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, Translated and Edited by Bidhushekhar Sastri, Sadesh, Kolkata, 2008; See: Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa. Translated by Julius Eggeling, Book 1 & 2, Oxford Clarendon Press, 1882.

  34. Schmidt, 1968. “The Origin of Ahiṃsa”, in Melanges d’Indianisme a la memoire de Louis Renou, Paris: Editions E. De Boccard, pp. 625-55.

  35. See: Monier-Williams, 1899. A Sanskrit English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

  36. Malamoud, 1998. “Paths of the Knife, Carving up the Victim in Vedic Sacrifice”, in R. Gombrich ed., Indian Ritual and Its Exegesis, Oxford University Papers on India, Vol. 2, Part 1, Delhi: Oxford University Press.

  37. Das, Veena. “Being Together with Animals: Death, Violence and Noncruelty in Hindu Imagination”, Living Beings: Perspectives on Interspecies Engagements, Ed. by Penelope Dransart, Routledge, London, 2013, pp. 17- 30.

  38. Ibid.

  39. See: Kane, 1974. “Chapter VIII: Àśrama”, History of Dharmaśàstra, Volume II, Part I, Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.

  40. Alf Hiltebeitel has observed that the Mahabharata “anticipates a prominent aspect of much of the fable literature that seems to have adopted its device of the receding frame: it has lots of talking animals. Clearly, talking animals make their way rather easily into frame stories, because just as frame stories have a “self-referential character” (Minkowski, 1998, 402), so, at least in the Mahabharata, does the relationship between poets, heroes, and animals”. Hiltebeitel, 2002. ‘Chapter Five: Don’t Be Cruel’, Rethinking the Mahābhārata: A Reader’s Guide to the Education of the Dharma King (first published 2001), Oxford University Press, New Delhi, pp. 195-202.

  41. See: Mahabharata. The Mahabharata for the First Time Critically Edited. Edited by Vishnu S. Sukthankar, Shripad K. Belvalkar, Parashuram L. Vaidya, et al. 19 vols. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1933-66; The Mahabharata, “Shanti Parva”, Translated literally from the original Sanskrit Text, Ed. and Tr. by Manmatha Nath Dutta, Elysium Press, Calcutta, 1903, pp. 220-225. See for a detailed discussion: Bowels, 2016. “Reflections on the Upakhyanas in the Apaddharmaparvan of the Mahabharata” in Argument and Design: the Unity of the Mahabharata, ed. by Viswa Adluri, Joydeep Bagchee, Brill: Leiden, Boston, pp. 320-358.

  42. The Mahabharata, “Shanti Parva”, Translated literally from the original Sanskrit Text, Ed. and Tr. by Manmatha Nath Dutta, Elysium Press, Calcutta, 1903, pp. 220-225.

  43. Ibid.

  44. Ibid.

  45. Ibid.

  46. Ibid.

  47. See: Ŗg Veda 2.35.2-3, Doniger, Wendy, The Rig Veda: An Anthology: One Hundred and Eight Hymns, Translated and annotated, Penguin Books, New York, 1981, P. 111. Also see: Taittiriya Upaniṇṣad, I.11.2: “Be one for whom the Mother is God, be one for whom the Father is God, be one for whom the Teacher is God, be one for whom the Guest is God”. Upaniṇṣad, Translated and edited by Atulchandra Sen, Sitanath Tattwabhushan, Maheshchandra Ghose, Haraf Prakashani, Kolkata, 1980.

  48. Pūrva-Mīmaṃsā from an interdisciplinary Point of View, Ed. by, K.T. Pandurangi, Centre for Studies in Civilizations, Vol.II, Part-6, 2006.

  49. It goes: “Filled with sorrow and bewailing thus, the she pigeon devoted to her husband cast herself on the burning fire.” The Mahabharata, “Shanti Parva”, Translated literally from the original Sanskrit Text, Ed. and Tr. by Manmatha Nath Dutta, Elysium Press, Calcutta, 1903, P. 224.

  50. Ibid.

  51. Ibid. P. 225.

  52. Manusmṛti 3.70. The Laws of Manu, Vol. XXV, Tr. by G. Buhlar, in The Sacred Books of the East, Tr. and Ed. by F. Max Muller, Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1886, P. 87. For the description of guest-worship prescribed, see The Laws of Manu 3.99-114. Manusamhitā, Ed. Panchanan Tarkaratna, Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar, Kolkata, 2000. For English translation see, The Laws of Manu, Vol. XXV, Tr. by G. Buhlar, in The Sacred Books of the East, Tr. and Ed. by F. Max Muller, Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1886, pp. 87-96; The Laws of Manu, Tr. Wendy Doniger and Brian K. Smith, Penguin Books, New Delhi, 1991. For a detailed discussion on this see: Friedrich Wilhelm, “Hospitality and the Caste System”, Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik 20 (1996): 523-29.

  53. The Mahabharata, “Shanti Parva”, Translated literally from the original Sanskrit Text, Ed. and Tr. by Manmatha Nath Dutta, Elysium Press, Calcutta, 1903, pp. 221-222.

  54. Jamison, 1996. Sacrificed Wife/ Sacrificer’s Wife: Women, Ritual and Hospitality in Ancient India, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 153-61. As the pigeon meditates: “Hospitality should be shown to even one’s enemy when the latter comes to his house. The tree does not withdraw its shade from even the person who comes for cutting it down”. The Mahabharata, “Shanti Parva”, Translated literally from the original Sanskrit Text, Ed. and Tr. by Manmatha Nath Dutta, Elysium Press, Calcutta, 1903, P. 221.

  55. Noddings, 1986. Caring: A Relational Approach to Ethics & Moral Education, University of California Press, 1986, pp. 30-74.

  56. Levinas, 1985. Ethics and Infinity, Trans: Cohen, R. A., Pittsburgh: Duquesne Univerisity Press, P. 86 & 198.

  57. Derrida, 2001. On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness, Translated by Mark Dooley and Michael Hughes, Routledge: London & New York, pp. 16-17.

  58. Ibid.

  59. Olivelle, 2013. “Talking Animals: Exploration in an Indian Literary Genre”, Religions of South Asia, 7(1), pp. 14–26.

  60. Howard, 2016. “Lessons from ‘The Hawk and the Dove’: Reflections on the Mahābhārata’s Animal Parables and Ethical Predicaments”, Springer, September, DOI 10.1007/s11841-016-0538-9.

  61. Ibid.

  62. See: Maccormack, 2012. Posthuman Ethics: Embodiment and Cultural Theory, Routledge, London & New York, P. 1.

  63. Doniger, 2005. “Zoomorphism in Ancient India: Human more Bestial than the Beasts”, In L. Daston & G. Mitman (Eds.), Thinking with Animals: New Perspectives on Anthropomorphism, New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 17-36.

  64. Deleuze, 1992. The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque, Trans: Conley, T., Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, P. 135.

  65. Sloterdijk, 1988. Critique of Cynical Reason (Theory and History of Literature), University of Minnesota Press.

  66. The Mahabharata, “Shanti Parva”, Translated literally from the original Sanskrit Text, Ed. and Tr. by Manmatha Nath Dutta, Elysium Press, Calcutta, 1903, pp. 206-214. Also See: The Mahabharata, Section : CXXXIX, Translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguly, 1883-1896 (in Sanskrit), https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a138.htm

  67. The word “Rutajñāḥ” implies one who could imitate the cries of all animals. Ibid, P. 207.

  68. Mahābhāratam, “Śanti Parva”, Translated and Edited by Haridas Bhattacharya Siddhantabagish, Viswabani Prakashani, Kolkata, 1345 (in Bengali), P. 1308.

  69. The Mahabharata, “Shanti Parva”, Translated literally from the original Sanskrit Text, Ed. and Tr. by Manmatha Nath Dutta, Elysium Press, Calcutta, 1903, P. 207.

  70. Ibid. pp. 207-208.

  71. Mahābhāratam, “Śanti Parva”, Translated and Edited by Haridas Bhattacharya Siddhantabagish, Viswabani Prakashani, Kolkata, 1345 (in Bengali), P. 1310.

  72. Ibid. pp. 1310-1312.

  73. Ibid.

  74. The Mahabharata, “Shanti Parva”, Translated literally from the original Sanskrit Text, Ed. and Tr. by Manmatha Nath Dutta, Elysium Press, Calcutta, 1903, pp. 207-213. It is to be noted that interspecies violence repeatedly occurs in the Mahabharata text, with man at the centre, and each animal and human species speaking ultimately for itself alone, though all in a distinct ‘human’ voice, with certain workings of reason. See: Hiltebeitel, 2002. ‘Chapter Five: Don’t Be Cruel’, Rethinking the Mahābhārata: A Reader’s Guide to the Education of the Dharma King (first published 2001), Oxford University Press, New Delhi, pp. 195-202.

  75. Ibid. Also See: Mahābhāratam, “Śanti Parva”, Translated and Edited by Haridas Bhattacharya Siddhantabagish, Viswabani Prakashani, Kolkata, 1345 (in Bengali), P. 1311.

  76. Ibid.

  77. Mahābhāratam, “Śanti Parva”, Translated and Edited by Haridas Bhattacharya Siddhantabagish, Viswabani Prakashani, Kolkata, 1345 (in Bengali), P. 1313.

  78. Ibid.

  79. The Mahabharata, “Shanti Parva”, Translated literally from the original Sanskrit Text, Ed. and Tr. by Manmatha Nath Dutta, Elysium Press, Calcutta, 1903, pp. 207-213.

  80. See: Schmitt (2004). “Theory of the Partisan: Intermediate Commentary on the Concept of the Political (1963)”. Telos (127): 11-78.

  81. Mahābhāratam, “Śanti Parva”, Translated and Edited by Haridas Bhattacharya Siddhantabagish, Viswabani Prakashani, Kolkata, 1345 (in Bengali), P. 1315.

  82. French, Peter A. 2001. The Virtues of Vengeance, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, P. 84.

  83. Mahābhāratam, “Śanti Parva”, Translated and Edited by Haridas Bhattacharya Siddhantabagish, Viswabani Prakashani, Kolkata, 1345 (in Bengali), pp. 1318-19. The Mahabharata, “Shanti Parva”, Translated literally from the original Sanskrit Text, Ed. and Tr. by Manmatha Nath Dutta, Elysium Press, Calcutta, 1903, pp. 207-213.

  84. Ibid.

  85. See: Mohanty, 1964. Edmund Husserl’s Theory of Meaning, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, P. 64.

  86. Mahābhāratam, “Śanti Parva”, Translated and Edited by Haridas Bhattacharya Siddhantabagish, Viswabani Prakashani, Kolkata, 1345 (in Bengali), pp. 1321-22.

  87. The Mahabharata, “Shanti Parva”, Translated literally from the original Sanskrit Text, Ed. and Tr. by Manmatha Nath Dutta, Elysium Press, Calcutta, 1903, pp. 207-213.

  88. Dauenhauer, 1980. Silence, the Phenomenon and its Ontological Significance, University of Indiana Press,P. 5.

  89. Dalmiya, 2001. “Dogged Loyalties: A Classical Indian Intervention in Care Ethics” in Ethics in the World Religions, ed. By J. Runzo , Nancy M. Martin, One World, Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 293-306. Etymologically the word means a crying out that “follows” (anu) someone else’s cry (krośa). The translations of “sympathy”, “compassion”, or even “empathy” suggest a re-enacting of another’s mental state. (P. 298).

  90. See: The Mahabharata, “Anuśāsana Parva”, Translated literally from the original Sanskrit Text, Ed. and Tr. by Manmatha Nath Dutta, Elysium Press, Calcutta, 1905.

  91. See: Hiltebeitel, 2002. ‘Chapter Five: Don’t Be Cruel’, Rethinking the Mahābhārata: A Reader’s Guide to the Education of the Dharma King (first published 2001), Oxford University Press, New Delhi. Also see: Bandyopadhyay, 2010. “A Critique of Nonviolence”, Seminar, 608, 2010, https://www.india-seminar.com/2010/608/608_sibaji_bandyopadhyay.htm

  92. Dalmiya, 2001. “Dogged Loyalties: A Classical Indian Intervention in Care Ethics” in Ethics in the World Religions, ed. By J. Runzo , Nancy M. Martin, One World, Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 293-306.

  93. Ibid. pp. 295-96.

  94. Alfred Hiltebeitel notes that “Mahabharata characters rarely talk with animals, but hear many more stories about talking animals”. For a detailed discussion see: Hiltebeitel, 2002. ‘Chapter Five: Don’t Be Cruel’, Rethinking the Mahābhārata: A Reader’s Guide to the Education of the Dharma King (first published 2001), Oxford University Press, New Delhi, pp. 195-202.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Santipur College, University of Kalyani, Kalyani, India

    Anirban Bhattacharjee

  2. Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata, India

    Anirban Bhattacharjee

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Bhattacharjee, A. Reason, Death, and the Animal: The Mahābhārata and the Eruption/Interruption of the Ethical. DHARM 5, 63–81 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42240-022-00121-w

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