Kosambi goes on to question the veracity of the Mahabharata’s claim on the numbers:
“If a Mahabharata war had actually been fought on the scale reported, nearly five million fighting men
killed each other in an 18-day battle between Delhi and Thanesar…”
(M&R, p. 17)
After briefly referring to some commentators on the Gita—including Shankara, Ramanuja, Jnaneshvar, Tilak, Aurobindo, and Gandhi—Kosambi again raises the question as to how the same text could appeal to different people in different ways. He concludes his rant with these ridiculous lines:
In 1962, the Marxist historian D D Kosambi published a work titled Myth and Reality: Studies in the Formation of Indian Culture (hereafter referred to as 'M&R'). The first part of the book is called ‘Social and Economic Aspects of the Bhagavad-Gita’ and deals with the philosophical, ethical, and historical aspects of the Gita.
It seems to me that we Indians are quite talented at criticism. Rapier-sharp logic and critical reasoning has been a part of our heritage for millennia. Such criticality, in the right measure leads us to growth, but in excess leads us to pessimism, cynicism and eventually inaction. I often hear people complain about several historical blunders that we have committed and how it has brought us down, but I rarely get to hear solutions (especially ones we can implement at a personal level).
Ananda Coomaraswamy remains one of the most staunch defenders of the Indian tradition in the mold of what David Frawley calls an intellectual kshatriya. Coomaraswamy wrote a series of articles about the state of (the British-imposed) Indian education and alerted Indians about its perils.
Ananda Coomaraswamy mostly wrote for a scholarly audience, so he didn’t quite use the forthright language that Swami Vivekananda did:
A common and genuine fear among conservative Indians (specially the elders) is that the rampant westernization amongst Indians is leading to the gradual decline and eventual ruins of Indian culture and tradition. They suspect that Western goods, clothes, foods, festivals, style, language, and moreover Western thought is spreading across the populace. The purpose of this article is to look at the many reasons that cause such fears and analyze them by comparing with reality. This analysis is mainly from the Hindu perspective since that is where my experience lies.
ಶ್ರೀಮದ್ರಾಮಾಯಣದ ಉತ್ತರಕಾಂಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಬರುವ ಸೀತಾಪರಿತ್ಯಾಗವು ಹಿಂದಿನಿಂದಲೂ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಚರ್ಚೆಗೊಳಗಾಗಿರುವ ಭಾಗ. ಉತ್ತರಕಾಂಡವು ವಾಲ್ಮೀಕಿವಿರಚಿತವೋ ಅಲ್ಲವೋ ಎಂಬುದು ಕೂಡ ಅಷ್ಟೇ ಚರ್ಚಾಸ್ಪದವಾಗಿದೆ. ಅದು ವಾಲ್ಮೀಕಿಗಳಿಂದ ರಚಿತವಾಗಿಲ್ಲವೆಂಬ ವಾದವನ್ನು ಡಿ.ವಿ.ಜಿ. ಅವರು ತಳ್ಳಿ ಹಾಕುತ್ತಾರೆ. ವಾಲ್ಮೀಕಿಗಳ ಉದ್ದೇಶವು ರಾಮಚರಿತ್ರೆಯನ್ನು ರಚಿಸುವುದಷ್ಟೇ ಆಗಿರದೆ ಸೀತಾಚರಿತ್ರೆಯನ್ನು ರಚಿಸುವುದೂ ಆಗಿತ್ತು. ಹೀಗಾಗಿ ‘ಕಾವ್ಯಂ ರಾಮಾಯಣಂ ಕೃತ್ಸ್ನಂ ಸೀತಾಯಾಶ್ಚರಿತಂ ಮಹತ್’ (೧-೪-೭) (ಕಾವ್ಯವು ರಾಮನ ಸಮಗ್ರವೃತ್ತಾಂತ ಮತ್ತು ಸೀತೆಯ ಮಹತ್ತ್ವಪೂರ್ಣಚರಿತ್ರೆ) ಎಂಬ ಮಾತು ಬರುತ್ತದೆ.
How often have you heard this refrain or its variants: Naah! I don’t go to temples. I don’t like going to temples…I mean, there’s no point…all that noise, meaningless mantras and rituals…some are so unhygienic…I believe in God but I’m spiritual…after all, Hinduism is a personal religion and I don’t really need to go to a temple to pray…? How often have you yourself uttered this refrain? Answer honestly.