The three papers to be discussed in the online meeting of our Seminar consider in various ways the interactions of divine and earthly realities in the _Mahābhārata_. The text presents a divine plan for intervention in earthly struggles, a theme of enduring interest in later texts; might it have been patterned on Greek literary antecedents? The _MBh_ also orients the audience to the setting of that struggle by describing the land in both geographical and cosmological dimensions. All three papers share themes of the interconnectedness of heavenly and earthly realms in the _Mahābhārata_.
Prior to the Bhagavadgītāparvan (6.14–40) in the Mahābhārata’s book 6 (Bhīṣmaparvan), which itself contains the BhG proper (6.23–40), there are two sections referred to as the Jambūkhaṇḍavinirmāṇaparvan (6.1–11), the 'book on the measuring out of the continent of the rose-apple tree' and the Bhūmiparvan (6.12–13), the ‘book of the earth'. Much of the scholarly attention on these parvans has been concerned with matters of source criticism of the so-called “cosmographical episode” from Mbh 6.6 to 6.13, which bridges the two sections (e.g., Hilgenberg 1934; Belvalkar 1939, 1947). In this paper I propose to consider both these parvans within the context of their narration, especially as a preamble to the war (and the intervening episode of the BhG), where they work to develop and anticipate the human, earthly, and cosmological consequences of the battle, and emphasise the land over which the battle will be fought.
The Mahābhārata's Ādiparvan description of the descent of the gods (aṃśāvataraṇa, MBh 1.58-61) is retold in the Harivaṃśa (HV 40-45), which expands significantly upon the epic's plan of and rationale for divine intervention. The first task of this paper is to underscore how and why the Harivaṃśa modifies and amplifies the Mahābhārata aṃśāvataraṇa. Secondly, however, I treat a number of sources which refine the aṃśāvataraṇa intervention account. Some of these have been treated already by Paul Hacker (e.g. the Rāmopākhyāna within the Mahābhārata, MBh 3.258-260 and Brahma Purāṇa 180-181). My chief focus, however, will be the Bhāratamañjarī of Kṣemendra (ca. 11th century), whose handling and retelling of the original Ādiparvan and Harivaṃśa materials may help to attest the impact of the Harivaṃśa on the popular reception and understanding of the epic story itself.
This paper focuses on the motif of the Unburdening of the Earth by reviewing five relevant passages structured as a form of *Ringkomposition*: *MBh*. 1.58.3 – 59.6 narrated by Vaiśaṃpāyana, *MBh*. 1.189 narrated by Vyāsa, *MBh*. 2.33.10–20 narrated by Nārada, *MBh*. 11.8.20–38 again narrated by Vyāsa, and *MBh*. 18.5.7–25 again narrated by Vaiśaṃpāyana. Then, those texts are compared with five Greek passages dealing with the same motif: *Iliad* 1.1-5, *Iliad* 2.1-6, *Iliad* 12.3-33, *Odyssey* 8.71-82, and *Cypria* fr. 1. Against more accepted explanations like Folk origin or Indo-European origin, and after dealing with the main methodological problems that such proposal would entail, the paper argues for a Greco-Indian origin (understood as a Greek influence in India) of the motif, along the lines of Wulff Alonso (2008, 2014, 2019a, 2019b, 2020).