About The Book
The idea of politics hardly finds an expression elsewhere as clearly as in Mahabharata. This work thus investigates the political thought explicit in Santi-Parva and emphasizes that Mahabharata is a text in the study of politics, apart from the perception of it being a great epic and a text of high literary value. Whatever be the notion of politics we contemplate upon, it finds an articulation in Mahabharata. As the Greek tradition of thinking is the base of Western politics, Santi-Parva of Mahabharata represents the Indian notion of political thinking, though there remain many similarities and dissimilarities between the two systems.
This volume navigates one to how to read Mahabharata as a political text; the idea of political thoughts, the constituting principles of politics and the political institutions in Santi-Parva; and the relevance of these political thoughts in modern time. Topics such as dandaniti, origin of state, the seven elements of state, functions of state, types of state, kinship, judiciary and administration are discussed in detail, among many other issues of political importance.
The book collects, analyses and examines the internal evidences from Santi-Parva and also from other parvans of Mahabharata to reach a decisive conclusion, making the work a composite result of textual analysis, related literature and subjective contemplation. It clearly shows that the idea of politics is not separated from the idea of ethics. Rather they are intertwined.
About the Author
Dr Priyanka Pandey is an upcoming Sanskrit scholar with a penchant for serious researches on Indian classics. She got her PhD for the thesis, 'Perspectives of Rajadharma in Mahabharata: A Critical Analysis' from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. This book Rajadharma in Mahabharata with Special Reference to Santi-Parva is an offshoot of her research project.
Dr Pandey has presented articles in many national and international seminars and has ten articles published in journals/books of repute to her credit.