EXTRACTING THE KATHÅ-AMRTA (ELIXIR OF STORY): CREATION, RITUAL, SOVEREIGNTY AND TEXTUAL STRUCTURE IN THE SANSKRIT MAHÅBHÅRATA: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

This paper will explore the way in which the Sanskrit Mahåbhårata thematically explores its own narrative structure. It aims to provide
something of a foundation for broader discussions of how the Mahåbhårata has been used to construct and re-construct significant social knowledge in South Asia. The basic question I will set out to address is: “Why does the narrative structure of the Mahåbhårata exhibit such close parallels with earlier Vedic ritual forms?” I will argue that the Mahåbhårata is patterned after Vedic ritual and engages in a sustained exploration of the creative  potential of the blurring of the boundaries between ritual and textual action. I will also suggest that the Mahåbhårata posits the creative function of some form of maximally comprehensive discourse very like itself as
essential to the maintenance of a functional cosmic and social order.
A major contention of my paper will be that the narrative shift from ritual to textual activity in the Mahåbhårata has some very interesting ramifications for the interpretation of the text. Of key importance will be an analysis of the complex way in which the Mahåbhårata mobilizes churning and churning metaphors at the level of gods, kings and, crucially, text. We will consider a series of narrations that move from cosmogony (in the am®tamanthana, the churning of the ocean narrative) through the foundation of a
functional social order (by King P®thu) to the creation of text itself, the elixir of story (kathå-am®ta).