Thread by @AudreyTruschke

As a follow-up to my #InternetMahabharata, I want to reflect--briefly--on the actual #Mahabharata, its increasingly overlooked importance, and the #Hindutva undermining of the epic. Thread:

Let me start with the personal - I love the Mahabharata. It is an incredible, awesome tale. In fact, many have asked what started me on the road of studying India. The answer is the Mahabharata. I took a class on the epic in college, and I was hooked for life. #Mahabharata

What makes the Mahabharata so fascinating? A lot of things - It's a window into social, cultural, and religious practices ~2,000 years ago (roughly when it was written). It is almost unbelievably detailed and intricate. It's a profound meditation on moral questions. #Mahabharata

The Mahabharata is many things to many people and tells us a lot about premodern India. One thing that the epic is not, however, it proof of modern Western science in ancient India. This is not a bad thing. #Mahabharata

In fact, seeing the Mahabharata as offering proof of modern technology in ancient India cheapens the epic. It flattens an incredible piece of literature/ethical treatise/religious work to serving as a salve for the 2018 anxieties of Hindu nationalists. #Mahabharata

Hindu nationalism is a modern idea with modern roots (and largely modeled on Western movements). The Mahabharata is neither modern nor Western. If you were ever looking for something distinctively Indian, the Mahabharata is it. #Mahabharata

I am saddened that so many in modern India find this great epic shameful and so twist its interpretation so far that they wring out what is important about the text and the story. #Mahabharata

For me, I continue to study and read the Mahabharata (and yes, I read it in Sanskrit as well as in other languages). I do not seek a reflection of myself and my reality in the epic. I want to know and understand its world. #Mahabharata not #InternetMahabharata