Our history: When matters are upside down
By Bibek Debroy:
Usually, people are more interested in the Mahabharata, compared to the Ramayana. That’s probably because the Mahabharata has a broader canvas. Protagonists are more in number. The Ramayana is “Rama’s progress”. Rama is the central character. The Mahabharata isn’t quite like that. It has many more characters, more with whom one can identify and empathise. Despite the passage of hundreds of years, those dilemmas about decisions remain universal, even today.
Events of the Mahabharata primarily occur along the west-east axis of Bharatavarsha while events of the Ramayana are primarily along the north-south axis. What area does the Mahabharata cover, geographically? It is impossible to answer that question. There is the north-western part of Bharatavarsha, there is today’s Gujarat. In the east, we can go as far as Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. But the core geographical area is the Kuru-Panchala region, two of the 16 Maha Janapadas. The Kuru kingdom is the land of Parikshit and Janamejaya, straddling Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and western Uttar Pradesh.
Read the full article here: https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2022/may/14/our-history-when-matters-are-upside-down-2453244.html