A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ILLIAD AND MAHABHARATA
I sometimes wonder whether ancient texts we study these days and we look upon the beauty of their occurrence; are they true or just a vicious imagination of single man just to influence a whole race of human. Though Homer did a splendid job creating Illiad and we look upon the magnificent work of Ved Vyas creating Mahabharata, but there are so many striking comparisns both appears to be influenced.
Did Homer read Mahabharata and then created Illiad or Ved Vyas knew about seige of Troy if it actually happened giving it shape of his ideas creating Mahabharata? Some questions have made my head its permanent living space. Which one is true? Which one is fake? Are both true? Are both true? Well I read both of the works again and again and found some interesting similarities.
According to my understanding, Mahabharata has events very much orderly but Illiad is not written very orderly. Prince Paris of Troy eloped with queen helen of sparta. It triggered the war. Resulting in the destruction of royal house of troy, in mahabharata kauravas insulted queen draupadi and whole kaurav clan was destroyed in the battle of kurukshetra. In both the epics weapons of warriors were described explicitly. For eg. Arjun’s Gandiv dhanush and krishna’s panchjanya shankh were described profusely in mahabharata likewise description of shield and armor of achilles moulded by hephastus has taken a good part of illiad.
Comparing the scenes of war oddyessus, the king of ithaca was the main strategist on agamemnon’s side. Same as lord krishna on the side of pandavas. Its because of the strategies designed by them, their respective sides won. Though character of achilles is very much similar to arjun. Both were the best warriors in their respective battle. Both of them had confusions regarding war. It was odyessus who prepared achilles for the war and in mahabharata it was krishna who prepared arjun for the war.
Old king priam of troy can be compared to old king dhritrashtra watching from the distance grieving at the death of their sons. Helen can be compared to queen draupadi of mahabharata. Both of them were the most beautiful woman of their times. Their beauty cause the dispute between two sides. Patroclus the best friend of achilles can be compared to abhimanyu in mahabharata always ready to fight. Their death’s came at very strategistic times. Abhimanyu broke into chakravyuh and died fighting kaurav heroes in absence of arjun. Patroclus died fighting hector in absence of achilles. Very next day arjun vowed to kill jayadratha who was responsible for demise of abhimanyu. Achilles too killed hector in a duel. Their rage after death of their closest companion is described explicitly. In mahabharata where arjuna killed tens of thousanda of kaurav army in a day, achilles too sent many of trojans to underworld. In mahabharata jayadratha hides away to rescue himself from arjun’s fury but he was killed when lord krishna created a temporary eclipse luring jayadratha out. Arjun has vowed that if he is not able to kill jayadratha the next day before sunset he will self immolate himself. In battle of troy hector started running around troy to save himself from rage of achilles before being tricked by goddess athena in the disguise of his brother paris. Hector can be comapred to amalgation of mahabharata’s heroes, he can be compared to karna, jayadratha, bhishma as being a good man.
Ashwatthama tried to kill parikshit by aiming his brahmastara on the womb of uttara so as to leave no heir to pandavas, same way greek heroes killed hector’s son astanyax so as to leave no heir to trojan throne.
It is believed that merovingian kings were descendents of the so left trojans who fled the city, so were said that janjua clan of rajputs are supposed to be descendents of pandavas.
Interesting piece of trivia both merovingian and janjua people are very much similar when it comes to power and nature of the people.
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