sample copy. not for distribution. · samhita. this book is an attempt to get to those 8800 verses...

Sample Copy. Not for Distribution.

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Jaya-Samhita

Book One : The Cause


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Printed in India


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Jaya-Samhita

Book One : The Cause

Karna Yadav

EDUCREATION PUBLISHING (Since 2011)

www.educreation.in


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Dedicated to

W The God who said,

„The soul is never born, it never dies. Come into being

after birth, it does not,

It is unborn, eternal and primeval. Even if the body is

slain, the soul is not.‟

Without His invisible help this book would not have

been possible.

P


vi

About Jaya-Samhita

W Ved Vyasa did not write the Mahabharata. The epic that

he wrote was called Jaya-Samhita. Containing some

8800 verses, it was a treatise on war and politics. It was

based on the great Kurukshetra war. The word Jaya

means victory and Samhita means collection. As the

name implies, it contained the principles of victory. It

answered the fundamental question, why some people

win while others lose?

The Mahabharata on the other hand contains

100,000 verses and is a story within a story. The

Mahabharata is a combination of two words, the Maha

meaning great and Bharata refers to Arjuna, one of the

chief protagonists of the Mahabharata. Arjuna was

known by many names and Bharata was one of them.

The word Mahabharata when literally translated means

the great Bharata or the great Arjuna. It is apparent by

the name itself that it was written with the sole intention

of glorifying Arjuna. In the Mahabharata, Arjuna is the

son of the chief of demigods, Indra. Arjuna is the

favorite disciple of guru Dronacharya. Arjuna wins the

beautiful Draupadi in a marriage ceremony after

accomplishing a great feat in archery. Arjuna is a great

archer and the chief commander of the Pandava army

who single handedly defeats all the chief warriors of the

Kaurava army. Arjuna is the man loved and worshipped

by God Shri Krishna Himself. He receives the words of

the God in the Bhagwadgeeta. All this is perhaps true or

maybe the reality is different from what we are being led

to believe. There is no evidence to prove this but there

are enough reasons to make one doubtful. For example,


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it is believed that Ved Vyasa wrote the Bhagwadgeeta

separately as a dialogue between Nara (man) and

Narayana (God). It was later on incorporated into the

Mahabharata as a dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna.

If there is some truth in this then it was not Arjuna, who

received the message of the Bhagwadgeeta on the

battlefield of Kurukshetra.

After compiling the Jaya-Samhita, Ved Vyasa

recited it to his disciple Vaisampayana. Vaisampayana

elaborated his Jaya-Samhita into the Bharata. The

Bharata contained 24000 verses. The Bharata is the story

of Ved Vyasa‟s Jaya-Samhita being recited by

Vaisampayana to king Janamajeya, great grandson of

Arjuna, at Takshasila (modern day Taxila in Pakistan).

The recital of the Bharata by Vaisampayana at the

sacrifice being conducted by the great grandson of

Arjuna, Janamajeya, is enough to raise eyebrows.

It is said that history is written by the victors. The

history written by the victors is rarely a true record of

the events as and when they happened. It is written to

glorify the victors, to iron out the inconsistencies in their

characters and to project them as the heroes they

weren‟t. Arjuna too was a victor of the Kurukshetra war.

First, the Bharata and later the Mahabharata were written

with similar aims. Both were written at the behest of the

victors.

A great fratricidal war like the Kurukshetra war

would not go down in history unnoticed. People will ask

questions. They‟d want to know what caused this Great

War and who was responsible for it? Perhaps, the

Pandavas were being blamed for this carnage. Now, why

did Kurukshetra happen? At one time the Pandavas were

ready to trade peace for five villages. When Duryodhana

refused, Kurukshetra happened. So, the Pandavas killed

their cousins and millions of other men, for what? Five

villages? That is the flimsiest excuse or stupidest reason


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for killing one‟s cousins. There is more to it then what

we are being told. No matter how hard the Pandavas try,

they cannot justify the killing of their cousins. Such

actions will always be condemned by the general public.

Perhaps, the Pandavas were being condemned as well.

The real cause of the war was something else. Ved

Vyasa knew and wrote the truth.

Perhaps, unhappy with the truth written in the Jaya-

Samhita by Ved Vyasa or in order to absolve his

forefathers of the blame of fratricide or to glorify

Arjuna, Janamajeya had his version of events written in

the form of the Bharata. Then, in order to popularize it,

he organized the great sacrifice. He invited sages from

all over the land and had Vaisampayana recite the

Bharata. The attending Brahmins thought they were

listening to Ved Vyasa‟s Jaya-Samhita. Ved Vyasa was

an authority by himself and not many dared to question

him.

It was not that king Janamajeya was conducting a

sacrifice and sage Vaisampayana just happened to be

there. So, Janamajeya asks Vaisampayana to recite the

story of Ved Vyasa‟s Jaya-Samhita while the sacrifice is

progressing. The sacrifice went on for many days by the

way. The truth is that the sacrifice was deliberately

conducted with the sole intention of propagating the

myths about the Pandavas. Janamajeya succeeded in his

attempts greatly. The thousands of attending Brahmins

later travelled all over the land reciting these events to

all those willing to listen. Janamajeya‟s version of the

events became so popular that this is what people

eventually ended up believing. Most of us take whatever

is written in the Mahabharata as the truth. We rarely

question the inconsistencies and the fantasies that are

written in the Mahabharata.

The Bharata was later elaborated into the

Mahabharata (the great Bharata) by Ugrasrava Sauti, a


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disciple of Vaisampayana. The Mahabharata that we

know today is the story of Vaisampayana‟s Bharata

being recited by Ugrasrava Sauti to a group of sages

performing the 12 year snake sacrifice for King Saunaka

Kulapati. Thus, the Mahabharata is a story within a

story. What we know today as the Mahabharata is not

the original Jaya-Samhita written by Ved Vyasa but the

works of his disciples. These facts are mentioned in the

Mahabharata itself.

The Mahabharata of today is the corrupt form of

Jaya-Samhita. However, if one studies the Mahabharata

minus the legends and supernatural phenomenon,

replacing these with simple, scientific explanations then

the original Jaya-Samhita reveals itself in all its glory.

Buried somewhere under the 100,000 verses of the

Mahabharata are the 8800 verses of the original Jaya-

Samhita. This book is an attempt to get to those 8800

verses of the original Jaya-Samhita. After so many

centuries, it is difficult to reproduce the original Jaya-

Samhita but it is not impossible to get somewhere near

the truth. I do not claim that this is what the original

Jaya-Samhita looked like but I firmly believe it is near

the truth. I would still advise the reader to use his

discretion if he finds something disagreeable. This book

is not a historical record of anything. It is a modern

interpretation of the Mahabharata. It is based on the

Mahabharata but it is not the Mahabharata.

P


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About Ved Vyasa

W Ved Vyasa is known as the author of the four Vedas, 18

Puranas, the Mahabharata and the Bhagwadgeeta. Ved

Vyasa was born some 5000 years ago (exact date of birth

unknown) to sage Parashara and his wife Satyawati. His

father was a renowned Brahmin. His mother was a

fisherman‟s daughter. Legend has it that his mother used

to ferry people across the Yamuna as part of her

religious duties. On one of these trips, sage Parashara

fell in love with her and the two got married. A year

later, Ved Vyasa was born to Satyawati. Since he was

born on an island located in the middle of river Yamuna,

he was named Dwaipayana or island born. He is also

known as Krishna because of his dark complexion.

When he came of age he was instructed in the religious

texts. It was customary in those days for the son to

follow in the footsteps of his father. Like his father he

too was expected to learn the sacred scriptures by heart

and then pass them on to the next generation.

Ved Vyasa was a brilliant student and within a short

span of time, mastered everything that his father and

other sages taught him. Unlike others, who learned

everything by heart and then recited it verbatim, without

questioning or understanding what they were being

taught, Ved Vyasa sought explanations and reasons

behind everything. He had an inquisitive mind. He

questioned everything and experimented to ascertain the

truth. Having obtained knowledge from his father he is

known to have meditated on this knowledge for years.

After having learned the great truths through hard work,

he wrote and taught about them.


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One of the first things that he realized was that the

Veda was not one particular branch of knowledge but

different branches of knowledge combined into one. So,

the first thing he did was to split the Vedas into four

different branches of knowledge - the Samaveda, the

Yajurveda, the Atharvaveda and the Ayurveda. With this

action, Dwaipayana became Ved Vyasa or the classifier

(or splitter) of Vedas. Earlier the Vedas used to be one

and signified knowledge. The word Veda comes from

the word vidi meaning knowledge. Whatever the ancient

learned they wrote it in the form of a verse and that verse

was then added to the ever expanding Veda. Unlike

sentences, the verses can be easily remembered and

passed on to the next generation without much difficulty.

These verses were related to different topics – God,

religion, health and black magic. Having learned the

Veda from his father, Ved Vyasa realized that each verse

was related to a different topic. These verses can be

reorganized into different branches for better

understanding and remembrance. Thus, he reorganized

them into four different branches. This action made him

Ved Vyasa.

This single piece of information speaks volume

about Ved Vyasa and his character. This goes on to

show that mentally Ved Vyasa was very brilliant. Only a

gifted person could have thought about dividing the

Veda into four. His contemporaries were more interested

in learning everything by rote. Memorizing everything

and reproducing it verbatim constituted great talent.

Questioning or experimenting was associated with slow

wit or lack of intelligence. That he questioned things is

indicative of the presence of great intelligence in Ved

Vyasa.

Apart from the Vedas, he is also known to have

compiled the 18 Puranas, the Mahabharata and the

Bhagwadgeeta. It is possible that he did not write these


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texts but rather reorganized them like the Vedas.

Perhaps, he just rewrote these texts simplifying things

and making sense out of them. His Bhagwadgeeta is the

testimony to this fact. Having read through all the

religious texts, Ved Vyasa realized that although known

by different names, all these texts more or less contained

the same ideas about God, soul, nature and salvation.

There was a common denominator to all these texts.

Perhaps he asked himself, why so many texts for the

same set of ideas? Why not write one text explaining all

these ideas. This led him to write the Bhagwadgeeta, his

crowning glory and his finest work. The ideas explained

in the Geeta have existed since a long time. Ved Vyasa

simply reorganized and rewrote them. Towards the end

of his life, he witnessed the Kurukshetra war and wrote

the Jaya-Samhita. Jaya-Samhita was perhaps the last

literary work of his.

Not much is known about Ved Vyasa‟s life. The

things that one hears about his life are probably

speculations. No one knows how and when Ved Vyasa

died. He is believed to be one of the ten Chiranjivis or

men blessed with long life. In reality, he may not have

been immortal but he was indeed blessed with a long

life. It would take a long life to write so much literature.

Ved Vyasa to us is much more than someone who

wrote the Mahabharata. He was a great sage. He can

rightly be called the father of Hindu religious

philosophy. It was he who made sense out of various

religious texts and gave us the Bhagwadgeeta - the song

divine. The text that today forms the core of Hindu

psychology and thinking. He is the greatest Hindu that

ever lived. He did us a great service by writing the

Bhagwadgeeta. He did something thousands of years ago

that, otherwise, we would be doing today. That is,

making sense out the vast religious literature. It is wrong

to think that the Hindus lack a religious book or a guru


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like other religions. Shrimad Bhagwadgeeta is our holy

book and Ved Vyasa our guru. To us, he is akin to a

God. Unfortunately, not many are aware of the extent of

his greatness. Read his Bhagwadgeeta again and again

and you will realize the extent of this man‟s greatness

yourself.

P


xv


Karna Yadav

1

W Jaya-Samhita

Ved Vyasa, a lean old man of medium height and dark

complexion, sat under a giant sacred fig tree. Clad in a

white dhoti (loincloth), he had a white cloth wrapped

around his torso. He had a thick white moustache and a

long beard that fell up to his navel. The hairs on his head

were also white and tied up on the crown of his head to

form a large bun. He sat on a raised platform built

around the trunk of the sacred fig. The tree stood in the

middle of the courtyard of his hermitage. Its branches

with numerous leaves formed a canopy over the

hermitage. It kept the sun out during summer. In winter,

the branches were pruned to allow the warm sunlight.

The courtyard is surrounded by huts on three sides. The

huts with thatched roofs were made of sun dried mud

bricks. The walls were plastered in clay. The doors of all

huts opened into the courtyard. The hermitage is located

on the banks of river Yamuna not far from the city of

Indraprashtha (the present day Delhi)

Ved Vyasa called his disciple Vaisampayana to

him. Vaisampayana is leaner and much younger than his

master. He is dressed just like his master. His clothes are

a bit more worn out than his master‟s. His hairs are also

tied in a bun on the top of his head. He too possesses a

moustache and a beard that reaches his navel. While Ved

Vyasa‟s hairs are all white, his disciple‟s are all black.

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Jaya-Samhita

2

Vaisampayana came armed with a pen, a bottle of ink

and scrolls to write on, as had been instructed the day

before. After years of research and travel that took him

to all the four corners of this country, Ved Vyasa had

returned to his hermitage only a few days earlier. He had

gone to learn the truth about the Great War that was

fought on the battlefield of Kurukshetra in which

millions of Kshatriyas (Warriors) perished. Now that he

knew the truth, he wanted it written down for posterity.

Vaisampayana sat on a bamboo mat on the ground, a

level below Ved Vyasa ready to write. Ved Vyasa sat on

the raised platform on a tiger skin.

Ved Vyasa said, “I have, after years of hard work,

ascertained the truth about that great war that was fought

on the battlefield of Kurukshetra between the armies of

the Kauravas (sons of Dhritarashtra) and the Pandavas

(sons of Pandu). Standing on the Asta hills, I myself

witnessed that Great War in Kurukshetra. I can still

recall vividly that battlefield, flanked by the Udaya hills

in the east, the Asta hills in the west and the Brahma

Sarovar (Lake) located in the distance. I can still see

clearly in my mind, those two massive armies standing

facing each other on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. They

were so large in numbers that they resembled two

mighty oceans. I can still recall vividly, after all these

years, those great warriors - Arjuna, Duryodhana, Drona,

and Bhishma - standing in their respective chariots,

commanding their respective divisions. Images of those

two warriors, Arjuna, with his ape bannered chariot

driven by lord Krishna and Karna with his sun bannered

chariot driven by Shailya, still sometimes flashes

through my mind. I can still see that very old Kuru

patriarch, the great Bhishma, standing in the vanguard of

his army on his chariot driven by four horses. In my

mind, he stands unmoving on the battlefield holding a

massive bow in his hand, his long white beard and white


Karna Yadav

3

robes fluttering in the wind. I still get nightmares about

that Great War. After all these years, I can still hear the

din that was produced by millions of shouting men,

neighing horses, trumpeting elephants and clanging

metals, all sounding together. The cries of the dead and

the dying, still wakes me up at night. What a terrible war

it was.

I will recite to you the story of that Great War.

Write everything down without stopping. I don‟t think I

have much life left and I don‟t want to die without

telling this great story. However, if there is anything that

you do not understand then tell me for I will be happy to

explain. This knowledge that I am about to impart to you

is superior to all knowledge and it is my firm belief that

anyone who understands the import of this story and

reads it regularly will eventually become unconquerable.

In a hundred battles that he fights, he will never have to

see the face of defeat. This is my firm belief. First of all

saluting the lord of the three worlds, Vishnu, I begin

reciting this great truth for the benefit of the mankind.

Let this knowledge be known in the world by the name

of Jaya-Samhita.

P


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