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Re: I should have read the thread before bothering to give my skimpy response! Danae al'Thor Send a noteboard - 09/07/2010 08:26:35 AM
I'm not going to argue about how it's pronounced now, but the Sanskrit "ta" (?) is certainly not to be pronounced that way in traditional pronunciation. It would have to be ? or ? to be rendered as "tha" (or pronounced that way, for that matter). How modern Indian languages pronounce those graphemes is completely beyond me, however.

? would be t with your tongue touching your teeth, ? would be th with your tongue touching your teeth. Mahabharath in Devnagri would be ???????. "T" as in table, is not how you pronounce the final ?. It sounds like "th" in that.

Whether modern Devnagri to English transliteration uses some other convention in the West or not, I've always seen the epic spelled Mahabharatha in India, and that's what I'm going to stick to.

As for the futility of war, the Mahabharata definitely shows the negative consequences of war, but the consequences of not having gone to war would have been worse. The Pandavas' enemies would triumph and destroy them anyway.

But that is, repeatedly, not shown to be the true reason for war. Duryodhana, while certainly less capable than the Pandavas, is shown to be a generous ruler, and not a bad man barring his hatred of the Pandavas.

And immediate victory so the Pandavas can have the kingdom is not the point either. Which is why they offer to settle for just five villages, instead of their huge and wealthy kingdom.

Instead, we're always told that it is the principal that is being fought for, so that "Dharma" can be said to have triumphed, and so that future generations can seek hope from this victory.

But from the way it ends, and from the way the Pandavas have to cheat their way to that victory, "Dharma" doesn't win. Humanity descends into the era of Kali, as it was inevitably supposed to. I call that futile.
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~Roh
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Re: I should have read the thread before bothering to give my skimpy response! Danae al'Thor - 09/07/2010 08:26:35 AM 1426 Views
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