“‘Ruin wears the face of wealth; defeat, the face of victory’: Thinking through Book X of the Mahabharata"

Abstract: While many are well familiar with The Bhagavad Gita, the 18 chapter episode that inaugurates the war in the Hindu epic, The Mahabharata, most of us are less acquainted with Book X, the 18 chapters that conclude the war. In this discussion, we will consider the structural, psychological, and aesthetic functions of the “Book of the Sleeping Warriors”. How should we interpret the events of the Xth book? What might they suggest about the overall design of The Mahabharata?

Arti Dhand is an associate professor of South Asian Religion at the University of Toronto. She specializes in the Mahabharata and the Ramayana Hindu epics, Hindu ethics, gender issues in Hinduism, and religion and sexuality.  She is the author of Woman as Fire, Woman as Sage. Most recently, she is also host of The Mahabharata Podcast with Arti Dhand   https://www.themahabharatapodcast.com ( Podcast on the great Hindu epic The Mahabharata)