A critical edition of 'Mahabharata' was initiated in 1919, under the leadership of V.S. Sukthankar.

The critical edition did NOT include one of the following objectives. Identify:

Rewriting and paraphrasing major sections of the original text.

The correct answer is Option (3) → Rewriting and paraphrasing major sections of the original text.

One of the most ambitious projects of scholarship began in 1919, under the leadership of a noted Indian Sanskritist, V.S. Sukthankar. A team comprising dozens of scholars initiated the task of preparing a critical edition of the Mahabharata. What exactly did this involve? Initially, it meant collecting Sanskrit manuscripts of the text, written in a variety of scripts, from different parts of the country (OPTION-1).

The team worked out a method of comparing verses from each manuscript (OPTION-2). Ultimately, they selected the verses that appeared common to most versions and published these in several volumes (OPTION-4), running into over 13,000 pages. The project took 47 years to complete. Two things became apparent: there were several common elements in the Sanskrit versions of the story, evident in manuscripts found all over the subcontinent, from Kashmir and Nepal in the north to Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the south. Also evident were enormous regional variations in the ways in which the text had been transmitted over the centuries. These variations were documented in footnotes and appendices to the main text. Taken together, more than half the 13,000 pages are devoted to these variations.

In a sense, these variations are reflective of the complex processes that shaped early (and later) social histories – through dialogues between dominant traditions and resilient local ideas and practices. These dialogues are characterised by moments of conflict as well as consensus.