Vidura Speaks: A Study of the Viduranīti and its Reception History

Abstract

This thesis offers a close reading of an important yet neglected didactic text from the Indian epic Mahābhārata, namely the Viduranīti, which is a nocturnal politico-moral counsel of Vidura to Dhr̥tarāṣṭra. Adopting the currently prevalent trend in Mahābhārata scholarship, the received epic is approached as a work of literature by treating its didactic segments as constitutive parts of the unfolding narrative, rather than simply viewing the received epic as an outcome of later didactic accretions on a supposed earlier core narrative. As such, the Viduranīti is juxtaposed thematically with the epic’s story, particularly with the epic’s portrayal of Vidura, and structurally with other didactic portions of the epic and the entire epic as a whole. The former analysis reveals that both Vidura and the Viduranīti are centered around the categories of dharma and artha, while the latter exposes similarities in the literary architectonics of the Viduranīti and other didactic tracts. Finally, a case study investigates why the Viduranīti was canonized in a modern Hindu community. Situating this textual reframing in the modern socio-historical context, I argue for the need to focus on reception histories of early South Asian texts.