ARJUNA-ODYSSEUS: SHARED HERITAGE IN INDIAN AND GREEK EPIC

Bringing together the study of the Greek classics and Indology, arjuna–odysseus provides a comparative analysis of the shared heritage of the Mahabharata and early Greek traditions presented in the texts of Homer and hesiod.

building on the ethnographic theories of Durkheim, Mauss, and Dumont, the volume explores the convergences and rapprochements between the Mahabharata and the greektexts. In exploring the networks of similarities between the two epic traditions, it also reformulates the theory of Georges dumézil regarding Indo-European cultural comparativism. It includes a detailed comparison between journeys undertaken by the two epic heroes – Odysseus and Arjuna – and more generally, it ranges across the philosophical ideas of these cultures, and the epic traditions, metaphors, and archetypes that define the cultural ideology of ancient Greece and India.