Fate and Fortune in the Indian Scriptures

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Fatalism, as an ideology, is rooted in vested interests of the rulers, priests and lawgivers, who won the game of power by fanning man's worst beliefs. These superstitions assumed different forms in different regions and ages and went on multiplying. Although man refused to be daunted by the verdicts of fate, scriptures and priestcraft did their utmost to break his inherent pride of manhood through the centuries. With the enhancement of man's knowledge, much of what was formerly designated as fate is now known differently and is to some extent controlled by man. However, there is still the element of the unforeseen and unforeseeable 'accident' over which man has no power. But if we look at how much of the phenomena a third millennium B.C. man took for granted as operations of fate, we feel amazed. This book provides a rich scholarly account of how the ancient civilizations considered fate and fortune in daily life and how the concept of fatalism developed in ancient Indian society.

Sukumari Bhattacharji is an eminent Indian Sanskritist. She was born in India in 1921, and has spent her life as a teacher and scholar. She first taught English at Lady Brabourne College, Kolkata, and then moved to Jadavpur University as Professor of English and Sanskrit. She was also a Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge. Her first published work, The Indian Theogony: A Comparative Study of Indian Mythology from the Vedas to the Puranas (Cambridge, 1970) was based on her doctoral thesis on the historical development of Indian mythology and its connection with parallel mythologies elsewhere. Sukumari's prolific pen had the oeuvre of Sanskrit literature critically read and analysed. Her books, The Literature of the Vedic Age; Classical Sanskrit Literature; Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Literature; Women and Society in Ancient India; The Gita: Its Why and How and other insightful articles open up the ancient world to modern critical thinking. She retired from service in 1986.

N 1981 I attended a conference on religion in Winnipeg, Canada. My Ipapery was on Fatalism in Ancient India. In the course of my discourse, 1 had mentioned that the theories of Karman and rebirth were two of the most vicious ever invented by man. I was attacked vehemently by all and sundry; I realized that fatalism with which these theories were intrinsically linked was a vested interest, or, the apathy and passivity it produced were. It was then that I resolved to work on this theme. It took me many years and a few trips abroad as to use foreign libraries on the relevant matter, however slowly and surely the ideas emerged.

The Spalding Fund made it possible for me to use the Oxford and Cambridge libraries twice, the Maison des Sciences de l'homme at Paris kindly assisted me to use the French libraries twice. I am also grateful for the B.M. Barua Senior Research Fellowship at the Asiatic Society for making it possible to work on and complete the book.

Scholars here and abroad have helped me in my study and preparation of the work. Of them, I am most grateful to Professor B. N. Mukherji who unstintedly gave me his time to discuss certain facts and also lent me books out of his personal library. Dr Tapodhir Bhattacharya gave his time and energy to go over the manuscript and give it a shape. I feel a deep debt of gratitude to him. Dr Shyama Prasad De, as always, helped me arrange the unwieldly manuscript, revise the typescript and arrange alphabetically the bibliography. Sri Dibakar Karmoker, despite his ill health and other pressing duties, kindly typed out such a difficult manuscript. I am grateful to them all.

The subject itself is rather vast and baffling and I am sure that a better equipped scholar would have done a better job of it. I felt the subject posed a challenge, a threat to academic and practical existential life in India. So, I decided to probe it with whatever equipment I managed to muster. i have been encouraged by Dr Tanika Sarkar and Professor Sumit Sarkar-my daughter and son-in-law, in carrying out this work. Aditya Sarkar, my grandson, by his very presence inspired me a lot. My friend Bani Bhattacharya offered unfailing encouragement throughout the long years of its preparation, I feel deeply grateful to her.

ATALISM, the belief that fate is an unseen, incalculable and F uncontrollable power which controls human affairs, is ubiquitous and a very old belief. In Vedic times, says Klostermeier, "It was apparently a fairly marginal existence which was possible under the given circumstances; survival was precarious and threatened by famine, disease, enemy and wild animals. Every catastrophe was necessarily attributed to a break in the power circuit that connected the devas with the world of men." Yet in India, the earliest texts, known as the early Vedic literature, the Sarphitas and Brahman, do not have any trace of fatalism. Life was more exposed to dangers and unforeseen calamities of nature than it was half a millennium later, but the tone that pervades this literature is that the Gods in heaven control human life and man can always placate them with laudatory, hymns, delicious oblations and libations in sacrifices. Generally, the Gods were benign and well-meaning, life was very much worth living as long as possible, nature was beautiful and bountiful and life was a joyous affair. Slowly but steadily with the inflow of plenty in agricultural production, cattle tending, resumption of maritime trade via the Middle East to the Graceo-Roman world, wealth increased. "The total complex indicates that the people of the PGW culture at the site had developed iron technology from the very beginning. They were also able to mine iron ore in a considerable quantity which enabled them to produce tools and implements in abundance. They were thus able to clear the land of tropical vegetation and bring it under extensive cultivation and started cultivating wheat in addition to rice, barley and pulses. They also engaged in trade without which they could not have acquired so much metal or beads of semi-precious stones.