depraved and villainous; but not seldom their actions belie the
assertion,--with a certain Kshattriya magnamity for which they
are given no credit. Krishna fights for the sons of Pandu; in
the _Bhagavad-Gita_ and elsewhere we see him as the incarnation
of Vishnu,--of the Deity, the Supreme Self. As such, he does
neither good nor evil; but ensures victory for his protegees.
Philosophically and symbolically, this is sound and true, no
doubt, but one wonders whether the poem (or poems) ran so
originally; whether there may not be passages written at first
by Kuravist poets; or a Brahminical superimposition of motive on
a poem once wholly Kshattriya, and interested only in showing
forth the noble and human warrior virtues of the Kshattriya
caste. I imagine that in that second millennium B. C., in the
early centuries of Kali-Yuga, you had a warrior class with their
bards, inspired with high Bushido feeling,--with chivalry and all
that is fine in patricianism--but no longer under the leadership
of Adept Princes;--the esoteric knowledge was now mainly in the
hands of the Priest-class. The Kshattriya bards made poems about
the Great War, which grew and coalesced into a national epic.
Then in the course of the centuries, as learning in its higher
branches became more and more a possession of the Brahmans,--and
since there was no feeling against adding to this epic whatever
material came handy,--Brahmin esotericists manipulated it with
great tact and finesse into a symbol of the warfare of the Soul.

There is the story of the death of the Kurava champion Bhishma.
The Pandavas had been victorious; and Duryodhana the Kurava king
appealed to Bhishma to save the situation. Bhishma loved the
Pandava princes like a father; and urged Duryodhana to end the
war by granting them their rights,--but in vain. So next day,
owing his allegiance to Duryodhana, he took the field; and

"As a lordly tusker tramples on a field of feeble reeds,
As a forest conflagration on the parched woodland feeds,
Bhishma rode upon the warriors in his mighty battle car.
God nor mortal chief could face him in the gory field of war." *

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* The quotations are from Mr. Romesh Dutt's translation.
------

Thus victorious, he cried out to the vanquished that no appeal
for mercy would be unheard; that he fought not against the
defeated, the worn-out, the wounded, or "a woman born." Hearing
this, Krishna advised Arjuna that the chance