Thursday, February 23, 2012

A study of Mahabharata with management perspective




Introduction: Mahabharata is the second longest epic in the world, it was narrated thrice by Ved Vyasa to Lord Ganesha, by Vaishampayan to king Janamejaya and by Suta sages to other sages. War of Mahabharat was fought in 3139 B.C. at Kurukshetra. It referred to some astonishing facts like the existence of planets like Uranus and Neptune, use of numbers up to 10 raised to power 16 and -16, descriptions of  devastating weaponry like chemical weapons and various military formations. Mahabharata is a massive treasure for management learning’s. The Great War lasted for 18 days and against all odds Pandavas emerged as victorious.

 A comparison of both powers head to head
·        Kauravas: 
They were in power from last 13 years. Duryodhana was considered as a benevolent king.  They had support of vast resources and Karna went on a world wide mission to conquer kingdoms and amass wealth. They were the sovereigns of the world at that time. They had valiant and supreme warriors like Bhishma (Who cannot die against his own wish), Drona (the ‘guru’ of both Kauravas and Pandavas), Karna (Eldest of Pandvas, who wore the indestructible Kavach-kundal), Krpiacharya, Ashwaththama, Kritvarma etc.
Motivation for war: Duryodhana was bent on war, it was his moment of truth, he was ready to save his kingdom by hook or by crook.
·        Pandavas: 
They were suffering exile from last 13 years. They did not had any kingdom and they were heavily dependent on friends and relatives for power and resources. Yet they also had warriors like Bhim, Arjun, Yudhishthir etc.  
Motivation for war: None of the Pandavas wanted the war; they were even ready to settle the matter for just five villages.

Turning points
  
Karna went on a world-wide campaign to gather resources, but it also created many new enemies which supported Pandavas. Pandvas even in exile gathered resources and weapons e.g. Arjuna performed severe penance to obtain Divyastras.
Kauravas had a central authority system and women were not included in the decision making system i.e. they had one commander controlling their army, while Pandavas delegated the authority to many commanders i.e. they had seven different commanders commanding each of the seven units of their army
As a team Kauravas were horrible: Bhishma had problems with Karana and Shakuni, Karna had a problem with Shakuni, Shakuni’s mission was to destroy Dhritrashtra (father of Duryodhana), Drona, Bhishma, Shalya and Karna had personal affection for Pandavas. So it was a team of culprits. Pandavas had a wonderful blend of warriors; their side was in complete awe of Arjun, Bhim and above all Lord Krishna.
  
Result:
Most of the Kaurava warriors wanted to harm Pandavas so they never attacked with their full might
While Pandavas, under the leadership of Lord Krishna studied and exploited the weakness of each and every foe and thus defeated the Kauravas.