Over Burdened Earth In India And Greece

Author(s): J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/269573/1

Page #1
THE OVER-BURDENED EARTH IN INDIA AND GREECE J. W. DE JONG AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY IN THE MAHABHARATA it is told that the Earth is oppressed by the weight of the asuras: te 'mararivinasaya sarvalokahitaya ca/ avateruh kramenemam mahim svargad divaukasah // 3 (1.59.3) Van Buitenen translates: evam viryabalotsiktair bhuriyam tair mahasuraih / pidyamana mahipala brahmanam upacakrame // 35 na himam pavano rajan na naga na naga mahim / tada dharayitum sekur akrantam danavair balat // 36 tato mahi mahipala bhararta bhayapidita / jagama saranam devam sarvabhutapitamaham // 37 (1:58.35-37 Poona edition) "And so the celestials in succession descended from heaven to earth, for the destruction of the enemies of the Gods and the well-being of all the world.") Van Buitenen renders this passage as follows: "When she was thus tyrannized by the grand Asuras, bloated with power and strength, Earth came to Brahma as a supplicant. Neither the wind, nor the elephants, nor the mountains, O king, were able to support Earth so forcefully overrun by the Danavas. Therefore, Earth, sagging under her burden and brutalized with fear, sought refuge with the God who is the grandfather of all beings." In recent years Georges Dumezil and Jacques Scheuer have drawn attention to the importance of the theme of the over-burdened Earth in the Mahabharata. Dumezil has even given the title "La Terre soulagee" to the first part of the first volume of Mythe et epopee in which he studies the Mahabharata." In his summary of the Adiparvan Dumezil writes: "..... les personnages du Mahabharata, les principaux et beaucoup de secondaires, voire d'episodiques, sont des etres surnaturels, dieux et demons, incarnes sur l'ordre de Brahma en vue de la grande guerre, celle-ci ayant pour objet providentiel de soulager la terre d'un surpeuplement qu'elle ne peut tolerer."" On p. 169 Dumezil remarks: "C'est en effet pour delivrer la Terre accablee par un surpeuplement que le Mahabharata explique a plusieurs reprises et de plusieurs faconsque Brahma avait decide la grande saignee et commande aux dieux de s'incarner pour l'accomplir." Dumezil also quotes a passage from the Markandeya Purana in which the same theme is to be found.o In his book on Siva in the Mahabharata, Jacques Scheuer repeatedly refers to the theme of the overcrowded earth.' On p. 157 he refers to it as the "central myth" of the Mahabharata: "Nous rejoignons la Brahma orders the gods to descend to earth in order to lighten the burden which oppresses the Earth: adidesa tada sarvan vibudhan bhutakrt svayam // 45 asya bhumer nirasitum bharam prthakprthak / asyam eva prasuyadhvam virodhayeti cabravit // 46 Van Buitenen translates: "....then himself, maker of the creatures, gave orders to all the Gods. 'To throw off the burden of Earth', he said, 'you must each be born with a part of yourselves on her to halt them."? The gods descend to earth for the destruction of the enemies of the gods: Op. cit., p. 138. * Myhe et epopee. I (Paris, 2e ed., 1974), pp. 31-257: La terre soulagee. Op. cit., p. 35. * Op. cit., p. 115. Siva dans le Mahabharata (Paris, 1982), p. 112, p. 203, n. 39, p. 243, p. 269. Mahabharata. 1. The Book of the Beginning (Chicago, 1973), p. 137. Op. cit., p. 138. 397

Page #2
398 Journal of the American Oriental Society 105.3 (1985) le mythe central du Mbh: au kaliyuga les asura s'incarnent en grand nombre sur la terre, menacant de la submerger et mettant en peril les interets des dieux et l'existence du dharma." In his study on the development of the avatara doctrine, Paul Hacker examines the myth told in Mahabharata 1, 58 (1, 64 in the Bombay edition) relating to the over-population of the Earth and the descent of the gods." He points out the importance of the combination of the idea of the partial incarnation (amsavatara) of the gods with the motif of the overpopulation of the earth.10 In Mahabharata III, 142, 35-61 (Bombay edition), a passage which is relegated by the Poona edition to an appendix (I, 16), it is told how Visnu becomes a boar (varaha) in order to raise the Earth which has sunk due to over-population. According to Hacker, this myth has been influenced by the myth of the over-population of the Earth and the partial incarnation of the gods." In his doctoral dissertation Maheshwari Prasad refers to an article by Jackson in which he compares Mahabharata III, 142, 35-45 with Videvdat II in which it is related how the earth became over-populated because nobody was dying in Yima's reign." The only important point on which these two versions agree is that the earth becomes over-populated. In the Mahabharata, the "central myth" relates how the gods are incarnated in order to destroy the incarnated asuras and to lighten the burden of the earth. Apart from this central myth, the Mahabharata also tells how Death (mrtyu) came into existence because the Earth suffered from an oppressing burden (bhararta)." In this story there is no direct connection with the battle between the incarnated asuras and the incarnated gods. There is also no reference to the varaha myth, but it is said that because of her burden the Earth sinks into the waters: bharenapsu nimajjati (XII.249.4). It is possible to discern in the Mahabharata at least three variants of the 13 See also p. 105, n. 47: "... le mythe du Mbh dans son ensemble, notamment dans toute la mesure ou il est un mythe de 'la terre surpeuplee"." ''Zur Entwicklung der Avataralehre, WZKSO 4 (1960), p. 51 Kleine Schriften (Wiesbaden, 1978), p. 408. 10 Op. cit., p. 54. "Op. cit., p. 55. 12 Some Aspects of the Varaha-katha in Epics and Puranas (Gottingen, 1983), pp. 128-129; A. V. Williams Jackson, 'On Mahabharata 111.142, 35-45. An echo of an old HinduPersian legend', JAOS 17 (1896), pp. 185-187. 13 VII.52-54 (Bombay edition; Poona edition Appendix I, No. 8); XII.248-250 (257-259 Bombay edition). 14 theme of the over-populated Earth. The first is the one told in 1.58, according to which the Earth is oppressed by the asuras and the gods incarnate themselves in order to destroy them. This myth is found also in the Striparvan: tatas te bhavita devi bharasya yudhi nasanam (XI.8.26): "Then, goddess, your burden will be destroyed in the battle." The second variant is the varaha myth in which Visnu becomes a boar in order to raise the Earth burdened by over-population. The third myth relates the creation of Death. In the first myth the Earth is oppressed by the asuras, but in the second and third variants it is only the weight of the peoples which afflicts her." The Iranian legend in Videvdat II suggests that the theme of the over-populated Earth probably belongs to the common fund of Indo-Iranian mythology. However, it is not possible to determine whether one of the three variants of the theme which are found in the Mahabharata, goes back to the same period, because the Avesta relates only that when the earth becomes over-populated Yama makes the earth expand three times by one-third. In India, Yama was "he who of mortals was the first to die" (yo mamara prathamo martyanam, Atharvaveda XVIII, 3, 13). The available evidence does not allow us to suppose that the connection of the theme of the over-populated earth with that of the creation of Death is common to both Iranians and Indians. It is, however, perhaps not too bold a hypothesis to assume that the central myth of the Mahabharata has been inspired by the idea of the over-populated earth and the creation of Death. The theme of the over-populated earth is also known in ancient Greece. The prologue of the Iliad (A 1-5) is rendered by Richmond Lattimore in the following words: Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus' son Achilleus and its devastation, which put pains thousandfold upon the Achaians, hurled in their multitudes to the house of Hades strong souls of heroes, but gave their bodies to be the delicate feasting of gods, of all birds, and the will of Zeus was accomplished. 16 14 Maheshwari Prasad, op. cit., p. 131. See also pp. 131-137 for other stories on the burden of the earth and the destruction of the asuras. 15 See also E. Washburn Hopkins, Epic Mythology (Strassburg, 1915), pp. 78-79 and 210: 16 Richmond Lattimore (tr.). The Iliad of Homer (Chicago, 1951), p. 59.

Page #3
DE JONG: The Over-burdened Earth in India and Greece In explanation of the words "the will of Zeus was accomplished," the scholars of Alexandria quoted the following fragment of the Cypria:" en ote muria phula kata khthona plazomen' a[ndron . . . bathusternou platos aies Zeus de idon eleese kai en pukinais prapidessi suntheto kouphisai anthropon pambotora gaian Ripissas polemou megalen erin Iliakoio ophra kenoseisn thanatou baros oi d eni Troie eroes kteinonto* Dios d' eteleieto boule. H. G. Evelyn White translated this passage as follows: "There was a time when the countless tribes of men, though wide-dispersed, oppressed the surface of the deep-bosomed earth, and Zeus saw it and had pity and in his wise heart resolved to relieve the all-nurturing earth of men by causing the great struggle of the Ilian war, that the load of death might empty the world. And so the heroes were slain in Troy, and the plan of Zeus came to pass."18 Richmond Lattimore translates Atoc Bouln as "the will of Zeus," whereas Evelyn White renders the same words as "the plan of Zeus." Lattimore's translation agrees with the opinion expressed by, for instance, C. M. Bowra, who forcefully argues against the explanation given by the scholars of Alexandria according to which the Atos Bouln in Iliad A 5 refers to the plan of Zeus outlined in the prologue of the Cypria. Bowra writes: "Such an explanation implies that both the poet and his audience knew this story well enough for it to be mentioned and dismissed in three words. This is certainly wrong. There is not the slightest trace of any such divine plan anywhere else in the Iliad or the Odyssey, and a reference so obscure would be intolerable in a poem where the main motives are superbly clear. The author of the Cypria certainly described such a plan of Zeus, but it is far more likely that he chose to misinterpret these words than that Homer thought the story so well known that the merest hint of it was enough. The words must mean something else, and coming as they do at the end of this summary they must be important. They mean simply that the will of Zeus was fulfilled, that as Wilamowitz says, events happened kata boulen Dios. 17 Cypria, fr. i. ed. Th. W. Allen, Homeri Opera, Vol. V (Oxford, 1912), p. 116. 18 Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica. Rev. ed. (London, 1936), p. 497. 399 Here, too, the poet anticipates in a general phrase much of what is to happen. He foretells those passages in which Zeus determines the course of action by giving the advantage to the one side or the other. And more than this. The poet announces that in all these events the will of Zeus was accomplished, and prepares his audience for the large part to be taken in the poem by Zeus and his subordinate gods."19 21 Bowra's opinion is shared by many scholars but others disagree. This problem has been discussed over and over again.20 In an article published in 1955, Wolfgang Kullmann has tried to prove that the Atoc Bouln in Iliad A 5 refers to a plan by Zeus to destroy many men. According to Kullmann, this plan is a pre-Homeric motif which is clearly expressed in the prologue of the Cypria. He remarks that he is not considering the questions of whether the poetic form in which this motif is expressed in the Cypria is preHomeric or not, or whether the same motif was treated in a different way in a pre-Cypria.22 Kullmann's interpretation has been rejected by Walter Burkert.23 In his book on the sources of the Ilias, which has not been very favourably received,24 Kullmann does not adduce any new arguments and refers the reader to his previous articles. Without doubt, this problem will continue to be discussed by specialists and a definitive solution will probably never be forthcoming. It is not possible to determine when the motif of the over-populated earth and the war between the Greeks and the Trojans first occurs in Greece. It must have been well-known in the fifth century B.C., because Euripides in his Helena refers to it as something which does not require a detailed explanation. Helena speaks: 19 C. M. Bowra, Tradition and Design in the Iliad (Oxford, 1930), pp. 12-13. 20 See the references given by Kullmann, 'Ein vorhomerisches Motiv im Iliasproomium', Philologus 99 (1955), p. 185, n. 1. 21 Wolfgang Kullmann, op. cit., pp. 167-192. See also 'Zur AIOE BOYAH des Iliasproomiums', Philologus 100 (1956). pp. 132-133. 22 Op. cit., p. 185. 23 Cf. Wolfgang Kullmann, Die Quellen der Ilias (Wiesbaden, 1960), p. 47. Die Quellen der Hias. Cf. D. L. Page, Classical Review 11 (1961), pp. 205-209; Frederick M. Combellack, American Journal of Philology 83 (1962), pp. 193-198; Uvo Holscher, Gnomon 38 (1966), pp. 113-127; A. Lesky, Homeros, PaulyWissowa RE, Suppl. Bd. XI (1968), pp. 823-824.

Page #4
400 Journal of the American Oriental Society 105.3 (1985) polemon gar eisenegken Ellenon khthoni kai Phruxi dustenoisin, os okhlou broton plethous te kouphiseie metera khthona yuwrov te bein tov kpatiotov 'Elnadoc (38-41) mises that Krsna will bring about a great war in which many kings and armies will be killed. 20 However, the central role played by this theme in the Mahabharata seems, as far as I know, to have escaped the notice of classical scholars. He (Zeus) brought war upon the land of the Hellenes and the unhappy Phrygians to lighten mother Earth of the mass and multitude of mortals and make Achilles known as the mightiest of Hellas. Kullmann may not have been able to prove that the prologue of the Iliad depends on the prologue of the Cypria but he is undoubtedly right in pointing out that it is not possible to assume that the author of the Cypria invented the motif of the over-populated earth as a guiding principle for bringing together the sagas derived from the Iliad. Pre-Homeric or not, this motif must have existed long before the creation of Cypria. In his article Kullmann refers to a brief note published by Reinhold Kohler in 1858.25 In it Kohler draws attention to a story in the Harivamsa in which the earth, oppressed by the weight of innumerable armies and fortresses, asks Visnu for help. Visnu pro Both the Mahabharata and the Cypria relate that the supreme God (Brahma in India and Zeus in Greece) brought war to lighten the earth of her burden (Skt. bhara, Greek Bapos). It seemed to be interesting to point out that the same theme is found in both ancient India and in ancient Greece. There is insufficient evidence to suggest that this theme belongs to a. common Indo-European heritage, but in any case it is noteworthy that this myth is found in almost the same wording in two different cultures. It is a great pleasure for me to contribute this note as a small token of friendship to Dan Ingalls whom I have had the pleasure of knowing since 1946. 25 "Zu den Kyprien', Rheinisches Museum, N.F. 13 (1858), pp. 316-317. 20 Kohler refers to the translation by M. A. Langlois, Harivansa, ou histoire de la famille de Hari, Vol. I (Paris, 1834), pp. 236ff. and p. 387, 410 and 418.