Secondary Tales of the Two Great Epics

Author(s): Rajendra I Nanavati
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/001566/1

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SECONDARY TALES OF THE TWO GREAT EPICS By L. D. SERIES 88 GENERAL EDITORS DALSUKH MALVANIA NAGIN J. SHAH RAJENDRA I. NANAVATI M. T. B. College SURAT utIya L. D. INSTITUTE OF INDOLOGY AHMEDABAD-9 O NOTTUTE OF MOLDOVA jee of Private Personen

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SECONDARY TALES OF THE TWO GREAT EPICS LD SERIES 88 GENERAL EDITORS DALSUKH MALVANIA NAGIN J. SHAH By RAJENDRA NANAVATI M.T.B. Arts College SURAT RENDS L.D. INSTITUTE OF INDOLOGY AHMEDABAD-9 MRR2

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Printed by Shri Ramanand Printing Press Kankria Road, Ahmedabad--22, and Published by Nagin J. Shah L. D. Institute of Indology Abmedabad-9 FIRST EDITION October 1982 PRICE RUPEES-504 Revisod Price Rs 100

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FOREWORD the tales from the revealing. His efforts to The L.D. Institute of Indology has great pleasure in publishing Dr. Rajendra Nanavati's thesis entitled "Secondary Tales of the Two Great Epics: A Study of their Form, Content and Function." The first chapter discusses folk literature, folk-talecollections and the meaning of the term 'secondary'. The next two chapters are devoted to the study of the tales from the two Epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. His searching analysis of each story is revealing. His efforts to trace a story to its source are fruitful. He has tried to seek the help from various allied branches of learning viz. Sapskrit Poetics, Natyasastra, Cultural Anthropology, Linguistics and History to make the study comprehensive. I am most thankful to Dr. Nanavati for agreeing to the publication of his thesis, the present work, which earned him the Ph. D. Degree of the South Gujarat University. I hop: the work will be welcomed by students of Literature and Mythology: lied branches L.D. Iastitute of Indology Ahmedabad-380009 15th October 1982. Nagin J. Shah Director

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PREFACE The two Great Epics of India - the Ramayana and the Mahabharata-have been studied from various poiots of view but never from that of their secondary tales. S.A. Dange in his 'Legends in the Mahabharata' has studied some tales from that epic either by showing their points of contact with the Brahmana legends and folk-lore or simply as folk-tales, but independently of the epic. It is a study of tales as they are found in the epic but not in the context of the epic which is provided by their functional aspect. This point of view i.e. of the secondary tales vis-a-vis their occurrence in the epics has, to the best knowledge of this writer, never been explord before. The present study is an humble attempt in that direction. The two great epics are pre-eminently the examples of works evolved in the tradition of folk-literature. The secondary tales in them are also drawn for the most part from the inexhaustible store of floating mass of folk-tales. Therefore, only a folkliterary approach would be appropriate in a study of these tales. The implications of such an approach should be clearly understood. The foremost characteristic of a folk-tale is its traditionality. There is no definite verbal structure of a folk-tale. The only structure it has is that of its content-units called motifs. This content-structure is, on the one hand its subtle and flexible form, on the other hand it determines the function of the tale in the epic-context. This has been illustrated in a number of ways and emphasised again and again in the course of this study. In 1966, this writer had submitted an essay "The Form and Role of Short-story in the Ramayanu and the Mahabharata" to the University of Bombay for the V.N. Mandlik Gold Medal. The essay was fortunate in being adjudged worthy of the Medal. This inspired him to make a closer study of the subject for the degree of Ph. D. of the South Gujarat University, Surat. The title was altered so as to include the 'content' protion of the tales, and the term 'short-story' was changed to 'secondary tales' so as to include all the tales that did not form part of the original' (?) story, It was soon realized that as a subject for a deeper study, the mass of tales from the two epics presented an unwieldy amount of material for study. Some sort of judicious restriction in the selection of material was absolutely necessary. The option of restricting the material by selecting any one of the epics seemed unwise and impractical. The tales in Ramayana alone would not be sufficient in number and variety to form a subject of investigation of this nature. On the other hand, the tales in Mahabharata would be far too many for the purpose. But, there was no point in leaving Ramayana alone. Since both the epics are si nilar in many ways and even the tales of the two epics have many points of contact between them, their comparision would have been incumbent upon any student of them. The wise course was to take them together and then select material therefrom.

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VI It was, therefore, decided to select some representative portions of the two epics. From Ramayana, Bala-Kanda and Uttara-Kanda were chosen. They are accepted by all the scholars to be later additions, because they are almost wholly and indisputably secondary. Again, Bala-Kanda and Uttara-Kanda are known to cover between themselves. almost all the secondary tales of Ramayana, the central Kandas being nearly free from them. The study of Ramayana, could thus be nearly exhaustive. In the case of Mahabharata this was not possible. Here, therefore, Adiparvan and Sabha-parvan were selected. Adiparvan is almost entirely made up of the secondary material of a very wide variety. Sabhaparvan, on the other hand, contains much genuine portion of the original epic-saga and a study of the occurrence of secondary tales in such portions would be very interesting. In the case of the Mahabharata-tales, the aim has been to be comprehensive rather than exhaustive and this purpose has been achieved by studying the tales from these Parvans in functional groups and by taking in the stride, where it was possible, tales from other Parvans also. These two Parvans of the epic have been observed to cover within their compass nearly all important patterns of forms and functions of the secondary tales of our Great epics. Originally, it was intended to study the tales only within the frames of the epic and to avoid the comparative aspect. But some exceptions had to be made. Thus the discussions of the tale of Riyasrnga, that of Ahalya, the cycle of Visvamitra-tales, and the tales of Janamejaya's snake-sacrifice will show some small excursions beyond the limits of the investigation, always with some important results. It may be mentioned here that generally the texts of the two Great Epics followed here are those of the critical editions of the Bhandarkar Oriental Reserach Institute, Poona, in the case of Mahabharata, and of the Oriental Institute, Baroda, in the case of Ramayana. All the references in the book are traced to these editions, unless stated otherwise. This writer is very thankful to his respected guide Dr. A.D. Shastri, Professor and Head of the Department of Sanskrit, M.T.B. Arts College, Surat for his kind. guidance in the preparation of this work as a thesis for Ph. D. He also thanks the authorities of the South Gujarat University, Surat, for granting permission to publish the thesis. Heartfelt thanks are also due to Prin. K.C. Mehta, Principal, M.T.B. Arts college, Surat, for his constant and personal interest in the progress of the work which was a steady source of inspiration to this writer. There are many friends of the staff of M. T. B. Arts College, Surat with whom this writer read a number of portions of the study and incorporated their suggestions - Prof. Ramesh Oza, Dr. Natvarsinh Parmar, Prof. M. V. Meghani, Prof. G.P. Sanadhya, Prof Pravinsinh Chavda. He remembers them all gratefully.

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VII He also wishes to thank Prof. G. K. Bhat, Prof. Satya Vrat Shastri and Prof. S.A. Dange, who had read the thesis and encouraged him for its publication. The writer is also grateful to the respected Dr. H.C. Bhayani, who took personal interest in directing the study to its publication and Dr. Nagin J. Shah, Director, L.D. Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad and other friends and authorities of the Institute who continuously extended their kind co-operation during the process of its publication. And then, there are the names of Lata Desai as well as of Nina and Harsha and the entire Bhavnagari family. To forget them would be an offence, but to thank them would be a greater offence. Rajendra Nanavati Surat-1. 15-3-1982

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CONTENTS I INTRODUCTORY The Epics and Folk Literature Place of epic-tales in Indian life-1; epics as Itihasa and the Purana literature, epics and Indian Folk-literature-2; Folk literary characteristics of the epics, epics and Atharvaveda-3; Itihasa-lore and oral tradition-4; 'epics of growth' originating from folkliterature-5; evolution of Indian epics-6; The Epics as Folk Literature Characteristics: traditionality-7; literary and oral traditions, the comparative aspect, tale-collections-8; tales as told, folk-tale as an art, conditions of folk-tale telling-9; oral narratives, theories about folk-tales, no single clue for all the tales-10; 1-27 The Epics and Other Folk-tale-collections Floating mass of popular folk-literature, drawn upon by Buddha-Mahavira, other tale-collections with emboxing frame-story-11; their difference, homogeneity of contents and intention, kind of audience-12; Form, Content and Function: Their Inter-relation Terms defined: Function, content motifs, motif-clusters-13; Form, folk-literature. and sophisticated or creative literature-14; Implications of 'Secondary' i. Before the beginning', artistic unity of design and purpose-15; beginnings of Nalopakhyana and RM compared with events of SabP (MBh)-16, events prior to Rajasuya not necessary, Sabha not inevitable-17; events connected with Maya Danava, SabP free from Bhrgu-element-18: third index of MBh (AdiP.55), consideration of contents-19-20; represents its first redaction, indexes of RM, BK called Adikanda-21; ii. The End of the 'Original'-22; implications of Jaya'-23; a human war-story-24; two epics, the only surviving examples of Jaya'-25; iii. Further implications of the 'original' and the 'secondary, VirP interpolation ?-25; similar patterns of opening events of Nalopakhyana, RM and MBh-26; iv. The definition of Secondary". II. THE TALES IN RAMAYANA A. BALA-KANDA Puranic style, contradictions-28; (1) The First Four Sargas Provide frame-story, framing technique and sacrifices, tragic conception grand, execution poor-29; the sargas meant as introductory, affinity with UK, Valmiki shown 28-88

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IX Rama's contemporary, two indexes-30: BK-UK later, UK still later, Kraunca-vadha, Ganesa-preface-story of MBh-31; artisticity of these sargas, contradiction: four wives necessary for Asvamedha-performer, Rama's monogamous (!) ideal-32; Pariplava-cycle of tales-33; possibilities-34; (2) The Rsyasraga Episode Sumantra's narrative-34; Rsyasrnga performs Putresti, Asvamedha itself a fertility rite, why Putresti 7-35; commentators, 'brahmicide', Sravans-episode-36; contradictions in Tilakettka's explanation-37; Putresti-Rsyairaga-episode spurious-38; Budhist versions, Unicorn-39; European versions, motifs of seduction and strong chastity-40; Rsyasrnga - phallic symbol, indigenous parallels-41; Kasyapa-Vibhandaka-Rsyasynga-genealogy, seduction-mimetic magic for rains-42: fertility rite mythified, Indra the penancebreaker, unfailing procreative energy of sages, examples-43; Kasyapa-VibhandakaRsyairnga-44; implications: Puranic genealogies doubtful, role of Indra and Sramana. attitude-45; Eros and laughter, Rayaarga Atharvanic Bhrgu-element-46; Tale of Genesis, incarnation-theory, Vaisnava influence-47; propriety of Krsna as incarnation-48; - (3) The Entourage Tales Visvamitra, fetches princes, equips them, Vasistha neglected, princes retaliate demons-48; history of weapons, place-tales, etymological stories-49; tales of Kusanabha, Gangavataran 1-50; birth of Kartikeya, ocean-churning, Maruta's birth, Ahalya -51; nature of her punishment, punishing an unchaste woman, Parasurama beheads mother-52; Cirakarin, Subrahmanya litany-53; epithets of Indra, tales in Brahmanas -54-5; Indra Mesa-vrsane, Ahalya-myth interpreted-56; Subrahmanya litany and Visvamitra tales-57; no one of Ahalya-tale historical, Visvamitra's genealogy-58; entourage tales connected with heroes, comparing tales of Jarasandha-Sisupala-59; pilgrimage tales of MBh and Canterbury Tales' compared-59-61; three-fold purpose of tales-61; (4) The Visvamitra Story Cycle Five episodes-61; their significance-62; good relations with Solar kings, Hariyappa's observations-63; relevance, proper viewpoint, cultural interpretation -64: Vasistha-Visvamitra-controversy in Rgvedic background-64-65; epic stories concretised philosophical concepts-65; Visvamitra responsible for Rama's prowess and marriage, Vasistha consistently neglected-66; work of Visvamitra-redactors ?-66-7; (5) The Parasurama Episod, Rama bending Parasurama's Vaisnava bow, incident not in MBh (Crit. Ed.) play on similarity of names, Ksatriya superiority over Brahmins-67; Parasuramateacher of the losing Kaurava leaders, Visvamitra best teacher for Rama-68; Rama -the Vaisnava incarnation, divinity not implied in Visvamitra sections-69; stagesauthors of interpolations, Parasurama incarnation because of this episode (1)-70;

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X B. UTTARA-KANDA (1) The Ravana-Katha-Cakra Brahma's boon, Vedavati's promise, Anaranya's curse-71: Nalakubara's curse-72; popular treatment of complex characters-73; curse-motif undermines human interest, various persons pronouncing curse-74; curse waste of tapas, never fails, retaliation for injustice corrolary of Karma-phala theory-75; higher characters do not curse, forbearance Buddhist influence ?, victories villain in making, his two defeats, political wisdom in Vall's removal first-76; devotee of $ nkara-77; tales afford sectarian and higher-leavel interpretations-78-9; - (2) The Other Tales Hanumat-tales, motivations and logic-80; does not corroborate Agriculture myth theory, Ravana-'ircivan' (Tamil) 81; Lav.na destroyed by Satrughna-82; the miserly king Sveta, Danda- Araja-episode, two Aivamedha Aithavada-episodes-83; Ramopakhyana in MRh, Sita's fire-ordeal-84: authorship of UK Shende's view examined-85;. non-Bhargava elem:nt, collective authorship suggested-86; Arrangment of tales compared ascendo in BK-87; no logical system in UK-88; III. THE TALES IN MAHABHARATA Unwieldy mass of tales method of functional grouping adopted-89; (1) The Sarpasatra of Janamejaya Tales illustrating obedience to preceptor, of Udalaka Aruni etymological, of Upa.nanyu humorously instructive-90; Uttanka brings earrings for gurupatni, none of these found in Vedic literature-91; all fictitious, two tale-groups introductory-92; second of Bhargava tales, all fictitious-93; Why two? Edgerton's thesis (in SabP) adapted-94-5; Janamejaya in Vedic literature-95; in MBh, in Brahmanas-96; many details similar, Sarpasatra and Nagapriest!-97; Winternitz's discussion-98-9; comments thereon-100; contradictions as to the place of sacrifice, serpents are Nagatribals-101; Taksaka- a family name ?, always thereatend with fire-102; Indra closely associated with Nagas, confusion about Naga names, Indra and Sankara-103; Tantra, are Kauravas themselves the Nagas ?-104; no epic character found in Vedic literature -105; Pariksit and Janamejaya non-historical 7, recapitulating-106: M8h embodies. som: Naga-tribal-myth- 107: other theories about MBh-107; (2) Tales of the Heroes First tales interpolated, peculiar popular sense of propriety, stories of Bhima-108; reveal his great blind strength, condition for obtaining Draupad! symbolic. Arjuna the Prince Charming-109; but not Casanova-110; incognito of Arjuna and others thoughtful, two episodes of Yudhisthira-111; their pattern, riddles, other tales with

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XI the same central motif-112; differences in their forms-113; epic-tales of heroes all fairy-tales, sons of Madri and Draupadi neglected, Arjuna's valorous aspect-114; author's detachedness, Ekalavya, Karna -115; Sainbuka-116; single episode of Duryodhana-117; whole cycle for Ravana, reason, sectarian interpretation got possible in MBh-118; (3) The Birth Stories Etymologische legende - Hara's theory examined-118-9; iconic tendency of language, such tales more of sages-120; greater variety in birth stories of heroes, Vasu Uparicara tale, two parts (1) Indra-festival-121; Indra-fertility-ling 1-Sankara, erotic-comic relation, Prin. Parikh's hypothesis-122: Holi festival, (ii) a solar myth !, Vyasa's birth, Matsya(sa)gaadba-123; her legend overdone, births of other epic characters124; tale of Genesis, design of AdiP - universal to particular-125; exhaustive list of incarnations-126; Sambhava-parvan-style nearly classical-127; genealogy of Kuru-line-128; Yayati-tale, three parts-129, entirely mythical-130; another genealogy -131; more to do with Nagas, one more genealogy in prose-132; Bhisma's birth-story, some observations-132-133; Amba-motivation for Bhisma's death, his advice for niyoga - two illustrations-134; Vya.a's niyoga upon widow queens of Vicitravirya-135; niyoga as apad-dharma-156; Manusmrti closely followed-136; "the Veda-Vyasa counterfeit !-137; Pandu asks Kunti to adopt niyoga-complex of tales-138; Vyusitasva--Bhadratale symbolic of Upasam vesana, Dr. Vora's remarks-139-40; Svetaketu-141: Draupadi's two birth-stories, tales told by Citraratha-142; angry annihilators of races, Tapati Samvarana-tale agricultural myth-143; Draupadi's birth to avenge Drona's insult, Drona fictitious! -144; polyandrous marriage customary for Pandavas, also a political necessity-145; but obsolete, inevitable detail of the epice, attempts to explain away: Kunti's remarks unawares-146; previous birth, sacrificial birth-147; Pandavas' births from 'diyine' levirate-147; the tale of five Indras, contradictions-148; anxiety to gloss over polyandrous marriage, niyoga in Ksatriyas only, Manusmrti disapproves --149: (4) The Tales of Sabhaparvan Tales few, allusions more, enumerated-150: derogatory allusions to past deeds of Bhisma, Krsna, sisupala, allusions of Vidura 151; Man-in-the-well allegory-151-2; bird laying golden egg, the goat and the knife-153; Bhulinga bird, old hypocrite Swan-154; briths of Jarasandha-Sisupala-155; sectarian bias Mr. Ghosa on Jarasandha -156; tale of King Nila, its cultural significance-156: Virocana-Sudhanvan-argument -157; rules of assembly from Manusmsti, fictitious tale to frame a didactic discourse -158; three large groups of tales, birth-stories (AdiP), bardic legends (VanP), didactice parables (Sao P- A P)-159; further sub-patteros, VaoP-tales broadly grouped, temporal hiatuses-160; in inverse proportion!, allusions accelerate but full stories bamper the narrative flow--161:

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XII IV CONCLUSIONS (1) General recapitulation of various patterns and deductions-162-6; (2) Within epics tales grouped fuactioaaily, sub-parvans made up of functionally grouped homogenous tales, useful in sifting the secondary-167; other indicators of secondary material, no dogmas helpful-168; (3) Comparing the epics, similar functional patterns, differences-168; allusions and complete narratives, observations on styles 169-70; (4) Suggestions for further studies-170-171. Www.jainelibrary.org

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY The Epics and Folk Literature The important place legends hold in national life has been shown excellently by Dr. H. L. Hariyappa. Says he "Now and then.... the hunger of the soul asserted itself, the monotony of existence, the transitoriness of life, birth and death, above all, the futility of appeal to an invisible God - these ideas began to sway over the mind of community.... For the average man with his preoccupations and his class formed the teeming millions a set of prepared ideas about the Supreme Power is necessary .... The average man, again, would feel gratified to find some concrete story on which his faith can lay anchor.... The medium of legend to communicate religious. and even philosophical ideas has been found fruitful through ages. Nothing can exert greater credence on human mind than when it is described as having happened.... "At such a time, the service rendered by the Epics and the Puranas for enliven ing the souls of the people can hardly be exaggerated. Here did Lomaharsana carn the gratitude of all by presenting the ancient legends to the people in a that pleased their mind." - In view of this, the important place the two great epics occupy in the cultural history of India hardly needs to be stressed. "If a nation is to be united it is by the tradition it inherits and cherishes. And India's unshakeable belief in and regard for tradition has been writ large in the Great epics and in the puranas and hast been upheld by the sky-scraping towers of temple."2 How completely the various. tales of the two great epics have pervaded all the walks of our national life has been shown by Dr. R. N. Dandekar in these words about MBh which can be applied, mutatis mutandis, even to the other epic. "Men and women in India, from one end of the country to the other, young and old, rich and poor, high and low, simple and sophisticated, still derive entertainment, inspiration and guidance from the Mahabharata. The first tales which an Indian grandmother tells every evening are taken from the MBh. The moral lessons which are taught to boys and girls in Indian. schools are more often than not illustrated by stories from the great epic. The heroes of the MBh are still held by the youth of this country as their ideals. In times of stress and trial, the MBh has brought a message of hope as much to an illiterate villager as to an experienced statesman. Indian writers, ancient and modern, ST 1 1 Rgvedic Legends Through the Ages, H. L. Hariyappa, Poona, 1953. pp. 134-135. 2 ibid

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics have found in the stories of the great epic excellent vehicles for the expression of their creative genius. The popular folk-songs, the ballads sung by itinerant bards, the well-known literary works in several Indian languages, even talking pictures of the modern cinema, often draw their inspiration and material from the MBh. There is, indeed, no department of Indian life, private or public, which is not deeply influenced by the great epic." This shows that the two great epics are closely connected with the popular traditional culture of India. In fact, the epics are often termed as itihasa, and are bracketted together with the Puranas to form a class of literature. These works are often claimed to be the fifth Veda -- the Loka-Veda. The five characteristics - the panca laksanas- of the Puranas can be shown to be present to an extent even in the epics, at least in the MBh. But there is an important difference between them. The functions the tales are supposed to perform in these two sub-types are quite different. The tales - mythological or so-called historical - form one of the five essential characteristics of Puranas, but they are not at all supposed to be essential to the two great epics. Each of the epics primarily professes to narrate only one single connected tale. In spite of this basic differeace in the attitude to the inclusion of various tales, the fact remains that so many tales other than the principal ones are included in these two epics that their unnatural presence in the body of the epics, particularly in that of the MBh, becomes glaring. While Ramayana, comparatively speaking, contains a limited number of such extraneous tales and even these are mostly lumped together either at the beginning in BK) or towards the end (in UK), leaving the main body of the narrative almost uninterrupted, such tales in the MBh are almost innumerable, are spread throughout the epic, almost continuously disturb the flow of the principal narrative, and show, by contrast with Ramayana, how much they contribute to the deformation of its epic form. A study of such secondary tales, therefore, should prove interesting as well as instructive. There is ample justification for studying the numerous tales of the two great epics. Mankind's interest in a tale is as old as the mankind itself. It is a natural corollary to its social instinct. Due to this social instinct and its resultant interest in story-telling, all nations and races possess a traditional lore of tales which is popularly handed down from antiquity to posterity, and to which lore we apply terms like 'mythology' or 'legend' or 'folk-lore' with a more-or-less similar connotation. "In Bharatavarsha (India), such a tradition has endured in the shape of itihasa and purana, which once upon a time lived in the mouths of pauranikas (storytellers) and which in later times, found embodiment in the two great epics and the 3 Under the entry "Epics-Indian Literature" in Encyclopaedia of Literature - Ed. Joseph T. Shipley. 4 Matsyapurana : 53.64 Sargas ca pratisargas ca vamso manvantarani ca/ Vamsanucaritam caliva puranam pancalaksanam //

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Introductory eighteen Puranas."'5 In fact, the epics have resulted from our traditional folk-literature, have been preserved traditionally as popular property, have come to contain and preserve a lot of popular material in the form of tales of various types and have, as we have seen, continuously influenced the folk-life and folk-culture. They have continuously and heavily drawn upon the traditional mass of tales. As Winternitz puts it : "It is certain.... that as early as the time of Buddha there was in existence an inexhaustible store of prose and verse narratives - Akhyanas, Itihasas, Puranas and Gathas forming as it were literary public property which was drawn upon by the Buddhists and the Jains, as well as by the epic poets." The folk-literary characteristic of the two great epics can be established by other means also. It is said in Chandogya Upanisad? that the magic songs of the Atharvaveda stand in the same relationship to the Itihasapurana as the hymns to the Rgveda, the prose prayer formulae to the Yajurveda, and the melodies to the Samaveda. Now Atharvaveda is traditionally called the Veda of the Bhtgus and the Angirasas, and as Dr. Sukthankar has shown in the case of the MBh, "in the formative period of the epic a powerful Bhargava influence - direct or indirect - has been at work...." The Bhtgus, therefore, are the common link connecting this class of literature with the Atharvaveda. Again, it is generally accepted that the Rgveda reflects more of an aristocraticpriestly interest in its compilation, whereas the Atharvaveda is more popular in character. In contrast to the generally exalted tone of the Rgvedic prayers, the magic incantations of the Atharvaveda reflect the beliefs, customs, traditions of a more popular common mass. As Macdonell puts it : "In its main contents the Atharyaveda is more superstitious than the Rgveda. For it does not represent the more advanced religious beliefs of the priestly class, but is a collection of the most popular spells current among the masses, who always preserve more primitive notions with regard to demoniac powers."9 In that sense Atharvaveda can be said to be nearer to the common folk than the Rgveda. In connecting Itihasapuranas with the Atharvaveda, therefore, the tradition, perhaps, tried to emphasise its folk-literary character. It is rather difficult to decide the type of this connection. The relation of the Puranas with the Vedas is rather wellknown. The knowledge of the Itibasapuranas is considered essential for a proper understanding of the Vedas.lo The Puranas are not in 5 Rgvedic Legends Through the Ages, H.L. Hariyappa, Poona, 1953. p. xx, 6 History of Indian Literature, M. Winternitz, Tr. Mrs. S. Ketkar, Calcutta, Vol. I, p. 314. 7 III. 3.4. 8 vide: The Bhrgus and the Bharata', Sukthankar Memorial Edition, Vol. I, Ed. P. K. Gode, p.333. 9 A History of Sanskrit Literature : 1962, p. 156. 10 vide AdiP. i. 204. itihasapurapabhyam vedam samupabrmhayet / bibhety alpasrutat vedo mam ayam praharisyati //

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics any way less important than the Vedas, simply because they are complementary." In commentaries on the Vedas, the contextual episode for any mantra is often introduced with the words: "Here they narrate an Itihasa".12 This means that the Itihasa-lore originally consisted of narratives of such episodes as providing the context for composition of the Vedic mantras. Naturally, this episodic material was handed down in the oral tradition. The care that was bestowed upon the Vedic mantras to preserve them without altering even a word or even an accent, was not considered necessary for this literature since it was not useful sacerdotally. And the looseness of words in the oral tradition in the case of this literature often resulted in the change of intent also. Thus, the Itihasa-Purana literature has been preserved in tradition, chiefly oral. And the most important characteristic of folk-literature is its traditionality. As Stith Thompson shows: "The quality that determines whether a particular story is a folktale or not would seem to be the fact that it is handed down traditionally, whether by word of mouth or on the written or printed page." Look at the word 'Itihasa' itself. It means 'iti ha asa' 'thus, indeed, it was'. Mark the force of the expletive 'ha'. The very beginning of any tale with these words is enough to indicate that the tale has been handed down in oral tradition, Again it also seems to emphasise that the incident narrated is an actual historical happening. Automatically, the story woven. in the narrative, or any claim described in it (such as 'such and such feat was achieved by this mantra') appears convincingly authoritative. As Dr. Hariyappa puts it, "Thus, indeed, it was" (iti ha asa) combines with narration, a stamp of authority. And when, now and then, an appeal is made to former authorities by means of statements like atrapyudaharantimam itihasam puratanam, etc., the belief is firmly rooted.'14 Thus the overtones of the meaning of the word 'itihasa' reveal the claim that incident narrated in it is historical, therefore convincing and brought down in oral tradition. Of course, we cannot believe the claim to be always true. The so-called itibasas may even be purely fictitious. Or the oral tradition might change the description of some original historical event to such an extent that it would be impossible to obtain even a semblance of the original from the oral narrative. We must keep this in mind when we call the two great epics the itihasas. The application of the same term itihasa' for the isolated contextual episodes as well as for the full-fledged epics indicates that there is some sort of relation between them. In fact, the single episodes seem to have been called 'itihasa' through all the stages of their development, thus even the ballad-cycles and the epics also being called itihasas. Even the epic-character of these two great epics, MBh and RM, indicates their origin in folk-literature. The terms denoting the store of ancient traditional tales are 11 paranat purinam/ na hi trapuna suvarna-puranam kriyate/ 12 atr 'etihasam acaksate/ 13 Dictionary of World Literary Terms, Ed. J. T. Shipley, 1970, p. 124. 14 Rgvedic Legends Through the Ages, H.L. Hariyappa, Poona, 1959 135.

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Introductory barratis ng. All and kue Itihasa, Akhyana, Purana, Gatha. Each describes one characteristic and all put together give us almost a definition of that type of literature. 'Itibasa' indicates its histocical aspect. 'Akhyana' denotes its narrative character. Purana' claims its ancieatness. "Gatha' points to its characteristic of being sung. All put together, these tales must originally have been in the form of narratives of ancient historical events to be sung. The sutas and pauranikas and kusilavas were our traditional bards, our custodians of this ancient lore, who used to sing the ballads of the heroic deeds of our ancient - historical or legendary --- heroes in the royal courts as well as in the public. These ballads were originally single ballads but in a natural process of development they eventually grew into epics -- 'epics of growth' as such epics are called. This process of evolution has been described thus by W. H. Hudson : This sort of an epic "is not in its entirety the work of a single author, but to some extent the result of a process of evolution and consolidation, and that a large amount of pre-existing material, in the shape of floating legends and earlier folk-poems and sagas, is gathered up in its composition. An epic of this kind may, therefore, be regarded as the final product of a long series of accretions and syntheses; scattered ballads gradually clustering together about a common character into ballad-cycles (like the English Robin Hood cycle), and these at length being reduced to approximate unity by the intervention of conscious art":15 This is very clearly exemplified in the case of the Finnish national epic Kale-vala' which "owes its epic form to the labours of a modern scholar, Dr. Lonnrot, who, like Scott in his 'Border Raids', collected from the peasantry an immense number of ancient ballads and sagas, and then wove these together with great skill, into a consecutive narrative, without, as he asserted, adding a line of his own. His work, therefore, provides an interesting object-lesson, for it shows the way in which, in early times, an epic may have been made out of masses of scattered legendary material.'16 The Anglo-Saxon epic "Beowulf" or the old Germanic epic "Nibelungenlied" also are examples of this type of epics. In our literature, the tales collected around the character of Visvamitra in RM1? come quite near to this form. The famous "Suparnakhyana" outside the epic, or the tales clustered around Garuda in MBh18 are further instances of such story-cycles which may as well be called epics in an embryonic stage. "To the same general class we may also assign the Iliad and the Odysseyo'l' or our RM and the original form of MBh (whether it be a 'Bharatakhyana' or a Jaya-kavya '2'), "though we must do this with some diffidence, since... whatever may have been their genesis and early history, the controlling power of a single supreme genius is clearly evident in the poems as they stand."19 RM, as it stands today, clearly reveals the controlling power of a single supreme genius - 15 An Introduction to the Study of Literature, p. 138. 16 ibid, p. 139. 17 BK, Chs, 50-64. 18 AdiP. Chs. 16-30. 19 An Introduction to the Study of Literature : Hudson; p. 139. 20 About this Jaya-kavya' we shall have to say more later on.

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Seconary Tales of the two:Great Epics Valmiki. And many portions of MBh which undoubtedly must have belonged to the original composition also reveal the hand of a literary genius. But it is obvious from this, that the epics of growth reveal the controlling power of the genius only in their final form. All the stages of their development prior to this final one belong to the folk-tradition only. This means that the development of our two great epics through all the stages but the last one has belonged to the folk-tradition. It is only in the final stage that the genius of Valmiki and Vyasa(?) shape them into epics. 6 At this stage, we must correct, or rather modify, the observation of Western critics that the tales resulting into an epic through the intervention of a genius-poet cluster around a character. So far as RM is concerned, this is well corroborated since the tales in RM must have clustered together about its hero Rama. But in the case of MBh, there is no such single, central figure, around which the tales. can be shown gathering. Instead, we must point out that the ballads must have gathered here around the central episode of the fratricidal war. Therefore, the common element around which the folk-ballads cluster may either be a central character or a central event. We can show this aspect of the process of evolution of the epics in this way. When the popular ballads cluster around one character or one central event, and are welded together by some genius into the shape of an epic, their epic form comes to stay and is not generally observed to admit any further popular material. But the case of our two indigenous epics seems to be different. Even after they were shaped into epics by Valmiki and Vyasa Parasarya(?), further popular material kept coming in. In the case of RM, such fresh matter was added either in the beginning or in the end, thus keeping the original epic in the centre and almost intact. In the case of MBh, even this scruple was not cared about. Fresh matter kept on being added in the beginning, in the middle, in the end, in fact in every place where some pretext or the other could be found. Sometimes, when no such occasion to include a fresh tale was found, it was even introduced into the main story. Thus our epics, besides, being epics, became collection of tales. How this happened is shown very well by Romesh Chunder Dutt. Says he "The epic became so popular that it went on growing with the growth of centuries. Every generation of poets had something to add; every distant nation in Northern India was anxious to interpolate some account of its deeds in the old record of the international war; every preacher of a new creed desired to have in the old Epic some sanction for the new truths he inculcated... All the floating mass of tales, traditions, legends and myths... found a shelter under the expanding wings of this wonderful Epic; and as Krishna worship became the prevailing religion of India after the decay of Buddhism, the old Epic caught the complexion of the times... it is thus that the work went on growing for a thousand years after it was first compiled and put together in the form of an Epic; until the crystal rill of the epic itself was all but lost in an unending morass of religious and didactic episodes, legends,

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Introductory tales and traditions".21 Thus, the MBh in its early stages of evolution belonged to the folk-literary tradition, out of which some literary genius shaped an epic and tried to give it a final form, but the folk-literary tradition kept influencing the epic to such an extent that slowly the work lost its epic form, and became a large collection of popular tales. In other words, in all the stages before and after the one in which it was given an epic form, the MBh has belonged to the folk-tradition. In its present shape, "the Mahabharata is not one poetic production at all, but rather a whole literature".22 While MBh has almost irretrievably lost its epic form in this process, RM is fortunate in retaining its original epic form almost intact in spite of accepting the extraneous popular material, which for the most part is placed outside the kernel of the epic. It, therefore, clearly reveals the genius of Valmiki side by side with the popular influence. We can as well point out the difference in the result. Since MBh went on assimilating incidents, thoughts, ideals of the different peoples of India through centuries, it came to reflect the whole of the progressive Indian culture in all its diversity and intensity. RM, on the other hand, remained a story of noble characters inspiring the Indian people to emulate their high ideals. MBh took on a dynamic form, while RM always remained the same idealistic poem. Both achieved equal popularity but in their own different ways. The Epics as Folk-Literature At this point, it will be rewarding to examine how far do the epics as they are today reveal the characteristics of folk-literature. We shall quote below the characteristics of *Folk-tale''3 as described by Stith Thompson who is "one of the greatest authorities on the subject"24 and try to see how far they are reflected in our epics. We have already seen above, on the authority of Stith Thompson himself, that the most important quality of a folk-tale is its traditionality and that the term 'Itihasa', which is used for such tales as well as the epics, itself suggests authoritative, historical, ancient oral tradition. Thompson adds : "they have established themselves as a part of a traditional store of tales of some group of people, whether literate or illiterate."95 We have seen, in the words of Dr. Dandekar, what place these epic-tales have occupied in the cultural life of India. 21 Quoted in On the Meaning of the Mahabharata; V. S. Sukthankar, pp. 2-3. 22 History of Indian Literature, Vol. I, M. Winternitz, Tr. Mrs. S. Ketkar, Calcutta, p. 316. 23 Under the entry "Folk-tale' in Dictionary of World Literary Terms, Edited by Joseph T. Shipley, 1970. p. 124 ff. 24 Cassell's Encyclopaedia of Literature, part I. p. 224. 25 Dictionary of World Literary Terms, Edited by Joseph T. Shipley, 1970, p. 124,

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics Again, "the study of the folk-tale is concerned with both the literary and oral : tradition. No sharp line of demarcation can be drawn between the two, for the material flows freely from one channel into the other."26 Not only that the epics have their origin in the traditional bardic lays which were recited, or sung, before the people, but the oral tradition also continuously influenced the epics even after they were put in the written form as is evidenced by the numberless archaic and ungrammatical forms and the wavy lines almost continuously appearing in the constituted critical text, the variants noted in the critical apparatus, and the passages relegated to the appendices of the epics in their critical editions. Naturally, this also applies equally well to the secondary tales of the epics. "For the student of comparative literature the folk-tale is of extraordinary interest. He is able to examine the same narrative process, the same aesthetic interests, of. ten the same motifs, and plots, among peoples of every type of cultural development. While he will undoubtedly be amazed at the universality of story-telling and even of some of its detailed manifestations, he will also be able to recognize and perhaps explain significant differences as he moves from the primitive to the civilized' or from the illiterate to the literate."27 As we have pointed out above, we shall try to eschew the comparative aspect of these tales for the same fear of the unwieldiness of matter. But we shall have occasions to examine similar narrative processes which fall into certain wall-recognized types of folk-tales. We shall also observe the same motifs and plots, with some significant differences, let us point out in anticipation, as, for example in the story of Cirakarin. The movement from the primitive to the 'civilized' also, we shall have occasions to observe in certain tales invented to explain certain obsolete customs. "For most of the narrative materials of antiquity and the older civilizations of the orient, the folk-tales have been handed down in literary documents. These sometimes form a part of recognized tale-collections, which often have elaborate frameworks and an extremely complicated literary history."28 The literary documents, in our case, are the two epics themselves. The RM, of course, bas retained its epic form except in the first and the last books which, together with "this Golden Treasury of the Myths and Legends of India", 29 deserve to be treated as tale-collections. The extremely complicated histories of certain individual tales are well-nigh brought out by studies like "Rgvedic Legends through the Ages" by H. L. Hariyappa 30 or "Legends in the Mahabharata" by S. A. Dange.81 The complications of the frameworks also have a history of their own which are decoded but only partly. 26 ibid. 27 ibid. 28 ibid. p. 125. 29 Sukthankar Memorial Edition, I p. 407. 30 vide Bibliography. 31 vide Bibliography.

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Introductory ".... a more and more conscientious attempt was made to record tales exactly as they are current orally among the people, especially in countries (Ireland) where conditions of tale-telling are favourable.''32 Penzer says: "India is indeed the home of story-telling. It was from here that the Persians learned tho art, and passed it on to the Arabians. From the Middle East the tales found their way to Constantinople and Venice, and finally in the pages of Boccaccio, Chaucer and La Fontaine .... In warm latitudes the temperature has naturally produced a general laxity in the habits of the people, and in Eastern countries the often exaggerated code of hospitality, coupled with the exclusion of women and consequential gatherings of men in the cool of the evenings, has given great impetus to story-telling. So much so, indeed, that it has produced the Rawi, or professional story-teller, an important member of the community unknown in cooler latitudes, where the story-telling is al nost confined to the family circle,"33 The dialogue-form of the MBh, the innumerable ungrammatical or archaic forms, various idiomatic expressions and metre-filling devices so facilitated by the peculiarity of Sanskrit language which abounds in synonyms - all this goes to prove that the epics, and their secondary tales alongwith them, have been recorded for us as they were once current orally. "Students of folk-tale are primarily concerned with problems of two kinds : (1) the origin and dissemination of tales and (2) the folktale as an art."34 (The first kind of problem naturally leads to the comparative aspect of the tales which, generally, we are not going to touch.) "The latter problem.... concerns the conditions of folk-tale telling (the kinds of people that tell tales, the circumstances of the telling, the reception by the audience, the way they are handed down), as well as the stylistic effects characteristic of this oral art,"35 Later on, we shall have occasions to consider these conditions in some details in the context of our epics. Here we may point out only briefly, that the tellers of these tales were mostly either Bardic singers, or the Brahmin custodians of the Puranas - the Pauranikas-; the circumstances were sacrificial; the audience was characterised by religiosity; and the whole literature was, for the most part, handed down in oral tradition which is exemplified in the manner in which the larger epic is narrated first by Sanjaya, then by Vaisampayana and finally by Sauti Ugrasravas. "Oral narrative art of this kind abounds in repetitions, formulas, and other wellknown conventions. Often long passages recur .... most often ..... in threes and 32 Dictionary of World Literary Terms, Ed. J.T. Shifley, 1970, p. 125. 33 The Ocean of Story, Vol. I, Tr. Tawney, Ed. Penzer. Introduction, pp. xxxiv-xxxy & xxxvi. 34 Dictionary of World Literary Terins, Ed. J.T. Shipley, 1970, p. 125. 35 ibid. ST. 2

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10 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics lead to a climax with the success of the youngest son or daughter. In some tales are "runs", conventional passages, largely nonsense which ornament the tale at appropriate places .... cumulative series further interest teller and hearer .... these devices .. come to be thought indispensable part of folk-tale structure" 86 Even a casual reader of the epics, particularly MBh, cannot fail to notice the various refrains, conventional lists of sages and kings as well as conventional passages of descriptions of palaces, sacrificial wealth, forests, fights and combats, constant use of certain conventional similes, and cumulative series in the form of story-cycles in them. The Grimm brothers saw that "the same folktale types are scattered over most of Europe and Asia and often far beyond .... they thought of the tales as an inheritance from the Indo-European past and were convinced that, in their present form, they were broken down representatives of ancient myth. A later school, founded by Theodor Benfey in 1859, saw the original home of all these tales in India. Later, anthropologists tried to discredit these theories by showing the universality of most of the ideas and by insisting upon the independent origin, at least of the details of the stories. Attempts at a single explanation of folk-tale origins still engage certain scholars, who find all tales coming from dreams, or from rituals, or else think of them as telling the adventures of the moon or the stars. Later folk-tale scholarship ... has recognised that every tale has its own history ...."37 This means, no single clue for all the tales in any respect can be found, and one or more of the above explanations, which, one after another, claimed to be the origins of all the tales, will possibly hold good in case of various tales. We can roughly point out that some of the myths might claim to have an Indo-European origin, while most of the fables very likely have their original home in India and have travelled from here westward. As Winternity has said it : "Not only have single Indian tales been spread to other peoples by travellers, merchants, and itinerant monks, but even whole Indian books of stories and fables have become the common property of many peoples". 38 In case of the similarity of certain motifs it is difficult to say with any definiteness whether they have independent origins in similar customs, or in some rituals of the local tribes. Various tales, therefore, would have to be considered on their own merits, independently of each other and we should not much expect to arrive at many universal conclusions. The foregoing quotations about the nature and characteristics of folk-tale and their exemplification shown in the two epics will, we hope, be considered enough to show that there is ample justification in considering these two epics as collections of folk-tales. 36 37 38 ibid, pp. 125-6. ibid, p. 126. Some Problems of Indian Literature, M. Winternitz, Calcutta University, 1925, pp. 68-69.

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Introductory The Epics and Other Folk-Tale-Collections As store-houses of popular tales, the epics take their material from the popular floating mass of the folk-literature and as such are comparable to other such collections which also draw their material from the same source. Jataka collection of tales also, for example, draws its material from the same source. But no attempt is made there to connect these tales in any way. On the contrary, the distinctness of every one of the stories is maintained by providing a different occasion for each one of them, the only flimsy link of connection being that all the stories are supposed to be the incidents of the former births of Lord Buddha himself. Many folk-tales of various types are set into a single grand design wherein they ar shown to help the Master in gradually evolving his personality to perfection by slowly achieving the six paramitas one after another through innumerable births. But the monotonous uniformity of the framing incidents makes the narrations rather dull. Even the Jain collections of tales (such as the Behat-katha-kosa of Harisena89) mostly give us unconnected tales, there being some such nominal link like that all of them are illustrative of the maxims preached by Lord Mahavira or something like that. More clearly comparable with the epics, formwise, are the indigenous collections like the Katha-sarit-sagara (KSS) or Simhasana-dvatrimsika (SD) or even Pancatantra (PT) or Hitopadesa or occidental collections like the Arbian Nights (AN) or Boccaccio's Decameron or Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. All these collections which also draw upon the floating mass of popular tales for their material, have a welldeveloped frame-story to embox the stray tales. The difference, obviously, is that in all these collections the frame-stories are meant to function as frame-stories, and are designed as such right from the beginning. To put it differently, these framestories mostly consist of single episodes in which there is an occasion deliberately created to include the secondary tales. On the other hand the connected epic-tale has many episodes and, therefore, many more occasions to insert the secondary tales. But it should be noted that such occasions in the epics are, at the most, only potential, and not deliberate. The story is not narrated originally with a view to include secondary tales, rather it is intended to be an interesting narrative complete in itself. And when the potential occasions are taken advantage of to insert secondary tales, the formal unity of the original epic narrative is bound to be adversely affected. Whereas the folk-tale-collections are not in any such danger of the deformation of their formal unity, since narration of independent tales is their principal motive, and the frame-story which is the main story is narrated primarily to provide an occasion for their narration. The epics, as we saw above, profess to narrate only one single connected narrative and therefore, when fresh stories are sought to be included in them, the epic-stories become only pegs upon which to hang the intruding stories 39 The work is edited by Dr. A. N. Upadhye, and published (1943) by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay.

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12 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics which, more often than not, hang rather too heavily, and at least in the case of the MBh come quite close to reminding us of the parable of the Arab and the Camel. The lack of a definite and uniform design in the inclusion of the secondary material in the epics is too obvious to need any elaboration. Similarly the reason also is obvious. While in the other collections, a single author is chalking out the pattern of the collection, the hands working upon the pattern, or rather patterns, of each of the epics are numerous. Where the epics are concerned, therefore, the uniformity of pattern is out of question. Even of the two epics, this is more obvious in the case of MBh where the framing principal narrative itself is again .framed by the story of Janamejaya's snake-sacrifice, and this story of snake-sacrifice is provided in its turn a frame of the episode of Saunaka's twelve-year-sacrifice. We may remark here in passing that the author of the UK also has tried to provide a similar frame by utilising the event of Rama's Asvamedha sacrifice to frame the entire Rama-story by a sort of flashback technique. But the author's hand is shaky. His suminary treatment of the episode in just one Adhyaya (BK, 4) has failed in creating the desired effect. There is another important distinction of the epics from the other collections mentioned above. The formal and material nature of the tales included in the other collections is more or less homogeneous. Pancatantra and Hitopadesa collect mainly fables. KSS and SDv collect tales which are more or less romantic, rather like fairytales. AN comes close to this class. Boccaccio and Chaucer are convincingly realistic in their style and the satiric undertones of their tales are normally clear enough. The tales contained in the epics, on the other hand, are extremely heterogeneous in their form, content, function and style, and no uniform characteristic from any point of view can be found in the entire bulk of these secondary tales. This is true even of the intentions of the authors in collecting the tales or of the functions these tales are expected to perform. The tales of the PancatantraHitopadesa edify, those of KSS merely entertain, those of SDv and AN mainly entertain and those of Boccaccio and Chaucer satirize. It cannot be said that such a uniformity of purpose exists behind all the secondary tales of the epics. At least, in the immediate purposes of the tales collected in the epics, no such uniformity can be found. Even when we concede that all the tales do at least entertain, we are not sure that even this function will hold good in the case of all the tales of the epics without exception. There is some uniqueness even of the audience to which these tales are narrated. The fable-collections are for children - either in age or in intellect. The collections like KSS, SDV, AN are meant for an audience grown-up in age but with a lower level of taste. The audience of the epics would be heterogenous with regard to its age and intellect, but it is always supposed to be characterised by and to be inspired

Page #26
Introductory with and deepened in the feelings of devotion and religiosity. And this is perhaps. the only uniformity that can rightly be pointed out as universal among all the secondary tales of the two great epics. Form, Content and Function: Their Inter-relation After establishing the characteristic of the two epics as collections of folk-tales and seeing their distinctions from other collections, we should now try to clarify the connotations of the terms in the second part of the title: "A Study of their Form, Content and Function." 13 The term 'Function' hardly needs an explanation. The purpose with which tale is told or with which a secondary tale is brought into the principal story is its function. It is the role a tale plays either in the epic or independently. or The term 'Content' also is comparatively clear. The ingredients from which a tale is made are its 'content'. The characters of a tale, or their actions, the results of their actions are the ingredients that go to make up a tale. Technically, we call them the 'motifs' of a tale. "The motif is the smallest recognizable element that goes to make up a complete story". It is "a word or pattern of thought that recurs in a similar situation, or to evoke a similar mood, within a work, or in various works of a genre." With the help of this motif-analysis, it has been possible to recognise 'motifs' and 'types' as the complementary concepts in the study of folk-tales. The importance of motifs "for comparative study is to show. what material of a particular type is common to other types. The importance of the type is to show the way in which narrative motifs form into conventional clusters."42 Thus the arrangement of certain motifs in a certain way or the recurrence of certain motif-clusters in numerous tales would give us one type of tales. But this 'type' is different from the 'form' of a folk-tale. By 'form' we understand one of the forms of folk-tale like myth, legend, fairy-tale, fable etc. The two terms 'type' and 'form' can be shown to be overlapping to extent because the basis of both the analyses of tales into types and into forms is the consideration of the content of a tale, but without complicating the mitter we can simply point out that the recurrence of certain motif-patterns gives us the type of a tale while its form is decided by the nature of its content as well as the mode of treatment of the content. The term 'Form' is defined as "the character of an object as experienced or the structure into which the elements of an experience or a thing are organised."" 40 Dictionary of World Literary Terms, Ed. J. T. Shipley, 1970, p. 126. 41 ibid. p. 204. 42 Dictionary of World Literary Terms, Ed. J. T. Shipley, 1970, p. 126. 43 ibid. p. 127.

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Seconary Tales of the two Great Epics As Aristotle analyses, "the form is one of the four causes which account in full for the mode of being of anything. Two of the causes (the efficient c. or the producer; the final c., the purpose or end) are extrinsic to the thing. The other two, the formal and the material, are intrinsic; the matter is that of which a thing is made, the form is that which makes it what it is....therefore form is not simply shape but that which shapes, not structure or character simply but the principle of structure, which gives character. So, for an Aristotelian, form in a work of art is not structure in a narrow sense) alone, but all that determines specific character; meaning or expressiveness, as well as structure, is a formal element. (But meaning, besides possessing structure and conferring it, since it involves relation is a kind of structure.) Actually, the Aristotelian will find in a work of art not one form but many, a complexity of formal elements or formalities (structure and meanings), the totality of which is a form (the structure, the meaning, the character) of the work as a whole."'44 It is not difficult to see that the terms 'Form', 'Content' and 'Function' in our title are identifiable respectively with the terms 'mode', 'matter' and 'purpose' in this analysis. Their inter-relation is also sufficiently brought out from this only. Content is the matter of a tale of which the tale is made. Its form is the mode of presenting that material -- "that which makes it what it is." The form informs the content. The content is informed into the form of a tale. The purpose that the producer wanted to achieve by the narration of the tale would have affected the choice of its content or the form of its presentation (including alteration, addition, subtraction etc.) or both. The natural order of the terms, therefore, would be : purpose, matter and mode of its presentation; or Function, Content and Form. The order adopted by us in the title indicates an approach of the investigator who first observes the form which is the outer element, then examines the content which is the inner aspect, and then investigates the functions these two were intended to serve and have succeeded in achieving. It will be instructive to draw one more distinction here between the folk-literature and the sophisticated literature. From the above-quoted analysis of form by Aristotle, it is obvious that the formal consideration of any work of art would involve everything; the producer, the matter, the medium of expression, the mode of expression, and the purpose. If a tale is meant to be communicated its formal consideration will include the communicator (i.e. the narrator), the thing to be communicated (i.e, the words, their meanings, patterns of words and those of meanings, the total pattern) as well as the impact on the receiver (i.e. the hearer, the end). Since the producer and the end are extrinsic, and therefore only to be guessed about from the object itself, the formal consideration of a work of art would mean an investigation of the degree of integrity achieved between the words and sense, the outer form and the inner form, the harmony achieved between the material and the expressive elements. As critics 44 ibid. pp. 127-128.

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Introductory 15 have shown, perfect poetic form is achieved only when the outer form and the inner form, the verbal aspect and the semantic aspect are completely co-extensive and perfectly integrated. This implies that in a work of sophisticated art, form and content will be identical because the mode in which the matter is informed will be its form. The two can be discussed separately only in an abstractive way, but not as separate, 46 since the degree of achieving harmony of the two is actually the criterion of the success of a work of art as a work of art. On the other hand, folk-literature is mainly an oral tradition, and therefore there will not be any fixed verbal structure for a tale. It is bound to change from narrator to narrator, from time to time. The semantic structure, i.e. the motif-structure or the content part will be comparatively steadier and can be subjected to objective investigation. It is possible, nay, it is sensible, therefore, to discuss the form and content of a folk-tale separately and as separate, since no such criterion of the integrity of form and content is either intended or expected. The content thus is more important than the form in a folk-tale, rather the kind of content decides the form of a folk-tale. It was perhaps this distinction between folk-literature and creative literature that Bhamaha was pointing out when he defined poetry as sabdarthau sahitau kuvyam, trying to emphasise the integritive togetherness of word and sense in the creative literature by contrasting poetry on the one hand with the Vedic literature with its emphasis on Word only and on the other with the Puranic-epic (not scientific, as some suppose) literature which, as we have seen now, was the traditional folkliterature with its emphasis only on the sense.46 Implications of "Secondary" Let us also clarify the implications of the term 'secondary.' Above, we gave a tentative definition of a secondary tale as any narrative that does not form part of the original story. Since that definition is negative and exclusive, it still remains for us to decide what is the original' story. i. Before the beginning' We can say that all the incidents that lead to the central event of the story only should constitute the original story. This automatically means a unity of design and of purpose. It is the most fundamental requirement of any tale worth the name. Any good narrator would instinctively comply with this requisite and avoid diversions which ultimately tend to weaken the artistic unity of the tale. When the form of the 45 Cp. Vakroktijavitam, I. 6. alamkstir alamkaryam apoddhrtya vivecyate / tad upayataya, tattvam salamkarasya kavyata il 46 Cf. Kuvyapraka'sa of Mammata, Vrtti on 1.2 : prabhu-sammita-sabda-pradhana-Vedadi sastrebhyah, suhtt-sammitartha-tatparya-vat puranaditihasebhyas ca ... vilaksanam yat kavyam -- etc,

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16 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics tale is small, it is easy to maintain this unity and to discern it. But where the forms are massive like the novel or the epic, a greater genius is required to maintain the unity of design through the grander movement of the narrative which, taking its start -- its push from a knotty or conflicting situation, and then gathering momentum as it proceeds, reaches the climax -- the pinnacle of conflict, then resting or resolving in the denouement. That epics, always and everywhere, take their starting push from such critical situation, is not difficult to show. Homer's Iliad, for example, takes its momentum from the episode in which Achilles withdraws from the contest as a result of which the tide of the Trojan war takes a turn showing how indispensable Achilles is to the Greek forces. Even in the MBh itself we have a very good example in the Nalopakhyanamo? of what a real original epic of those days could have been like. This and such other upakhyanas are rightly called by Winternitz "epic within the epic". 48 It is a connected tale, complete in itself and, in a way, possessing all the dimensions and characteristics of a real artistic epic-narrative. That it is a real original epic-poem and not an abridgement of some other epic will be clear even from a cursory comparison of it with Ramopakhyanani,' which is obviously an abridgement of the present RM. The narrative of Nala, after some barely necessary prefatory remarks (such as Nala was the king of Nisadha, was a great King etc.), takes its starting push from the critical situation of Kali's failure to obtain Damayanti, resulting in his jealousy and consequently the game of dice between the two brothers and then moves on in a straightforward and dignified manner. The course of narrative is entirely free from the impression of an undue haste so inevitable in an abridgement on the one hand and from any kind of unnecessary paddings in the form of secondary tales and discourses on the other. Nalopakhyanam is an epic in its own right. Taking a closer look at Nalopakhyanam, therefore, leaves no doubt that the original forms of RM and MBh also must have shown characteristics similar to those of Nalopakhyanam itself, though somewhat on a larger scale. RM actually seems to corroborate our supposition. In it, the events of AyK show the real artistic beginning of original epic of Valmiki, and the material of BK as well as UK is clearly marked out as secondary or interpolated by being appended into separate Kandas in the beginning and at the end. Th: evidences of the text, style and internal contradictions further support our supposition. The case of MBh is not as obvious as that of RM, but when we apply the same criteria to the MBh, it is not very difficult to see the artistic beginning of the original nucleus in the events of the SabP. Yudhisthira's Rajasuya sacrifice, with its 47 Van P. Adhyayas 50-78. 48 History of Indian Literature, Vol. I, M, Winternitz, Tr. Mrs. S. Ketkar, Calcutta. p. 381, 49 VanP, Adhyayas, 258-276.

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Introductory 17 glory of wealth and power, sows the seed of jealousy in the mind of Duryodhana. This jealousy subsequently flowers into the events of Dyuta and Anu-dyuta subparvans and ultimately results in the all-destructive fratricidal war. Thus, Rajasuya can be said to be the real beginning of the original epic, as it is connected with the central event of the family-war. Neither is it difficult to corroborate our supposition by showing that the events prior to the sacrifice are not essentially connected with the central event. The sacrificial episode actually starts with Yudhisthira's deliberations about it with Ktsna in the second sub-parvan of the SabP (called Mantra-parvan). The first sub-parvan is called Sabha- or Sabha-Varnana-parvan. In it, Maya Danava, out of gratitude for Arjuna who allowed him to escape alive from the all-consuming Khandava-burning, builds a glorious palace for Pandavas. Narada visits the palace, describes divine palaces of Indra, Yama, Varuna, Kubera, Brahma and incidentally mentions Hariscandra, the only king who could sit in the Indra-sabha on account of the merits of performing a Rajas uya, Also Pandu, sitting in Yama-sabha, is said to have sent a message through Narada to his son Yudhisthira that he also should perform a Rajasuya. This serves to put the germ in the mind of Yudhisthira, who thereafter takes up the deliberation first with his ministers and finally with Krsna. Once we realize that it is only very natural for Yudhisthira or for any other eminent king, to perform a Rajasuya sacrifice even without any external incentives, the inessential character of these events becomes eminently clear. Pandu sending a message from the Yama-sabha is a supernatural element. Descriptions of the five divine palaces are only after the repetitive decorative style so characteristic of the folk-literature, and the incidental mention of Hariscandra is brought in only to provide an incentive for Rajasuya, which, as we have seen, is not essential. Narada himself is inessential. Even the palace is not inevitable. It is certainly not the cause to induce Yudhisthira to perform the sacrifice, neither is it necessary to inspire jealousy in Duryodhana which can very well be explained as arising on account of the dazzling glory of the wealth and power of the Pandavas revealed at the Rajasuya. Nor is the palace intended to symbolize the wealth of the Pandavas. Rajasuya itself is enough to symbolize the glory of the Pandavas. If the palace were really intended to be symbolic of their glory, the author would have made Yudhisthira put the palace as a pawn in the famous scene of dice. But that never happens. Even the jealous utterances of Duryodhana do not reveal any such importance of the palace. If at all, palace is only a minor part of the Pandavas' glory and can be done away with. Duryodhana's jealousy is roused only when he comes and sees for himself the glory of the Pandavas and the cause of his arrival at Khandavaprastha is Yudhisthira's ST. 3

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics invitation, not to visit the palace, but to attend the sacrifice. Therefore, Rajasuya is essential to the story, the palace is not. 18 Why then is the incident introduced in the story? Actually, Maya's building the palace for the Pandavas comes as return, in some way, of Arjuna's obligation in letting him alive at Khandava-burning. This Khandava-daha episode occurs at the end of AdiP. The obligation and its return occur chronologically, one immediately after the other, and the two, as forming a unit, would naturally be expected to occur at one place. But the redactor is clever. He puts the obligation at the end of the AdiP, its return in the beginning of the SabP and thus achieves a feeling of continuity between the incidents of AdiP as well as SabP. This serves to connect up the entire AdiP, in a seemingly inevitable manner, with the rest of the epic; the chain of events being as follows: (a) Khandava-daha Arjuna's obligation Maya's escape his gratitude-building the palace - (b) Narada's visit - describing divine palaces incidental rhention of Hariscandra also Pandu's instruction-(e) Yudhisthira's thinking of Rajasuya. It will be seen that there is no essential link between (a) and (c) since the incidents in (b) are all, as we have seen above, dispensable. -- Thus, it seems extremely probable that almost entire SabP (from Mantra subparvan onwards) is essential to the central event and forms part of the original epic, while the entire AdiP, together with the incident of Maya's palace-building for the Pandavas, is a subsequent addition. This has an exact parallel in the RM where the entire BK, like AdiP, is of an interpolatory nature and rather clearly marked out by being put into an entirely separate Book. On the other hand, the motifs of jealousy (both of Kali and of Puskara) and dice between the brothers-bhratrdyuta - giving a starting push to the Nala-story provide an exact parallel to the same motifs of jealousy and dice between cousins starting the MBh-story. That such a parallel is intended. is also confirmed from the fact that, when Nala has lost everything in dice to Puskara, the latter refers to Damayanti who can still be pawned. Nala merely swallows the insult but does not pawn her. This clearly hints at the famous incident of Draupadi being pawned and lost by Yudhisthira and dragged and insulted by the Kauravas into the open court. It should be noted here that the SabP is almost entirely free from the Bhrguizing elements which are so profusely strewn throughout the epic. Even that famous line referring to the imaginative feat of the Bhargava Rama - trih saptakrtvah prthivi krta nihksatriya pura- repeated in the epic in season and out of season does not occur in the SabP even once. The only minor reference to Bhrgus is in SabP, 13.1 where all the contemporary so-called royalties are said to be only of a lower origin. since Rama Jamadagnya had annihilated the entire Ksatra-class. This freedom from 50 here called 'Suhrd-dyuta', vide MBh-SabP 51.1, 52.8 etc. 51 vide 'The Bhrgus and the Bharata', V. S. Sukthankar, Sukthankar Memorial Edition, Vol. I, pp. 278-337.

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Introductory the Bhargava element also leads one to infer the relative antiquity of the SabP among the various parts of the MBh. One more evidence for our supposition seems to come from an entirely unexpected corner. We all know the functions and usefulness of the two indexes prefixed to the MBh. Even in the RM, we have two indexes in the beginning of the BK, having their own importanc:. But, in the MBh, we have a third index, not in the beginning of the Adip, but way behind, in chapter 55. After the frame-story of Janamejaya's snakesacrifice has been fully set with its phalasruti in chapter 53, the Suta Pauranika, at the instance of Sage Saunaka, sets out to narrate the epic-story. Io Adhyaya 54, Vyasa is said to visit Janamejaya's Snake-sacrifice with his disciples. Janamejaya asks Vyasa : katham sarnabhavat bhedas tesam a-klista-karmanam/ tac ca yuddham katham vittam bhutanta-karanam mahat ||19|| Vyasa orders his disciple Vaisampayana to narrate kurunam pandavanam ca yatha bhedo 'bhavat pura ||22|| So Vaisampayana sets out to narrate bhedam rajya-vinasam ca...... //2411, begins in Adhyaya 55 with the words - srunu rajan yatha bhedah kuru-pandavayor abhut / rajyarthe dyuta-sambhuto vana-vasas tathaiva ca //4/1 yatha ca yuddham abhavat. ... etc., then summarises the events in slokas 6-42 and finally says ; evam etat pura vittam tesam a-klista-karmanam / bhedo rajya-vinasas ca jayas ca jayatam vara 1/43||. The summary of the events almost seems to be like an index prefixed to the actual epic which appears to begin in Adhyaya 56 devoted solely to its greatness, almost a sort of phalasruti of the epic. The events summarised in Adhyaya 55 are referred to variously by various characters - e.g. by Janamejaya a s bheda and yuddha, by Vyasa bheda only, by Suta bheda and rajya-vinasa, by Vaisampayana first as bheda, dyuta-sambhuto vana-vasa and yuddha ! and finally as bheda, rajya-vinasa and jaya. It will be noted that 'yuddha' is mentioned twice, and is also termed once as jaya', 'Rajya-vinasa' is mentioned twice, and once also referred to as 'vana-vasa'.

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Secondury Tales of the two Great Epics But the term rigidly uniform in all the five references is 'bheda'. This uniformity of the term of reference which lays too much emphasis on the aspect of bheda' seems rather uneasy, and creates suspicion in our mind for the summary itself. When we actually examine the contents of the said summary, we find that out of the 37 slokas of summary, only the last three or four refer to incidents of Duryodhana's jealousy, the game of dice (or the loss of kingdom), the vana-vasa, the great war and the victory. All the remaining 33 refer to the incidents of 'bheda' -- the rift among the cousins ! - or, more precisely, to the incidents mostly from the AdiP !! Clearly, the usefulness of this summary as one more index to the entire epic is very doubtful. Prof. K. K. Shastri has attempted to treat this Adhyaya as a summary of the original "Jaya" kavya of Vyasa Parasarya -- the first phase of the epic - extending upto 8800 slokas, and to actually retrace the original epic of that length on the basis of this summary.52 Obviously, the attempt is too bold to be feasible and the hypothesis itself rests on too many assumptions which are themselves questionable. On the contrary, it would be more natural to look at it as a summary of the AdiP which also shows the importance of the episodes of Adip by connecting them up with the rest of the chain of events and by indicating their place in the scheme of the entire epic. But why was such an indication needed ? Why a separate index ? No other Parvan or Kanda is seen to begin with such a separate index or link-indication. The very fact that it was felt necessary to provide such an index for the AdiP seems to support our supposition that the events of the AdiP were added subsequently. Looking at the summary more closely, we are able to see that it also does not refer to all the stories or incidents of the Adip. It mentions only the following: arrival of the five heroes in Hastinapura after Pandu's death, Duryodhana's jealousy for the brilliant orphans, his unsuccessful attempts to get rid of Bhima, Vidura's taking care of them, the incident of the lac-house and Pandavas' escape, Bhima slaying Hidimba and Baka, their obtaining Draupadi, returning to Hastinapura, Dhstarastra sending them away to Khandava-prastha, the four younger brothers achieving victories in the four directions, 53 Yudhisthira sending Arjuna to forest under some pretext, the latter marrying Subhadra, and then, with the help of Krsna barning the Khandavaforest for Agni. It will be seen that the summary leaves out many other incidents of the AdiP as follows: the birth of Vyasa, the story of the divine descent, the Sakuntalastory, the Yayati-story, Bhisma's birth from Ganga, Satyavati' marriage to Santanu, her two sons, their marriages and deaths, their sons born of levirate, Pandu's marriages, the deer-sage's curse on him, his retiring to forest and his sad death, his five sons born of levirate, Draupadi's previous birth, story of Sunda-Upasunda, Arjuna's marriages with Ulupi and Citrangada, relvasing the five nymphs from their curse. 52 Vide : The Jay-Samhita i.e. The UR-Mahabharata Vols. 1-11. Compiled by Prof. K.K. Shastri, Gujarat Research Society, Ahmedabad-7, 1978 53 This is not in the chronological order of events. This victory comes, in the actual course of tha epic, in the SabP, after the Jarasanha-sadha-incident, vide SabP. Adhyayas, 23-29.

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Introductory Now, when we exmine the two sets of incidents -- those included in the summary and those excluded from it - the homogeneous character of both the sets becomes too persistently obvious to be neglected. The incidents included in the summary are all, though not connected with the actual epic story, at least directly connected with the epic-heroes. They are the incidents occurring in the lives of the heroes prior to the point from which the actual epic-story starts. The incidents excluded from the summary are, with a few unimportant exceptions, all related to the ancestors of the epic-heroes, and therefore only remotely connected with the heroes. Considering the nature of the incidents included in the summary, we feel that they are very characterstic of the folk-curiosity which is so child-like, which expects to hear everything about the hero, from the beginning to the end, and which completely ignores considerations of artistic or formal unity of a tale. It is only natural and common-sense to think that these incidents must be the first and the oldest interpolations to the original epic. From a unified connected narration of an original tale, the most natural next step towards its expansion is the inclusion of events connected with the tale in some way or the other, if not with the central theme, at least with the.central heroes. And the events included in the summary testify to this commonsense conclusion. For one, the events form a homogeneous group, and they are all clustered at one place in the latter half of the Adip, or are rather prefaced to the original epic. Then, as we have already seen above, the summary is accompanied by its author's attempt to justify the inclusion of these events by making them appear as inevitable in the scheme of the entire epic, but the very necessity of such a justification creates suspicion. The author tries to conceal their secondary nature by trying to provide links in the events of Maya's palacebuilding and Narada's visit. But the separated placement of the former event and the innecessity of the latter render the links rather weak. The index, therefore, must be taken to represent the very first redaction of the original epic, K is rather difficult to see how else can we explain or justify the position, the nature and the purpose of such an index-summary. The confirming parallel can also perhaps be found in the two indexes of RM, where the first index (BK. 1) mentions the incidents of the central original Kandas while the second (BK. 3) includes the incidents of BK and UK also. The second index thus represents the second stage in the develop nent. of the epic. Similarly, the third index of the Adip, in a slightly different manner must represent a later stage when the events, external to the central epic, yet connected with the lives of the heroes, were introduced into the original epic of Vyasa. Perhaps, the very name Adip gives out a lie to its being interpolated. It is important to note here that BK, which is accepted by all to be a later addition to RM, is also called in some manuscripts Adi Kanda. The fact can be confirmed from the critical apparatus of the colophon of any Adhyaya of BK as well as the colophon to passage 1 relegated to the Appendix I of BK, which reads : ity arse ramayane

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22 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics adi-kande anukramanika samapata/ Thus, both AdiP and BK agree in being named Adi' -- the former exclusively, the latter occasionally. They also agree in the nature of their contents which are narration of events in the life of the hero or heroes, prior to the events beginning the epic proper. They reveal the layman's complete indifference to, or rather ignorance of, the artistic usefulness of such incidents and his characterstic curiosity to know everything about the hero, right from the beginning. (Hence the name 'Adi'.) And, if Adi-Kanda is accepted by all to be a later addition, it is very probable, that Adi-parvan also must have been so. The cumulative force of the foregoing considerations now seems to make the conclusion irresistible that everything of the AdiP, even the incidents connected with the lives of the heroes, must have been subsequent additions to the epic and is thus secondary. ii. The End of the 'Original We mentioned above that the folk-curiosity is very characteristically child-like and is fond of hearing everything about the hero, right from the beginning to the end. We have also seen that the entire AdiP is a later addition, that the events in the lives of the heroes, prior to the point of Rajasuya-deliberations, are the oldest addition prefaced to the nucleus epic. Can we say any such thing about some addition appended ? In other words, can we guess about the end of the nucleus epic, like we did about its beginning? Can we point out something added posterior to the nucleus in the earliest redaction ? Is there some sort of an Uttara-parvan ? It is difficult to give a definite answer to this question. There are, however, some evidences which, when properly interpreted, would point to certain probabilities. lo the epic itself, MBh has been called an Itihasa named 'Jaya'.54 Even the benedictory stanza, recited in the beginning of every parvan, mentions the word, but rather ambiguously.55 Many scholars had believed that this 'Jaya' was the name of the original epic written by Vyasa Parasarya, and had postulated three stages in the development of the epic to its present size viz. the Jaya' written by Vyasa, the "Bharata' revised by Vaisampayana, and the Maha-bharata' by Sauti. But in the notes to the critical edition of AdiP, Dr. Sukthankar has shown that "The introductory stanza narayanam namaskrtya etc. is missing in S; it is therefore surely not original."58 About the other hemistich jayo nameti etc., he notes that it "Recurs at B. 5.136.18, there applied to the episode Vidulaputranusasana, which shows that Jaya' is a generic name applicable to different works, and not a specific name of the MBh at all, as 54 cf. jayo nam' etihaso 'yam srotavyo vijigisuna/ | AdiP.56.19.ab. (v.i, srotavyo bhutimicchata/SvP. 5.39.ab.) 55 cf. narayanam namaskrtya naram ca'iva narottamam/ devim sarasvatim ca'iva tato jayamudirayet || Adi,1.o. 56 AdiP p 983.

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Introductory 23 believed by some writers".57 This shows that Jaya' was a name applicable not to MBh alone, but to a certain class of works to which MBh itself must have originally belonged It still remains to be clarified, what was the nature of this class of works. Perhaps, the best pointer is the name 'Jaya' itself. It must have been a class of works which described victories - obviously in wars. The subject of wars was perhaps the most fascinating to the ancient people of all nations. The famous dictum 'yuddhasya katha ramya' needs only to be reminded in this context. The valorous deeds of the heroes in war always fascinated the people, attained national significance and formed the chief subject of the ancient heroic poetry - lays and ballads and akhyanas -- from which all the great national epics like Iliad, Odyssey, Kalewala, Nibelungenlied, Beowulf, Chanson de Roland, Aeneid, Ramayana, Mahabharata -- all, principally, the tales of wars and victories - have developed. MBh is often referred to in the body of the epic itself as Bharata Akhyana, and that mast have been its original name and its original form. It must have been an akhyana describing the war between the two families of Bharata clan, ending in the victory of one of the sides, the Pandavas. Considering it from the point of view of its artistic form, therefore, war must have been the central event, the climax of events, and the events of StrP and Yudhisthira's coronation must have formed its denouement. That should be the logical end of a Jaya' type of Itihasa. This can also be confirmed from the RM where the original epic is believed by all to be ending in the events of YK with Rama's victory over Ravana and his coronation. Even in the Nala-story, Nala finally wins over Kali, over Puskara (of course, in the game of dice) and is reinstalled upon his throne. We would not be far from right, therefore, in postulating that Yudhisthira's coronation after his victory in the war must have been the termination-point of the original epic, and the events thereafter, from sanP onwards upto the end must have been added subsequently. Here also we can distinguish between the secondary and the tertiary stages of interpolations. The events from AsvP upto the end are mostly connected with the heroes, though not with the central theme, and therefore, must belong to the second stage; while the didactic purpose of the material of sanP and AnuP containing Bhisma's sermons to Yudhisthira on royal and moral duties of a king as well as the framing purpose of the first half of AdiP containing Janamejaya-story are too obvious to leave us in any doubt about their inclusion in the latermost stages of the epicredaction. But we must point out again that there is no direct textual evidence to support our statements in the preceding two paragraphs; whatever is stated here must be 57 !bid, p. 989. B.5.136. 18 in the quotation is Bhip. 136.18

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24 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics taken as .conjectures based on the logical implications of the term "Jaya' as applied to the epic, and to be corroborated by further evidences. It should be noted in this context that, within the MBh itself, the only other episode to be called by the name of Jaya' is that of Vidula-putranusasana which is only an advice of Vidula to her son to act bravely on the battlefield. No other secondary tale is called 'Jaya', though the term Itihasa is applied to many other secondary tales and incidents. 58 Also none of the secondary tales narrates the war of human heroes as its central theme. Some incidents or tales would seem to contradict this dictum at first sight but that the contradiction is only apparent and not real can be shown very easily. "Vidula's Advice' is only a sermon, without the actual war in which her son must have fought. Ramopakhyana is obviously an abridgement of the RM59 and not an independent tale. Devasura wars are to be classed as wars of nonhumans, and even then, they are never actually described but only referred to. Fights between individuals lik: the one between Sunda and Upasunda do occasionally occur in some tales but the distinction between a combat and a war is too obvious to be reiterated. These considerations lead to some obvious conclusions : The central theme of a 'Jaya' Itihasa must have been a war, most probably a war of human beings. The RM and the MBh were originally tales of wars of human beings. Even in the form in which we have the epics today, war-tales of human beings are, indeed, the core of these epics. Though RM has nowhere been called a Jaya' Kavya by name, it can obviously be placed in that group with absolute propriety, and the only reason why it has never been called by that name seems to be that long back, RM had ceased to be recognized as an Itihasa and was accepted as Adi-kavya. But the very fact that it had been chosen for an epic-treatment points to the great probability of its being a human-war-story, a Jaya' type of Itihasa. On the other hand, Vidula's sermon is actually called a Jaya' Kavya, but whatever portion of Vidula's story remains is anything but a war-tale. Yet, even in its mutilated form it also leaves no doubt that in its original fuller form, it must have been a tale of human war. Therefore, there must have been more, perhaps many more, such 'Jaya' ballads, since wars, small and large, were not only too common in those days but they also possessed an uncommon influence upon and attraction for the common man. However, it must be noted that, barring the two great epic stories themselves, no other example of such bardic poems has come down to us, even among those preserved in the epics. Whatever Akhyanas are preserved in the epics, particufarly in the MBh, 58 See, for instance, atr apy'udabarantimam itihasam puratanam/SabP. 61.58. 59 Cf. The Ramayana; H. Jacobi, Tr. S. N. Ghosal, pp.58-59; History of Indian Literature. M. Winternitz. Tr. Mrs. S. Ketkar, Calcutta, Vol.I. pp. 516-7; Sukthankar Memorial Edition, I, V. S, Sukthankar, Ed. P. K. Gode, pp. 413-4, etc.

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Introductory have anything but war as their central theme. Since war is the central theme of the epics, the only wars narrated throughout the epics are those fought by the heroes themselves. And all the wars turn in their favour only. (The only encounter can it be called a war ?-where Arjuna finds himself powerless against the Abhira-robbers in MauP,60 marks the beginning of the end, the denouement of the story in its second stage. Though, as we have seen, this would not be the original story.) The right of the protagonists to shine as the victor heroes of the epics is, in no case, allowed to be obviated, and we can say that there is indeed some sort of justification in it. Therefore, when it is said that MBh is "a repertory of the whole of the old bard poetry" we shall have to qualify the statement that only those examples of the old bardic poetry have been preserved in the MBh which have themes other than those of wars, while those having human wars as the theme have been studiedly eschewed. iii. Further implications of the "Original" and the "Secondary" e The considerations of the implications of the terms 'Original' and 'Secondary" can be carried on still further into the course of the principal tale itself. Already many apparent contradictions, 2 many repetitions, even some entirely new episodes are introduced into the principal tale in order to bring in secondary matter a tale or a discourse. It has also been shown that many of the motifs constituting the VirP are merely repeated from the other parts of the principal tale, to the effect that the VirP's claim of being a part of the original is thrown in serious doubt. We have shown above that the SabP contains the beginning of the original epic. On examining some of the motifs of the principal narrative in SabP, we can observe one more dimension of the implications of the term 'Secondary". 25 We have seen that the jealousy of Duryodhana is the pivotal motif around which 60 Cf. prekatas tv'eva parthasya vrsny-andhaka-vara-striyah/ jagmur adaya te mlecchah samantat janamejaya// MauP.8.61. 61 History of Indian Literature, Vol. I, M. Winternitz, Tr. Mrs. S. Ketkar, Calcutta, p. 318. Also pp. 375-387. 62 Vide Mahabharata - A Criticism by C. V. Vaidya. In Ch. IV he gives some very good examples of internal contradictions the one, for example, to introduce the Yaksa-prasnaepisode. 63 For example, the tale of Sibi protecting a pigeon from the hawk at the cost of his own life is repeated twice. Vide VanP. 130-131, (also AraP. appendix, passage no. 21, pp. 1074-75) and AnuP, Appendix, passage no. 8. The king in the AnuP is called Vrsadarbha. 64 For example, that of Jayadratha abducting Draupadi in VanP. 248-256, which occasions Ramopakhyana. 65 Vide 'Virataparvan A Study' Dr. A. D. Shastri, Bulletin of the Chunilal Gandhi Vidyabhavan, Surat, No. 4, pp. 38-39. Cf. "Of one thing we can be sure that the Virataparvan as we have it today is definitely later than the Mahabharata as a whole... A conjecture may therefore be hazarded that the Virata-parvan as we have it today contains the original nucleus out of which the story of the Mahabharta itself is developed. In other words, though the Virata-parvan as we have it is a later addition to the Mahabharata, the epic-story has developed from the original form of the story in the Virata-parvan." (p.39) ST. 4 -

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26 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics the story revolves. A similar importance of the motif of jealousy can also be observed in the RM and in the Nala-story. The following analysis of the opening events of these three tales will make this clear : RM. (a) Dasaratha's old-age ...........(b) Rama's coronation..... Nal. (a) Nala's love for Damayanti.....(b) Nala's marriage with Damayanti...... MBh. (a) Yudhisthira's victories-glories.(b) Performance of Rajasuya.......... (c) Jealousy of Kaikeyi.. (c) Jealousy of Kali - inspiring jealousy in Puskara-motif reinforced. (c) Jealousy of Duryodhana ... (d) the two boons............... (e) Rama's exile into forest. ...... (d) the game of dice........... (e) Nala's exile into forezt............... (d) the game of dice........... (C) Yudhisthira's exile into forest..... The basic similarity of the pattern of motifs will not be missed even by a casual observer. Jealousy of the antagonist is the pivotal emotion in all the three tales. This jealousy makes hin active into using some trick against the protagonist who is consequently turned into exile. The jealousy is caused by an incident which, set together with its circumstances, marks the beginning of the epics in the first two cases. The pattern can thus be described in general terms. (a) There is a situation which leads to (b) the causal incident. This gives rise to (c) the jealousy of the antagonist who, (d) becoming active in order to snatch away the good fortune of the protagonist, resorts to some trick (e) as a result of which the protagonist is driven into exile. If we accept the pattern to be a convincing evidence we shall have to re-state certain observations made above about the opening of the original epic. The acceptance of the pattern will leave out two more sub-parvans of SabP - the Mantraparvan and the Jarasandha-vadha-parvan - as secondary, and the original epic will now be supposed to start from the Digvijaya-(sub)parvan oply. We can try to corroborate this with some further observations. A difference can clearly be seen between the style of Jarasandha-vadha-parvan which is puranic in nature and that of Arghabhiharana- and sisupala-vadha-parvans which have powerful dialogues containing an epic grandeur. Again, the pattern seems to give us a more natural order of events in a simple primitive epic which would obviously be : first, a dig-vijaya or at least some significant victories, and only then, an ambition of performing Rajasuya. In SabP, on the other hand, the seed of ambition is laid first in the mind of Yudhisthira who then starts discussing the possibilities of the sacrifice. This makes it quite probable that the entire episode of Jarasandha-vadha is added later on, and is not a part of the original epic. It is too hyperbolical, too loosely-connected, to form an essential part of the original.

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Introductory 27 But we must readily accept that all the evidences adduced above to prove the secondary nature of the Jarasandha-vadha-episode are more or less subjective. The arguments about the style and the natural order of events are clearly more like personal opinions than objective facts, and the evidence of the similarity of pattern is certainly not conclusive in itself. On such grounds we can neither properly build up any hypothesis, nor do we intend to. But it helps us at least to see the implications of the term 'Secondary in their proper dimensions. Many incidents of the principal tale (as we have it) can be shown in a similar manner to possess a debatable claim to originality, but such discussions are bound to remain more opinionated than objective, and any insistance on such points would be more dogmatic than scholarly. We shall, therefore, merely point out the inherent probabilities of the term 'Secondary' and rest content with it. iv. The Definition of Secondary It will be seen from above that various interpretations of the term 'Secondary' are possible. (1) That tale which is not original is secondary. (2) That tale which does not narrate the events in the life of the heroes is secondary. (3) That tale which is not essentially connected with the central event of the epic is secondary. (4) That episode which occurs in the course of the central theme, but does not in any way further the central theme, which shows stylistic differences, which creates internal contradictions, or unnecessary repetitions, in the sequence of events of the principal tale, is secondary. This shows that no single definition of the term "Secondary' is possible, because, in the context of our two great epics, the term original itself is undefinable. In these circumstances, we must come to some compromise as to the connotation of the term 'Secondary tale'. We propose that we shall treat that tale as secondary which is complete in itself, independent of the principal tale. So far as some judicious restriction in the material of study is concerned, we shall confine ourselves mostly to the AdiP, SabP, BK and UK, since these have been observed to represent nearly all significant varieties of tales.

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CHAPTER II THE TALES IN RAMAYANA A. BALA - KANDA The implications of the various terms in the title thus made clear, we can now proceed on to the investigation of the tales themselves. For that purpose, first, we propose to make a complete survey of the tales of BK and UK of RM. Most of the scholars agree that BK is a later addition to RM. One of the reasons adduced for this supposition is the difference between the style of BK and that of the other Kandas (except UK). While the other Kandas reveal a dignified, soberly-paced, epic-like style of the narrative, almost entirely free from any sort of narrative or didactic digressions, justifying the title "Adi-Kavya' (the First Poem) given to the epic, the BK (as also UK) reveals a puranic style abounding in digressive narratives which seriously disturb the flow of whatever little portion of the principal narrative has remained here. Even this little portion of the principal narrative gives us such details as are contradicted in the main body of the epic. Laksmana, for example, is shown to marry Urmila in BK, 2 but she is never mentioned again in the epic hereafter. Not only that, even Laksmana is called a-krta-dara in Ark. Since the marriages of all the brothers take place towards the end of BK, we shall not be wrong in taking the entire BK as secondary, providing material for our study. The secondary material of the BK can roughly be divided into five groups: (1) The first four Sargas - Introductory part; (2) The Rsyasonga episode; (3) The Entourage tales; (4) The Visvamitra story-cycle; (5) The Parasurama episode. (1) The First Four Sargas The BK opens with Valmiki asking Narada about the best of human beings. Narada, in reply, briefly counts the principal events of Rama's life. In Sarga 2, Valmiki goes to the river Tamasa, sees one of the pairs of amorous cranes beings pierced by a Nisada, and, overwhelmed with pity, curses him. The curse, accidentally, is expressed in a new metre which is suitable to poetise the Rama-story. Brahma bids him to poetise it. Valmiki accepts the advice and the events he poetises in the epic are again listed in Sarga 3. In Sarga 4, he finds the two royal princes as the suitable bards for 1 Cf. History of Indian Literature, M. Winternitz, Vol. I, ii, pp. 495-6; The Riddle of the RM, C. V. Vaidya, Ch. IT; Rama-katha, Camille Bulcke, pp, 122-3; The Ramayana, H. Jacobi. Tr. S. N. Ghosal, Baroda, pp. 21, 47 ff. 2 Rama-katha, c. Bulcke, p. 123. Cf. BK. 72.18. 3 Ark. 17.3.

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29 The Tales in Ramayana reciting the epic publicly. Once having heard them in the streets of Ayodhya, Rama brings them to the royal palace and asks them to sing the poem before the royal assembly. The poem which they are said to have sung before the assembly and which is thus actually claimed to be the creation of Valmiki-starts from Sarga 5 of BK. The thread of this incident of narrating the epic is again taken up in the later part of UK where not only the listener of the poem is confirmed to be the same as the hero of the poem itself, but even the narrators are revealed to be the twin-sons of the hero himself, as well as the assembly turns out to be the sacrificial assembly gathered at the Asvamedha sacrifice of the hero. The first four Sargas of BK, therefore, are intended to provide a sort of frame to the epic-story. This device of framing the epic is comparable on the one hand to the similar attempts made in the MBh to frame. that epic with the story-cycle of Janamejaya's sacrifice; on the other hand, it strongly reminds us of a similar device adopted in the Kadambari where the listener King Sudraka and the narrator parrot Vaisampayana turn out in the end to be the hero of the narrative and his closest friend. It also affords us a view of the progressively artistic use of the framing technique in the structure of the narrative. In a popular collection of tales like 'Canterbury Tales' or Decameron or AN or VP or PT, the framing story is only intended to provide a motive for collecting the various tales in one place. It need not have any inherent connection with the framed stories. In MBh also, the outermost frame-episode of Saunaka's twelve-year Satra provides the motive of the most natural human curiosity of the sages to hear the various stories which occasions the narration of the epic, but has no inherent connection with it. More closely related to the epic, however, is the second frame of the story-cycle of the Snake-sacrifice the hero of which, Janamejaya, has a direct patrilineal connection with the heroes of the epic. Even the narrator Vaisampayana is a direct disciple of sage Vyasa Parasarya, the traditional composer of the epic. In the RM, as we saw above, the hero and his sons themselves are the listener and the narrators respectively. The author of this episode tries to utilize a fine opportunity afforded by the event of Rama's Asvamedha sacrifice by framing with it the entire story of Rama's past life. The framing technique here comes close to the powerful modern device of narration called 'flashback'. Not only that, but the framing episode itself-wherein Sita ultimately returns to mother Earth thus ending the narrative with the tragic note of eternal separation becomes here the culminating point of the entire epic-story. It could give us a powerful tragedy with an excellent unity of form. The only fly but a big fly at that in the ointment is that the author's execution does not stand equal to his conception. His narrative skill lags far behind his conception. A grand conception, therefore, fails to achieve an artistic form on account of its author's lack of command over his means of expression. The superb narrative skill revealed in the central portions of the epic stands strongly contrasted with the inferior, puranic style of these parts, and whereas the conception of these events could have 4 vide AdiP. 1.3. Citrah srotum kathas tatra....etc. - -

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30 Secondury Tales of the two Great Epics been integrated into the central parts of the narrative, the difference in the style of these two portious becomes the cause of failure to achieve this artistic formal unity of the epic. However, even the grandness of the conception itself has been well rewarded by the great popularity attained even by these portions of the narrative. This flashback framing technique is taken to an extreme in Kadambari where the listener-narrator are shown to be the central characters of the narrative - in their third births ! Artistically, however, it is not superior to that in the RM. A further consideration of the contents of these sargas reveals that they are also meant to be an introductory group of episodes. Thus, they give us (1) a noble life worth poetising, (2) a proper metre for and a sensitive composer of such a poem, (3) a list of events included in the poem, and (4) the proper singers or reciters for such a poem. It is, therefore, not incorrect to postulate that "The first four Sargas of the Balakanda which serve the purpose of an Introduction to the Ramayana are probably from a different hand that prefixed them to the Epic at a later stage."5 In making mention of Valmiki as the first poet and a contemporary of Rama, these four Sargas have a point of affinity with the UK, As Dr. G. H. Bhat points out, "The Ramayana gives a detailed account of the sage Valmiki in the first four Sargas of the Balakanda and the Uttarakanda, both of which are evidently a later addition .... It is only the late Kandas (I and VII) that make Valmiki a contemporary of Rama." But it should be noted that even in BK, Valmiki is not even mentioned anywhere except in these four Sargas. This fact leads to a number of possibilities. In the first place, it makes the unity of authorship of these parts (i. e. Sargas 1-4 of BK, and the final portion of UK) almost certain. Equally certain is the unity of the age of their interpolation into the epic. It also reveals the purpose of this interpolation which is to establish the contemporaneity of the author of the poem with its hero, most probably to show that its sage-poet also belonged to the same reverentially hoary past as did its hero. Since these portions of the BK and UK are later than Ramopakhyana in the MBh, we can very well imagine that the author of these parts knew the MBh and was prompted to emulate the example of MBh where sage Vyasa also is not only the author of the epic but is intimately related to the heroes and often plays an important part in furthering the story. He, therefore, tried to show the sage Valmiki playing an important role in the drama of his hero's life, even if only in the end. The first and the third Sarags give two catalogues of events. The first catalogue does not mention the events of BK and UK, the second does. Again, the MBh often refers to RM, and more than once gives epitomes of it. But nowhere does it reveal 5 BK, p. 424 6 ibid. p. 425, 7 See Rama-Katha, Bulcke, pp. 47 ff.

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The Tales in Ramayana any familiarity with the episodes of these two Kandas. Therefore, MBh must have been finalised before the late Kaadas were given their present shape and RM attained its present form. This is confirmed by the silence and mention of these events in the two catalogues respectively. It is also significant that the extra episodes of the second list are clearly demarcated as belonging to the two Kandas either in the beginning or in the end. This means, these two Kandas are later than the other Kandas. It is shown that even among these two Kandas, UK is later than BK. We can further point out that even in BK, Valmiki is mentioned nowhere except in these four Sargas. In this, the affinity of the Sargas to those parts of UK wherein Valmiki figures is greater than to the rest of the BK. Therefore, if we agree that BK belongs to the second stage in the development of RM, and UK to the third, then these four Sargas will have to be placed in the third stage alongwith the UK. Sarga 2 gives us that beautiful prefatory episode wherein sage Valmiki goes to the river Tamasa to take his daily bath, sees the male of a pair of cranes in union being pierced by the arrow of a nisada hunter, hears the piteous wails of the female and is so deeply moved that his feelings find a spontaneous and immortal expression in the rhythin of the classical anustubh couplet. The tale is, as if, made to illustrate Wordsworth's famous definition of poetry --'a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.' Almost all the commentators of RM take the pair of cranes as symbolic of the hero and the heroine, the arrow being the dart of separation which, thereafter, became almost eternal. Incidentally, the tale also shows the potentials of the classical anustubh which, in contrast to the Vedic anustubh, is more restrained and more rhythmic, thus better suited to the poetic requirements of the sombre and dignified pace of the epic. The sage also is revealed to possess a very sensitive, sympathetic, imaginative heart, and therefore, the most appropriate person to handle the tender, pathetic, beautiful Rama-story. The tale, as it shows the origin of poetry, is beautiful in itself and in the context of the epic, it is brought to serve many useful purposes. The beauty and usefulness of the tale is realised more clearly when contrasted with the episode prefaced to the MBh, wherein Lord Ganesa agrees to work as a scribe for sage Vyasa. The sage dictates to him the entire MBh continuously for three years. The tale is clearly a foolish imitation of the RM-tale referred to above, and serves no better purpose than to provide to the author of the MBh a status higher than that of Lord Ganesa himself. It is a foolish answer to the wondering question whether it is possible for a human being to write out such a huge corpus of heterogenous matter and it can satisfy only the lowest layer of intelligence. Rightly has it been relegated to the appendix. 10 Compared to this, the author of the Valniki--episode in RM reveals a much more refined artistic sense. 8 ibid. Ch. III. 9 ibid. p. 143. 10 vide Footnote to Appendix passage 1, AdiP. Pp. 384-85 Even the passage 1 wherein Brahma praised MBh is merely a stale imitation of the RM-tale wherein Lord Brahma informs sage Valmiki about the best of human beings (BK. Sarga 1.)

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32 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics It should be noted that the nature of the assembly before which the two singers recite the epic of Valmiki is not specified here. It is only in the UK that the assembly is revealed to be a sacrificial one and the singers to be the royal princes of the hero himself. Thus, the epic has been set in the frame of the event of Rama's Asvamedha Sacrifice. The sacrificial frame may, again, very likely be in imitation of the MBh. These observations about the first four Sargas make it clear that they belong to the third stage of RM, have greater affinity with UK and their author was a person of considerable artistic talent. He succeeded in making Valmiki a contemporary of the hero, in making him play a significant role in the hero's life, in framing the tale in a sacrifical set-up, in giving the tale an unexpected but plausible turn, in entirely changing the tone and emphasis of the epic from a happy end to a tragic one, and in making the tale an excellent example of tragic but sublime royal ethics. That he knows the value of suspense in the narrative is testified by his specifying the kind of assembly and the identity of the singers only in the UK. His creative genius is exemplified in the episode of Valmiki's spontaneous discovery of a better metre. The author of these parts deserves the popularity that he has achieved. Only if his narrative skill had been matching !.... There is, however, one glaring contradiction in the situation of Rama's performing Asvamedha which, one wonders why, none has noted so far. One of the primary requirements of an Asvamedha sacrifice is that its yajmana king must have four wives who are known in sacerdotal terminology as mahisi, parivekta, vavata and palagali.12 The RM opens with Dasaratha performing Asvamedha and, at least, three of his queens are actually named,12 ( Yet, he obtains, four sons !) This fact of the sacrificial necessity of having more than one wife for Asvamedha stands in sharp contradiction to Rama, the ideal of monogamy, performing Asvamedha. Even if we concede that only Sita could be the chief queen -- mahisi -- of Rama, the very 11 Cf. "Asvamedha, The King of Sacrifices", B. H. Kapadia, Journal of the University of Bombay, Vol. XXX (New Series) Part 2. September, 1961, p. 13; "The Asvamedha : Its Original Signification", R. D. Karmarkar, Annals of Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Vol. XXX, Parts III-IV, 1949, p. 342 (On p. 333 Karmarkar mentions three queens, but this is a mistake, inadvertently corrected by himself only on p. 342. The name of the fourth one is given by him as 'Kumari' instead of palagali); "A Folk-Custom in the Asvamedha", S. A. Dange, Journal of the Oriental Institute, Baroda,, Vol. XVI, No. 4, June, 1967, p. 328; Also The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upani sadas, A. B. Keith, HOS, Vol. 32, p. 343; and History of Dharma-sastra, P. V. Kane, Vol. II, part II, pp. 1230, 1234-35. 12 Cf. BK, 13.28. hota'dhvaryus tath'odgata hayena samayojayan / mahisya parivittyatha vavatam aparam tatha il Can 'apara' be taken to mean the fourth queen ? Also, "The Adhvaryu obtains a daughter in marriage and also the fourth wife as daksina". (Cf. B. H. Kapadia's article, p. 21) Is that the reason of omitting the name of the fourth queen ? G. S. Ghurye (in Caste and Class in India, p. 63) says: "Sumitra, one of the four wives of King Dasaratha, was a Sudra." But he has not indicated his source.

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The Tales in Ramayana - necessity of making allowance for other queens even if only for sacrificial purposes renders the insistence for Sita to the extent of putting her golden image pointless. The contradiction is, as if, built in. The author wants to show Rama's greatest love for Sit the ideal of monogamy, of conjugal love, and makes him put a golden image of Sita even for the sacrificial purposes, but the very sacrifice that he is shown to perform primarily requires at least four wives. - Or, was Rama originally not intended to provide an ideal of monogamy ? Perhaps, even the author of these late portions did not intend Rama to be that idealof conjugal constancy which he later on came to be regarded as ! At one place, at least, in the original portions of RM, mention has been made of "Rama's noble women!""" The second alternative is also equally unpalatable, but we should set it for whatever worth it has. As Karmarkar shows, the custom of Pariplava is unique to the Asvamedha sacrifice.14 According to the custom, ten different types of lores are narrated on ten consecutive days, cyclically throught the year during which the sacrificial horse is moving about. Among these lores, those of the itihasa and the purana are narrated on the eighth and the ninth days of the cycles, and it is only natural for us to suppose that, for this purpose, experts in the lores i.e. the sutas and the pauranikas - must have been employed. This means, the narration, preservation and propagation of the itihasa-purana lores took place under the custom of pariplava within the set-up of the Asvamedha sacrifice. In this situation, when some genius. poet put some of the itihasa-tales into an epic-form, and when, thereafter, it, again, fell to the lot of these traditional bards themselves to preserve the epic-itihasa-poems, nothing would be more natural than their tendency to set up the epic in the same. environment, to frame the poem with the same episode, of the Alvamedha sacrifice within which they were actually narrating the tale. They were narrating the Ramastory in the pariplava setting of Asvamedha, so they provided the tale with the same. frame of Asvamedha, and to make it more effective, they made Rama, the hero of the tale itself, perform the sacrifice and showed his own tale being narrated at hist own Asvamedha sacrifice. This is very plausible. What is implausible is the implied assumption that either the author of this episode was not aware of the implications of the situation of Rama's performing Asvamedha, or he was deliberately ignoring them; unless, of course, we contend that 13 vide Manthara's words in AyK, 8.5 brtah khalu bhavisyanti ramasya paramah striyah / apraha bhavisyanti snusis te bharata-ksaye !! 33 5 The parallel construction of the two halves of the sloka makes it inevitable that 'striyah' be taken to mean, in the light of 'snusah' (daughters-in-laws), the 'wives' of Rama. 14 vide "The Pariplava (Revolving Cycle of Legends) at the Aivamedha." R. D. Karmarkar, Annals of Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Vol. XXXIII, 1952, pp. 26-40; History of Dharmasastra, Vol. II, ii, Kane, pp. 1231-1233.

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics the hero of the epic was not intended to be an ideal of monogamy and, therefore, in presenting him as performing Asvamedha and consequently necessarily having more than one wife, there was no question of damaging the image of a monogamous Rama since it did not exist. There is no sense in arguing that the author was primarily a pauranika, an expert in the lores of itihasa and puranas, and hence was not well conversant with the intricate details of the sacrifice; we even need not contradict Mm. Kane when he says that "It is probable that in the epic only the popular elements and a few of the religious rites were emphasized;"15 the necessity of having four wives for the yajmana king of Asvamedha is not such a small or intricate or even insignificant detail as can be missed even by a passing observer of the sacrifice. The argument that the sacrifice was extinct and the author was describing it only from a traditional memory also does not stand, since numerous performances of Asvamedha have been recorded in the Indian history even of the Middle ages.16 The ancient sacrifice of Asvamedha was not extinct, and the author of the UK cannot plead ignorance of the eye-catching requirement of the four wives of the yajamana king; still if he chose to show Rama performing Asvamedha, the conclusion is inevitable that either he was deliberately ignoring the basic contradiction or he was ignoring the ideal of monogamous Rama if it did exist. (2) The Rsyabriga Episode From Sarga 5, the actual epic narrative, claimed to be the work of Valmiki, begins. Sargas 5, 6 and 7 give us the descriptions of Ayodhya, of its King Dasaratha, and of his ministers. These sargas can legitimately be considered as part of the principal story. In Sarga 8, the mention of the childlessness of Dasaratha brings in an occasion for introducing the Rsyasonga episode. Dasaratha deliberates with his ministers that he should perform a Vajimedha sacrifice for obtaining a son.17 When he orders his chief minister Sumantra to call the priests, Sumantra (called Suta here) privately tells him that, in connection with his (Dasaratha's) obtaining sons, he (Sumantra) has heard from the priests the episode of Rsyasonga as narrated in their presence by Sanatkumara. The episode runs thus: "Kasyapa's son Vibhandaka will have a son Rsyasonga who will have seen no other human being but his father. At that time, there will be a severe drought in Angadesa. Its king Romapada, upon the advice of Brahmanas, will request them to bring Rsyasonga into his kingdom. The Purohita etc., fearing the curse of the sage Vibhandaka, will fetch Rsyasonga with the help of courtesans whereupon it will rain in his kingdom and the king will give him in marriage his daughter Santa. The sage Rsyasonga will then perform for you to obtain sons."18 15 History of Dharmasastra, Kane, II. ii, p. 1237, 16 ibid. pp. 1238-39, 17 BK, 8. 2-3. 18 BK. 8, 5-22.

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The Tales in Ramayana 35 Upon the king's question as to how the courtesans managed to bring the sage, Sumantra further narrates the means by which they achieved their assignment. That part of the story is famous. Sumantra narrates it in Sarga 9 in simple past. In Sarga 10, he again says that it is already foreseen by Sanatkumara that Dasaratha will approach Romapada and request him to persuade his son-in-law Rsyasonga to perform for Dasaratha. Accordingly, Dasaratha, having convinced Vasistha (naturally)"' personally approaches Romapada and brings Rsyasonga and his wife to his capital. Then, when the spring season comes, he starts preparations for the sacrifice by releasing the sacrificial horse, 20 and upon the advent of the next spring season, the sacrifice proper begins.81 The thirteenth Sarga describes the details of the Asvamedha sacrifice. After Asvamedha is duly performed, king Dasaratha requests Rsyasonga who then properly performs the 'putriya isti' with the mantras as given in the Atharvasiras, 22 as a result of which four sons are born to the three queens of Dasaratha.23 There is one glaring contradiction in the narrative even as given in the constituted text. At more than one place, Dasaratha says that he wants to perform Asvamedha sacrifice to obtain sons.24 Even the priests promise him that by performing Asvamedha, he will obtain four sons.25 Dasaratha's desire and the priests' promise are fully justified in view of the fact that Asvamedha is originally a fertility sacrifice. As Willibald Kirfel has proved,26 it must have been a Purusamedha in its origin. As Kapadia puts it: "Whatever may be the original conception and purpose of the Asvamedha, it is without doubt that fertility had an important role to play in it."97 The rite of the chief queen lying down with the sacrificial horse and the so-called obscene dialogues of the other queens and the priest accompanying it both point to the same 19 see BK. 10. 13a. anumanya vasistham ca. 20 BK. 11.8, 11, 14, 19. 21 BK, 12 & 13. 22 BK, 14, 2-3. 23 BK. 15. 8ff. 24 Cf. BK, 8.2 : Sutratham vajimedhena kim artham na yajamy aham/ BK. Il. 2-3 : ... tam vipram ... yajnaya varayamasa santanartham kulasya ca // tath'eti ca sa rajanam uvaca ca susatkrtah / sambharah sambhriyantam te turagas ca vimucyatam // BK, 11. 8:mama lalapyamanasya putrartham nasti vai sukham tad artham hayamsedhena yaksyam'iti matir mama // 25 Cf. BK. 11. 11-12 sambharah sambhriyantam te turagas ca vimucyatam sarvatha prapsyase putrans caturo'mitavikraman Il 26 See the digest of his German article by B. H. Kapadia : "Asvamedha, the King of Sacrifices ** JUB, Vol. XXX, part 2, pp. 11-12. 27 ibid. p. 20.

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36 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics conclusion28. The fertility aspect of the rite is easily explainable. In a society where levirate was religiously sanctioned, the sacerdotalization of ritual procreation also can be readily justified and religiously sanctioned.29 There is, therefore, nothing objection. able in Dasaratha performing Asvamedha for obtaining sons. The contradiction comes in when Dasaratha is shown to obtain sons, not through Asvamedha but by the putriya isti performed according to the mantras of Atharvasiras. The question naturally arises : when Asvamedha is enough for obtaining sons, why is a second rite - putriya isti - needed ? The commentators also have felt the contradiction in the situation and have tried to offer some plausible explanation. Govindaraja, for example, says that Asvamedha was performed to purge Dasaratha of all the sins after which the latter could properly perform the putresti. Govindaraja quotes a Vedic text to the effect that one who performs Asvamedba purges oneself even of the sin of Brahmicide.80 Tilaka carries the position still further and states that the Asvamedha is intended to expiate Dasaratha's sin of brahmicide which he had incurred in the prime of his youth in killing by mistake the young sage Sravana,31 Tilaka puts up the situation thus: If Dasaratha wanted sons for which putresti was enough, why should he perform Asvamedha at all? He had incurred the sin of Brahmicide in killing the ascetic child Sravana. He, therefore, should expiate the sin before he could perform putresti. For this purpose, Asvamedha was necessary. Tilaka's attempt to provide motivation for Asvamedha by referring to Sravanaepisode is activated by a desire not only to explain away the duplication of sacrifices, but also to glorify the institution of sacrifice. But there is adequate motivation for the so-called Sravana-episode in the place in which it occurs. In AyK, just before his death, Dasaratha remembers32 that in his youth, he had killed a young sage mistaking him for some animal, and his bereaved parents had cursed Dasaratha that he, too, would meet a similar death in separation of his children. Thus, Dasaratha's agonising death in separation of his sons is adequately motivated by this episode for which no 28 For a very plausible explanation of the exact implication of this rite and its accompanying dialogues, see : "A Folk-custom in the Asvamedha", S. A. Dange, JOIB, Vol. XVI, No. 4, June 1967, pp. 323-335. 29 See Kapadia's article in JUB, Vol. XXX, part 2, p. 18. 30 See his commentary on the beginning of BK. 12: evam dasarathah sarva-kama-samddho'pi putralabha-santaptas tanmulani papani svadbikaras nurupen'asvamedhena vina na vinasyant'iti manvanah, sarva-papmanam tarati tarati brahmahatyam yo'svamedhena yajate iti srutya raja-sarva-bhaumo'svamedhena yajeta iti smotya ca vihitam asvamedham yastum sankalpa..etc. Again, towards the end of that Sarga : evam putrotpatti-pratibandha-sakala-durita-nivarana-ksame..asvamedhe nirvstte...putra-prapti-karanam kratum sumantroktam manasi nidhaya etc. Read : yady'api putra-kamestya'iva putravaptih sambhavati, tathapi tapo-ratasya vaisyasya Sravanasya vadhe tad-viyogatura-taporata-raomata-pitmaranena ca brahmavadha-samapapotpattya tat-prayascittvena'svamedhanusthanam bodhyam.-Tilaka's commentary on BK, 14. 60. Ed. K. P. Parab, Nirpayasagar Press, Bombay. 32 AyK, 57-58.

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The Tales in Ramayana further justification, as sought by Tilaka, is necessary. On the contrary, if we accept Tilaka's explanation, some further contradictions creep in. (1) In the critical text, the hunted young sage remains anonymous in the sense that his name is not mentioned anywhere in the episode itself. How Tilaka must have got his name is a mystery.33 (2) Again, when the young sage himself says to the king Dasaratha that the king should not fear of having killed a brahmin since he is a vaisya's son born of a sudra,34 Tilaka's enthusiasm to compare it with Brahmicide is unwarranted, and is very probably guided by Govindaraja's general remarks regarding the efficacy of the Asvamedha Sacrifice even to expiate the great sin of brahmicide referred to above,35 (3) Further, as the narration goes, when he hunted the sage, Dasaratha was only a young prince and had not even married Kausalya.36 Now, if he was cursed to die in separation of his children, he must at least have the children to be separated from (if at all the curse was to come true); in that case, the curse will be a boon in disguise serving as a sure antidote against the childlessness of Dasaratha who then should not have any necessity of resorting either to Asvamedha or to Putresti for having sons. (4) Aesthetically also, Tilaka's attempt to explain away the duplication of sacrifices in this way anticipates the so-called Sravana-episode long before it actually occours in the course of the epic. The episode, thus, loses its charm arising out of its surprise occurance combined with the poetic effect of its flashback technique. But the author of the original RM knew the value of the element of surprise which is also evidenced in his introducing the episode of the crow as a sure indication of Sita's identity. The episode, though reminiscent in character, occurs for the first time in the SK, when Hanuman wants some unmistakable token of her identity.37 The charm of the incident lies in no small degree in its surprise appearence. Can we not expect a similar artistic insight in the introduction of the so-called Sravana-episode also ? Aesthetically, therefore, the Sravana-episode is well-placed in the structure of the plot, and its anticipation in any way would detract from its artistic effect. From this point of view, the inevitability of even the Advamedha seems uncertain. (5) Finally, it is better to take Dasaratha's obtainment of the four sons as the result of Asvamedha rather than of Putresti, since all the three queens who are said 33 Of course, Brahma-puranam (Adhyaya 123) mentions his name as Sravanakumara, but that is just one of the many names given to him in various works. See Rama-Katha, Bulcke, P, 314, 34 vide AyK: 57. 37. pa dvijatir aham rajan ma'bhut te manaso vyatha | sudrayam asmi vaisyena jato janapadadhipa // 35 See above footnote 30 36 AyK. 57. 10 : devy'anudha tvam abhayo yuvarajo bhavamy'aham 37 SK. 36. 12-32.

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics to obtain sons are mentioned by their personal as well as sacerdotal names only in connection with Asvamedha,38 The Putresti is just barely mentioned without any details. This means, that Asvamedha, and not Putresti, is properly emphasised as the cause of the hero's birth. The cumulative effect of the above considerations is that, if at all, the Asvamedha which itself is originally a fertility rite should be considered responsible for Dasaratha's obtaining the sons. Putresti is purely duplicative and useless, and therefore, very likely an interpolation in the tale later even than the Asvamedha. Consequently, the character of Rsyasmaga also which is specially brought in for performing that rite falls useless and appears grafted upon the narrative. This should naturally mean that the entire episode of Rsyasonga is a late addition even in BK. Some further considerations can be brought forth in corroboration. Vasistha is the famous Vedic sage, is the traditional family priest of the solar race, and is fully capable of performing the Asvamedha sacrifice. This Asvamedha, as shown above, 39 was actually intended to achieve Dasaratha's desire of having progeny, and it was a fertility rite originally. Putresti, therefore, is not at all necessary. Rsyasonga who is specially brought in to perform Putresti is also not necessary. Any tale or episode included in his name is, therefore, spurious. The person who must have added the episode was aware of the contradiction. This is reflected in the apologetic attitude of Dasaratha towards Vasistha when the former goes to king Romapada to fetch Rsyasonga with the consent of Vasistha.40 Again the sages who approve of Dasaratha's desire of performing Asvamedha are mentioned, as it were, in two groups : those headed by Vasistha and those headed by R$yasonga". The author of the interpolation, as it were, is at a loss about the relative importance of the two sages. The queer thing is, if these are to be taken as two groups of sages, it is the latter group that confirms in clear words that the king will obtain four sons from Asvamedha !42 Actually, whenever Vasistha is mentioned, the name of Rsyasonga also occurs almost without fail.43 The author, as it were, takes special care to see that Rsyasonga is never lost sight of in the glory of the name of Vasistha. Such an insistence for mentioning Rsyasonga even to the point of ridiculousness, raises, by its over-doing, our suspicion about its genuineness. Again, the redactor's attempt to present Rsyasonga as inevitable for Dasaratha's obtaining sons by showing him predestined for the purpose is also too obvious to be convincing. The very fact that such an attempt has to be made shows that the tale has been grafted upon the narrative at a later date. The form of the tale -- the device of narrating the present as viewed 38 See above footnote 12. 39 See above footnotes 24 and 25. 40 See above footnote 19. 41 Cf. BK, 11. 10c (Vasisthapramukhah sarve) and 11. lla (rsyasgrgapurogas ca). 42 vide BK. 11. 11cd & 12. 43 Cf. BK, 11. 10-11, 12,33, 12.34, 13.2, 13.42

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The Tales in Rama yana from a point of time in distant past as an event of future - is too strained to be artistic, and is created to serve the purpose of showing Rsyastnga as pre-destined and inevitable; otherwise, the purpose for which Rsyasonga is brought into the tale could be, or rather had been, accomplished even without him. The device reminds one of Robert Browning's famous poem "By, the Fireside" where the young poet tries to visualize how the present moment will probably be viewed at some moment of future in their old age, and by contrast effectively brings out its weak points. In this tale, therefore, the content of the tale is not very different from that in its other versions, but the peculiarity of its form indicates that the underlying purpose of introducing the tale is much deeper than the expressed one of obtaining sons for Dasaratha. Many versions of this tale are found in our literature, as well as in that of European countries. In native literature, there are two versions in the Buddhist Jatakas. In Alambusa Jataka (No. 523) the sage is seduced by a nymph Alambusa at the instance of Indra who is afraid of the sage's austere penance. In Nalinika Jataka (No. 526) the sage is seduced by the princess Nalinika. The MBh contains a version of the tale at VP.110-113 where the sage is seduced by a courtesan. The MBh version, which is believed by many scholars to be the oldest version of the tale" explains the name of the sage thus: "Since the sage had a horn of a deer in his head, he was famous by the name of Rsyastriga".45 The singular "a horn" must be noted. The name of the sage and its explanation in the oldest version of the tale are intriguing indeed. "The more correct spelling of the name is Rsya-sroga". 46 The name means "the horn of a deer". The characterstic of possessing a single horn on the head is significant. It is also found in the European versions of the tale where, however, the sage becomes an animal called 'Unicorn. The word is explained thus : "1. a mythical creature resembling a horse and having a single horn in the centre of its forehead : often symbolic of chastity or purity, capable of being tamed by a virgin, and usually successful in evading capture. 2. a heraldic representation of this animal, in the form (a) 44 Cf. "Dr, Sukthankar (Notes, MBh. III. 110)... has shown the chronological order of the deve lopment of the Episode as follows: (a) Original version of the MBh. (b) Version of the Padma Purana, probably with partial use of the former, (c) The version of the MBh (Vulgate) now current, containing the original nucleus which was worked over and assimilated with the Purana version. The Ramayana version is later than those of the Padma Purana" BK. pp. 438-39. Dr. G. H. Bhatt, the editor of BK also mentions that. according to Luders, the Gathas of Jataka, deriving from from still more ancient popular Akhyana poetry, must be older than the MBh, version; but, the fact that the MBh. version actually mensions the deer-horn in cannection with the sage which the Jatakas do not mention, seems to indicate that the MBh contains a more popular, and therefore, very likely, more ancient version. 45 Cf. VP. 110. 17. tasya'rsyasrngam sirasi rajann asih mahat manah / tena'rsyasraga ity'evam tada sa prathito'bhavat // 46 Vedic Index, Macdonell & Keith, under 'Rsya-songa'.

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40 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics of a horse with a lion's tail and with a straight, and spirally twisted horn".47 It will be noted that the first explanation hints at the unicorn-legend, while the second explanation is the later development of the animal. The standard legend of the Unicorn runs as follows: "The Unicorn, something between a horn and a kid, is amazingly powerful for his size. He has one long sharp conically shaped horn on his brow. He cannot be taken by force, but only through the following trick: The hunters. lead a virgin, into the woods, and as soon as the Unicorn smells and sees her runs to her and lays his horn in her lap. She fondles him until he falls asleep. Then the hunters approach and either capture him and lead him to the palace of the king, or kill him, cut off his horn, and bring it to the king." Noel Conti, sixteenth century Italian writer, puts it rather bluntly: "The wild beast desires the virgin's sexual embrace," A fifteenth century tapestry, placed now in the historic museum of Basle, Switzerland, shows a bare-breasted virgin caressing with her hand the single. spirally twisted horn on the head of a Unicorn. (We may note here, that though this Unicorn is supposed to be originally from India, where it was identified with the Indian rhinoceros, and then to assimilate various characterstics of the snakes, horses, antelopes, goats and asses, he, as depicted in the tapestry of Basle Historic Museum, very much appears to be like a deer.) In a Far-Eastern version he is seduced, loses hist powers and is taken to the royal palace with the girl riding him. The Tibetan version is noteworthy in that it puts a number of different aspects of the tale together. According to it, the Unicorn "is first angered by his son who breaks his (the Unicorn's) vessels which contain water, and then, in his fury, he stops the rain in the land and causes a drought. The daughter of the king intoxicates and seduces him; and as long as he has intercourse with her it rains thereby securing the fertility of the land."48 Two things go to prove that all these versions have sprung from the same origin. One is the extremely peculiar characteristic of the possesion of a single horn on the forehead either by a sage or an animal. The second is his seduction by a female - either virgin or a courtesan or a nymph. His ignorance of the female sex in Indian versions is introduced to emphasise his great strength of penance, his great chastity, as well as to rationalise his seduction by a member of the female sex which, in normal conditions, would be a contradiction of chastity. The motif of the sage's ignorance of the female sex thus serves to combine rationally two contradictory details of strong chastity and seduction. In the continental versions, the Unicorn is merely an animal acting instinctively, and therefore, no contradiction is felt in its being a symbol of chastity and purity and at the same time its feeling amorously attracted towards the virgin. The first characterstic shows that the name of the sage itself is symbolically significant. The name of the sage which is appropriate to his characteristic of possessing a deer-horn is a phallic symbol, Horns have had sexual significance since the dawn 47 Random House Dictionary, p. 1552. 48 "The Unicorn as a Phallic Symbol", David Bar - Illan, in EROS. Ed. Ralph Ginzburg, Autumn 1962, Vol. I, No. 3, p. 30

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The Tales in Ramayana of history, because of their shape, but also because "they represent power, virility, fierceness of the great god of fecundity worshipped by most early civilizations, the bull. Some less inhibited tribes like that of the Papuans wear them on their waists.60 "But usually they were worn on heads. However, the displacement does not change the born's symbolism. The terms of reference conscious or otherwise -- have always been the same." Apart from this phallic significance of the horn, the first part of the compound also has its implications. The word Rsya, spelt more accurately as Rsya, means a 'stag', its feminine form being 'Rohit'. "The procreative power of the stag (arsya vr$nya) was celebrated."58 It is perhaps for this reason that Lord Prajapati is almost always shown to have a close connection with deer in many of our mythical stories. There is a myth, for example, in the Aitareya Brahmana53 which says : Prajapati enjoyed his daughter's company from which the Mrga constellation was born. Another myth runs : Prajapati and Usas together were transformed into the Rohini (Doe) constellation. Another version of the former myth runs thus 54 Prajapati desired his daughter Dyaus. To prevent him from this, the gods created from their fierce forms Raudra and asked him to cut off the head of Prajapati. Raudra, being promised that he would be made Pasupati, did accordingly. The pierced Prajapati rose to the sky as 'Mrga' constellation. This version, it will be remembered, comes quite near to that famous Puranic myth 55 wherein Lord Brahma chased in the form of a deer his own daughter Sarasvati who, in order to escape her father's amorous advances, had taken the form of a doe. Lord Brahma was in turn chased and pierced by Lord Mahadeva in the form of a hunter, Another important point is that this sage Rsyasonga is said to be the son of sage Vibhandaka, son of Kasyapa. Now "Kasyapa is the name of a sage who is mentioned only once in the Rigveda, but is a common figure in the later Samhitas. He is always of a mythical character, as belonging to the distant past."56 In the Puranas, this Kasyapa is always mentioned as Prajapati who is the progenitor of all the creatures.57 49 ibid p. 28. 50 Cf. ibid. "Papuans whose penises are sheathed in long, horn-like shields, tied to their waists to resemble the erect phallus". p. 28. 51 ibid. 52 Vedic Index, under Rsya. 53 Aitareya Brahmana. 13.9. 54 ibid. 55 At many places in Puranas, e. g. Srimadbhagavata III. 12. 28. Vacam duhitaram tanvim svayambhur haratim manah / akamam cakame saktah sakama iti nah srutam // 56 Vedic Index, under 'Kasvapa'. 57 Cf. Purana-parisilana, Mm. Pt. Giridhar Sharma Chaturvedi, Bihar Rashtrabhasha Parishad, Patna, 1970. pp. 31, 159, etc. ST. 6

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics Even in MBh, Kasyapa is said to be the father of "these creatures"63 through the thirteen daughters of Daksa. When, therefore, Kasyapa's son Vibhandaka is said to procreate a son named Rsyasonga in a doe, 59 we need not resort to totemic or tribal interpretation of the myth as some do. 60 Of course, it is not unlikely that the sage wore a deer-horn on his head. Such a possibility has, in fact, been pointed out. Dange, for example, says: "In the case of Rsyastnga it is doubtful if the Rsi had an original horn on the head; it appears rather more probable that the horn was attached, in view of the belief in the power of fertility and virility in the horn."61 But looking to the continuation of the mythical development of the tale from the Brahmanas to the Puranas and the Great Epics, it seems more probable that the whole myth is nothing but simply the result of pastoral symbolisation, wherein the original Prajapati (the lord of Creatures) becomes Kasyapa, while his transformation into a deer combines, through the agency of Lord Rudra-Pasupati, 62 to give the phallic symbol of deer-horn where horn stands as the phallic symbol par excellence. The intervention of Vibhandaka ('one with lost or broken vessels' !) in the genealogy is rather difficult to explain but the Tibetan version might have some clue in that direction,63 which we shall presently try to consider. The second characteristic -- the sage's seduction by a female - points to another aspect of the tale. Once we grant that the name of the sage reveals a phallic symbol intended to serve for profuse procreation, the seduction part of the tale automatically falls into place as a sort of mimetic magic always shown to result in rains in the drought-stricken countries. In the Alambusa Jataka, Indra releases rains after the nymph seduces the sage. The only change in the Nalinika-Jataka is that the seducer there is the princess Nalinika instead of the nymph. The more sophisticated epic-versions show the princess santa being actually given to the sage in marriage. The Tibetan version, on the other hand, is more outspoken. It tells us that 63(the 58 Cf. Adip, 59, 11. mariceh Kasyapah putrah Kasyapat tu imah prajah / prajajnire mahabhaga daksa-kanyas trayoda sa // 59 Cf. VanP. 110, 4 ab. mtgyam jatah sa tejasvi kasyapasya sutah prabhuh 60 As, for example, Sitanath Pradhan does in chronology of Ancient India (Calcutta Univertity, 1927). Cf. "There we find that Vibhandaka Kasyapa... had his son named Rgyastnga by a Mrgi (evidently a non-Aryan maid)". p. 156. Pastoral Symbolism from the Rgveda, Dr.S.A. Dange, University of Poona, Poona 7.1970. p. 107 62. It will be interesting to note in this connection the myth given in the Satapatha Brahmana. VI. 1.3.8-20. Prajapati placed his energy in Usas. Usas gave birth to a son. The son cried as soon as he was born. So Prajapati named him 'Rudra' from rud-'to cry'. But the son became Fire. So he was named Agni'. He claimed, he was greater than his name, so he was called 'Sarva' (sarva). "Thus claiming to be greater than his name every time, he obtained the names of 'Ap', 'Pasupati', Ugra', 'Asani', 'Bhava', 'Mahadeva', and 'isana', thus obtaining eight names in all. 63 See above footnote No. 48. There, the son breaks up the father's vessels which contain water So the father virtually becomes 'vi-bhandaka'! 61 Po names of Carva). "Thusmed. Agni. med him or

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The Tales in Ramayana 43 daughter of the king intoxicates and seduces him, and as long as he has intercourse with her, it rains." It is well-known among folklorists that the primitive folk almost always look upon human mating - particularly ritual or festive mating - as a sympathetic charm to induce rains. The mating of human couple is believed to be similar to the mating of the divine couple -- the sky and the Earth -- and is a microscosmic presentation of it, sympathetically inducing the macrocosm to imitate it resulting in rains which is the procreative energy divine. This belief of treating the ritual human mating as a fertility-rite is symbolised - mythified - in the entire story of Rsyasonga as is revealed in the common motif-structure observed in all the versions of the tale. The basic motif-structure of the tale is familiar to us in a slightly different form. A sage takes to austere penance, and Indra gets frightened. He causes some nymph to break the penance of the sage which task is invariably accomplished by seducing the sage. The pattern is too familiar to need any illustrations. The mention of the episode of Visvamitra and Menaka only will suffice. In the epic versions of the Rsyasrnga tale, the frightened Indra does not occur directly. But it is said there, that on account of some mistake of the priests the rain in the Anga country is withheld by Indra and released on account of the fear of Sage Rsyasonga.64 This role of Indra as the 'penance-breaker' is very clearly shown in both the Jataka-versions of the tale. In the Alambusa-Jataka he himself orders the nymph to seduce sage Rsyastnga, whereas in the Nalinika-Jataka he withholds rains thus compelling the king to persuade his princess daughter Nalinika to seduce the sage. This recurrence of the motifpattern in numberless tales, therefore, points to its purely imaginary, rather mythical, character. There is one more slightly different, motif-structure which is familiar to us through numerous episodes of sages in our traditional literature. The motif-pattern which leads to the birth of sage Rsyastaga is also very characteristic. Sage Vibhandaka, being excited at the sight of nymph Urvasi, drops his procreative energy into water, which results in the birth of Sage Rsyasonga. The intervening motif of the seed passing with water into the mouth of a doe thus causing her to conceive65 is only motivated to justify the son's characteristic of possessing a deer-horn and is not necessary. In a folk-tale, the sage could be born even without her. "The blood or seed of gods, if it falls on the ground, is nearly always fertile."66 The seed of MitraVaruna, dropping at the sight of Urvasi, gives birth to the sages Vasistha and 64 VanP. 110.3, 21, 26 etc. The queer thing is that though the Brahmanas advise the king to ex piate, in the same breath, they promise that if Rsyasraga comes into his country, it will rain ! Are we to suppose that bringing Rsyassnga or giving him the princess in marriage was a form of expiation ? 65 VanP. 110. 14-16. 66 The Nature of Greek Myths, G. S. Kirk, Pelican Series P. 115. It will be interesting to note in this connection that the epithet 'amogha-virya' is very commonly applied to the sages and gods, particularly n such cases. Cf, the epithet given to Vibha@daka, Van P. 110. 11.

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics Agastya. The seed of Lord Agni, dropping on the ground, gives birth to Lord Skanda Karttikeya." The seed of Sage Saradvat, dropping at the sight of a nymph on a clump of grass (sara-stamba), gives birth to Sage Krpa and his sister Krpi - the mother of Asvatthaman. From the seed of Sage Bharadvaja dropping in a droni, Sage Drona is born.70 The same pattern of motifs recurring in so many instances is a clear proof of its being the result of a characteristically folk-imagination. 44 The fact that the two motif-patterns have some similarity also should not be missed. The father is excited by a nymph, the son is seduced by a female. It will be remembered that in the Tibetan version the father himself, is 'Unicorn' as well as 'the one with the broken vessels' (which contained water !) he is himself both 'Rayasraga and Vibhandaka', and when seduced he causes rains. In the Indian versions the father loses the procreative energy, while the son achieves rains. And, is not the rain-water called the divine seed? The father and the son of our native versions would thus appear to represent only two aspects of one and the same mythical character which as we have shown above is very likely only a transformation of Lord. Prajapati. Kasyapa, Vibhandaka and Rsyairaga will thus appear to be three different forms of the selfsame mythical character rather than three generation of a family of sages. In the first chapter, we had agreed to eschew considering the other-than-the-epic versions of these tales. Yet, we have made here an exception just to show what dimensions each of these tales can take. And the implications of these con siderations amply justify our act of excepting this tale. (1) Most of our purapists like Pargiter, S. N. Pradhan, Hazra and others are generally prone to treat the Puranic and Epic persons and genealogies as pre-eminently historical and try to set up some sort of chronological relations between them by discussing and deciding upon contemporaneity of this or that 'historical' (?) persons. Rsyanga, for example, has been treated as a historical person, contemporary of King Dasaratha of the Solar line of Ayodhya and of King Romapada of Bengal and so on." But, if, as we have seen above, all the incidents of the tale are purly mythical, 67 Vedic Index, Vol. II. P. 276, under 'Vasistha'. The epithet 'born of a pitcher (kumbha)' is used number of times for Agastya (Cf, VanP. 96.2) which alludes to his divine birth. 68 BK. 36.16-18 & ff. Generally, this is narrated in the name of Lord Siva, but in BK, in the name of Agni. 69 AdiP. 57. 90. 70 AdiP. 57,89. 71 See: Ancient Indian Historical Tradition. F.E. Pargiter 1922, pp. 164,192,233,314; Chronology of Ancient India, Sita Natn Pradhan, 1927, pp. 23, 156,209; etc. A. D. Pusalkar's attempts to sift and interpret the Puranic data in a different way also proceed on an assumption of their historicity. See The Vedic Age, Ed. R.C. Majumdar, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Fourth Edition, 1965, Book IV (Historical Traditions'). pp. 271 ff.

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The Tales in Ramayana then we will have to be very cautious in accepting the so-called historicity of our puranic personages, and the claims and attempts of our Puranists to construct some nomenclature of history from the Puranic genealogies will be thrown in serious doubt. At least, we shall have to wait till the tales we intend to utilise as our historical data are proved not to be purely mythical. We shall confirm this caution below while discussing the Abalya-tale. (2) Another interesting aspect of the motif-pattern is the role of Indra as the "Penance-breaker'. Apparently it seems to point to the well-known Brahmana-Sramana dichotomy. The Sramana attitude characterised by austere penance and renunciation of the worldly pleasures is symbolised in the sages whereas Indra is the highest god of the Vedas, the premier books of Brahmanism, and his selfishly antagonistic attitude towards the sages has been a standard butt of joke. But there is more in it than meets the eye. Actually, the Rsyasonga tale furnishes an important clue to all such seduction-tales. The basic structure of the male seduction by a female is similar in all these episodes but at other places the seduction of the sage merely means the loss of his accumulated power of penance. So Indra who causes the nymphs to seduce the sage is presented there as a very coward god trembling at the merest excess of the penance of some sage. In the Rsyastaga-tale if the seduction of the sage means loss of accumulated pedance, it also means bringing rains for the plenty. The real cause of always connecting Indra with the seductions of the sages is revealed here. Originally, the ritual human mating -- the male seduction by the female -- must have been intended to serve as a sympathetic mimetic magic to induce rains -- symbolic of the earth's attempt to seduce the sky who is withdrawing his seed divine -- the rain-water - thus laying the land barren.72 Indra is connected with the ritual since he is the god of rains. It is he who withdraws rains. It is he who should be propitiated by the act of human mating. The imposition of some reason on his act of withdrawing the rains - viz. his anxiety about the austere penance of some sage and his attempt to interrupt it -- are only later, most probably since the time of the spread of sramanic religions, especially Buddhism. Indra in the jatakas is clearly shown to be antagonis. tic to the penance of the sages-ascetics. But there at least his characteristic as the God of rains is retained. In the Puranic versions, which seem to be still later, Indra's antagonism for the penance of the sages is rendered pointless since his status as the rain -god has been dissociated from the seduction-tales. What remains of him is only a coward - miserable god, almost the antithesis of his Vedic image. The sramanic influence has set the trend of the change in the degradation of the image of Vedic Indra. (3) The motif of the 'Tempest in reverse'73 has very well been exploited by the one who first wrote it out. The description of a female in the mouth of a sage who 72 Regarding the marriage of Hea en and Earth see S. A. Dange's paper. "The Marriage of Heaven and Earth in the Vedic Ritual", Proceedings of AIOC, XXVIII. 73 In 'The Tempest' of Shakespeare, the girl is living upon an island with her father and has not seen any other male. (Caliban is not fully human.) In the Rsya sraga tale the sage is living with his father and has not seen any human female.

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46 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics has never seen a woman in his life, and who, being ignorant of the sex-differences, tries to describe her also as a sage is full of humorous possibilities, and once again reminds one of and confirms the relation between Eros and laughter; of Stngara and Hasya, so tacitly accepted by our prime Natyacarya Bharata.74 (4) Finally, the question remains : why was Rsyasonga brought in when Vasistha was already there? Vasistha is a famous Vedic Seer. He is fully capable of performing Asvamedha which Dasaratha desires to do in order to obtain sons and which is expected to fulfil that desire as is attested by the rites of the sacrifice as well as by the textual evidence. What is more, he is the traditional family-priest of the Solar kings and in that capacity is supposed to have a right and a responsibility to perform the sacrifice. And he performs it! There is absolutely no necessity of any other sage. Why Rsasonga ? One possible answer could be this : the Upavesana ceremony and the vulgar dialogues of the Asvamedha sacrifce which are the core of the sacrifice and which can rightly be looked upon as the direct causes of the birth of the epic-beroes might, at some stage of the development of the culture and perhaps of the epic), have seemed abhorrant to the more refined tastes of the people. So the redactors might have brought in another sage to do the job. The reason for choosing this sage might be its popularity on account of its comic element as well as its being famous as the tale symbolising the fertility-rite. But that is exactly the reason which makes this answer unacceptable. If the Upavesana and the vulgar dialogues seemed abhorrant, could the ludicrous comic and the symbolised motif of the fertility-rite be less so ? Actually, the fact of the sage being given the princess in marriage itself shows the epic-authors' attempt to suppress its seemingly unethical aspect of merely ritual mating. The author of the RM-version suppresses even the comic element of the tale; therefore, it could not have been brought in for its entertainment value either. The more probable answer seems to be this : Rsyassrga is brought in with a purpose to perform Putresti and this Putresti is said to be Atharvana.76 Vasistha is a Rigvedic Seer and cannot be supposed to perform an Atharvana rite which can rightly be entrusted only to a sage who is either an expert of Atharvana rites or belongs to the Atharvavedic tradition. Therefore, Rsysroga must be supposed to have close connection with the Atharvaveda. But the evidence of our Brahmanic and Puranic gensalogies does not show Rsyasrnga to be in some very special relation to the Atharvana tradition.76 We have, however, seen in Chapter I that both the Atharvaveda and the Epics-Puranas are very closely linked with the folk-literature 74 Ch. Srngarad dhi bhaved dhasyo. Naya'sastra of Bharata, VI. 39; GOS, Baroda, II edn., 1956, 75 Cf. istim te'ham karisyami putriyam putra-karapat atharva-sirasi proktair mantraih siddham vid hana tah || BK. 14, 2. 76 See Pargiter-Pradhan, Vedic Index etc.

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The Tales in Ramayana and folk-customs. And we know that Bhrgus are closely connected with the Atharvaveda and also with the final redaction of the MBh. Can we now not suppose legitimately that they might have tried to similarly influence RM also ? And then who else than the Bhrgus could be the authors of this redactorial act? The tale, at least, reflects a widely prevalent and popular folk-custom. Could we say that the Bhrgus were the great custodians of the folk-lore? It may be noted in this connection that the tale of Rsyslnga in RM is put in the mouth of Sumantra who is said to be a 'suta'77 - belonging to the caste of bards who were the custodians of the traditional lore. The purpose of this redactorial jugglery, then, should be very clear now. Though Vasistha was there, Rsyasonga is brought in to show the hero of the epic being born from an Atharvana rite. This puts Atharvaveda at a premium at the cost of Rgveda to which Vasistha belongs and of Yajurveda of which Asvamedha is an important sacrifice. In this connection, the observations of Ganesh Thite78 are worth considering. He sees creative, classical and decadent tendencies in the contents of Rgveda, Yajurveda and Samaveda respectively. It goes without saying that the three samhitas are composed mainly for sacerdotal purposes. Could we say that the Atharvaveda reflects the popular tendency as contrasted with the scaerdotal - scientific tendency of the other three Vedas? Between the performance of the Putriya isti and its reruit in the form of the four sops born to the three queens of Dasaratha, the tale of Genesis79 - as Sukthankar would have called it -- is included. The gods, troubled by the demon Ravana, request Visnu to be born as the four sons of Dasaratha.80 In Adip also, the Earth oppressed by the demons complains to Brahma who asks all gods including Visnu to be born as human beings.81 In both, Visnu is shown to be born as Rama and Krsna. The incarnation theory is pressed into service and the Vaisnavaite influence is clear. Such tales are again a matter of common occurance in the Puranas. Their inclusion in the Epics is motivated to provide one more point of contact between the Epics and the Puranas -- one more justification for classing them together. From the incarnation point of view, the characters of Rama and Kraa provide an interesting comparison. Rama is an ideal sovereign, is the hero of Epic and the enthusiasm of the Vaisnavaite redactors to show him as an incarnation of Visnu can be understood. But when we come to the MBh, we find that in showing Krsna to be 77 Cf. BK. 8.5. 78 Cf. 'Samavediya Sahityaci Vaidika Yajnakarmata bhara, Ganesh U. Thite, Navabharata, (Marathi) Sept. 1973. pp. 31-39. 79 On the Meaning of the Mahabharata, V. S. Sukthankar, p. 62. 80 BK, 14.4 - 15. 7. The Gods also are born as monkeys and bears. BK. 16. 81 AdiP. 58.25 -59.6.

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics an incarnation of the Highest God, the redactor reveals a very deep sensitivity. Krsna is not the hero of the epic, The Pandavas are the heroes. But Krsna is the character commanding their highest respect and exerting greatest influence on their activites as well as guiding them deftly through many a thick of the situations. In showing this Krsna as an incarnation of the Highest God, the redactor very aptly shows the benevolent saksibhava of the Supreme God. The creatures bear fruits of their actions but the Almighty helps the right succeed in the end. He is not the Actor, he is only Moulder. 48 (3) The Entourage Tales Sargas 17 to 21 narrate the episode which, in a way, can be said to belong to the principal story. Visvamitra comes to Dasaratha and asks from him his son Rama for ten days for guarding his (i.e. Visvamitra's) sacrifice from demons Marica and Subahu. Dasaratha hesitates, but Visvamitra narrates the history of the weapons 2 which Visvamitra possesses, and persuades the king to comply with the wish of the sage whereupon the king agrees. The sage Visvamitra then proceads with the two princes Rama and Laksmana in the direction of Siddhasrama where he intends to perform the sacrifice. The episode has many significant implications. It is Visvamitra, and not Vasistha, who equips Rama with those divine weapons which eventually become his strongpoint in his fight against Ravana and his commanders. Visvamitra's image is raised at the cost of Vasistha who, as the family priest of the Solar race, has a right and a responsibility to shape the hero's personality properly so as to prepare him for the great task which awaits him. The demons obstructing the sacrifice are, again, said to be acting upon the instruction of Ravana; of these demons, Tataka, the wife of Sunda, and Subahu, the son of Upasunda, are killed by Rama; while Marica is made senseless and flung into distant oceans." On the one hand, tnis shows Rama, the great bow-wielder, in the making. He, with the help of Laksmana only, fights back the three demons with their host. On the other hand, the episode is also perhaps intended to serve as the starting point of the conflict between the hero and the entagonist, since the demons obstructing the sacrifice are said to be instigated by Ravana himelf. The duplication is obvious. The real starting point of the epic conflict is the famous insult of Surpanakha who, then, incites Ravana's lust for revenge as well as for the beautiful Sita. 82 BK. 20.13-17. 83 BK. 26-27. 84 BK. 19.18. 85 BK. 23.25 & BK. 25. 86 BK, 29.19. 87 BK, 29. 16-17,

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The Tales in Ramayana The history of the weapons which Visvamitra possesses is narrated by Vasistha. Krasva married two daughters of Daksa Prajapati, Jaya and Suprabha by name. Each gave birth to fifty brilliant never-failing weapons. Visvamitra knows them all. This Kraiva has been traced to the Vaisali line of kings by Pargiter,88 but the name of the Vaisali king as given in the critical edition of BK is Kusasva. Krsasva the father of the weapons, should have been a mythical person, while Kusasva perhaps refers to some historical person. It is better to believe them to be two different persons instead of identifying them as Pargiter does. Pradhan does not mention the name. On their way from Ayodhya to Siddhasrama, Visvamitra narrates some tales connected with the places of their halts. On the bank of the confluence of the rivers Ganga and Saraya, they halt at Kamasrama where, Visvamitra narrates, Siva burnt Kama.89 Then they are in the dense forests of the Malada and Karasa. Indra incurred the sin of Brahmicide by killing Vrtra. He was washed here of the sin by gods, and he blessed the country with prosperity,90 Presently, country is ravaged by Tataka, the daughter of Suketu, wife of Sunda, mother of Marica, and cursed by sage Agastya to become demoness for attacking him in fury upon the sage's killing of her husband,92 order to remove Rama's disinclination to kill a woman, Visvamitra refers very briefly, in one sloka each, to Indra's killing of Manthara, the daughter of Virocana, who wanted to destroy the Earth,93 and to Visnu killing the wife of Bhrgu who desired to make the world without Indra. On reaching Siddhasrama, Visvamitra tells the princes that that is place where Visnu in his Vamana incarnation took everything away. from Bali in just three steps.95 The tales of Kamasrama, and Siddhasrama are clearly myths and, therefore, there is no justification in narrating them as events of local history. 49 Similarly the tale of the Malada-Karusa country is artificially connected with the myth of Indra's Vrtra-vadha by taking advantage of the names of the country. Such etymological stories are very common, not only in the epics and Puranas but also in Vedic literature. The metre sakvari is so-called because with stanzas in that metre, Indra could (sak) kill Vrtra,96 Fire obtained creatures as soon as he was born, so he is called Jatavedas.97 In the same way, the Epics also either refer to the known legends 88 Ancient Indian Historical Tradition, p. 147. 89 BK. 22. 9-15. 90 BK, 23. 16-23, 91 BK. 23. 24-27. 92 BK. 24. 4-12. 93 BK. 24. 17. 94 BK. 24.18. 95 BK. 28. 2-12. 96 Kausitaki Brahmana, XXIII. 2: tad yad abhir vrtram asakid dhantum tac chakvarinam sakvaritvam. 97 Satapatha Brahmayat IX, v, 1.68: yat taj jatah paiunn avindata iti taj jatavedaso jatavedastvam. S. T. 7

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50 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics in a derivative manner or create stories to explain certain names. Cyavana is so called because he angrily slipped out (Vcyu) of his mother's womb to become free; 98 Aurva is so called because he was born by breaking open his mother's thigh.99 The legends of Cyavana and Aurva already exist and in explaining the name of the sages they are simply used in a derivative fashion. On the other hand the tale which relates Indra with the Malada-Karusa country is freshly created to avail of the possibility latent in the name. Similar is the tale in which Brahma creates waters, and then some beings to protect them. He orders them to protect(Vraks). Those, who hear fraksa' become Raksasas, those who hear 'yaksa' become Yaksas. 100 In fact, this tendency to justify names by explaining them in a derivative fashion and even to concoct a story to that end is extremely popular and variously reflected in all kinds of folk-literature. The brief references to the tales of Indra and Visnu are clearly to justify the apparently unlawful feminicide, and thus to break Rama's disinclination to kill a female demon. Sargas 30 to 49 form the second part of these entourage tales. After performing the sacrifice successfully at Siddhasrama, the sage and the princes do not return to Ayodhya, but, contrary to our expectations, proceed in the direction of Mithila, the capital of King Janaka, to witness the famous divine bow101 placed in the royal court of that king. This part of the tour is entirely unwarranted. The tales are grouped according to the places of halt. Their first halt is on the bank of the river sona or Kausiki (modern Kosi) in the city of Girivraja. 102 The tales of Kusanabha's hundred daughters deformed by Vayu, of their marriage with Brahmadatta, of the birth of Brahmadatta, and then of Kusanabha's performance of pautri isti to obtain a son, the genealogy of Kusanabha > Gadhi > Satyavati (married to Rcika and after bodily going to heaven with her husband, turning into the river Kausiki) and Visvamitra himself, are narrated here. 103 Since the character of Visvamitra is introduced in the BK, there is some justification in narrating the tales connected with his genealogy. Their second halt is on the bank of the river Ganga, 104 and the fact that Ganga was brought from heaven by king Bhagiratha, an ancestor of Rama himself, justifies the narration of the Gargavatarana-story. Ganga can syinbolically be called the daughter of Himavat, and by availing himself of this device the redactor also accommodates the tale of the birth of Karttikeya by making Uma the younger sister 98 AdiP. 60.44: yah sa rosac cyuto matur moksaya........ 99 AdiP. 60.45: aurvas tasyah samabhavad urum bhittva mahayasah / 100 UK. 4.9-13. Also, see the names of Visravas (UK, 2.27), and Vaisravana (UK. 3.7), and Apsarases (BK. 44,18). 101 BK. 30. 7-8. 102 BK, 30.18. 103 BK. 31-33. 104 BK. 34, 6-7.

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The Tales in Ramayana of Ganga. 105 The tale is narrated in a peculiar way. Ganga and Uma are daughters of Himavan. Uma marries Siva, and her dalliance with Lord Siva is interrupted by Gods. Siva's energies, dropped on Earth, become the Sveta-mountain. 106 Ganga, unable to bear the lustre of God Agni, throws the foetus out in the valley of Himavat, 107 presumably on the Sveta-mountain;108 the foetus then is nourished by Ksttikas and is called Karttikeya.109 He is thus not the child of Siva and Uma, but of Agni and Ganga. Ksttikas do not bear him, they only nourish the foetus born prematurely. The differences in the details of the story are interesting. These tales occupy Sargas 34 to 36. Sargas 37 to 43 narrate the famous Gangavatarana in usual details with a phalasruti 111 which makes the narrative a self-complete unit. Then the tourists cross the Ganga and the sight of the city of Visala 111 occasions two tales - that of the churning of ocean 112 and that of the birth of Marutas. 113 In the fight for nector churned out from the ocean, all the sons of Diti were slain. Diti then performed penance to obtain a son who could slay Indra. Indra, in the disguise of an attendant, kept her company. Once finding an opportunity when she was unclean, Indra entered into her womb and with the words do not weep' (ma rudah, hence they are called Marutas) cut the embryo into seven, who then became seven Lokapalas. Here also, more than anything else, it is the etymological fancy that seems to be responsible for the creation of a new myth. Visala is said to be the place where Diti performed the penance, Indra stayed and cut the embryo, and the Lokapalas were born. Whether the myth contains some germinal truth is very doubtful. It is more likely that the author wanted to bring in the ocean-churning story, and concocting some tale with the etymology of Marutas, he took an opportunity to do so: Visala, the founder of the city, is said to be the sons of Iksvaku from Alambusa. 114 From Vjsala the genealogy is given down upto the king Sumati who is ruling there at the time. 115 From Visala the tourists reach Mithila on the outskirts of which the sight of the hermitage of sage Gautama creates an occasion for narrating the famous Ahalyatale. 116 Once, when sige Gautama was out, Indra, in his guise, approached his wife Ahalya who, though recognising him to be Indra, accepted his advances out of curiosity. But, when Indra was escaping from the hermitage, he was confronted by the sage entering just at that time. The sage cursed Indra to be fruitless (as a result of which his testicles tell on the ground and had to be replaced by those of a ram117) and Ahalya to be condemned to solitude, unseen by others, in that very hermitage till Rama visited the place. The prevalent notion that Ahalya was cursed to turn into 105 BK, 34.14. 112 BK, 44. 13-27. 106 BK. 35.18. 113 BK, 45-46. 107 BK. 36.17 114 BK. 46.11. 108 BK. 35.18 115 BK. 46. 12-17. 109 BK, 36, 23-25. 116 BK. 47. 14-32. 110 BK. 43.20. 117 BK. 48. 1-10. 111 BK. 44.10.

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52 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics a stone till the touch of Rama's feet revived her, is not supported by the critical edition and shows the workings of popular imagination always revelling in a little exaggeration. The actual curse runs thus : "You will stay in this hermitage for many thousands of years, unseen by all the creatures, without food, living on air, and doing penance in the bed of ashes."118 It is more in nature of a sort of social seclusion rather than some miracle. The central motif of the tale is the punishment of an unchaste woman. One is immediately reminded of another, equally famsus tale attributed to Rama Jamadgaya. As Sukthankar narrates it:119 'Jamadagni married Renuka, daughter of King Prasenajit. She gave birth to five sons : Rumanvat, Susena, Vasu, Visvavasu, and last but not the least Rama. The family lived happily for some time. Then one day when Renuka of rigid vows happened to see Citraratha, the handsome king of Marttikavataka, sporting in water with his numerous wives, her fortitude forsook her and she felt the pangs of desire. When she returned to the hermitage, Jamadagni noticed her pollution and guessed her secret. In a fit of rage he called in turn upon each of his sons to kill their unchaste mother. Four of them refused to do the atrocious deed and were cursed by the angry and disappointed father for their disobedience. Then came the last of all that "slayer of hostile heroes", Rama Jamadagnya. A military type, accustomed to receive and obey orders, Rama, when sternly commanded by his father to slay his mother, took his axe and without hesitation chopped off his mother's head ! Jamadagni, mightily pleased with the instant obedience of his son, granted Rama several boons, among them the boon that the mother whom Rama had decapitated might be restored to life.'120 The central motif in the tale is the same as that in the Ahalya-tale but the details are completely different. Apart from the sin of feminicide, the very fact of a mother being capitally punished by her son is grossly inconsistent, and would appeal only to the crudely vulgar taste. The Bhargava brahmins must have closed their eyes to the obvious impropriety in their enthusiasm to show the quality of dutifulness in gaudy colours. The tale is very well in keeping with the haughty nature of the Bhargavas. The impropriety of this tale must not have escaped the notice of our traditional thinkers who have narrated a third tale - that of Cirakarin 121 - with the same central motif. There was a sage Gautama of Angirasa family. Once his wife incurred some transgression. The sage, in a fit of rage, asked his son Cirakarin to slay her and went out. Cirakarin, true to his name, used to take great time in pondering over matters and taking decisions in their regard. So he started thinking about the pros 118 BK. 47. 28-29. Cf, iha varsa-sahasrani bahuni tvam nivatsyasi || vayu-bhaksa nirabara tapyanti bhasmasayini adrsya sarvabhutanam asrame'smin nivatsyasi // 119 Critical Studies in the Mahabharata, V. S. Sukthankar, (V. S. Sukthankar Memorial Edi tion, Vol. I, Ed. P. K. Gode), 1944, Poona. p. 296 120 VanP. 116, 1-17. 121 San P. 258.

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The Tales in Ramayana 53 and cons of the father's order. Quite a lot of time passed in this pondering during which the father, when his wrath subsided, realised the impropriety of his order and returning to the hermitage, was actually happy to find his son still hesitant and indecisive regarding the execution of his order. The tale is clearly an attempt to examine critically but indirectly both the tales given above. The motif of transgression and the name of sage Gautama remind one of the Ahalya-tale, but the nature of punishment immediately shifts our attention to the Bhargava-episode. And the deliberation-part of the story is clearly intended to gloss over the propriety of Jamadagni's order to his son to execute the deviating woman. The writer narrates the episode in the name of Gautama merely to escape the wrath of the Bhargava brahmins, most probably because, as Sukthankar has shown, 122 their influence upon the epic in the stage of its final redaction was very strong. But the tale very effectively shows not only that the act of Parasurama was criticised even in the ancient days but that there also was a differnce of opinion in the matter of taking the woman's fault for granted. Another interesting aspect of the tale is that it seeks to criticise the Bhargava tale by changing some of the details, and by bringing in some motifs and details from some other tale with the similar central motif. It is an attempt at criticism by reshuffling of the motif-structure - an interesting method of folk-criticism. The Analya tale is nowhere fully narrated in the MBh. But from the stray references123 we realise that the MBh-redactors know the tale in this form. On the other hand, there is no knowledge of the tale in Vedic literature, where we find Indra being addressed with some epithets having some bearing on the tale, that too only in the Brahmana literature. 124 In the Subrahmanya litany, Indra is invoked thus; Subrahmanyom subrahmanyom subrahmanyom/ indragaccha hariva agaccha medhatitheh/ mesa vrsanasvasya mene/ gauravaskandinn ahalyayai jara/ kausika brahmana gautama bruvana iti This is quoted as given in Taittiriya Aranyaka of the Black Yajurveda, since it is in its purest form. The Brahmanas break up the invocation into different epithets and intersperse them with explanations-arthavada. Satapatha Brahmana says : Indra is invoked since he is the god of the sacrifice. Then, the epithets upto 'Ahalyayai Jara' are addressed to Indra to wish him joy in those affairs of his. The last epithet 122 "The Bhrgus and the Bharata : A Text-Historical Study in Critical Studies etc. See above fn. 119. pp. 278-337. 123 Like UdyP. 12.6. 124 See : Satapatha Brahmana III. iii, 4. 18-19. Jaiminiya Brahmana II. 79-80 Ed. Lokesh Chandra, Nagpur 1950, Sadvinsa Brahmana I. i. 19-24. Ed. W. H. Julius, Leiden, 1908 and Taittiriya Aranyaka I. 12.

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics 'Gautama Bruvana' is said to be recently devised by Aruni and is optional,125 Jaiminiya Brahmana explains: 'Hariva agaccha' - come with steeds. Either prana and apana or day and night are the steeds. 'Medhatither mesa'. -- Indra drank up the king having become the ram of Medhatithi. 'Vrsanasvasya mene'- Indra stayed at home becoming the beloved of Vrsanasva. 'Gauravaskandin' - Becoming white he dropped down into the sea. 'Ahal ya yai jara' -- He was the paramour of Ahalya Maitreyi. 'Kausika brahmana, Kausika bruvana' - When he was fighting with Asuras, he threw Vedas out, Then he learnt them from Visvamitra. Therefore he is called Kausika. Some say *Kausika brahamana Gautama bruvana.' It has been devised by the famous Aruni. Therefore, one should bot go in his direction, but recite the original formula 126 Sadvimsa Brahmana gives different explanations: 'Hariva agaccha' - East and west are the two steeds 127 Medhatither Mesa' - Indra, becoming a ram, carried away Medhatithi Kanvyayana. 'Vrsanasvasya mene' - Indra desired the daughter, Menaka by name, of Vtasanasva Mena. Gauravaskandin' - Becoming white antelope, and dropping, he drinks the king from the forest. 128 "Ahalyayai Jara - He was the paramour of Ahalya Maitreyi. Kausika Brahmana -- Kausika Brahmana marricd her. "Gautama bruvana' "The gods and Asuras were at war with each other. Gotama was performing austerities between them. Indra went upto him and said, 'Go out as our spy.' 'I cannot he replied. Then I will go in your form'. 'As thou thinkest fit.' And because he (Indra) went about in the form of Gota ma, passing himself off as Gotama, therefore he says, 'thou who callest thee Gotama,"129. It will be seen that in the above explanations of the epithets addressed to ladra in the Subrahmanya litany, some threads of the Ahalya-tale as found in the epic are discernible. The detail which is common throughout is that Indra is the paramour of Ahalya. The epithet is commonly accepted in all the Brahmanas and confirmed by the epic-tale. The next epithet Kausika brahmana' is accepted in all the Brahmanas but its significance is shown to be different. Satapatha has nothing particular to be said on it. Jajminiya explains it by saying that since Indra learnt Vedas from Visvamitra, a (?) Kausika, he himself is called Kausika. That Visvamitra is mentioned by name is significant. Sadvimsa explains the epithet by saying that Kausika brahmana married her, i. e. Ahalya. The implication is brought out by the Vijnapanabhasya. Kausika is the husband of Ahalya. Indra is her paramour. Therefore, Indra stands in the 125 III. iii. 4. 18.... indro vai yajnasya devata tasmad ahendragaccheti... jareti tad yany evasya caranani tair evainam etat pramu mudayisati/ III. iii, 4.19.... sasvad dhaitad aruninadhunopa jfiatam yad gautama bruvapeti sa yadi kamayeta bruyad...... 126 See op. cit. 127 Op. cit. purvapaksaparapaksau va indrasya hari tabhyam nvidam sarvam harati/ 128 Op. cit. gaura-mrgo ha sma bhutva' vaskadyaranyad rajanam pibati/ 129 Satapatha Brahmana, Tr. J. Eggling, SBE, Vol. XXVI p. 82. fn. 2.

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The Tales in Ramayana 55 position of her husband, 130 i. e. Kausika; which means, in view of his relation with Ahalya, the wife of Kausika brahmana, Indra also is addressed as Kausika brahmana. And if we accept the cue of Jaiminiya,131 this Kausika, the husband of Indra's beloved, is none other than Visvamitra himself. The final epithet 'Gautama bruvana' is very interesting and enigmatic. It is knom to all the three Brahmanas, but two of them, Satapatha and Jaiminiya know it to be lately introduced by Aruni. The former makes its utterance optional and is rather indifferent to it, but latter expressly prohibits its utterance and enjoins to stick to the original forin of the address which, as mentioned therein, is 'Kausika bruvana'.132 We can understand the anxiety of the author of Jaiminiya to stick to the traditional form of the rite, resisting any changes in it. On the contrary, Aruni's attempt to introduce some change sets us thinking. It is, then not difficult to realize that Aruni, the famous Uddalaka Aruni, is himself a 'Gautama, 133 a descendent of Gotama, and in changing the epithet from 'Kausika bruvana' to Gautama bruvana,' his intention must have been to show that his ancestor Gotama also, like Visvamitra, stood in some special relation with Indra. The attitude of Sadvimsa for the epithet is neither resistent nor indifferent. It mentions it without any reservations and actually explains it by an arthavada-episode. Indra takes the form of Gautama to spy upon the activities of Asuras with whom gods are at war and calls himself Gautama. So he is addressed as 'Gautama bruvana'. In details, Sadvimsa has come quite near to the epic form of the tale. Ahalya is the beloved of Indra, and the wife of Kausika who might as well be Visvamitra himself. By virtue of his relation with Ahalya, Indra is Kausika himself. And he takes the form of Gautama. That is the stage upto which Sadvimsa brings us. The next stage is easy to imagine. A little inaccuracy can complete the story. Just as Kausika has been replaced by Gautama in one epithet, he might as well be replaced by him in the other. The three epithets, then, will signify these details. Indra was the lover of Ahalya. Gautama brahmana married her. (So Indra, by virtue of his relation with Gautama's wife, stood in the same position as Gautama himself.) And Indra took the form of Gautama. Add the curse motif and the tale is complete. The curse to Indra is another interesting aspect of the story. He is cursed to be fruitless. Immediately, his testicles fall to the ground. He then approaches the gods saying that he has done the job of gods by making the sage angry, causing him to 130 cr. tasya jarah san tad bharts-sthane tisthatiti kausika brahmanety' upacarad amantra yel Vijnapana-bhasya on Sudvimsa Brahmana. I. 19-22. 131 Cf. Kausika brahmana kausika bruvana itil yad dha va asurair maha-sangramam samyete tad dha vedan niracakara/ tap ha visvamitrad adbijagel tato haiva kausika ucel-Jaimini ya Brahinana II. 79. 132 Cf. ibid. 133 Cf. Vedic Index, Vol. I, Macdonell & Keith, p. 240,

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics curse and thereby destroying his tapas. But as a result, he is made fruitless. Now the gods should do something to restore his fruitfulness. The gods, headed by Ayni, then, approach the Pitrdevas who give Agni the testicles of a ram. Agni grafts these upon Indra. Since then, Indra is Mesa-vrsana. 134 About the curse destroying the tapas of a sage, we shall have more to say later on. But, looking closely, the motif of Indra's attempt to break the penance of a sage by means of seduction can, once again, be seen here. We have seen above in the analysis of the Brahmanical Arthavadas that the only detail which is constant is that Indra is the paramour of Ahalya. All the other details are shifting and therefore historically unreliable. The tale, therefore, cannot be accepted as describing some historical incident.135 Even if we grant that Ahalya, Kausika and Gotama might be historical persons in the Brahmanas, their contemporaneity cannot be ascertained, since Gautama is introduced in the litany at a later date and Ahalya is not proved to be an actual historical person yet even in the Brahmanas. And in the epic-form of the tale, the workings of an attempt to graft some mythical concept upon the account are clear, Dr. G.H. Bhat remarks : "Attempts have been made to explain the account allegorically - Ahalya meaning 'down' or 'night' ... or "land'; and jara meaning the destroyer' or 'adorable'. The meaning of the expression (i, e. ahalyayai jara) will then be -- (1) Destroyer of dawn or night i. e. the Sun or Fire and (2) one who praises or develops land or agriculture. The first meaning is preferable."'136 In view of what we have seen above, we must differ from the learned editor and point out that the second meaning seems to be more probable. But even here a little contradiction still remains. If Indra, the god of rain, unites with Ahalya the land, how could he be 'fruitless'? Should not the name A-halya be reinterpreted more specifically to mean the land which is 'un-ploughable' (from 'hala' - meaning a 'plough')? If the land is unploughable, Gotama - the bull - will naturally be away since he is useless. Even Indra will be fruitless, the only fertility possible being that of 'ajavika' - goats and rams. The unploughable being that land where, not agricultural but only animal fertility is possible could more probably be a hilly land. The life being hard there, the land is sparsely inhabited, thus the curse of sage Gotama upon Ahalya to keep secluded is more in keeping, but, we should confess, to insist on this last point would be going rather far without enough supporting evidence. After the testicles of a ram are grafted Indra becomes 'mesa-visana.' In the text of the Subrahmanya litany fully quoted above, the punctuations of the text are as given in Taittiriya Aranyaka. It will be seen that they do not correspond to the breaks adopted 134 BK. 48. 1-10. Cf. indras tu mesa-vrsanas tadaprabhrti raghava/ 135 F. E. Pargiter (CF. Ancient Indian Historict Tradition, pp. 116, 222) and S N. Pradhan (vide Chronology of Ancient India, pp. 11, 12, 16, 37) accept the incident as well as the characters to be historical and proceed to establish various contemporaneities and chrono. logies on their strength. 136 BK. p. 453.

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The Tales in Ramayana in the explanations of the Brahmanas.137 Though the consecutive positions of the three words 'medhatitheh,' 'mesa' and'vrsanasvasya' are the same, the Brahmanas adopt a break after 'mesa' while the Aranyaka puts the stop after 'medhatitheh.' This renders the affinity. of the word 'mesa' rather uncertain, Brahmanas connect it with 'medhatitheh, and read 'medhatither mesa' as an epithet, whereas according to the Aranyaka it will lean towards the following word 'vrsanasvasya'. We are not in a position to say whether the differences in punctuations are deliberate or inadvertent, but the juxtaposition of the words 'mesa' and 'vrsannasvasya' seems to have made easy the work of the story-teller who seems to have taken advantage of the ambiguity in making Indra 'mesa-vrsana'. At first sight, this might appear more smart than convincing; but upon a closer. look, we find that somehow the epithets of Indra in the Subrahmanya litany have many points of contact with the tales of Visvamitra. (1) Indra is addressed as Kausika brahmana' and we know that Visvamitra "was a protege of Indra, with whom he had an interview according to the Rigveda Aranyakas." Therefore, the situation wherein Indra should be the paramour of the wife of a Kausika could have been embarrassing and it might have prompted the replacement of Kausika (as the husband of Ahalya) by Gautama in the epic-version of the tale where Kausika actually becomes a nimitta in redeeming Ahalaya's curse by bringing Rama to her hermitage. (2) The words 'mesa' and 'Vrsanasva' also seem to bear upon the second part of the tale wherein Indra is provided by Agni with the testicles of a ram. Is it possible that Agni, who is constantly called simply 'atithi' (the guest in human dwellings) might have specially been called here Medhatithi (the guest at the sacrifice)? Though there is a famous sage of that name,140 and Sadvimsa actually identifies the name with that sage belonging to the Kanva line; 14 the detail of the tale of Agni providing the testicles of a ram connected with the epithat 'medhatither mesa' in the litany points to a storng probability that 'medhatithi' of the litany is Agni himself and not some sage of that name. (3) Then again, the word 'mene will immediately remind us of the VisvamitraMenaka-episode.142 It has the same motif of 'breaking' the penance of a sage by seduction. Moreover the word 'mena' is shown to have a ritual signifcance as the womancounterpart of the Virile Horse (Vgsan-Asva). 143 Thus, the popular motif and the ritualistic implications go to prove the purely mythical nature of the episode. (4) The epithet Gauravaskandin' can also be seen reflected in Visvamitra's attempt to snatch away the Kamadhenu cow of Vasistha.14 (5) It would look a bit far-fetched 137 The breaks ad opted by the Brahmanas are evident in their explanations given above. 138 Vedic Index, Vol. II, p. 311. 139 Cf. Vedic Reader, Mocdonell A A., 4th ed., 1957, p. 2. 140 Cf. Vedic Index, Vol. 11, p. 178. 141 vide medhatithim ha kanvyayanam meso bhutva jahara/ Sadvimsa Brahmana, I. i. 15. 142 See Supra. Also BK. 6'. 4-13. 143 Cf. Pastoral Symbolism from the Rgveda, S. A Dange. pp. 95, 97. 144 See Supra. Also BK. 52-53. S. T. 8 57

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58 Secondary Tales of the tho Great Epics but Indra, in the litany, is addressed as 'Harivas' (lord of the bay steeds) and a very peculiar story is narrated in the MBh in the name of Visvamitra in which the sage asks from his pupil Galava the fee of eight hundred horses. 145 (6) Even at the cost of appearing a little ridiculous, it may be pointed out that the very name of the litany"Subrahmanya' 'highly worthy of Brahman'--- seems to be exemplified in the steady pursuit of Visvamitra to obtain the status of a brahma-sage in the face of a number of obstacles created by gods, particularly Indra. There is a strong probability, in the light of what we have seen above, that the Subrahmanya litany and even perhaps the ceremony are very significantly related to the Visvamitra-story-cycle. But, of course, to study that relation is not within our office. With the Ahalya-story, our group of entourage tales ends. We must repeat the caution here which we have given while discussing the Rsyasonga tale. As the above analysis and discussion show, neither Ahalya, nor Kausika, nor Gautama is definitely historical. Even in the Brahmanas, the references to Ahalya seem to be purely mythical. And even if Kausika and Gautama were historical, their contemporaneity is not supported by the Brahmanas. How much more reliable can their contemporaneity with Rama or Dasaratha be? It is clear that the attempts of Pargiter and Pradhan 146 at synchronisation of various sages and kings rest on very slippery and unreliable data of the epics-puranas and are misleading. The tour of the sage and the princes is clearly divided into two parts. Their first major halt is Siddhasrama, where Visvamitra performs the sacrifice and Rama with Laksmana protects it. The next part of the journey is a sort of pleasure-trip. And it should be noted that all the major tales are narrated in this second part of their journey. Again, a very conscious attempt has been made to connect all major tales with either the hero or his preceptor Visvamitra. The tale of the hundred daughters of Kusanabha is justified on the ground that Kusinabha is the grandfather of Visvamitra, The whole group of tales in Sargas 31 to 33 reveals Visvamitra's genealogy as under : Kusa Kusanabha Culi (m. Somada) Brahamdatta - 100 daughters Gadhi Satyavati = (R. Kausiki) VISVAMITRA (m. Rcika) Sargas 34 to 36 describe the various tales connected with the river Gangi, the tale of whose descent by Bhagiratha, an ancestor of Rama himself, occupies Sargas 37 to 43. 145 Udy P. 104-117. 146 See above fn. 135,

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The Tales in Ramayana wl These tales can loosely be called Ganga-story-cycle. The story of the churning of ocean is also accommodated in connection with the city of Visala which is said to be founded by Visala, the son of Iksvaku who is also Rama's ancestor. The tale of Abalya is brought into direct relation with Rama as he is shown to end the curse. Thus all the major tales included in this part have been consciously shown to be related to the hero, even if the relation be of Badarayana type. In comparison, the tales in the first part are brief, few and not particularly connected with any character of the story. The tale of the burning of Kama, for cxample, narrated in connection with the place called Kamasrama (the hermitage of Kama) simply shows religious importance of the place. It is purely a tirtha-katha. Similarly the tale of the Malada-karusa country where Indra is said to have washed his sin of Vrtravadha is, in a way, to show the importance of a particular place. (Whether the tale is purely fictitious or otherwise is a different matter.) The narration of Tataka's parentage, marriage and motherhood and her becoming a demoness on account of the curse of sage Agastya are given at the point where Tataka herself is about to occur in the narrative. The back-histories of Jarasandha147 and Sisupala 148 in the MBh also are similarly given at the points where the characters are occuring in the stream of the principal narrative. All the three characters are slain shortly afterwards by the protagonists. The narration of their birth-stories and back-histories just at a point before their death create to some extent an impression of hearing a self-complete lifehistory of a character. Naturally, their deaths at the hands of the protagonists are intended to cmphasise the latter's martial qualities. The tale narrated in connection with Siddhasrama is that of the Vamana-incarnation, and in that background, the career of the present incarnation of Visnu is shown to begin. Thus, excepting one or two minor stories which are purely like Tirtha-yatra-tales showing the religious imporatance of the locales of visits, all the other tales of this group are shown to have some connection, even if distant, with either the hero or his preceptor. Some show his great lineage, some show his prowess, some his religious greatness. The tales showing the hero's martial or ideal qualities are, of course, intended to show the great hero of the epic in the making. There are two groups of pilgrimage tales in the MBh which may be included here. One occurs in the VanP. Narada, first, generally enumerates some three hundred holy places in Adhyayas 80 to 83; then Dhaumya in Adhyayas 85 to 88 orce again enumerates the places classifying them according to the four directions; inspired by these enumerations (which are naturally accompanied by the very brief allusions to the tales connected with these places), the Pandavas decide to make a tour of some of these holy places in the company of sage Lomasa. This device accommodates some of our very famous tales like those of sage Agastya, of Ganga's descent, of Rsyasonga, of Rama Jamadagnya, of Cyavana and Sukanya, sibi, of sage Aslavakra, of Yavakrita and others. 147 SabP. 16-18. 48 SabP. 40.

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Lipics Another group of such tales is in the SalP. Balarama decides to remain neutral in the great battle and goes out on pilgrimage. His return, just at the time of commencement of the mace-fight between Bhima and Duryodhana, creates an occasion for including another large group of pilgrimage tales. The tales included here are comparatively less famous like those of the sage Trita, of Daksa's curse to the Moon, of sage Mankapaka, of Baka Dalbhya, of the birth and career of Skanda Karttikeya, of Srutavatis, of sage Asita Devala, of Dadhica, of the virgin ascetic, of Kuruksetra and so on. It can be observed that, with some rare exceptions like that of Sibi, all these tales are the tales of sages and ascetics. This is in keeping with the frame of pilgrimage within which they are brought together. Of course, the device of pilgrimage is very useful in accommodating tales (sometimes even cycles of tales like that of Agastya149 in VanP) of various descriptions and various places, yet the seriousness of the purpose of pilgrimage puts a limit upon the variety; an accent on exaggeration - the constant feeling of wide eyes -- is discernible. The religious attitude of the listeners also prompts the narrator to include more episodes of wonderful - supernatural elements. A comparison of these tales with those of Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' will be instructive. There, the pilgrims tell stories by turn. But the purpose of telling stories is nothing more serious than passing time on the way. The mood is light and the purpose frolick. The themes of the tales are also generally social, their treatment is realistic and sometimes even comic; this can potentially accommodate a much wider variety of tales. The narrator is different with each tale which reflects his individual characteristic; again, there is no necessity of connecting th: tales with some place -- holy or otherwise. The differences can be summed up by calling the native group as the pilgrimage tales, while the English group may be called as the pilgrims' tales. The narrative style of the tales of the SalP leaves rather an impression of hurry, but the VanP-group of tales is narrated in a fully leisurely fashion since the pilgrims are supposed to have a lot of time. Actually pilgrimage and pilgrimage-tales are just one of the answers to the exiles' problem of filling up the twelve-years' gap of forestlife -'the temporal hiatus' as Pisani and Sukthankar would call it. But we shall have occasion to refer to this function of filling up the temporal hiatus later on. Here we may just point out the characteristics of the entourage tales of BK by comparing them with the other group of tales. The visitation of boly place lends only direction to the pilgrims' movement in the 'Cantebury Tales', it is not the end in the narration of the tales; the end is simply to pass the time pleasantly. On the other hand, in the two groups of tales in the MBh, such a visitation itself is the end, and even the tales are intended to serve the same religious purpose. That is the reason why all the tales are connected with the holy places visited or to be visited by the pilgrims. The tales included in the BK also 149 VanP, 94 - 103. The last tale in the cycle is how Agastya drank up the ocean. To explain how it was filled up again, the story of Ganga's descent is narrated in VanP 104-108.

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The Tales in Ramayana are connected with the places of halting, but halting, we may point out, is not the e as visiting, and the purpose of narrating the tales is not achieving some religious merit but satisfying the curiosity. Thus, the purpose of the English tales is entertainment, that of MBh tales is religious merit, that of BK tales is satisfying curiosity. Again the tales of Chaucer are connected neither with any place nor with any character. Those of the MBh are connected with the holy places of visitation, while those in the BK are all connected with the places of halting and also, as we have shown above, a conscious attempt has been made to connect the tales with either the hero or his preceptor Visvamitra. In fact, when we take a second look at the tales of BK, we find that all the major tales of this group that of Visnu's incarnation, of Skanda's birth, of Ganga's descent, of the churning of ocean - are the famous Brahmanical tales of wonder from the Puranas. It is then that we begin to realise that, in narrating these tales, the author of this story-group aims at achieving the threefold purpose: (1) he wants to include as many famous and wonderful tales from the Puranas as possible; (2) but he does not want to appear digressive and interested in the tales just for themselves; so he deliberately makes an attempt to show them connected with the characters of the epic - particularly the hero; (3) in doing this, he also achieves the purpose of gradually carving the character of the future hero, of showing the forces formative in the hero's personality, of showing the inherent potentials of the great hero in the making. 4. The Visvamitra Story - cycle The sage Visvamitra and the princes then reach Mithila where they are welcomed by King Janaka. The latter's priest Satananda, who is the son of sage Gautama and Ahalya, hears of the redemption of his mother by Rama who was taken to her by Visvamitra. Overwhelmed with gratitude towards sage Visvanitra, he narrates the life-history of the sage to Rama showing him how fortunate he has been in obtaining the sage as his teacher-preceptor. The five episodes of Visvamitra occupy Sargas 50 to 64. (a) Visvamitra, the king, desiring to possess Vasistha's cow Sabala, a Kamadhenu, fails to obtain her by force, even after possessing all the weapons imaginable obtained from Lord Mahadeva by penance. Disappointed by the discomfiture of his royal prowess and strength of arms against Vasistha's strength of Brahma-tejas, he retires to South to penance for obtaining Brahma-tejas. This incident sows the seed of Visvamitra's ardent desire to attain the status of a Brahmarsi,150 (6) Trisanku, of Iksvaku line, desiring to perform a sacrifice to reach the heaven bodily, is repelled by Vasistha, the family-priest, as well as his sons, who curse him to become a candala. Visvamitra perforrns for him; the gods refuse to partake of their share in the sacrifice; Visvamitra raises, by the power of his penance, Trisanku to the heavens but gods throw him back. Visvamitra stops the king in the sky and begins to create a new world 150 BK, 50, 17 - BK, 56,9.

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62 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics with constellations and is prevented with difficulty by the gods only when they recognise his creation with the king in it.151 (c) King Ambarisa of Ayodhya loses his sacrificial victim (whom Indra has stolen) and replaces it by Sunahaepa, the middle son of Sage Rcika Bhargava. On their way back, Sunahsepa learns two gathas of Indra and Upendra from Visvamitra and is blessed with a long life by the gods themselves.152 (d) The sage is enamoured of Menaka, but after passing some happy years with her realises his mistake, and deserting her goes to East.153 (e) On the bank of the river Kausiki he is blessed by Lord Brahma with the status of a great sage (Maharsi) but not Brahmarsi as he has not yet controlled his senses fully. 154 Indra sends Rambha to disturb the sage who sees through and curses her.155 Then once again, after severe austerities he is addressed by Lord Brahma as well as by Vasistha as Brahmarsi.156 The significance of these tales are so obvious that a bare mention of them will suffice. The first tale is reminiscent of the famous Vasistha-Visvamitra controversy reflected in the well-known Dasarajna Sukta 157 of the Rgveda. The second tale is reactionary in nature. What Vasistha cannot do for Trisanku, Visvamitra can. In that way his superiority is established. The Sunahaepa-tale shows him as a great seer, specially favoured by Indra. It is his gathas which please Indra and Upendra to set Sunahsepa free. 158 The stories of Menaka and Rambha show the sage falling prey to the passions of lust and anger and eventually coming out of them. In fact, the author of BK seems to observe twofold precaution in narrating the Visvamitra-story-cycle. One, he takes care not to show Visvamitra angry without cause. If the sage wishes to possess the cow, it is because the cow is a 'gem' and a king is the repository of all 'gems'.159 That is the reason of his insistence on possessing the cow at all costs. He curses the sons of Vasistha and the sage Mahodaya to become candalas because they have abused his sacrifice for Trisanku. 160 But the incidents which show him overly angry and revengeful without cause have been omitted. In MBh, for example, he orders the river Sarasvati to bring Vasistha to him so that he can kill him.161 When Sarasvati plays a trick to save Vasistha, he curses it to turn bloody and to be drunk by Raksasas. He, again, orders a kinkara to possess the King 151 BK, 56. 10-BK. 59. 33. 152 BK. 60-61. 153 BK. 62. 4-13. 154 BK. 62. 21. 155 BK. 62. 25-63.15' 156 BK. 64.1-64. 20. 157 Rgveda VII. 33. 2. 33. 5; 83. 8 etc. 158 BK. 61. 24-25. 159 Cf. BK. 52.9. ratnam hi bhagavann etad ratna-hari ca partbivah/ 160 See BK. 58. 14. Ksatriyo yajako yasya canlalasya visesatah| katham sadasi bhoktaro havis tasya surarsayah|/ 161 SalP. 42,

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The Tales in Ramayana Saudasa Kalmasapada, who thereby, wben cursed by Sakti - the son of Vasistha - to become a candala, devours him only as his first victim.162 These tales of Visvamitra's irreconcilable vengeance are omitted in BK. Secondly, a particular care has been taken to show Visvamitra in good relations with the Iksvaku kings of Ayodhya. When Trisanku is repelled by his own priest Vasistha and the Vasisthas, Visvamitra stands by him and does his best to help him. Again when King Ambarisa's sacrificial animal is stolen, he instructs Sunahaepa in such a way that gods may release him but may also give the king the fruit of his sacrifice. The reasons for observing these precautions are not difficult to imagine. The teacher-preceptor of the hero of RM should not be unreasonably haughty, particularly against Vasistha, the very family-priest of the Solar kings themselves. Again, it is not Rama only whom Visvamitra has favoured. Even in the past Solar kings have been helped by Visvamitra, particularly when their family-priest Vasistha spurned them. The Visvamitra-story-group has been studied illuminatingly by H. L. Hariyappa in his well-known work 'Rgvedic Legends through the Ages'163 and we can hardly better him. Hariyappa, after considering the evidence of MBh-stories also, remarks in the last chapter of his work "Vasistha and Visvamitra' as follows: ''(a) Vasistha and Visvamitra had a long life of activity before they were elevated to be among the chosen seven i. e. the Saptarsis. "(b) Vasistha was born great, all saintliness and virtue were natural to him, he was the embodiment of patience, of the quality of Sattva. His passive resistence when attacked by the enemy appears exemplary. His attempt at self-immolation in his bereavement is somewhat strange and savours of being too commonplace. His eminence, however, as saint and priest of kings (purohita) is undoubted. "(c) Visyamitra achieved greatness. Son of a king, he perfected himself in the qualities and attaiments of a rajanya; an embodiment of the quality of Rajas, he was. But seeing that the quality of Sattva had more enduring features, determined to acquire it (sic). The chief thing was to conquer passion and anger; this he did achieve by penance by patient but steadfast endeavour (purusakara). "(d) The Vasistha-Visvamitra feud reveals itself as a thing of the ancient past even in the age of the MBh. Tradition, at any rate, believed that the two sages were once upon a time enemies of each other. The events connected therewith were remembered not because it was a quarrel between two great personalities but because it would serve as a beacon light of righteousness on the one hand and effective human endeavour on the other. "(e) x x x The MBh. age conceives the sage as equally respectable; there was no question of their relative superiority. On the other hand, a word should be said to the 162 Adip. 166, particularly slokas 16 ft. 163 Pub. Deccan College, Poona, 1953.

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64 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics credit of the self-made saint Visvamitra, who, by dint of his achievement, had inspired the people with a reverential awe. The world was amazed at his powers of making or unmaking it. It was not much wonder that he could as well be one of the founders of Brahman tribes as it were and hence an inspirer of a tradition by itself; a veritable sampradaya-pravartaka."164 We have quoted Dr. Hariyappa rather extensively for a number of reasons. His deductions are based on an almost complete survey of the Vasistha-Visvamitra tales of both the epics, and have therefore much relevance to our study. Again, his deductions regarding the total impression of the tales of these two sages set a proper viewpoint for the Visvamitra-story-group of BK also; the Visvamitra-story-cycle of BK begins by sowing the seed of desire for Brahmrsi-pada in the mind of Visvamitra and depicts his steadfast endeavour to achieve it through a number of obstacles till he succeeds. Thirdly, Dr. Hariyappa's excellent and eloquent exposition seems to cover up the fact that the tone of his interpretation appears to be more cultural than factual. For example, he is silent on the point that the arithor of BK omits the famous story of Saudasa Kalmasapada. Finally, he mentions Visvamitra as one of the four Gotra - establishers and justifies it. 165 The scholars are prone to show that there is no evidence in Rgveda to show the fainous animosity between Visvamitra and Vasistha.166 But we can point out that, at least, the potentials are there. Vasistha is in special favour of god Varuna, Visvamitra of Indra. Varuna is slowly receding into background and Indra is seen as the most important god of the Vedic Pantheon. Varuna is the famous Lord of kta, and Vasistha is called Brahmarsi - the Seer of Brahman of which Rta is the most important aspect. Indra, on the other hand, is the warrior god and the fiery nature of his protege Visvamitra is in keeping. Now when the principle of Rta gradually develops into the principle of Brahman, the sage Vasistha is bound to stand there as a symbol, though by the very nature of the development of the principle, any god as such - even Varuna - is bound to vanish. If Brahman is the highest principle, then Visvamitra also would be shown to try to attain to it; according to his nature, however, (or rather that of his Lord Indra) he would be shown fighting even for Brahman, is it rather a contradiction in itself ?) striving hard to win it, and finally succeed. But Indra the fighter of numerous battles, and, lover of wine and women, cannot reach there. He is left out, all gods for that matter, are left on a lower plane it is Visvamitra who, through steadfast efforts, surpasses even his Lord, stands superior to him and attains the status of the Seer of Braha an. Not outer but inner fight should be won there. Our study of Rgveda is not enough to permit us to say whether Varuna 164 ibid. p. 312. 165 Visvamitra (in the Vedic, Epic and the Purapic Literature, Saradar Patel University, Vallabh Vidya Nagar. First Edition, 1971) has also been studied by Dr. B. H. Kapadia but he hardly has anything significant to say on the subject. 166 Geldner, Vedische Studien, 2, 130. See Vedic Index, II, p. 275. See also Hariyappa, op. cit., pp, 256-7.

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The Tales in Ramayana was receding to give place to Indra or to the principle of Rta developing into that of Brahman, but the investigation is worth undertaking. To us, at least, it seems this way The principle of Rta has the potential of developing into that of Brahman which by its very nature discards all godheads. Varuna is the Lord of Rta, so even after his godhood disappears, he can be seen inherently present in the developed principle of Brahman. But Indra is neither inherent to it in any way, nor can he reach it with his godhood intact. It is only through his protege, his own symbol, Visvamitra, that he can reach it. From this point of view, we even have a reason to suspect the very names of the sages. Visvamitra 'the friend of All' suits the characteristics of Indra who is much on the talking-ground with the sages. On the other hand, Vasistha 'the most brilliant' (vas-'to shine") is not easily approachable. It will be seen that Visvamitra really helps a number of persons - kings and commons alike - among whom are Trisanku and Sunahsepa also. His passions of lust and angry imprecations also tally very well with the characteristics of his Lord Indra. On the other hand Vasistha's silent forbearance and steady strength of forgiveness reflect very well the sober character of Vedic Varuna. Even if the names of these sages originally had belonged to some historical persons, the question will still remain to be answered; why these two names were chosen out of seven; why not Grtsamada, Atri, Vamadeva, Bharadvaja? Is it not probable that these names were chosen because they yielded meanings, which were consonant with the characteristics of the two gods of Vedic pantheon who were struggling for superiority? If the Rgveda itself does not show Indra to be specially favourable to Visvamitra, then it is likely that the name of the sage refers to some historical person, and is chosen at a later date for the potentials of its meaning. If the Rgvedic data prove that Indra is specially favourable to Visvamitra, then it may not be unlikely that Indra himself is symbolised as Visvamitra whose historicity is rather questionable. 65 Are we reading too much between the lines? Well, we must wait for some future scholar who may underline or undo our observations which, since they do not fall strictly within the scope of our subject, are stated here, for whatever worth they are, eventhough enough evidence in support has not been found. But if this is acceptable, then the entire story-group of Vasistha-Visvamitra conflict will be symbolic of the struggle of the two most eminent Vedic gods Varuna and Indra for superiority in which finally both stand equal. This is not in contradiction to what we have said before about the relation of Subrahmanya litany with Visvamitra-story-cycle; on the other hand, it actually gives a direction to the previous observation. We may point out here that Sukthankar takes the cow of Vasistha to be symbolic of the Vedic 'Viraj' and takes it to be a point of contact between the Vedic and epic ideologies. This means, the epic-stories are more often than not personifications or concretisations of some Abstract Vedic ideas. Philosophical concepts are often put in the concrete form of a story. Hariyappa also says: "for the average man S. T. 9

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66 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics with his preoccupations - and his class forms the teeming millions--a set of prepared ideas about the Supreme Power is necessary,.... The average man, again, would feel gratified to find some concrete story on which his Faith can lay anchor."167 We may also add here that the gradual process of this concretisation of abstract philosopbical ideas is excellently shown by S. A. Dange in his treatment of the MBh-legends of Kaca, of Garuda, and of the churning of ocean. In fact, such studies in the developnient of our legends through ages can reveal the various traits of our cultural development and help us solve the riddles of many dichotomies like those of Brahmanasramana, of Vedic-non-Vedic, of Aryan- non-Aryan and so on. After the Visvamitra-story-cycle is finished, Rama is shown the famous saiva-bow. He lifts it up and in trying to string it, breaks it in the middle. Janaka sends for Dasaratha and the four sons of Dasaratha are married at a time to the four daughters -- two each of the brothers Janaka and Kusadhvaja. Then Visva mitra takes leave of them and returns to the northern mountains, 168 and never appears in the epic tale again. The coincidence is noteworthy that Visvamitra had approached Dasaratha for Rama's help in his sacrifice, just at a time when Dasaratha was thinking about the marriages of his sons, 169 and leaves immediately after their marriage. This creates an impression that Visvamitra is brought in to arrange for Rama's marriage to Sita, his another contribution to the principal tale being his educating Rama and Laksmana in the lore of arms. Thus he is shown to be responsible for two of the most important aspects of Rama - his prowess and his marriagewhich are of central importance to the principal epic. The attempt to wipe out any significance that might be attached to Vasistha, the family-priest of the Solar kings, in the birth and growth of Rama - in the development of Rama's personality - is too glaring to be missed. The onslaught is consistent. Not Vasistha, but Rsyasonga, is instrumental in the hero's birth. Not Vasistha, but Visvamitra, is the cause in educating the epic hero in arms, in shaping his personality as an ideal of virtue and martial prowess. Not Vasistha, but Visvamitra, becomes instrumental in Rama's marriage. Visvamitra is thus shown to be behind the entire structure of the hero's personality. Does not this attempt to throw Vasistha's personality into insignificance by making Visvamitra do his jobs also smack of the famous Vasistha-Visvamitra controversy ? Are we in a position to postulate that the entire BK from Visvamitra's entry onwards is the handiwork of some Vaisvamitra-redactors ? Two things seem to favour such a hypothesis : One, the abruptness of Visvamitra's coming and going. He breaks the thread of the epic story at a time when the father of the hero is thinking of his son's marriage. He leaves the epic, after connecting up 167 Rgvedic Legends Through the Ages, Hariyappa, p. 135, 168 BK, 73, 1. 169 BK 17.22-23. riyappa, p. 135.

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The Tales in Ramayana 67 the broken thread, as it were, with the main story. Two, the profusion of secondary tales in this portion -- so characteristically purana-like and epic-unlike - climaxing, as it were, in the Visva mitra-story-cycle. The purpose of glorifying Visvamitra is obvious. (5) The Parasurama Eipsode After Visvamitra's departure, when the marriage-party is returning to Ayodhya, Rama, the son of Dasaratha, comes upon Rama, the son of Jamadagni, who challenges him to fix an arrow on the Vaisnava bow which the latter possesses, and succeeding in it, for a dual combat. Rama fixes the arrow and asks the challenger whether he should shoot at his present position or at the worlds for him hereafter. The challenger turns pale, and chooses the second option. He also recognises the hero as an incarnation and says that it is not a shame to lose at the hands of the lord of three worlds. 170 The episode is found in some versions of the MBh, but is not properly supported by the MSS-evidence and is therefore relegated to the Appendix there. 171 That the episode cannot form a part of the constituted text of an epic which is Bhrguised through and through is only very natural in view of the defeat of Bhargava Rama - the greatest of them all - depicted therein. This is the last episode of BK, Rama, the son of Jamadagni, is one of the three famous Ramas of the Epic literature, the other two being Rama, the son of Dasaratha, and Rama, the plough-bearer. This similarity of namesake is played upon in this small episode so osten, rather so insistently, 172 that the intentions of its author become too obvious to be missed. The author wants to show the Ksatriya Rama, the son of Dasaratha to be superior in martial prowess as well as religious splendour to the other famous Rama, the son of Jamadagni. Rama Jamadagnya is known popularly as Parasurama and is famous for his feat of exterminating the Ksatriya-tribes 3 x 7 times. The MBh refers to it at every conceivable opportunity in almost identical words; trih sapta-kstvah prthivikrta njhk satriya pura/This Parasuramathe very embodiment of haughtiness, the god of death for the Ksatriyas - is, once again, cut to his size as it were by a Ksatriya Rama. The reaction against the Brahmin superiority is obvious. It is interesting to note here that this Parasurama is shown to be the teacher of Bhisma, 173 of Drona174 and of Karna175 in the MBh. Parasurama who is supposed to have lived in the interval between the Treta and the Dvapara Ages is here 170 BK. 73-75. 171 VanP, Appendix I, No. 14, pp. 1058-1060. 172 BK. 73. 22; 75.5; 75. 11; 75. 21; 75. 23. 173 Van P. 179-185; particularly 178. 16 ff. 174 AdiP. 121. 175 San P. 2-3.

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics represented as the teacher of Acarya Drona who lived in the interval between the Dvapara and the Kali Ages. No inconsistency or anachronism is felt, because Rama is assumed to be "ever-living" (cirajivin).176 In the case of Drona, "The pupilship is only symbolical, but the basis of the symbolism is significant. Acarya Drona is the guru of the Kauravas and the Pandavas and of all the other valiant Ksatriyas of the time, and he was also one of the greatest warriors on the side of the Kauravas in the Bharata war, But Acarya Drona must also have a guru. And who would be more suitable as guru than the Bhargava Rama, who is the foremost of all weaponbearers (sarva-sastra-bbitam varah)?":177 But Parasurama had taken a vow not to teach arms to anyone but Brahmins. And Bhisma and Karna are the two exceptions. We can condone Bhisma's pupilship since if he is not a Brahmin, at least he is a life-long Brahmacarin. Karna, of course, managed to enrol himself under Parasurama by telling a lie and was cursed upon its detection. But the significant consequence of these three tales seems to have been lost sight of altogether, Neglecting Salya who is the last and the least of the leaders of the Kaurva army, all the remaining three viz. Bhisma, Drona and Karna, are thus shown to have been the pupils of Rama Bhargava. We do not know whether the enthusiasm of the Bhargava redactors of the Bharata-poem was misfired, but the resultant fact is that Parasurama is made the guru of all the leading heroes of the losing party of the war. The manner of reasoning might sound unreasonable, but it is perhaps the only one possible under the circumstances, When we compare Parasurama and Visvamitra as teachers, we realise the intentions of the author of BK in making Visva mitra the teacher of Rama. We realize that the best possible teacher is chosen for Rama. Vasistha is the family-priest of the Solar kings, and is a famous Vedic Seer, a gotra-pravartaka also; in the Vedas he is said to have fought on the side of the famous king Sudas Paijavana, but for Rama, the son of Dasaratha, the great bow-wielder, the great slayer of Ravana, he cannot be the proper guru, since by the age of the Epics, he has lost his martial glory altogether. Other famous teacher of arms could be found in Parasurama. But, however great might Parasurama's reputation be as a warrior and as a brahmin, to accept him as Rama's teacher would mean, one, to accept the guru of the losers of the Bharata war as the guru of the greatest bow-wielder against Ravana, and two, to accept brahmin superiority once again. For though Parasurama is known for his martial achievements, basically he is a brahmin. In other words, he is a brahmin turned ksatriya. On the other hand, if there is a Ksatriya turned Brahmin, 178 176 Sukthankar Memorial Edition, Vol. I. Ed. P. K. Gode, pp. 288-289. 177 ibid. p. 288. 178 Cp. the famous story of the change of Carus. VanP. 115. Rcika, the son of Bhrgu, married Satyavati, the daughter of Gadhi, King of Kanyakubja. Bhrgu granted a boon to Satyavati, that to obtain a religious son, she, in her season, should eat a caru (pot of rice and milk prepared specially) and embrace an Udumbara trec. Her mother should eat caru and

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The Tales in Ramayana he would be a much happier choice for training Rama, the great warrior in the making,in arms. And such a person is Visvamitra. First, he had been a great king; he had perfected the quality of Rajas as Hariyappa would put it; then realising the more enduring quality of Sattva he resolved to perfect that quality also and achieved his purpose by a steadfast endeavour. By attaining to the status of Brahmarsi, he has proved himelf equal of Vasistha. If, in the popular mind, a brahmin is more proper as a teacher, he is a brahmin in the real sense of the word, Again, he has, by steady penance, learnt to control the passion of anger which is a week point of Parasurama, then whom, therefore, he proves himself better. And, basically, he is a Ksatriya. He is the only sage combining the good qualities of both Vasistha and Parasurama, and eliminating their weaknesses. And though he is a Brahmarsi, a great brahuin-seer, to call him a 'brahmarsi" itself is to break the brahmin monopoly of brahminical superiority, for even Ksatriyas. by steady endeavour can achieve that position. It should be noted that the final episode of BK has a clear affinity with the incarnation story referred to above. Parasurama recognises Rama to be the lord of gods himself.19 He says: "It should not be a matter of shame for me that I am defeated by the lord of the three worlds."180 This reveals a knowledge and confirmation of the incarnation theme. The sectarian overtones are also clear. That, after breaking the Saiva bow, Rama is presented with the Vaisnava bow is a repetition of motif. But the significant difference of detail is that Rama breaks the Saiva bow, but the Vaisnava bow, he only handles easily and fixes an arrow upon it, but does not break it. The author is not satisfied merely by hinting at the Vaisnava superiority and narrates an incident of the induced fight between Rudra and Visnu wherein both stand equal, but the gods think of Visnu's bow highly. We should also note that the awareness of the hero being an incarnation of Visnu is nearly completely absent in the portions wherein Visvamitra is present. The only possible covert hint is in Rama's protecting the sacrifice which is performed in the Siddhasrama in the background of a place where Vamana had prevented Bali from completing the sacrifice. The redemption of Ahalya does not involve any magical act embrace Asvattha tree for a valiant son. The ladies, however, changed the pots and the trees. The boon was infallible. Satyavati would give birth to a Brahmin son of Ksatriya character, her mother to a Ksatriya son of Brahmin character. At repeated entreaties of Satyavati, Bhrgu granted that not her son but the grandson would be of valiant qualities. Thus her son Jamadagni was the father of the famous Rama. The genealogy would be like this: 179 BK. 75.17. 180 BK. 75.19. Bhrgu Reika 1 Jamadagni Rama Bhargava. 69 (m. Satyavati) Gadhi 1 Visvamitra

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics like turning the stony figure into a human being by touch or so; it is achieved only by Rama's going to her hermitage and accepting her hospitality. The nature of the redemption does not anticipate any divinity on the part of Ram. This raises a possibility that the central portions wherein Visvamitra is present are by one author, while the portions of Rsyasonga, incarnation-theme and Parasurama-episode are by another author and added to the epic in the second stage of interpolations, the first most probably being the tales of entourage and Visvamitra. We can only say that the author of the central portions must be some redactor of the Visvamitra gotra, because Visvamitra is more prominent in these portions than even the hero of the epic. The episodes on either sides of these portions with Visvamitra are connected with incarnation-theme and are brought in by some Vaisnava Sectarian, very likely a Ksatriya. He could, under no circumstances, be a Bhargava redactor. A Bhargava would never end the BK with an episode in which Parasurama, the greatest of the Bhargavas, is shown defeated even if at the hands of the hero of the poem, the lord of the three worlds. The almost complete neglect of Vasistha also precludes the possibility of the redaction being by some brahmin of Vasistha gotra. What is probable is that the portion from Visvamitra's coming to his going must be by some Vaisvamitra, the episodes on the either sides of these portions must be by some Vaisnava Ksatriyas. Whether the two authors could be identical is a problem to be answered yet. One more thing. In the popular belief Parasurama is the sixth incarnation of Visnu, Rama is the seventh and Krsna the eighth. It is often said that in the above encounter Parasurama realises that the task of his incarnatiop (avatara-karya) is over and in Rama a new incarnation is coming of its age. But neither in this episode nor in the MBh anywhere is the Bhargava Rama called an incarnation of Visnu. Actually the incarnation-theory itself seems to have been fostered by Vaisnavas in the post-epic period with the fermentation of the Bhakti cult. Very likely the incarnationism has found a sound footing in the age of the Vaisnava Gupta kings-it should be noted that Rama in the RM and Krsna in the MBh-both of them Ksatriyas-are presented as the incarnations of Visnu. Parasurama is greatly eulogised in the MBh for his prowess, but where Krsna is already present as an incarnation of Visnu, there is hardly any scope for another character in the same epic to be treated as an incarnation. Parasurama is not, could not be, treated as an incarnation in the epics. How did he become one later on? One possibility is that the present episode might have been responsible for elevating Parasurama also to the level of an incarnation alongwith Rama. Some parts and aspects of the episode could have been possible instruments in it: the similarity of namesake, the similarity of possessing great prowess in the use of arms, Parasurama's so-called possession and presentation of the Vaisnava bow to Rama (which can well be looked upon as a symbolic transfer of the divine power, and Rama thereafter

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The Tales in Ramayuna becoming the greatest 'bow-wielder), 181 and Parasurama retiring thereafter to the Mahendra mountains for performing penances, symbolic of one form of eternal force-one incarnation of Visnu retiring from activity and another coming into active forcethese are the elements and overtones of the Parasurama episode which seem to have engendered and fostered the idea of Parasurama also to be an incarnation of the Al-puwerful Visnu, in spite of the fact that Visnu is nowhere in the epics presented as being born as Parasurama. The Amsavatara tales of any epic would naturally credit the hero only as the incarnation, Well, if Parasurama is defeated in this episode, he is benefitted also. B. UTTARA-KANDA There is only one major group of tales - those of Ravana - in the UK. All the other tales form themselves into small groups with some insignificant purposes. We shall, therefore, divide the tales of UK in two major divisions, one of RavanaKatha-cakra and the other of the remaining tales. That the entire UK is a later addition and is secondary in that sense is well-known. Th: portion of Rama's performing Asvamedha is already referred to in the first section of BK-tales; the cpisode of Sambuka, we shall transpose to the next chapter. (1) The Ravana-katha cakra As we saw above, the BK professes to narrate a group of incidents from the hero's earlier life, i. e, incidents prior to those narrated in the epic-nucleus; in the UK of RM, on the other hand, there is a whole group of episodes, almost a katha-cakra, narrating episodes of Ravana's earlier life. It occupies almost one-third of the UK extending from Sargas 1 to 34, and narrates a number of episodes which seek to provide motivations for the incidents of the principal tale. Sarga 10 shows Ravana observing austere penance for thousands(!) of years and obtaining froin Brahma the boon that, except human beings about whom he does not care, he may be killed by no one. (Similarly Vibhisana gets the boon of religiosity and Kumbhakarna, on whose tongue Sarasvati sat for a moment in compliance with the gods' request and made it falter, says, he wishes to sleep for a number of years.) This is supposed to provide motivation for the wondersome fact that the demon Ravana who could bring even gods under his sway should lose battle against Rama, a mere human being. The motif of making exception for human beings is introduced to make adjustment for the incarnationstory narrated in BK where Lord Visnu is shown to be born as Rama. Sargal7 o`rrates the episode wherein Ravana saw a beautiful hermit-girl Vedavati performing penance in order to obtain Visnu as her husband according to the deisre of her father Kusadhvaja. 181 How else can we justify Parasurama, the wielder of an axe, to possess a bow?

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72 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics Ravana was enamoured of her, asked her to marry him, and when she declined, tried to subdue her by force. The girl, however, entered fire promising to be reborn for Ravana's annihilation. She is reborn as Sila. Thus this tale provides motivation for Sita being the cause of Ravana's end. In Sarga 19, Ravana slays Anaranya, an ance. stor of Rama, who curses Ravana to be avenged by a king of his own line. According to the boon of Brabma, Ravana is vincible only by human beings; the Anaranya-episode specifies that human being as the king of Iksvaku family. The incarnation tale of the BK narrows down the slayer of Ravana still as Rama. Looking closely, however, the Anaranya-talt duplicates the motivation of the incarnation-tale since the distinction is only hair-splittiog. Both the tales specify Rama of the Ik svaku race, the human hero, as the slayer of Ravana. The BK-tale is in accordance with the standard pauranika pattern, and fits quite well in the context in which it is put. The UK-episode is entirely artless, charmless and does not assimilate itself well enough in the bunch of these episodes. Or rather, we may as well say, though it be a little early here, that all th: episodes of this Ravand-katha-cakra are very loosely connected. Sarga 26 contains the famous episode of curse of the Nalakubara. Rambha was going to meet Nalakubara, the son of Kubera, to their rendezvous. On the way, she was accosted by Ravana who forced her to submit to his lust against her wish. Angered at such insolence, Nalakubara pronounced a curse that if Ravana thenceforth tried to subject any woman to his lust against her wish, his head would split into seven, The episode has widespread implications. First, it attempts to motivate Ravana's respectful behaviour towards Sita. But, it allows little respect left for the villain, for it compels us to conclude that Ravana's patiently persuasive behaviour with Sita was merely out of helplessness and not as a result of some honourable motive to inspire spontaneous love in the heart of Sita by gallantly risking everything for her without as much as even touching her against her wish. The tale taken alongwith that of Vedavati, paints Ravana as an unscrupulously lewd demon in dark colours and confirms the observation that the popular imagination has a tendency to reduce all characters into contrasted types. It would paint Ravana all black, all evil, and would not allow him to possess any graceful quality whatsoever. Secondly, it is said : "Hearing this horripilating curse, Ravana (thenceforth) did not cherish enjoying the unamorous women."182 In that case, Sita was in no carnal danger from Ravana so long as she herself did not feel inclined. How shall we explain the fire-ordeal then ? Does it test Ravana's fickleness? or Sita's ? Does it not throw a doubt upon Sita's innate chastity ? (For, it now does not remain a test of Ravana's power over her since it does not exist without the consent of the woman.) Finally, Rama's act in abandoning Sita is controversial enough even as it is, Nalakubara's curse makes the act still more difficult to justify. It is interesting to examine how the popular mind works at adjusting the meaning of the epic to its own understanding. The subtleties and complexities of the 182 UK, 26,47,

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73 The Tales in Ramayana epic characters are, of course, beyond the grasp of the common man, of the average mind. That is the reason why popular imagination reduces the complex characters to constrasted types. Once the types are set, it is easy to underline the singularised characteristic by adding tales or episodes containing the same motif-structures but varying in details. Once the kidnapper of Sita is decided as belonging to the lewd type, fresh stories of Vedavati and of Nalakubara can easily be brought in to underline this characteristic of lewdness. Again, popular mind would naturally be weary of the abstract ideas, therefore, each important motif of the principal tale would be sought to be explained by one story which would put the motif into concrete and graspable form. Thus, it would not be easy for the popular mind to reconcile Ravana's act of abducting Sita to his restrained and honourable behaviour with her. So the popular mind takes it the easy way. It explains Sita's abduction as a cause of Ravana's end by the Vedavatt episode, and his peculiar behaviour by the Nalakubara-episode. Thus, each tale either motivates some action of the epiccharacter or tries to explain some motif as understood by the popular imagination. But such an attempt to explain some action or some motif isolated from the epiccontext often changes the implications of tha action or motif, and it is quite likely that the total picture of the character as arising out of these tales may be quite different from the one presented by the epic-poet. Ravana of the epic may have been an honourable non-Aryan lover who abducts a beautiful Aryan woman; still, instead cf forcing her to submit to his passions he shows the patience of adopting the persuasive techniques. But to the popular imagination, he is the villain of the piece; it quickly catches the force exhibited in abduction, quickly generalises it as the characteristic of Ravana, and if he does not use force again, his patience can be understood only as his helplessness, not his goodness. Hence the Nalakubara-episode. A little consideration of the contents of these episodes of Vedavaty and of Nalakubara also will be interesting. In both the tales (even as in the principal tale) Ravana forcibly tries to subject a woman to his lust and in each case invites a curse (in the principal tale, his end) upon himself. The force succeeds in one case, does not in the other. The one in which it does not is that of Vedavati who is Sita herself in her previous birth. Therefore, her chastity is retained in this tale also, and here too she is shown to jump into fire. The propriety of these details is obvious. (This, by the way, also indicates that this story as perhaps this whole group of tales is added to the central portion either with or after the inclusion of the controversial fire-ordeal-episode into the epic.) The contents of the other tale are also noteworthy. Nalakubara is a mere Yaksa, and though he is called 'dharmatma", his power of pronouncing a curse upon anyone is questionable. In spite of the fact that the woman is a nymph, Ravana's openly amorous address to Rambha and the expression like maithunayopacakrame 183 are rather vulgar, to say the least. Now, Rambha herself being a nymph who is not supposed to have a fixed husband, the central 183 The same words are rapeated in the tale of Danda raping Araja, the daughter of Bhargava Usanas. Vide UK, 71.15. S. T. 10

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74 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics motivating factor of the curse becomes very weak. Consequently, a little closer scrutiny will reveal that the whole episode of Nalak ubara and that aspect of Ravana's behaviour which it seeks to motivate and explain seems to lack enough justification. The three curse-stories and one boon-story thus motivate Ravana's death at the hands of a human being, his death by an Iksvaku king only, the cause of his destruction being Sita and his abstaining from using force to win over Sita's love. As we saw, they serve only to undermine the human interest of the epic-tale. They underrate or connive at the artistic finnesse or idealistic overtones of the original tale by explaining almost everything in terms of curse-motif. This tendency to introduce the curse-motif in season and out of season to explain almost anything and everything can be seen at work in the MBh also. Take, for example, the incident of the death ot King Pandu. 184 The very name Pandu' -- pale -- suggests that he was suffering from some anaemic illness and female company was fatal for him. Still, the advent of Spring in the forest-nature once so overpowered him that he was irresistibly drawn into the embrace of Madri, knowing fully well that for him it meant an embrace of Death. The episode beautifully illustrates the human weakness for tender feelings even at the cost of one's life. But the overtones of these subtle emotions are allowed to die out by introducing the curse-motif to explain his situation. Once when a sage Kindama was enjoying his wife's company in the form of a deer-couple, Pandu hunted the sage without knowing him and was cursed by the dying sage that female company would now be fatal for Pandu.185 Curse, therefore, and not illness, becomes the cause of his death. Karna's failure at the most crucial moment is shown to be the result of the curse of sage Parasurama who professes to teach only Brahmins but from whom Karna obtains the art of weapons by telling a lie that he is a Brahmin. 186 The internecine war ending in the annihilation of the Yadava clan187 is due to the curse of mother Gandhari 188 The near-complete annihilation of the Nagas in the socalled-sarpa-satra of Janamejaya189 is because of the curse of mother Kadru.190 Though relegated to Appendix in the Critical Edition, the episode of Urvasi191 also seeks to motivate Arjuna's deplorable condition as an eunuch dancing master by the curse -motif. It will be noticed that the persons pronouncing curse belong to various categories. Anaranya is a Ksatriya king, Nalakubara is a Yaksa, Urvasi is an apsaras, Gandhari is a human female, Kadru is a semi-divine female, the parents of Sravana are of lower caste. Kindama-Parasurama-Durvasas are sages. The power to pronounce curse is, therefore, no monopoly of Brabmins. The motif is not used to imply the Brahmin superiority as it might be believed at first thought. On the contrary, it 184 Adip. 116.2-12. 185 AdiP. 109. 186 San P. 2-3. 187 MauP. 4. 188 Str P.24. 189 AdiP. 47-48. particularly 48.19 where Vasuki is called alpa-sesa-parivaro. 190 AdiP. 18.7-8. 191 VanP. Appendix I, No.6. pp.1047-1953,

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The Tales in Rama yana will be observed that, if at all, Brahmins rarely pronounce curse and the gods never do. Though subjected to innumerable harrassments, Vasistha never pronounces a curse upon Visvanitra. Actually pronouncing a curse is taken to be so much waste of Tapas - the power of penance.192 Of course, there is always a just cause for pronuncing a curse, and the aggrieved person has a right, so to say, to pronounce the curse. (The only exception is that of Urvasi who pronounces a curse for an unjust cause. The passage has rightly been relegated to the Appendix by Sukthankar.193) All the same, pronouncing curse means giving way to feelings of resentment which definitely means losing control or restraint of emotions. The curse and the resultant loss of Tapas are thus symbolic. Another aspet of this motif is that the curse never fails. Of course, most of the curse-episodes are secondary additions to the epics and are after-thoughts intended to motivate certain points in the principal tale which are incomprehensibly incompatible to the popular mind. If Ravana kidnaps Sita, why he does not use force to subject her to his desire is difficult for a common man to understand. It is apparently incompatible. To remove this incompatibility of the two motifs the curse of Nalakubara is pressed into service. Still, that does not alter the basic fact of the efficacy of the curse-motif. Curse is a power of hurt emotions set into motion. The word 'sapa,' derived from the root sap - 'to swear, to take an oath' and understood in the context of feelings hurt on account of injustice, signifies a vow, an oath to retaliate. It never fails, it can never fail, to achieve its end of the retaliation of injustice caused to the curser. Viewed thus, it appears as a corollary of the wider sche ne of Action and its fruition -- the eternal law of Karma' and its 'phala', with a qualification that the curser tries to influence its natural course in some specific manner and to that extent he has to utiltze -- or waste, for that matter - accumulated power of penance. But the higher characters do not curse. The higher the character, the greater his forbearance. The gods are more often than not troubled by the demons, but they never curse. They try to influence the course of events by remaining within the limits of the natural course of 'karma' and its phala'. If Ravana, by his action of austere penance, has obtained a boon of invincibility except by human beings, then. in spite of his trouble-Irongering, gods cannot subdue him. They, therefore, try to control him through human agency by making Visnu incarnate as a human hero Rama. But the great sages like Vasistha, even when harrassed, never seek to retaliate by curse as the characters of lower level do; nor do they attempt to control or influence the natural course of events as the gods do. They simply witness the affairs of the world and let the things take their own natural course. Strength of forbearance is superior to the strength of pronouncing curse. Forbearance--khanti' (ksanti-ksama) is one of the six Paramitas -- the basic tenets of Buddhism. The verse "na hi verena verani sammantidha kadacana" is one of the famous lines of Buddhist Scriptures. And a number of stories of Buddha's 192 See, for example, BK. 48.3. Sapa-moksena mahata tapo'syapahstam maya/ 193 Vide bis editorial note to Fascicule II, VanP.

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics previous births in the 'Cariyapitaka' and the Jataka-collection seek to illustrate this maxim of forbearnce showing Buddha's tolerance of various kinds of assaults. The quality requires no small strength of character, and has exercised great influence on the popular Indian mind through milleniums even upto the present times in which Mahatma Gandhi's 'Ahimsa' of the strong is only another form of that forbearance. Now, though Tapas is found in a number of Vedic books, the extension of its meaning as 'forbearance' in the Brahminical tradition is seen only in the epic-puranic literature. Shall we say, it betrays a Buddhist influence? After this rather long digression on the curse-motif, let us now return to the tales of Ravana. There are, again, episodes of Ravana's successful march over Kubera, Yama and Varuna, lords of the directions of North, 194 South, 195 and West. 196 The East, the direction of Indra, is won over by his son who obtains the name 'Indra-jit'.197 Thus, symbolically Ravana's sovereignty in all the four directions is established. Even Rama's Ayodhya was won over, though from Rama's ancestor Anaranya. These Victories establish Ravana [as an invincible warrior. When Rama subjugates this Ravana, his valour is automatically proved to be even superior to that of the invincible villain. If, the tales of BK were intended to show the character of Rama, the great warrior and an ideal monarch, in the making, we can very well look upon these tales of Ravana's voluptuous adventures and political victories as intended to show even the lewd and invincible villain in the making. Tales of the hero are prefixed to the epic, those of the villain are suffixed to it. So it will be more proper to say that these tales try to explain and deepen the different lines of the sketch of his villainous personality. 76 There are, however, two episodes which describe Ravana's defeats also one at the hands of Arjuna Kartavirya,198 the other at the hand of Valin.199 In both the episodes, he is put in a very ludicrous position. Arjuna releases Ravana upon the request of the latter's father Pulastya. Valin simply puts Ravana under his armpit and flies a long distance high up in the air. Ravana seeks his friendship, and makes him his ally. The fact that Valin is an ally of Ravana will at once show us how politically wise Rama was in removing Valin first even if rather treacherously. Rama's goal was to fight Ravana for recovering Sita and his family-honour. Whatevr he did must either remove the obstacles in the path of realising his goal or should at least bring him nearer to it. Now, Valin was superior in strength to Ravana and Rama should not incur the risk of inviting a straight duel with him without knowing his strength. So he kills Valin by hiding himself behind a tree. By killing Valin, he weakens the side of Ravana who loses an ally, and strengthens his own by getting in Sugriva a friend under obligation. The army which, under Valin, would have fought on Ravana's side against him will now fight under Sugriva on his side against Ravana. The single Rama wins thereby an ally as well as a friendly army to fight against the demon. A small unheroic act, thus, brings in an immense positive reward. When we 194 UK. 14. 195 UK. 20-22. 196 UK, 23. 197 UK. 29. 198 UK. 31-32. 199 UK. 34.

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The Tales in Kamayana consider it politically, we realize, Rama also must have thought : 'Discretion is the better part of valour'. 200 Two episodes show Ravana to be the devotee of lord Sankara. After an austere penance performed for thousands of years, he obtains the name "Ravana201 (and the divine sword202) from Sankara. Again, he worships the Linga on the bank of river Narmada.203 It is noteworthy that even in the earlier Sargas 204 where the ancestral genealogy of Ravana is described in the Pauraniki style with some sprinkling of narratives, Sankara is shown to be favourably disposed towards these demons. The genealogy is given as under : Prajapati Yaksas Raksasas Leaders Heti & Praheti (m. Bhaya) Vidyutkesa (m. daughter of Samdhya) Sukesa (m. Devavati, daughter of Gramani) Malyavat* (m. Sundari) Sumalin* (m. Ketumati) Malin* (m. Vasudha) Vajra musti Virupaksa Durmukha Sapta-ghna Yajna-kopa Matta Unmatta & Anala. Prahasta Akampana etc. ten sons and three daughters : Raka Puspotkata & KAIKASI Anila Prajapati Anala Hara Sampati Pulastya (m.daughter of Trnabindu) -VISRAVAS (m. daughter of Bharadvaja) Vaisravana DASAGRIVA KUMBHA - SURPA- VIBHISANA KARNA NAKHA (*In their war with gods, Malin was slain and the other two were defeated by Lord Visnu. They fled from Lanka, which was then occupied by Vaisravan. He was driven away by Ravana.) 200 The Abhiseka-netaka ascribed to Bhasa seeks to portray Rama, the great politician, almost along these lines. 201 UK. 16. 21-28. 202 Relegated to Critical Apparatus; see under UK, 16 29. p. 106. 203 UK. 31. 204 UK, 1-9,

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10 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics Sukesa in the above line was favoured by Lord Sankara, who gave him strengh anan immediate growth 205 His three sons are compared with Tri-netra, 206 When the gods, troubled by thc e three, approach Lord Sankara with a request to destroy them, Sankara says, "I shall not destroy them, they are undestroyable by me."207 Visnu also calls Sukesa as "intoxicated with the boon of Isana."208 Cumulatively, these tales give us an impression that Sankara must have been the god of the tribes of which our Ravana was the king. He must have belonged to the tribes of Siva-worshippers. We do not know whether the tales germinally contain some historical truth or whether they are all later concoctions. In either case, the suggestion will not be lost upon us. The defeat of the Siva-worshipper Ravana and his tribe at the hands of Rama, an incarnation of Visnu, clearly aims at illustrating the superiority of the Vaisnavaites over the Saivaites. We should at once be clear that the central Kandas taken by themselves would never yield themselves to any such interpretations. It is only on the strength of the secondary tales prefixed and suffixed to the epic, that such a sectarian interpretation of the criginal tale has been made possible. The secondary tales thus take the epic tale on an entirely different level. In this context it will be interesting to note how greatly does Sukthankar rely on these Secondary tales in order to explain the MBh-story on Ethical as well as Metaphysical planes. As he shows in the third of his famous lectures on the Meaning of the Mahabharata,209 the merest story of the fratricidal war narrated with a chronicler's faithfulness would not be very redeeming since there is nothing new in it. Such wars are a matter of common occurance in the history. There is nothing special or grand about it. On the contrary, so many details of the story, "it must be conceded, put the emotion several degrees lower.210 It is a second-rate subject. The real depth and significance of the story of genesis in the Adip, or tales of Gods, Demons and Lord Visnu Himself being born as Pandavas, Kauravas (viz. Duryodhana etc.) and Krsna present the epic-story as a mere recurring incident of the constant struggle between Devas and Asuras, as mere phase in the cosmic evolution 211 The incarnation theory is harnessed into service for this purpose and a number of tales, in fact, a whole section of 'Adivamsavatara naparvan' is added to the epic simply to help it project on a cosmic level. The simple epic-story thus achieves a very different, rather cosmic dimension. Sukthankar calls it "The Epic on an Ethical plane."212 205 UK, 4.26 - 30. 206 UK. 5,5. Trins trinetra-saman putran. 207 UK. 6.9. 208 UK. 6.18. 209 Pub. Asiatic Society of Bombay, 1837. 210 Op. cit. p.62. 211 ibid. pp. 67-68, pp. 88-90. 212 This is the title, the topic of his third lecture.

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The Tales in Ramayana 79 The same epic-story, shows Sukthankar in his final lecture, can be viewed on a metaphysical plane also. He takes various epic characters as symbolizing various philosophical concepts-Krsna, for example, is the symbol of the Highest Brahman,213 Arjuna of Jivatman,214 Dhrtarastra of the vacillating Ego, Vidura of Buddhi, Bhisma of tradition as "the time-binding element in human life and society"215 and so on - but basically he takes his cue from the story of King Dambhodbhava 216 occuring in the Udyp where Krsna and Arjuna are presented as incarnations of Narayana and Nara.217 Sukhthankar further compares the Nara-Narayana episode with that famous Upanisadic metaphor of the two birds218 and shows that Arjuna and Krsna liave, in our tradition been regarded as representing Jivatman and the Highest Brahman.219 The story thus affords a metaphysical viewpoint for the epic-story. Though Sukthankar has not mentioned it-he has no necessity to --, we may point out that the Dambhodbhava-story is narrated in the epic by Rama Jamadagnya 220 which is a sure proof of its inclusion in the epic in its final stage when the Bhargava interest in and influence upon the epic-redaction were uppermost. The story is secondary because it describes no incident of the principal story, but also because it is included in the epic at a later stage. And it is this secondary tale that affords us the metaphysical viewpoint. No such tale to take the epic on a metaphysical plane is found in the RM.but the story of genesis in BK, and the tales of Ravana showing him as a demon-king do allow the ethico-cosmic interpretation of the RM also. On the other hand, the sectarian interpretation which is possible in the case of RM is not possible in the case of MBh simply because in the latter both the heroes and the villains belong to the same genealogy. It will be seen, therefore, that the secondary tales perform an important function of providing different view-points on the entire epic-stories to the extent that they succeed considerably in changing the significance and emphasis of the original epic nucleus. It will also be clear that the basic structures of the epic-- tales themselves reveal certain potentials as well as limitations for different interpreta213 Cf. "......there is no passage in the epic which does not presuppose, or which contradicts, his character as an incarnation of the Supreme Being, who is generally called in our Epic Visnu or Narayana". Op. cit.p.67. 214 Cf. "Sri Krsna and Arjuna symbolize the Paramat man and the Jivatman, Dhitarastra and his hundred sons stand for the emperical ego and its entourage of desires and passions..." ibid. pp. 105-106. 215 ibid. p. 107. 216 ibid. pp. 99-100, Cf. Udy P. 94. 217 Cf. Udy P'. 94.42ab. nara-narayanau yau tau tav cvarjunakesavau / 218 On the Meaning etc., p. 100. The Upanisadic parable referred to is found in Mundakopanisad Ill. i.1. Read : dva suparna sayuja sakhaya samanam vsksam parisasvajate tayor anyah pippalam svadv atty anasnann anyo' bhicakasiti // 219 Read above fn. 214.

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80 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics tions which might be super-imposed upon then by means of the secondary tales. The basic structures of the epic-nucleii also work as a check upon the type of secondary tales which would be added to the epics, and which in their turn would evolve different interpretations of the epic-nucleii. (2) The Other Tales The naration of Ravana's encounter with Valin is the last episode of Ravanagroup of tales. It occasions the tale of Hanumat. Why Hanumat, Emore powerful and doer of many more wonderful valorous deeds than almost any other character of RM, did not burn Valin, friend as he was of Sugriva? To answer this query of Rama, sage Agastya narrates the story of the birth of Hanumat, his childhoodadventures, and a minor curse in Sargas 35-36 of UK. His story is also sufficiently well-known to Indians. Hanumat is said to be the levirate-son of Vayu, born in Anjana, the wife of King Kesarin of the Sumeru mountains.221 Once, when his mother was away, the child, tormented by hunger, jumped at the Sun, believing him to be a fruit. Vayu ran after him, lest the Sun should burn him. The Sun did not burn him as he was a mere child. But Rahu who was going to swallow the Sun just at that time was afraid of this new creature claiming the Sun, 'and complained before Indra, who struck the child dead with his thunderbolt. Vayu became angry and choked up the systems of urination and defecation of the beings. Brahma, however, intervened, re-enlivened the child with his touch and asked all the gods to bless the child with various boons. The child, becoming unruly, troubled the sages who then cursed him to remain ignorant of his own strength. If we were Agastya, we would have explained Hanumat's strength and simplicity by pointing out the parallels of Shakespeare's Caliban in 'The Tempest or Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame. But in the Puranic world everything should be explained properly as resulting from either a divine parentage, or boons or a curse. All the three are present here. Every aspect of Hanumat's personality is separately motivated, his great strength by the divine boons; his simplicity by the sages' curse, and jumping capacity by his divile parentage. This last is rather curious. One thing is very certain. Hinumat's childhood feat of jumping at the rising Sun is brought in with a clear motivation of making his other great jump over the ocean described so poetically in the SK appear plausible. When we realize, following the recent deliberations of the scholars regarding the original Lanka,222 that 'sagara' is actually nothing more than a large, perhaps very large, lake, we immediately perceive that Hanumat must have swum across the so-called 'sagara' and his great swimming is described with poetic hyperbole as a jump. The hyperbole has, however, some actual basis. Han umat is a Kapi-a monkey' i.e. belonging to a 220 Cf. Udy P. 94.3-4 221 UK. 35. 19-20. 222 For a very complete discussion of the problem of the location of Lanka, read the Intro duction to UK, by Dr. U.P. Shah, Baroda, 1975. pp. 31-50.

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The Tales in Ramayana tribe having monkey as its totem.223 And monkeys do jump even across the trees. So, the great swimming of this hero of the 'monkey' tribe can very well be described as a great jump across the mountains. The fact of the hero being a 'monkey' justifies the transformation of the great swimming into a great jump and what is lacking in plausibility is filled up by the poetic imagination. Now, the strength of jumping through the air naturally needs to be fathered by the god of Wind. The great jump, itself a poetic hyperbole, is sought to be justified by a still further exaggerated act of the child's jumping at the Sun. Naturally, such feats cannot be justified without divine causation. Popular imagination, like poetic imagination, knows no bounds. But another corrollary of this mode of argument is rather significant. If we have succeeded in showing that the motif of Hanumat's being the son of Vayu has developed according to the logic as shown above, then we are removing an important corroboration of the theory that the Rama-story is a metaphorical presentation of the rains-agriculture-phonomena224 in which Rama, the lord of Hanumat, represents Indra, the lord of Maruts. As we saw above, Vayu's fathership of Hanumat can more plausibly be explained in another way, and therefore, Rama-Hanumat-relationship is not intended to be similar to Indra-Maruts-relationship. We may point out another fact which also weakens the agriculture-metaphoricaltheory. The name "Ravana' (sought to be explained as ru 'to shout, to cry') is thought to be representing the thunder of the clouds in that theory. Recent studies have shown that "Ravana is a sanskritized form of the Tamil word ireivan or iraivan which means "god', 'king', 'sovereign' and 'lord'."225 This will mean that "Ravana' is not a personal name, but a general name meaning any king, at the most a king of a particular line, just as 'Janaka' means, not the father of Sita, but any king of the line of Janakas.226 Again, this linguistic aspect of the name 'Ravana' renders all etymological explanations and consequently any deductions based thereon worthless. Apart from the agricultural-metaphor theory mentioned above, there is a tale which says Ravana obtained the name from Lord Mahadeva by making a roar which terrified all the three worlds.227 7 he tale, worthless as it is, is further confirmed to be a purely fictitious one, like all such etymological tales. 223 ......the identifications of Vanaras and Raksasas by different scholars, Kibe430 (430. Festschrift Thomas, pp, 144-145.) and Hira Lal431 (431. Jha Comm. Vol., pp. 151-161.) take them to be inhabitants of the country round Amarkantak;" Studies in Epics And Puranas of India, A. D. Pusalkar, Bombay, 1963. pp. 202-3. 224 The interpretation of the latter part of Rama-story as an Agricultural myth bas been given by H. Jacobi in The Ramayana (Tr, by S, N, Ghosal, Baroda, 1960, pp. 97ff.). It has also been partly discussed by Camille Bulcke. Vide his Ramakatha, Prayag, 1950, pp. 14ff. 225 'Dasagriva or Dasagana of the Ramayana', S. N. Batra, Journal of the Oriental Institute, Baroda, Vol. XXIII. Nos. 1-2, p.43. 226 Cf. Rama-katha, Bulcke, p.9. 227 See above, under the section The Entourage Tales. S. T. 11

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics The word 'ireivan' also seems to have been sanskritized as 'Lavana'. 228 Lavana is the demon king of Madhura, and son of the demon Madhu and Visvavasu's daughter Kumbhinasi.229 He also has a lance obtained by his father from Lord Mahadeva,230 At the request of the sages troubled by this demon, Rama dispatches Satrughna to kill him.231 The reason of making Satrughna do this job is obvious. It is the sympathy for the neglected characters of a poem that prompts the redactors to make, not Rama, not Rama, Laksmana or Laksmana or Bharata232 all of whom have been shown to play important roles in the principal tale, but Satrughna perform the task. The episode of Lavanavadha occupies Sargas 52 to 63, and shows all the processes of the development of the epic on a smaller level. Thus, when Satrughna comes to the hermitage of Valmiki, a story of his ancestor Saudasa Mitrasaha Kalmasapada is narrated. 233 Further on his way when he is conversing with the sages headed by Cyavana,234 the sage tells him the story of story of one more ancestor of the hero, Mandhatp235 by name, whom Lavana had killed. Now Satrughna will kill Lavana who, in the morning, is said to be 'unweaponed' (agrhltayudha). Does it not remind us of the ta'e of Anaranya vanquished by Ravana who, in turn, is vanquished by Rama, the descendent of Anaranya ? And the sages had already informed, while complaining about this demon, of his equipment with a lance which. his father obtained from Lord Mahadeva and which he eventually inherited. The imitation of the incidents of the main story is so close that, like Laksmana, Satrughna also falls unconscious236 and then regaining consciousness pierces the demon in heart, with an arrow, which then enters the underworlds and finally returns to the quiver of Satrughna.237 "Know this arrow to be made of the lustre of Lord Visnu and this same body was of that Visnu previously",238 (The ambiguity makes it possible to mean by 'body' both the arrow as well as Satrughna himself.) It was this arrow with which Visnu had killed the demons Madhu and Kaitabha.239 Now with the same arrow, Satrughna pierces the heart of Lavana, the son of Madhu. Does the poet ambiguously want to suggest that Satrughna also is an incarnation of Visnu? 82 228 Cf. The famous axiom ra-la-yor abhedah / Again, the phonemic affinity of r of Tamil language to various phonemes like g, 1, d, !, z, etc. is well-known. 229 This Kumbhinasi is the cousin sister of Ravana Cf.UK.25. 230 UK. 53.19-20. 231 UK. 54.15-16. 232 Mark Satrughna's words in UK. 54.11-14. 233 UK. 57. 234 UK. 58.14, 59.1. 235 UK. 59. 236 UK. 61.12-15. 237 UK. 61.34-35. 238 UK. 61.28. vide. evam etam prajanidhvam visnos tejomayam saram / ea caiva tanuh purva vinos tasya mahatmanah // 239 UK. 61,27,

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The Tales in Ramayana And, if we agree that Lavana also is Ravana only, 24 then the redactors' epic-efforts to show $atrughna also perform a task comparable to that of the heroes of the epic will prove successful ! Sargas 64 to 67 narrate the famous sambuka-episode, which, as we have pointed out above, we intend to deal with in the next chapter. Rama visits the forest of Dandaka to slay the Sudra sage Sambuka, and after performing that task, visits sage Agastya who presents him divine ornaments. The sage was given the ornaments by one king Sveta 241 who, though having attained heaven by penance, was still troubled by thirst and hunger as he had not given charity to anyone. Lord Brahma punished him to eat his own corpse every day till Agastya would relieve him of the predicament. The sage had accepted the ornaments as charity from that king to set him free from the punishment. Charity is the highest virtue ! When Agastya came to that forest, it was full of fruits and trees, yet uninhabited by any animal or human beings. The reason is explained by a tale. 242 Danda was the last of a hundrsd sons of Ik svaku. Considering his foolishness, the father made him king of the land between Vindhya and Saivala mountains. Once, the king Danda saw Araja, the daughter of his own priest Usanas Bhargava, was enamoured of her and raped her. The sage cursed his kingdom to be covered with sands within seven days except the area around the habitation of Araja. The kingdom of Danda was turned into Dandaka-forest by the curse of Bhargava sage Usanas.243 Sargas 74 to 81 give us Rama's deliberations with his brothers regarding the sacrifice he should perform. Rama's suggestion of performing Rajasuya is not approved by his brothers. 244 They suggest that he should perform Asvamedha. The great efficasy of Asvamedha is illustrated by two tales, one of Indra who expiates by Asva. medha the great sin of Brahmicide which he has incurred in killing Vstra, 245 and the second of Ila who, turned into a woman on account of entering the forbidden forest of Uma, regained his maleness by performing Asvamedha,246 Both the tales are famous and serve the purpose of Arthavada. 240 At least, etymologically they seem to be the same ! Refer above fn. 227. 241 UK. 68-69. 242 UK. 70-72. 243 Ravana knows of this curse. To console his sister Surpanakha whose husband he has killed, through inadvertance, with Kalakeyas, he sends her with Khara to Dandaka-forest which, he knows to have been cursed previously by Usanas, Cf. UK, 24. particularly 24.32. 244 UK. 73. particularly 74.9-14, and 18. In 'Antipathy to Rajasuya : Why' (Sambodhi, Ahmedabad, Vol. I, No. 3, 1972) Ganesh Thite makes some interesting observations. The possibility of wars in this sacrifice arises from the fact that in the ritual of the Rajasuya the sacrificer treats his own relatives and members of his family in an insulting manner and they are ritually denied the chance of being kings even in the future, thus causing inner struggles. 245 UK. 76-77. 246 UK, 78-81.

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84 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics Now, the only portions of UK we have not touched so far are Sargas 37 to 51 in which Rama, hearing of the popular censure, renounces Sita, and Sargas 82 to the end in which he performs Asvamedha at which the final tragedy occurs, In a way, both can be treated as incidents of the main story, since they are shown to develop as a result of the incident of para-glha-vasa belonging to the principal parrative. While deciding to renounce Sita, Rama refers to the fact that Sita was pronounced chaste by the Fire, the Wind, the Sky, the Moon and the Sun.247 But there is no reference to the fire-ordeal. Even in the Ramopakhyana in MBh, when Sita appeals Matrisvan, and then to the fire, the sky, the earth, the wind, in fact to the great elements, it is the wind, the fire, Lord Varuna, Lord Brahman, and Dasaratha who all pronounce Sita's chastity.248 Reference is also made there to the curse of Nalakubara 249 and to the other details of Ravana's genealogy250 which shows that its author is conversant with the Ravana-story-cycle The MBh version ends with a reference to the ten Asva. medhas performed by Rama on the bank of river Gomati.251 The incarnation-story is also referred to 252 But the incident of Rama's marriage with Sita or Rama's renouncing her is not referred to. The author of the MBh summary thus knows BK and UK, at least partially, and it is not easy to decide whether he knows other portions of these later Kandas. It is possible that he knows them but does not want to refer to them, since the context does not permit it. The summary is intended to console Yudhisthira in his grief on Draupadi's abduction by Jayadratha, and to narrate the tragic ending of the Rama-story (as resulting out of the abduction-episode) would not be in order. The story then would make the listerers sorry instead of consoling them. On the other hand, it is not impossible that the author does not know of Rama's marriage with and his renunciation of Sita, of his two sons and of Valmiki's authorship. If we agree with the second possibility, then, these portions must be supposed to have been added to the epic in its third stage. The fire-ordeal episode must have been still later.253 It is not difficult to see that the fire ordeal is only a further intensification of the same motif which caused the incidents of renunciation and the eternal separation to be introduced into the epic. In the first stage, the intention of the author was to describe the hero's victory only (the name of the epic was probably 'Paulastya-vadha') and Sita's abduction in it was intended to be nothing else tban a legitimate reason for launching the war. But as the epic grew in popularity, and as Rama came nearer and nearer to the godhood, the evil of para-glha-vasa began to attract greater and greater attention, 247 UK, 44.6-7. 248 VanP. 275.23-36 249 VanP. 275.32. 250 VanP. 258-259. 251 VanP. 275.69. 252 VanP. 260. 253 YK.

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The Tales in Ramayana the inclination to emphasise Sita's purity became stronger, and no other intelligent answer except a recourse to divine intervention was possible to such a delicate and highly personal problem. Still, gods testifying to Sita's purity was one thing, the actual fire-ordeal is quite another thing. The latter is crudely popular, it duplicates the motif very artlessly, and must have have been added in the latest stages of the epic. That brings us to the question of the authorship of UK. N. J. Shende had tried to show that "the Bhrgvangirases influenced directly or indirectly the enlargement of the epic."254 He bases his conclusion on a survey of the Bhrgvangiras element in the epic as it was available then in its Bombay edition. But many of the references to and tales of the Bhrgvangiras sages are now relegated either to footnotes as starpassages or to appendices. For example, the references to Bhrgvangiras in B.Ayk. 32.33 now becomes star passage 763. Angiras and Bbrgu performing sacrifice for Nimi at B.UK. 55.9 are now thrown to Appendix I passage No. 8 with the whole sacrificial episode. The reference to Gargya Trijata as an Angirasa is now *766 of Ayk. Brhaspati is born as Tara, the chief of monkeys, now in 491 of BK. Bharadvaja, the pupil of Valmiki, now accompanies him from footnote *139 of BK. Gautama performing at Nimi's sacrifice is now in Appendix I, passage No. 8 of UK. The story of Nimi Janaka being revived from a bodiless condition by Bhrgu and that of Usanas' curse to Yayati are also now in Appendix passage No. 8 of UK, while in passage No. 7 is relegated the tale wherein Visnu slays Bhrgu's wife for giving shelter to demons and invites Bbrgu's curse upon his own self to be born as mortal and to bear separation from his beloved wife. Of course, the tales of Rsyairnga, of Abalya Gautama, of Vedavati (daughter of Kusadhvaja Barhaspatya), of Usanas" curse to Danda, of Sunahsepa (son of Reika Bhargava), and of Parasurama still remain. Bharadvaja, a sage of Prayaga receiving the exiles and showing the way to Citrakuta in Ayk still very much remains a character of the principal tale. A tale in which Sagara is shown to be born with poison (hence his name 'Sa-gara') on account of sage Cyavana's blessings in spite of his mother being poisoned by her co-wife is retained in AyK. 102.16-18, while put in the footnote in BK as *1272. Still, however, the theory of Prof. Shende loses much of its force, as almost half of the references and tales supporting his theory are not accepted in the critical text. 85 We should point out at this stage that Sage Agastya is shown to narrate quite a large part of the UK. The entire Ravana-katha-cakra and the tales of Hanamat, plus the tales of King Sveta, and King Danda are narrated by Agastya. As Prof. Shende shows, "Agastya is the brother of Vasistha, the purohita of the Iksvakus. This explains the presence of Agastya-element in the epic",255 But it does not explain the prominance of Bhrgvangiras-element. Again, "In nearly 45 out of 77 chapters 254 'The Authorship of the Ramayana', Journal of the University of Bombay, Vol.XII (New Series) part 2, Sept. 1943, p.24. 255 ibid.

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics of the Ist book, Visvamitra narrates various legends to Rama. In about 15 more sections (51-65) Satananda Angirasa narrates the greatness of Visvamitra to Rama and others."'256 The reason given for this prominence of Visvamitra is that he is a relation of the Bhrgus" 257 But as we have pointed out above, it is not possible for any Bhargava redactor to end the BK with an episode in which Parasurama, the greatest of the Bhargavas, is shown to be defeated. The only other reference in the entourage tales to Bhargavas is in that single sloka in which Visnu is said to slay the wife of Bhigu for desiring the world to be without Indra.258 It is not a very honouring reference, and the tale showing Bhrgu's retaliation with a curse is not accepted in the critical text of the UK also. Since the Parasurama-episode seeks to show Rama Dasarathi to be more valiant than even Rama Bhargava, it can be surmised that the latter's martial reputation of having routed the Ksatriyas 3 x 7 times must have been firmly established by that time, and it is some anti-Bhargava, or at least, non-Bhargava element that tries to handle the epic. We may as well point out here that Visvamitra is finally shown to go to the Northern mountains 259 The places of his entourage are situated in the Kosala and Videha kingdoms, the north-eastern region of Aryavarta. Agastya is intimately associated with the southern direction, Bhtgus are connected with the western part of the pristine Aryavarta. Now, if these sages are brought in to narrate various tales connected with various places, would it be too hazardous to suggest some sort of collective authorship of the epic in the later stages of its redaction ? It at least does not seem to be more hazardous than to suggest the Bhargava authorship of RM in its final stage. In the case of MBh, it can be said that "The Bhtgus have to all asprearances swallowed up the epic nucleus such as it was, and digested it completely; and it would be hazardoes venture now to reconstruct the lost Ksatriya ballad of love and war" 260 In the case of RM, Bhrgus have not succeeded similarly. They must have tried to influence the epic, though In the Ravana-katha cakra, for example, Ravana is shown to be defeated ridiculously at the hands of Arjuna Kartavirya. The tile has no curse-motif. It is not intended to motivate any incident of the principal narrative. Arjuna has no genealogical connection either with the hero or with the villain. Historically also, they cannot be contemporaries. What business does this Arjuna Kartavirya Haihaya of Mabismati liave in RM ? The only reason we can imagine is that of the Bhargava interest. It is this Arjuna who is said to have incited the wrath of Parasurama who consequently routed the Ksatriyas 3 x 7 times. We can, if we so wish, put the scale of martial superiority as Ravana > Arjuna > Rama Jamadagnya >Rama 256 ibid. 257 ibid. 258 BK. 24.18. 259 BK. 73.1. 260 On the meaning of the Mahabharata, Suktha ukar, p.110.

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The Tales in Ramayana Dasarathi, but very likely the scale is intended only upto the third step. Again, Usanas is said to perform sacrifices for Meghanada, son of Ravana, but that again reminds us of the Bhar java helping the side which finally loses the battle. Usanas is also shown to curse the king Danda. The tales of Arjuna and Danda ars, again, put in the mouth of Agastya. This shows that the authorship and authority of Agastya for the Ravana-story-group was rather well-estabiished and Blarkavas could not remove the Agastya-element. Similarly, in BK, they introduced Rsyastnga with l.is Atharvana-site but they could not remove Vasistha's Asvamedha and Visvamitra's prominence. In this sense, then, let us hope, the suggestion of a collective authorship of the pic will not appear as hazardous as it might appear at first sight. A comparative review of the tales of BK and UK will not be out of place here. All the tales of BK can, in one way or the (ther, be shown to bave some connection with the hero of the epic. They are intended to show the hero) - the great 'bow'-wielder, the moral ideal, the incarnation of Visnu - in the making. And they are arranged in a pattern of cruscendo, which begins with the tale of incarnation made possible by the sacrifices, then shows the hero of a great lineage -- the incarnation - gradually attaining and exhibiting martial prowess and moral stature through a Brahmarsi-teacher (whose own greatness is narrated in a story-cycle), and finally reaches the climax of the fullest flowering of incarnation in the Parasurama-episode. Most of the tales are narrated by Visvamitra himself who not only conducts the princes to the various places but also trains them in arms and educates them. The Visvamitra-story-cycle also has double justification. It is narrated by Satananda who feels ol liged towards Visvamitra for conducting Rama to his mother. And Visvamitra is the great teacher of the great hero of the epic. It again comes at the end of the group of tales narrated by Visvamitra himself, topping the collection of tales, as it were. And then, all this is emboxed within the motif of incarnation which supplies the beginning as well as the climax of BK. The pattern of the tales of UK, on the cther hand, is not very clear. The Ravanakatha-cakra, claiming almost one-third of the UK, looms large as compared to the other tales of UK which resolve themselves into small and unimportant groups. The groups themselves are again scattered through the flow of the narrative of the hero which itself also does not remain prominent. Thus, after the Ravana-katha-cakra (and the Hanumat-tale) comes the episode of Rama's renunciation of Sita on account of public censure. Then come the Lavana-episode (itself a small group of tales told by Valmiki, by Cyavana and by Brahman), the Sambuka episode, the tales of Sveta and Danda, and two tales of the arthavada of Asvamedha told one each by Laks. mana and by Rama. And finally comes, once again, Rama performing Asvamedha at which the final tragedy occurs. The fact that the narrators of the tales are different, also aggravates the impression of scatteredness. The narrator of the tales of Ravana and Han umat is Agastya. The episodes of Rama's renunciation of Sita, of Lavana and of Sambuka are narrated as events of the principal narrative. Tales

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics of Sveta and Danda are again put into the mouth of Agastya, while Rama and Laksmana narrate one tale each of Asvamedha. The final tragedy is again shown to be part of the principal narrative. The parrators of the tales in the Lavana-episode are again as numerous as the tales themselves. The Lavana-episode has no connection with the principal theme or its hero, except that Satrughna is a brother to Rama. It can stand by itself, since, not Rama, but Satrughna is the hero as far as that episode is concerned. This also damages the impression of the unity of UK. The tale of King Sveta also has no clear function to perform in the epic (unless, of course, we imagine that just as Sita was given the sthagara ointment by Anasaya, Rama also must be given something, divine ornaments for that matter, by someone !) and falls loose. There is, thus, no logical arrangement in the tales of UK. Consequently, the tragic end of the epic loses much of its poignance on account of a lack of consistently developing emotions which are interrupted by numerous tales, and on account of its pauranika style. The conception was grand, the execution is poor. The pattern of the tales of BK is logical and systematic, that of the tales of UK is rather clumsy.

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CHAPTER III THE TALES IN MAHABHARATA When we come to the Mahabharata, we are facing a veritable ocean of tales. We have been referring to some of these tales while dealing with those from RM. On the one hand, this has served to cover partly the material from MBh also; on the other hand, it has also pointed at certain similarities of content, intent and patterns. It must have been observed that though we tried to be exhaustive in our treatment of the tales of BK and UK, at certain places we could discuss them better by dealing with them into functional groups. Ravana-katha-cakra, for example, could be resolved into tales of the curse-motif, tales of his defeat, and tales of his devotion to lord Siva. Even the redactors themselves often seem to adopt the method of funetional grouping for the purposes of adding tales to the epics. Thus, the two tales of Indra's Brahmicide and of Ila's partially losing and regaining maleness are completely different in their form and content, yet they are put together to serve the purpose of eulogizing Asvamedha. When we consider the unwieldy mass of the tales of MBh, it becomes clear that to group them according to their functions is better than to group them according to either their form or content. To group them according to their form would mean to bring a lot of heterogenous matter under a few set types of folk-tale-forms like myths, legends, fables, parables, anecdotes etc., each form thus forming by itself a distinct subject of study. Again, the forms of folk-tales are normally decided by the nature of their contents, and even within these forms the tales are grouped according to the similarity of motif-structures. The similarity of these motif-structures is often seen to serve a similar purpose. We have seen tales with such similar motif-structures while comparing the Ahalya-tale with those of Renuka and of the mother of Cirakario; also tales of genesis, tales of curse-motif etc. Thus, the method of functional grouping more often than not indicates the inherent similarity of motif-structures also. We, therefore, now propose to adopt this method of functional grouping in dealing with the tales of MBh. 1. The Sarpa-satra of Janamejaya The very first group of tales in the MBh exemplifies the propriety of this functional approach. After the two indices of Anukramani-parvan and Parva-sangrahaparvan begins the tale of Janamejaya' which is immediately interfered by a group of tales illustrating the ideal of obedience to the instructions of the preceptor. It should be noted that, quite in keeping with the tradition observed in the Vedic works, the characters 1 AdiP. 3.1-18, taken up again at AdiP. 3.178. S. T. 12

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics are mentioned, even their tales are linked together, by their preceptilineal genealogy. Thus, Ayoda Dhaumya had three pupils: Aruni, Upamanyu and Veda. The teacher instructed Aruni, "Go, build a dyke !" When the latter could not dam the breach in the dyke, he put his own body in that place. When the teacher called him, he rose, thus breaking the dyke. Hence he was called Uddalaka (from ud+dr to tear up').2 From this entire group of tales, he is the only character famous in Vedic literature, and the name 'Uddalaka' Aruni by which he is famous is obtained by him through a complete obedience to the instructions of his teacher. The etymological nature of the parable, connected to illustrate the ideal of obedience, is too obvious to need any emphasis, 90 The second tale of Upamanyu4 is humorously instructive. He was asked by the teacher to look after cows. He grew fat on alms collected during this time, and used up without presenting them to the teacher. To correct his fault, the teacher forbade him to partake of alms without first presenting them to him (i.e. the teacher). The ingenious pupil took a second round of alms! Then he drank the milk of the cows, and then the foam oozing out of the mouths of calves when their mothers breasted them. Prevented by his teacher every time, the poor fellow, tormented by hunger, ate up the leaves of Arka (the plant of Calotropis Gigantea), became blind and fell in a well. The teacher then instructed him to praise Asvina who gave him a cake.. But this time, he insisted on presenting it first to the preceptor. He had learnt. his lesson, the hard way, of course! The third pupil Veda also was put to many severe tests. When, therefore, he became teacher, he was very lenient towards his pupils. Once in his absence, his pupil Uttanka stood firm against the advances of the teacher's wife.5 When this Uttanka was permitted to return, the teacher's the teacher's wife demanded, as guru's fee, the earrings of the queen of King Pausya within four days. Uttanka immediately set out.. On the way, he saw a large man riding a huge bull. At the rider's instance, he ate the bull's excreta. Then, only after cleaning himself properly, he obtained earrings. from the queen with a warning that Taksaka also was after them. Taksaka actually stole them in the guise of a naked ascetic and then slipped through a hole to the netherlands, where he saw two women weaving a garment with white and black warps and woofs. He also saw six boys turning a wheel. Then a man asked him to blow a horse in the hind. He did it. Flames of fire emanating from the horse's apertures filled up the netherworlds with smoke upon which Taksaka returned the earrings. Then, riding the same horse, Uttanka reached back just in time to escape 2 AdiP. 3.19-30. 3 AdiP. 3,29. yasmad bhavan kedara-kbandam avadaryotthitas tasmad bhavan uddalaka eva namna bhavisyatiti / 4 AdiP. 3.32-78. 5 AdiP. 3.85-91.

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The Tales in Mahabharata the curse of his teacher's wife.6 The scenes Uttanka saw were explained metaphorically by his teacher. The two women were Dhatr and Vidhatr; the black and white warps were night and day; the wheel was the year, the six boys, seasons. The man was Parjanya, the horse, Fire. The great bull was Airavata, king of Nagas; the rider was Indra himself; the excreta was nector itself. And though not explained, the earrings must have been the moon and the sun. The allegory of the tale is explained in the tale itself. The tale is intended to provide Uttanka a cause to be resentful towards Taksaka against whom he eventually instigates Janamejaya." The king then takes up the famous serpent-sacrifice. But apart from providing a motivation for sacrifice, the tale is also intended to function as an example of the ideal of obedience to the teacher at any cost; and it is through this function that this tale is linked up with the previous two tales. The teacher-pupil-relationship of the characters of this group of tales is another link, but it is not as strong as the functional ore. The genealogical relations may also be noted here. This Dhaumya is most probably the family-priest of the Pandavas, 10 Thus, Ayoda Dhaumya is said to be the grand-teacher of Uttanka. Arjuna is the great-grand-father of Janamejaya. Even Veda, the teacher of Uttanka, is said to have been chosen as an Upadhyaya by Janamejaya.11 So, the line of Dhaumya-Veda-Uttanka and that of Arjuna-(Abhimanyu)-Pariksit-Janamejaya can be shown to have maintained relations with each other, and there is enough. justification in Uttanka and Janamejaya joining hands in their common cause of taking revenge upon Taksaka.12 But the significant fact to be noted is that none of these characters, except Uddalaka Aruni is mentioned anywhere in the Vedic works. Uddalaka Aruni is a famous Brahmavadin but he is referred to as a student of his father Aruna and of Patancala Kapya of the Madra country.13 If Ayoda Dhaumya were his teacher and were the giver to him of that name by which he is famous, are we not justified in 6 AdiP. 3.97-164. 7 AdiP. 3.167-174. 91 8 There are reasons for this supposition: one, the desire of Taksaka, the king of netherlands, to possess them; two, the queen who gave them was not seen by Uttanka when he was impur.. Of course, the earrings, the ornaments of the ears, could as well be some two lores which the Brahmin obtained from a Ksatriya. The only difficulty in emphasising this interpretation is that the demander of the earrings as well as the giver are two ladies, and ladies interested in lores were, after everything is said in their favour, an exception. 9 AdiP. 3.177 & 185ff. 10 At the suggestion of Citraratha, Pandavas choose Dhaumya, the younger brother of Asita Devala as their purohita. Cf. AdiP. 174. In his An Index to the Names of Mahabharata (Reprint Ed., Delhi, 1963), S. Sorensen refrains from identifying the two Dhaumyas but there is more justification in identifying them. 11 AdiP. 3.85. 12 Cf. AdiP. 3.184d. svam eva karyam nrpates ca yat tat // 13 Cf. Vedic Index, Vol. I, p. 88.

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics expecting the teacher's name to be mentioned somewhere alongwith the famous student referred to so often in the Vedic works? True, Ayoda Dhaumya is said to be the younger brother of Asita Devala14 who is mentioned in some Vedic works, 15 but that fact actually goes to corroborate our position. As a younger brother of Asita Devala and as a teacher of the famous Uddalaka Aruni, Dhaumya has a greater claim to be recorded somewhere in our numerous Vedic works ! Is not the historicity of Dhaumya, and of his pupils Upamanyu and Veda and of the latter's pupil Uttanka, strongly doubtful ? Considering the nature of these tales, the first is an etymological connection, the second is supernatural in its latter part, and the third is completely mythico-allegorical. It is very likely, therefore, that all the characters, except Uddalaka Aruni, of this tales-group are fictitious, and are shown to be connected with the famous Brahmavadin in order to give them an appearance of being historical. We must note here that like two frames, MBh also has two beginnings. Both Adhyaya 1 and Adhyaya 4 of Adip. begin with identical words in prose : lomaharsana-putra ugra-sravah sutah pauraniko naimisaranye saunakasya kulapater dvadasa-varsike satre.... Adhyaya 1 breaks off abruptly at this point into verse and completes the sentence in anustubh metre. Adhyaya 4, on the other hand continues prose for a few lines more and then takes up verse. In both, Suta Ugrasravas Pauranika comes to the twelve-year sattra of Sage Saunaka and begins to narrate tales to the sages assembled at the sacrifice at their request. The first beginning, after anukramani and parva-sangraha, begins in Adhyaya 3 straightway with the narrative of Janamejaya and attempts to introduce the Sarpa-satra episode through the Uttankastory-group and Uttanka's animosity against Taksaka. The second, on the other hand, begins with a group of tales of Bhtgu-sages, since Sage Saunaka at whose twelveyear-satra the entire epic is narrated is said to belong to the Bbsgu-lineage, 16 and introduces the Sarpa-satra by a story of Sage Ruru of that line and his beloved Pramadvara17 containing a motif-structure similar to that of the Janamejaya-story. 18 Now it can be shown that none of the two story-groups introducing the Janamejaya's Sarpa-satra are inherently connected with it. The portion of the first three Adhyayas containing a summary of the epic, an index to the epic and a story-group narrated in Brahmanical prose is entirely incongruent with the epic in spirit. Again, Uttanka is not necessarily required for instigating Janamejaya. The circumstances of 14 Refer above fn-10. 15 "A mythical sage of this name figures as a magician in the Atbarvaveda in conjunction with Gaya or with Jamadagni". Vedic Index, I, p.47, vide also pp.376, 380. 16 AdiP. 5.7-8. The line is given thus : Bhtgu - Cyavana - Pramati - Ruru - Saunaka - Saunaka. 17 AdiP. 8-11. 18 See below.

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The Tales in Mahabharata 93 his father's death themselves are sufficient to infuriate Janamejaya against Taksaka who prevented the senior king from coming back to life. Two, throughout the snakesacrifice-story-group Uttanka is hardly ever mentioned except at one or two insignificant places. 19 He does not occupy any office at the snake-sacrifice which is instigated by him. There is a whole list of the priests 20 who officiated at the snake-sacrifice, but there is none among them from the brahmins mentioned in the Uttanka-story-group. If Uitanka really instigated the king, is it not strange that he himself does not participate in the sacrifice ? The second story-group contains two tales. The first is of sage Burgu.21 The demon Puloman had chosen the beautiful lady, also Puloman by name, for himself, but her father gave her away to sage Bhtgu. Once, in the sage's asbence, the demon came to his hermitage, asked Fire whether the enceinte woman was the wife of Bhrgu and getting from him a correct answer in affirmative, kidnapped her. The angry embryo, however, slipped out (v cyu, hence his name 'Cyavana') of its mother's womb and by its sun-like lustre, burnt the demon to ashes. The Fire who had ans. wered correctly was cursed by the sage to be 'all-eater' but Lord Brabman explained that everything would be purified with his flames. The similarity of the names of the demon and his chosen woman remind us of the same motif occuring in the tale of Jaratkaru22 also. The curse of Bhrgu and its remedy by Brahman are only a sort of a various interpretation of the fact. But the name Puloman which is also given as the name of the wife of Indra at some places23, and the motif of the lover approaching his beloved - the wife of a sage in his absence, remind us of Indra approaching Ahalya. Thus, every little spare-part of the tale is borrowed from eleswhere, and the tale reveals an entirely fictitious -- not my thical -- motif-structure. The case of the second tale of the group is also not different. Pramadvara, daughter of Menaka by Visvavasu, was left by her near the hermitage of sage Sthulakesa who kindly brought her up. She was bitten by a serpent and died only a few days before her marriage to Ruru, fourth in descent from Bhrgu. Ruru was mad with grief. At the suggestion of an angel he gave half of his life and revived her. To avenge, he then decided to kill each and every serpent he saw. Once, a non-poisonous snake Dudubha told him that it was not fair to avenge one serpent's folly upon the lives of all serpents, even non-poisonous, and that destruction of serpents was the task of Ksa. triya Janamejaya, not of a Brahmin. That occasions the tale of Janamejaya. The birth of Pramadvara from Menaka and her bringing-up by sage Sthulakesa as well as the father's name Visvavasu (reminding us of Visvamitra) are clearly the motifs of the Sakuntala-tale.24 The two motifs of avenging one serpent's act of biting 19 at AdiP. 46.25, 46.41. 20 AdiP. 48.5-10. 21 AdiP. 5-7. 22 AdiP. 13.25a. Sa namni ya bhavitri me. 23 Cf. Skanda-purana. 4.4.80. 24 Cf. AdiP. 65.20-66.15.

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94 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics one's beloved person upon the whole race of snakes and of being prevented from it by one of their own fold are taken from the Janame jaya-tale itself. The entire tale, therefore, is structured from borrowed motifs, with a view to provide an occasion for narrating the Sarpa-satra-story-group. This means, that the second story-group of the Bbrgu-sages is also fictitious. Let us hasten to add that the occasion at which these tales are narrated -- the occasion of Saunaka's twelve-year-sacrifice 25 is also fictitious, otherwise we shall be compelled to admit that Saunaka was hearing a fictitious tale about his own grandfather from an outsider at his own sacrifice. Incidentally, the question may well be asked : why are there two tale-groups both intended to introduce the Sarpa-satra-episode? When both of them are equally fictitious and when neither of them has any inherent connection with the sarpa-satrastory-group, why two ? Very probably, the answer lies in the direction pointed out by F. Edgerton in his introduction to SabP. The incident of Dhstarastra, at Duryodhana's insistence, asking Vidura to invite Yudhisthira at the famous game of dice is narrated consecutively twice in the SabP. Once, however, Vidura is shown to go first to Bhisma 26 instead of Yudhisthira, while the second time he is shown to go, though much against his will, straight to Yudhisthira. And then there is no mention of his intended visit to Bhisma in the entire epic ! Again, Duryodhana is shown to send the Pratikamin twice and then Duhsasada to fetch Draupadi into the open assembly. But with her first refusal to come, Yudhisthira is shown to send a trusted servant to her and obeying her husband's wish, she copies of her own self into the assembly, 27 Still Duryodhana sends Pratikamin and then Duhsasana who drags her forcibly into the court. The contradictions of these two episodes are sought to be explained by Dr. Edgerton in this way : 'Clearly we have here parts of two entirely different versions of the story. In one Yudhisthira sends a trusted messenger commanding Draupadi to come, and she does so. In the other, Duhsasana at Duryodhana's command drages her in by violence .... the "original" author or redactor of the text to which all our manuscripts go back knew both the versions of the story, and tried to combine them, not very successfully.'28 25 According to the Satapatha-Brahmana, XIII.v.41, Saunaka is the performer of Afva medha for Janamejaya. In the epic, Janamejaya is made the performer of Sarpa-satra in the first frame of the epic; Saunaka is the performer of a twelve-year satra in the second frame, At Janamejaya's Sarpa-satra MBh js narrated; at Saunaka's satra MBh together with the entire Sarpa-satra-story-group is narrated. Thus, Janamejaya and Saunaka are directly connected as a performer and the priest in the Brahmana, they are separated in the epic and placed in the first and the second frame of the epic respectively. SabP. 45.58. 27 SabP. 60.14-15. 28 SabP. Introduction, pp. xxxi-xxxii. 26

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The Tales in Mahabharata 95 About the other inconsistency, he says : "It seems to me that two accounts of the same events are taken into the text side by side. The first is much briefer, and is no doubt truncated; it includes only adhy. 45. Note the significant fact.... that this adhyaya ends with a statement that Vidura, who has just been commanded to carry the challenge to Yudhisthira, goes instead, full of misgivings, to Bhisma. Now the rest of our text has no reference to any interview between Vidura and Bhisma. But surely there must have been one in the version which began as in our adhy. 45. Such references in the MBh. always lead to something; they are not left hanging in the air ..... But our text has no more of this version ... ... it seems to me clear that our text contains duplicate accounts of a story which (aside from that incident) is essentially the same, and this can be reasonably accounted for only on an assumption that it was composed with the use of different versions, parts of which were incorporated side by side in this text, the ancestor of all our known MSS.":29 The case of the duplication of the introductory-story-groups is slightly different from the above cases which are only different versions of the same stream of events with only small differences in details. Our case is different in that the stories are entirely different. But the fact that they are both used for the same purpose creates the duplication in the sense that the principal story with its framing Sarpa-satra episode is sought to be introduced by two different story-groups in two different versions, and in our text both are incorporated side by side. It may be argued that of the two at least Uttanka-story-group does have a reasonable connection with the Sarpa-satra-story. Uttanka also wants to avenge upon Taksaka and hence joins hands with Janamejaya.30 But, that is exactly the point. Does he really join hands with Janamejaya? He does not play any active or significant or even mentionable part in the actual satra. To be sure, the redundance of the Uttanka-story-group is sought to be glossed over by making only a passing reference or two31 to him. The duplication, therefore, seems to indicate an attempt to incorporate side by side two different introductions to the frame-story from two separate versions. That brings us to Janamejaya to whom Uttanka comes and instigates against Taksaka. Janamejaya then decides to perform the Snake-sacrifice in which the entire MBh is narrated. Now, "Janam-ejaya ('man-impelling') is the name of a king, a Pariksita, famous towards the end of the Brahmana period. He is mentioned in the Satapatha Brahmana as .... a performer of the Asvamedha .. .. His capital, according to a Gatha quoted in the Satapatha and the Aitareya Brahmanas, was Asandivant. His brothers Ugrasena, Bhimasena and Srutasena are mentioned as having by the horse sacrifice purified themselves from sin. The priest who performed the sacrifice for him was Indrota Daivapi Saunaka ... ... Aitareya .... names Tura Kava seya as 29 ibid. pp. xxxii-xxxiii. 30 See above fn.12. 31 Supra fn.19.

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96 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics his priest.... He was a Kuru prince .... "32 More interesting is the information about a second Janam-ejaya who "is in the Pancuvimsa Brahmana .... a priest who officiated at the Snake-sacrifice."32 Turning to Adip now, we find that Janamejaya is perfor.ning a long Satra at Kuruksetra. He has three brothers Srutasena, Ugrasena, Bhimasena. A dog coming up near the sacrifice is beaten up by the brothers, The dog's mother, Sarama, the divine bitch, curses Janamejaya to be visited upon by an unseen calamity. The king is dejected.33 Upon the completion of the sacrifice, he returns to Hastinapura, and searches for a priest who can appease his papakrtya. Srutasravas recommends his son Somasravas, born of a sarpi (a female serpent). The son can appease all krkyas except that of Mabadeva; he has taken a vow that if any brahmin asks of him anything he would give it away. Janamejaya accepts him as his priest and instructs his brothers to do whatever the priest says. He himself then goes to Taxila, achieves victory over it34 and returns. Then Uttanka comes to him at Hastinapura35 and instigates him to perform the Snake-sacrifice. Then, after the interruption of the tales of Bhrgu-sages, 38 the complete history of the snake-sacrifice is narrated.37 Then, the entire story of the MBh, as it was narrated at this sacrifice by Vaisampayana to Janamejaya, follows. In the end, 38 it is again said that Janamejaya, having discharged the brahmins who had completed the sacrificial ceremonies, returned from Taxila to Hastinapura. We saw above that Janamejaya is mentioned in the beginning of the MBh with many details which are similar to those mentioned in Satapatha Brahmana. XIII. V. 4. We quote the relevant Brahmana text below: etena hendroto daivapah saunakah Janamejayam pariksitam yajayan cakara tenestva sarvam papa-krtyam sarvam brahma-hatyam apajaghana sarvam ba vai papa-krtyam sarvam brahma-hatyam apahanti yo'svamedhena yajate 1/1, tad etad gathayabhihitamasandivati dbanyadam rukminam harita-srajam abadhnad asvam sarangam devebhyo janamejaya 1/itil/2. ete eva purve'bani jyotir-atiratras tena bbimasenam ete eva purve'hani gauratiratras tenograsepam ete eva purve'bani ayur-atiratras tena srutasenam itv ete pariksitiyas tad etad gathaya'bhigitam - pariksita yajamana asvamedhaih paro'varam a jahuh karma papakam punyah punyena karman'eti 1/3. 32 Vedic Index, I, pp.273-4. 33 Adip. 3.1-9 34 AdiP. 3.10-18. 35 AdiP. 3.178 ff. 36 AdiP. 4-12. See above fns. 16 & 17. 37 AdiP. 13-53. 38 SvaP, 5.29. Cf, tatas taksasilayah as punar ayad gajahvayam 11

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The Tales in Mahabharata Many of these details are mentioned in the beginning of the MBh. The three brothers are mentioned by name.39 The very manner of mentioning the name of the king as Janamejayah Pariksitah40 reminds one of the king mentioned in the Brahmana. His search for a proper priest is described in these words: 'purohitam anurupam anvicchamanah.... yo me papakrtyam samayed iti'41 which are reminiscent of the relevant Brahmana passage. After the sarpa-satra is completed, he promises the sage Astika to call him as a priest in his (i.e. Janamejaya's) Vajimedha sacrifice42 which again reminds one of the Brahmanical Janamejaya who is a performer of Asvamedha sacrifice. The Pausya-parvan43 itself is almost entirely in prose which is reminiscent of the Brahmanical prose. All these factors clearly indicate that the author of this portion intends to pass the supposed performer of this snakesacrifice as the Janamejaya Pariksita, the king famous in the Brahmanas; and for that purpose he brackets the entire group of story-cycles connected with the snakesacrifice within the two references of the Papakrtya and the Asvamedha which are both mentioned in the Brahmana passage quoted above. The actual occurrence of the Sarpa-satra of Janamejaya Pariksita, therefore, becomes rather doubtful. It is said in the epic that, while searching for a proper priest, Janamejaya came upon one Soma-sravas, son of Srutasravas44 and born of a sarpi45 (a female-snake), and chose him as his priest. Now, the affinity of the two names with that of Ugra-iravas, the Suta Purini narrator of the MBh in its final stage, and particularly with Caksu-Eravas, one of the many synonyms meaning 'a serpent' is obvious. This Soma-ravas is said to be able to appease all papa-krtyas except that of Mahadeva,45 and the relation of serpents with Lord Mahadeva is too well-known to be reiterated here. The priest is also said to be born of a sarpi, as we noted above. Thus, the three factors viz. the names ending in -sravas', the fact of his being born of a sarpi, and his inability to appease the krtya of Mahadeva go to prove that Soma-sravas must be a so-called serpent himself, i.e. a priest of the Naga tribe. Having chosen this Soma-iravas as his priest, and having instructed his brothers to do exactly as this priest said, Janamejaya went to Taksasila and conqured it. The snake-sacrifice is supposed to have been performed at Taksasila, but the name of the city is very likely chosen for its apparent similarity with that of Taksaka. More significant, however, is the contradiction that on the one hand, Janamejaya is shown to choose a Naga as his priest; and on the other hand, on the other hand, immediately after, he is 39 AdiP. 3.2. 40 AdiP. 3.1. 41 AdiP. 3.10. 42 Cf. AdiP. 53.15. bhavisyasi sadasyo me vajimedhe mahakratau // 43 AdiP.3. 97 44 AdiP. 3.12. 45 AdiP. 3.15. S. T. 13

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98 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics shown to slaughter the Naga-tribes. The contradiction is irreconcilable unless we impose some metaphorical or mythical interpretation upon the episode of Sarpa-satra. We may mention here that some fifty years before Winternitz had discussed 46 the nature of this Sarpa-satra and tried to show it to be a magic spell. "What .... is called surpasattra "serpent sarrifice" in the Mahabharata, is in reality not quite a sacrifice, but a magic spell, by means of which the serpents may be brought to self-annihilation. Indeed, a clear distinction between "magic" and "sacrifice" is as little possible in India as elswhere .... These sattras of which the ritualistic works give us an account, are in no way, as is often supposed, pure inventions of theory-mongers dealing with sacrifice -- though many of the sacrifices certainly existed only in theory , but have come down to us from pre-historic popular magic-customs and cult-practices .... Now, the ritual books mention among other sattras of a year's duration, a sarpasattra, though unfortunately no further details are given concerning that. Still from the fact of its being mentioned we might conclude that there was in Anceint India a particular sacrificial ceremoney, the object of which was to expel the ever real danger of snakes. As a reminder of a sacrificial ceremony of this kind, we have to understand the serpent sacrifice of Janamejaya, which could still have, for all that, a mythulagical background.' In the footnote he refers to Samkhayana srauta sutra, XIII.23.8; Katyayana srauta sutra, XXI.4.48 and in detail to Tandya Mahabrahmana XXV.15 where, he says, 't is ... described as being a sacrifice offered by the serpents. There it is said : "By means of this sacrificial ceremony, serpents have come to hold a firm foot in this world......" After this there are mevtitoned the names of those persons and priests who performed this sacrifice; and among these are the names of Dhitara stra, Airavata and Taksaka, these being very often met (sic) as the names of serpent demons, and in a remarkable manner, of Janamejaya als).'48 Winternitz then narrates in detail the entire story-cycle of Janamejaya's snake-sacrifice and compares it with imilar tales of snake-annihilation from some other countries. About the mother of serpents he says: That Kadru ("red brown"), the mother of the serpents, means the Earth, can scarcely be doubted. The Earth is called in the Aitareya Brahmana (V. 23) Sarparajai "queen of the Serpents." The serpents were regarded as the "offspring of the earth" among the Greeks, the Lithuanians and the Esthonians .... Vinata ("bent down") 46 "The Serpent Sacrifice mentioned in the Mahabharata", M. Winternitz, Tr. N.B.Utgikar, Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, (New Series). Vol.2, No.1, 1926. pp, 74-91. 47 Op.cit. pp.75-76. 48 ibid. p.76. Cf. also above fn.32 and AdiP,52. 4,7,11,13, etc. where the names of the fami lies of serpents who were victimised in the sacrifice are given as Vasuki, Taksaka, Airavata, Kauravya, Dartarastra etc. Cf. also : 'In the Atharvaveda (V1I1.14,14-16) the well-known names of some mythical serpents viz. ! aksaka, Dhitarastra and Airavata occur." The History of Dharmasastra, P. V. Kane, Vol. II, ii p.823.

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The Tales in Mahabharata is called Suparni ("the fair-winged one") in the Satapatha Brahmana, III.62 ... She is possibly the canopy of heaven, regarded as the mother of birds and of the Sun-bird Garuda in particular.?49 He also notes the fact that the 'serpent sacrifice of Janamejaya has been expressly designated as a sacrifice taught in the Puranas, and a Suta well-versed in the Puianas (and not a Brahmin sacrificing priest) marks out the sacrificial ground ... From this also we find that we have not in this case .. to deal with a Vedic sacrifice, but with a popular magic practice. 50 The stories of other countries normally run like this: A magician sets up either a burning pole, or an oven or a hollow pillar filled with inflammable things, and exorcises the noxious serpents which trouble the people of a particular place. There is. however, either an uncounted serpent or a white ser pent about which the people have either not known or not informed the magician. He appears and drags the magician also alongwith him into the fire. In one story, 51 the magician has taken the precaution to sit upon a consecrated object; therefore, the final serpent is not able to drag him alongwith him. Winternitz refers to an actual ceremony witnessed by Sir Vincent Eyre at Luchon in Pyrennes52 in which the people of that place set up a hollow column of plaited work, sixty feet high, decorate it with green leaves and plants, fill it with inflammable material, and then on the evening preceding the mid-summer day, throw very many living serpents into that column which is set on fire, and dance around it. This anthropological evidence of an actual ceremony is indeed very striking. Winternitz notes that Jacobi believes the Janamejaya-story to be a myth conceived on account of the new geographical conditions as the Aryans advanced towards Eastern India, Ludwig believes it to be rains-and-snow myth, whereas C. F. Oldham "regards the serpent-demons or the Nagas as being only a tribe of people, holds that the legends of the serpent sacrifice is a reminiscence of the victory of Janamejaya over some Naga tribe and of somewhat violent extermination of the Naga captives of war53 and that J. J. Bachofen agrees with him. Winter nitz himself believes that the resemblance of the extra-Indian tales with that of Janamejaya's snake-sacrifice is not accidental. Either it points to some Indo-Germanic pre-historic myth or to the similar psychological motive everywhere. In either case, all the stories must be explained in the same way. They all agree in this 'that the serpents are constrained, by the power of the magicians, to hurl themselves in the flames. The primary thing is the fear of the serpents; the extirpation of the serpents has become the motive of a magnified magic process, in which - as in Luchon - even living serpents are thrown into the fire. The reminiscence of such primeval magic practices his preserved itself in the legands where, by exaggerating the power of the magician, the serpents as such are represented 49 Winternitz's article (fn. 46), p.79. Cf also Suparnadhyaya : 1.11.1: dyaur asit tatra vinata suparni bhumis tu nagy abhavat kadru-nama // 50 ibid. p.90. 51 ibid. p.88. fq.15. 52 ibid. p.89. 53 ibid. p.90

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100 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics as hurling themselves in the magic fire. The possibility, that, after all, there may be some mythological conception at the root of all these stories, cannot be disputed."54 Methodologically, of course, the conclusion at which Winternitz arrives is unimpeachable. However, some of his evidences are not incontrovertible. His conclusion rests mainly on three evidences: (1) the mention of a Sarpa-satra in Samkhayana and Katyayana srauta sutras and Pancavimsa Brahmana; (2) the parallel motif-structure of the tale of Janamejaya's snake-sacrifice and of the other extra-Indian tales; (3) the actual ceremony at Luchon. The second and third evidences seem to reinforce the first one which is weak by itself. Looking closely, however, we realise that the Sarpasatra is a ceremony not performed by some human beings to avoid the serpents, but by the serpents themselves, to hold a firm foot on this earth. Janamejaya in the Pafcavitha Brahmana is a serpent-priest performing for the security of serpents, while Janamejaya of the epic is an enemy of serpents performing to root the serpents out. The epic tale does not reflect the magic-practice mentioned in the Brahmana or Sutra texts. Actually, the epic-tale and the magic-spell mentioned in other works stand in complete contradiction with each other. On the other hand, a ceremony of Sarpa-bali, an offering made to the serpents on the full-moon day of Sravana (later, the day changed to the fifth of the bright fortnight of Sravana, called Nagapancami) is found actually described in our religious texts 55 The religious practice also persists in many parts of our country even to this day. Now, if any practice of or some magic ceremony for the serpent-annihilation did exist in our country at some time, it is indeed strange that absolutely no mention of it should be made in our ancient texts (Sarpasatra is not meant for serpent-annihilation), particularly in view of the fact that it is as good as perpetuated in the form of the tale of Janamejaya's snake-sacrifice. As Winternitz notes, the MBh says that the Sarpasatra is known to be devised by gods for Janamejaya only, yet we know that Puranas are not supposed to describe the sacrifices. Even if it were a popular practice, it should have been described, like Sarpabali, somewhere. There is, again, no tradition of such sacrifices intended to exterminate a particular. species of living beings, We are, therefore, forced to fall back upon a metaphorical explanation by which the serpents should be taken to mean the Naga tribes supposed to have been victimised in this sacrifice if at all it took place. It is more probable, however, that the sacrifice itself is a poetic metaphorisation of the burning of Naga-tribes en masse rather than a description of an actual mass ceremonial serpent-victimisation as Winternitz suggests or of an actual mass sacerdotal human victimisation as Pradhan seems to suppose. 57 Let us be more explicit about the last supposition. We do not mean that there was no human sacrifice in ancient India. There are evidences to point to its probable existence. What we want to point out 54 ibid. pp.90-91. 55 History of Dharmasastra, Kane, II.ii, pp.821-824. 56 AdiP. 47.6-7. 57 Chronology of Ancient India, S. N. Pradhan, pp.71-72.

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The Tales in Mahabharata here is only this that Janamejaya's snake-sacrifice cannot be taken as an evidence to prove the existence of a ritual human sacrifice in ancient Indian society. If anything at all, it may be taken as metaphorising the mass burning of Naga tribes as comparison of the motifs, as we shall just see below, seems to indicate. It will be seen that this raises a number of a questions. Where did Janamejaya perform the so called snake-sacrifice? Before Uttanka approaches him, he has already. conqured Taxila and returned to Hastinapura.58 He is not shown to go to Taxila again for performing the sacrifice. Towards the end of the MBh he is shown to return from Taxila 59 where he is shown to hear the entire principle narrative. Yet throughout the actual narration of Janamejaya-story-group, the mention of the place of is carefully avoided. Thus, Janamejaya goes to Taxila, wins it, returns to Hastinapura, is approached by Uttanka, performs the snake-sacrifice. is not shown to go to Taxila, yet returns therefrem. As it is, either we must accept the duplication of Janamejaya's visit to Taxila, or face the contradiction. Looking carefully at the evidence, however, it becomes obvious that the duplication arises on account of the Uttanka-story-group; if we remove it, the duplication disappears. That Janamejaya is not shown to go to Taxila and yet is shown to return therefrom is a contradiction which must either mean that the king actually attacked Taxila and his mass-burning of Naga-people there was metaphorised as a sacrifice, or that he mass-burnt them alive somewhere and the city of Taksasila was mentioned as a place later on account of the similarity of its name with that of Tak saka. In either case mass-burning of the Naga-people by Janamejaya seems to be historical. There is not much difficulty in accepting Janamejaya as historical. But could the serpents be accepted as human Naga-tribals? It should be noted that in the epic. itself, at one place at least the Nagas are referred to as human beings. On seeing the fire consuming the Khandava forest, gods approached Indra saying: "Why,. O lord of immortals, are these 'manavah' being burnt by Fire? Has the end of the worlds come ?'"'60 We must also note that the epic-writers attempt to suggest some sort of hereditory animosity between the Nagas and the Kuru-princes. In the burning of the Khandava forest, Arjuna (and Krsna also, of course) is shown to kill many serpents alongwith other animals. Taksaka is said to be to be at Kuruksetra at that time,61 so he is saved. His son Asvasena is saved by his wife at the cost of her own life 62 Maya is allowed to escape,63 probably because he is na Naga, but a Danava. Then, Tak saka takes his revenge by biting Arjuna's grandson Pariksit. This is, again, avenged by the famous sarpa- satra in which the target is, of course Taksaka. By impli 58 AdiP. 3,179. 59 See above fn. 38. 60 AdiP. 217.16 61 AdiP. 218.4. 62 AdiP. 218.5-9. 63 AdiP. 219.35-39. 101

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102 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics cation, this must be taken to mean that the serpents are Naga-tribals. And then, S. A Dinge has proved almost beyond doubt that the serpents are the Naga-tribals.64 Talking about the bereditory animosity of the Nagas and Kurus, it should be noted that though the animosity continues through four generations at least on the side of the Kuru-princes, Tak saka is not shown to be replaced by his successors. It is he only who continues to wage wars against the Kurus and even to refresh the animosity. This gives rise to a possibility that the name Taksaka may not after all be a particular name but may be a general family name like that of Janaka,65 or, though this is less probable. may be a word of some unfamiliar language-group generally meaning 'a king', 'a leader' like that other Sanskritized term 'ravana' ('ireivan in Tamil meaning 'god', 'king', 'lord' etc 66) We should make it clear that we are only pointing out a probability, and not postulating anything. Then, everytime poor Taksaka is frigh'ened with fire only. In the Khandavaepisode, Arjuna and Klsna burn the forest inhabited by the peo, le of Tak saka, In the Uttanka-story, he is compelled to return the carrings because the habitation of his people is filled with smoke and sparks of Fire in the furn of a horse blown in the hind by Uttanka. Janamejaya also throws the Nagas and intends to throw their king Taksaka into the fire of sacrifice. Or was this last also actually setting fire to their habitations 267 The parallelness of the motif, at least, makes it very probable. It is again strange that Indra is shown to be closely associated with Taksaka and the Nagas. At this point it may be mentioned that among the Nagas counted as victimised in the Sarpa-satra of Janamejaya, some are said to belong to the family of Vasuki, some to that of Taksaka, some to that of Airavats of Kauravya, and even of Dhrasastra !68 Now, Indra tried to protect the Khandava-forest because Taksaka who stayed in it with his people was a friend of Indra.69 Even when the serpents are buing dragged into the fire of Janamejaya's sacrifice, Indra has given refuge to and tried to console Taksaka.70 It is, however, strange that Uttarka has been helped by two Men, one riding the bull, the other with the horse. The first is identified as Indra riding Airavata who is called Nagaraja. The second is Parjanya with fire.71 Parjanya is the god of rains which Indra also is. The first Man is said to have helped Uttanka because he is the friend of Uttanka's teacher. And if Parjanya 64 Legends in the Mahabharata, Delhi, 1969. Ch.I.i. pp. 16-40. ..5 cf. Rama-Katha, Bulcke, p.9. 66 Dasagriva or Dasanana of the Ramayana', S. N. Batra, Journal of the Oriental Institute, Karoda, Vol. XXIII. Nos. 1-2 p.43. 67 A conjecture, though it may appear a little wild, may not be considered out-of-place here. "Taksaka' in the classical Sanskrit means 'a carpenter'. Could it be another class-name of the Naga-tribe ? Did they live in wocden houses, which made them vulnerable to fire ? 68 AdiP. 52. 4, 7, 11, 13, etc. See above fn. 48. 69 AdiP. 215.7 70 AdiP. 48.14-18; 51.5-13. 71 AdiP. 3.173-174.

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The Tales in Mahabharata is Indra, he also must have helped him for the same reason. Only, Indra's helping.. Uttanka against Taksaka is strange. But he is shown to ride Airavata Nagaraja, and Airavata is one of the families of Nagas Indra, thus, can be shown to be closely associated with the Nagas There is a lot of confusion about the names of the serpents but a systematic analysis of them, a subject by itself for a separate investigation, is bound to lead to important results. The names of mythical serpents mentioned in the Atharvaveda are. Tak saka, Dhrtarastra and Airavat. The names in Tandya Mahabrahmana of serpents, performing the Sarpisatra are Taksaka, Dhrtarastra, Airavata and Janamejaya. In the epic, the serpents are said to belong to the families of Taksaka, Dhrtarastra, Airavata, Vasuki and Kauravya. The consistency The consistency with which with which the names occur is significant. 103 Now, the fact that Airavata is called a serpent in thes: places while in Puranas he is described as a white elephant with seven trunks churned out of the ocean is significant. A ravata as an elephant has become a vehicle of Indra From the chur ning of ocean, again, has come out a horse Uccaih-sravas who also is said to be taken away by Indra. The sravas' ending of the name indicates his bring a serpent i.e. a Naga. Now, Airavata and Uccaih-sravas, both serpents, are associated with Indra in the Puranas. This fact accords well with Indra being presented as the protector of Taksaka and his Naga people at the Khandava forest. we reconcile the facts that the serpents are presented as Lord Mahadeva's ornaments in the Puranas whereas are shown to be protected by Indra in the epics? We know that the most popu ar image of Lord Mahadeva is the 'Linga', the symbol of phallus in union.72 Indra also can be shown to have a definite connection with the fertility-rites as the celebration of Indra-dhvaja festival and Indra's role in the Tapo-bhanga stories would indicate. The common phallic symbol on the one hand of Indra-dhvaja and on the other hand of lord Mahadeva seems to be the common link of Nagas with both the gods. From this point of view, the connection of the Naga-tribes with the well-known Sisna-devah of Rgveda must also be investigated. PE It would also be worthwhile to explore the evidences of Tantra-sect from this point of view. Kundalini, for example, is ".hown, when asleep, as being coiled around a standing inner lingam at the centre centre of the cakra, covering its orifice with her mouth" 73 Its connection with Naga is particularly emphasised in the fact that "occa 72 The Art of Tantra, Philip Rawson, Vikas Publishing House, Delhi, 1973 p.165. Two illustrations in this book are Interesting Illustration No 68 shows a yogini with serpentine energy manifesting fro.n her yoai. No. 69 shows "Five-hooded serpent-power enclosing a stone-emblem of the original egg-lingam", 73 ibid.

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104 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics sionally an elephant is shown in the Maladhara cakra, which seems to represent the entire body of the senses which is to be transformed through the upper cakras."73 The fact of the serpentine energy occassionally being presented as an elephant is clearly the result of the two meanings of the word 'Naga'.74 Another combination of facts leads to some very surprising probabilities. In the famous Suparnadhyaya, the Soma is said to be guarded by the serpents. The names of the guards are given as 'arbudo pahuso kadraveyah'.75 Now MBh tells us that Nahusa was an ancestor of the Kurus.76 He held the position of Indra in the latter's absence due to hiding on account of the sin of Brahmicide-Votravadha. He was cursed by sage Agastya to become a python. Nabusa catches Bhima and is relieved from the curse by Yudhisthira in the place called Visak hayupa.77 From here Pandavas go to Dvaita-forest on the bank of river Sarasvati for their final year of forest-life.78 Now, the region of this river Sarasvati seems to be have been inhabited by the Nagas.79 Arbudha is the present Mount Abu. Visakhayupa must be a place nearby. And the region to the North-East of Abu was in ancient times the bed of river Sarasvati. 80 Taksasila may after all be the capital of Tak saka. That region was in ancient times the country of Gandhara.80 The princess of this kingdom, queen-mother Gandhari, was married to Dhitarastra. Now Dhitarastra also is the name of a Naga81 whose progeny is said to be victimised in the Sarpa-satra by Janamejaya. The mention of a hundred sons of Dhstarastra also reminds one of the procreative profusion of serpenis. Gandbari's hundred-fold embryo delivered prematurely and then preserved in the hundred vessels filled with ghee, 82 not unlikely, indicates the fact of the birth of serpentes from eggs. And the very name of their capital 'Hastinapura' indicates a Naga establishment, since the two meanings of "Naga' are 'a serpent' and 'an elephant'.83 Some serpents forced into the altar of the Sarpa-satra are said to be of the Kauravya' family. 84 74 Lange refers to an account of Rama-grama-stupa believed to be protected by Naga accor ding to one account, by elephants according to another. He quotes Vogel : "Now, if we remember that the term 'naga' has the double meaning of the serpent-demon and the ele. phant, we may safely assume tbat the second story has developed from the first, the word naga' having been taken in its another sense". vide his Legends in the Mahabharata, p. 47. 75 Suparnadhyaya, XII 23.3. Dange also takes the line as referring to three different serpent guards (Legends in the Mahabharata, p.87, and fn. 205) because each of the three guards is called to answer the fault of Soma-abarana. 76 Van P. 176.13 ff. 77 Van P. 174,16-19. 78 Vao P. 174 21. 79 Cf. Adip.205.3: te taya tais ca sa viraih patibhih pancabhih saha babhuva parama-prite Dagair iva sarasvati // 80 This can be seen in the map of ancient India. Refer Vedic Index, TI 81 AdiP. 52.13. 82 AdiP. 107.8-22. 83 Refer above to fn. 74. 84 AdiP. 52.11.

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The Tales in Mahabharata 195 The Kurus are antagonists of the Pandavas - the epic protagonists whose descendent Japamejaya again revives hostility against the Nagas. Arjuna burnt the Khandava-forest and the name of the Pandava-capital is Khandava-prastha, also called Indra-prastha.85 This Khandava forest is said to be the babitation of Nagas whose King is Taksaka. 88 Vedic Index87 informs us that one "Dbstarastra Vaicitravirya .... is mentioned in .. .. Kathaka Samhita .... But there is ro ground for supposing that he was a Kuru-Pancala King; he seems rather to have lived at some distance from the Kuru-Pancalas. There is no good reason to deny his identity with the Dhitarastra of the Satapatha Brahmana, King of Kasi, who was defeated, when he attempted to offer a horse sacrifice, by Satrajita Satapika. The fact that the latter was a Bharata also points to Dhrtarastra's not having been a Kuru-Pancala at all .... It is true that in the Epic santanu and Vicit ravirya and Dhitarastra himself are all connected, but this connexion seems to be due, as so often in the Epic, to a confused derangement of great figures of the past." About Santanu all that is stated is in the Rgveda "that Devapi Arstisena obtained (no doubt as priest) rain for Samtanu (no doubt a king).88 Now, between Dhstarastra and Parik sit no other character of the Epic is found mentioned in any of the Vedic sources. Bhisma, Satyavati, Pandu, Yudhisthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Sahadeva, Nakula, Draupadi, Drupada, Drona, Karna, Salya, Sakuni - none is mentioned. About Parik sit, we are informed that he "appears in the Atharvaveda as a king in whose realm, that of the Kurus, prosperity and peace abound .... the Brahmanas explain that Agni is pari-ksit because he dwells among men. Hence Roth and Bloomfield regard Pariksit in the Atharvaveda not as a human king at all. This may be correct, but it is not certain. Both Zimmer and Oldenberg recognize Pariksit as a real king, a view supported by the fact that in later Vedic literature king Janamejaya bears the patronymic Pariksita."'89 But the passage from Atharvaveda mentioned above refers to a 'Vaisvapara Pariksit'. Bloomfield translates the relevant portion thus : "Listen ye to the high praise of the king who rules over all peoples, the god who is above mortals, of Vaisvanara Parikshit ! Parikshit has procured for us a sucure dwelling, when he, the most excellent one, went to his seat'. (Thus) the husband in Kuru-land, when he founds his household, converses with his wife ..... The people thrive merrily in the kingdom of King Parikshit,"90 In the notes he remarks thus : "The Ait.Br. and Gop.Br, advances as one of the two expositions the theory that Agoi is parikshit, 'since he lives about among the people, and the people live around him'. The text itself admits of no doubt : Agni Vaisvanara, the typical god 85 AdiP 199.26 & 35. 86 AdiP, 215.6-7. 87 Vol. I. p.403. 88 Vedic Index, II, p.353. 89 Vedic Index, I, pp.493-4 90 Hymns of the Atharvaveda, Tr. Maurice Bloomfield, SBE, Vol. XLII, Delhi, 1964, pp.197-98. $. T. 14

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106 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics of the Brahmanical piety...... is a kindly ruler among men, and his presence secures the prosperity of the golden age. In the later legends Parikshit is propogated variously as a terrestrial king."91 The words Vaisvanara Pariksit' seem to prove, at first sight, that the Vedic passage refers to Agni. But a little thinking reveals that Agni is nowhere else called Pariksit. To call Agni as Pariksit is rather unusual, and the passage seems to make a conscious attempt to identify Pariksit with Vaisvanara, the universal friendly form of Fire, by keeping the passage purposefully ambiguous. However, we must mention that the fact of Pariksit being identified with Vaisvanara agrees well with the fact of his son Janam-ejaya (the men-impeller) shown to threaten the Naga-tribals with Agni. The agreement not only tilts the balance slightly in favour of Pariksit being Agni only, but even points out another possibility that the same Vaisvanara who is Pariksit - 'the dweller around' in times of peace and prosperity may also be at other times Janam-ejaya 'the men-impeller'. Pariksit and Janamejaya may thus be only two aspects of the same Vaisvanara, just as Vibhandaka and Rsyasonga are very likely two aspects of the same phallic fertility motif.92 Let us recapitulate. Sartanu is mentioned merely as a king in the Rgveda. Dhitarastra Vaicitravirya is not a Kuru-pancala king; one Dhrtarastra is the king of Kasi but he is not a Bharata. His mention as a Naga in some ancient Sutra works, the name of his capital 'Hastinapura' including a synonymous term for 'naga', his wife Gandhari coming from a country having Taksasila as its capital and developing her premature embryos in vessels filled with ghee - these facts lead to a strong probability that Dhstarastra and his hundred sons are Nagas. No other major character is mentioned anywhere in our Vedic sources. Aad when we come to Pariksit and Janamejaya, their historicity and their mythical nature are equally probable. Janamejaya is, again, mentioned as Naga-priest in the Pancavimsa Brahmana. Arbuda, Hastinapura and Taksasila are the places associated with Nahusa, Dbotarastra and Taksaka, all mentioned as Nagas in some place or other. Geographically, the area between these three cities covers the kingdom of Matsya, Kuru-jangala, Pancala, Brahmavarta, Madra and Gandhara 93 all playing important part in the epic. This makes it probable that at one time these areas were inhabited by Naga people. On the other hand, the Pandavas are all sons of gods, Draupadi is born from sacrifice, the name of her father 'Drupada' means a sacrificial post, and their protector and benefactor is Klsna, who himself has a conflict with Kaliya Naga to his credit. His constant conflict with Indra as evinced in the Govardhana-mount-episode as well as in the Khandava-burning-episode also is significant since, as we have seen, Indra is closely associated with Nagas. A systematic analysis of these details is almost impossible without relating them fully to their Vedic sources, and that is very much beyond the scope of our investi91 ibid, pp.691-2. 92 See ante Ch. II, BK, section 2., p. 44 93 See the map of ancient India, Vedic Index, II.

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The Tales in Mahabharata 107 gation. But, on the strength of the observations we have made here, it is not difficult to see that the epic itself embodies some Naga-tribal myth which very probably is sought to be reinforced by the Sarpa-satra-frame-story of Janamejaya. Very probably he himself is mythical but the author of the Uttanka-story group tries to identify him with the historical Janamejaya mentioned in the Satapatha Brahmana. Some contradictions like Indra being the protector of Nagas, and yet being the progenitor of Arjuna who fights against him in the Khandava-burning-episode, indicate that there have been repeated attempts to superimpose some fresh interpretations or motivations even after the original myth took the form of the epic-poem. We may mention here that the historicity of the epic-story or of isolated episodes is often suspected to be dubious by many scholars. Dr. A. D. Shastri, for example, bas expressed an opinion that the entire Virataparvan "contains the original nucleus out of which the story of the Mahabharata itself is developed."94 He also opines that the epic "has the form of a myth which may have its basis in some natural phenomenon",95 and concludes that the story of Viralaparvan has a solar myth at its base. In another study he shows that the legend of Vasu Uparicara ('the luminous wanderer-above') "is a combination of various myths, all solar".96 U. P. Arora shows at another place that similarity of motif-structure of the tale of Bhisma's birth when compared with similar tales from Greek myths reveals an ancient custom of the saca rifice of youth and children.97 G. J. Held has shown that ethnological interpretation of the traditions is preserved by the MBh.98 "Recently a new perspective has been opened by the discoveries of Stig Wikander and Georges Dumezil that Vedic, paraVedic and pre-Vedic mythology has been conserved in the Mahabharata, where archaic themes and relationships are transposed from the level of myth to that of legend."'99 Alf Hiltebeitel shows "that the great battle of the Mababharata, taking place at the end of one yuga and the beginning of another, itself preserves an eschatological myth transposed into epic."100 And, if we now come up with one more possible interpretation that the epic is developed from some myth of the Naga tri94 Virataparvan--A Study'. Dr. A. D. Shastri, Bulletin of the Chunilal Gandhi Vidyabhavan, Surat. No. 4,1957. (pp.31-46). p.39. 95 ibid. pp.39-40. 96 'The Legend of Vasu Uparicara', Dr. A. D. Shastri, BCGVB, Surat. No. 6-7, 1959-60. (pp.83-86). p.86. 97 "The Ganga-Santanu Legend', U. P. Arora, Journal of the Ganganatha Tha Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeha, Allahabad, Vol. XXVII, Parts 3-4, July-Oct. 1971, pp.9-19. 98 The Mahabharata : an Ethnological Study, London, 1935. 99 Quoted from Praci-Jyoti, Kuruksetra, Vol. IX, 1973, entry No. 167, p.71. This writer regrets: his inability to consult either of the authors in their original writings. They have also been referred to by Eliade Mircea in his Yoga : Immortality and Freedom, Princeton, (New Jersey, i U.S.A.), 1969. Says he : "Recent studies have elucidated the traces of Vedic mythology discernible in the principal personages, the Pandavas". (p.146). Eliade gives complete reference thus : Wikander, Stig - "La Legende des Pandava et la substructure m, thique du Mah. bharata" tr. and annotated in Dumezil, Georges - Jupiter, Mars, Quirinus, IV. Paris, 1948. i (Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes LXII.) 100 Quoted from Praci-Jyoti, op.cit.

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108 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics bals and is reinforced by the Janamejaya-episode which itself seems to be another Naga-myth, both possibly offshoots of the same myth of the Naga-destruction, we shall, at least, be in good company. 2. Tales of the Heroes As we saw in the first chapter, the very first probable tales added to the epics must have been those whose connection with the original heroic poem would be more or less casual, that is, tales connected - if not with the central theme - at least with the central heroes, referring either to their early histories or to all kinds of their adventures and without having any reference whatever to the great battle. Therefore, we shall observe the patterns of these tales. It is often observed that the popular mind has a peculiar sense of propriety. It works at and handles the epic in its own way. When a genius poet composes an epic, he creates characters which are complexes of good and evil qualities in varying shades. He hardly paints types. But once the epic becomes popular, "The popular mind reduces the finely modelled characters of the epic histories ... ... into contrasted types, black against white. Duryodhana is a bad character;"101 Bhima bas a blind strength; Arjuna is romantically heroic; Yudhisthira is Dharma incarnate. Consequen. tly, the fresh tales added to the epics in the name of a particular character conform to and emphasise that quality of that character which has become popular, Thus, for example, the tales wherein Bhima is the hero, form a group by themselves. Bhima is the son of Vayu, the Wind-god, 102 and possesses superhuman strength. It is he who kills the demon Hidimba and marries his sister Hidimba.103 It is he who replaces the Brahmin boy in the city of the Ekacakra and kills the demon Baka.104 It is he, again, who kills the demons Kirmita 105 and Jata 106 in the Van P. He also kills Maniman with a host of Rak sasas of Kubera on the Gandhamadana mountain. 107 The killing of the wrestler Jim uta108 and the hundred Kicakas in VirP is also attributed to him.109 It is he who takes the vow of killing Duhsasana 110 kills him and drinks his blood -- the most horrible scene even as described in the epic. If Duryodhana represents the asuri sampat, Bhima represents the asuri strength and is, indeed, the right match for Duryodhana. Both are born on the same day. 111 If Bhima has 101 A New History of Sanskrit Literature; Krishna Chaitanya, 1962. p.301. 102 AdiP. 114.9-11. 103 AdiP. 139-142. 104 AdiP, 143-152. 105 Van P. 11. 106 VanP. 154. 107 VanP. 151-153. 108 Vir P. 12.21-23. 109 VirP. 21-22. 110 SabP. 61.46. 111 AdiP. 114,14.

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The Tales in Mahabharata 109 the strength of a demon, Duryodhana has the mind of a demon - which is much worse Not sharp arrows, but the massive mace is, characteristically, his proper weapon, for the great strength of Bhima is raw, crude, gross. In a way, it is blind, it lacks the refined intellect and pointed accuracy that is the strength of Arjuda. That, perhaps, is the reason why Arjuna is romantically more successful than Bhima. The situation is characteristic wherein Draupadi loves Arjuna more than any other of the five, but if she has any wish to be fulfilled, she would immediately turn to Bhima with a request. Characteristically, the tales with Bhima as their hero are all child ren's tales. The episode of Draupadi-svayamvara can be shown to have a symbolic significance. The condition for obtaining Draupadi for wife was shooting at a target set at the top of a pole, with not more than five arrows passing through the hole of a 'Yantra'. 112 The popular description of the candidate expected to shoot the right eye of the fish revolving at the top of a pole while balancing the feet on the two scales and looking into the waters of the pond below is not confirmed in the critical' edition. The details must have been added by the popular imagination to make the feat appear more difficult and therefore more interesting. However, the basic condition of winning the bride by a shooting test is the motis most familiar in folk-stories. "The idea possibly works on the line of sympathetic action - one who fixes lance or the as row is the husband fixed by destiny to give the girl perfect marital happiness. Viewed thus the test does not appear so much a show of strength as a sincere effort in finding out a proper match by means of luck and mimetic magic."113 That Arjuna, of all the five brothers, is chosen to shoot at the target is also not without significance. Even a cursory perusal of the MBh. will show that Arjuna has always been portrayed as "the Prince Charming" of the MBh. Nakula is the most handsome of all the brothers, 114 but the one most successful with women is Arjuna. Draupadi is supposed to love all the five brothers equally, but she is said to love Arjuna more than the other four brothers.115 That is the reason, says Yudhisthira, why she fell first of all at the time of the Mahaprasthana. In fact, a whole group of romantic tales is added to the epic in the name of Arjuna. 116 As is well-known, he accepted the vow of twelve-years' celibate life for violating the self-imposed regulation of the Pandavas with regard to the privacy of their stay with Draupadi. But 112 AdiP. 176.9-10-11, 34, 113 A Folk-Custom in the Asvamedha, S. A. Dange, JOIB, XVI, No. 4. June 1967. p.327. 114 Cf. SabP. 71.17. nabam manansy adadeyam marge strinam iti prabbo pamsupacita-saryango pakulas tena gacchati // Cf. MahP. 2.6. paksapato mahan asya visesena dhananjaye 1 tasya'itat phalam adya'isa bhunkte purusa-sattama // 116 Vide. AdiP. (Arjuna-vanavasa-parva) 205-210 and Subbadra-barana-parva. 211-212.

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110 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics he bardly remaios celibate. In fact, he is seduced by Ulupi, 117 is attracted to Citrangada, 118 and abducts Subhadra. 119 As Hopkins shows, "This can have only one meaning. A brahmacarin is not a man wandering about on love-adventures, but a chaste student. Above all, chastity is implied ... ... Each of these feats is a separate heroic tale and they are all contradictory to the setting in which they have been placed by the diadochoi. As heroic tales they are perfectly intelligible. Certain feats in separate stories were attributed to the hero. They had to be combined and they were combined by letting him go off by himself under a vow of wandering in the woods. The wanderer was usually a chaste ascetic, so he was given that character, but ... ... all pretence of his being brahmacarin vanishes and the next we know he is comfortably mated and living in town ... ... The independent origin of these stories is seen at the beginning in the formula ..... tatra tasyadbhutam karma srnu tvam janamejaya."120 But we should note that though the Prince Charming of the MBh, Arjuna has never been painted as Casanova. His romances are always bound within the limits of Dharma. His purity of character is emphasised by the fact that he causes his taught, princess Uttara, to marry his son Abhimanyu.121 The episode which emphasises his purity of character is the one in which he refuses the advances of Urvasi to him, on the ground that she has bren the consort of Pururavas, his ancestor. Urvasi curses him to become eunuch. Sukthankar omits the whole passage from the critical edition with the comment: "The object of the interpolation seems to be clear. It is primarily to motivate Arjuna's masquerading as the dancing master to Princess Uttara ... ... It also serves to testify to Arjuna's strength of will and purity of character".122 A littl: closer consideration of the incident, which this Urvasi-episode seks to motivate, will reveal that already there is enough justification in the situation itself for Arjuna's incognito stay as the sexless dancing master, and no other motivation is required for it. In their one year's incognito stay, the Pandavas, above all, must remain their easy natural self. They should not appear uneasy or unnatural so as to attract attention of others and to jeopardise their incognito. The valiant hero Arjuna, it seems, can remain his natural self only in the company of females. This inclination towards the softer sex is, again, an unquestionable trait of Kisna's personality and it is perhaps this common characteristic of their personalities which has brought 117 AdiP. 206. 118 AdiP. 207. 119 AdiP. 211-212. 120 The Great Epic of India, E. W, Hopkins, pp.310-11. The v.l. accepted in the Crit. Ed. is is synu me etc. Cf. AdiP. 206.7. 121 Vir P. 67.7. snusartham uttaram rajan pratigrhnami te sutam/ 122 Editorial note to fascicule II of MBh, Crit. Ed. Partly reproduced in Introduction to VanP. p. XX

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The Tales in Mahabharata 111' Arjuna of all the five brothers nearest to Krsna. It will be noticed that towards the end of Adip, just before the episode of Khandava-daba, it is only Krsna and Arjuna who enjoy themselves in the company of beautiful women in the lovely forests on the bank of river Yamuna.123 We have just seen above how the romantically attractive trait of his personality leads him to numerous love-adventures. If then, this Arjuna must keep to his easy natural self so as not to rouse any suspicion, he must remain in the company of women. So there is no better ruse than becoming a dancing-master of the royal harem who is naturally expected to remain almost constantly in the company of women. Now it is obvious that either the princess or the other girls of the royal harem would not normally be trusted with an alien male. Therefore, it is almost incumbent upon Arjuna to present himself as a sexless person, a eunuch.124 But this is actually a boon in disguise. However freely do the girls behave with their dancing master, they will never fall in love with a eunuch. So by presenting himself as a sexless ptrson, Arjuna actually makes himself immune from any possible potential love-affair which, otherwise, can in all likelihood expose his identity before the stipulated time. Arjuna's incognito, thus, is adopted after properly sizing up the dangers of his personality against the situation A similar thoughtfulness is obvious in the guises of other characters also. Bhima's problem would be the amount of food he needs. That can attract anyone's attention. He is presented as a cook125 and kept in the royal kitchen so he can manage his meals without arousing any suspicion, Yudhisthira and Draupadi choose to keep com pany to the king and the queen respectively. 126 The atmosphere around the royal figures would be pompous enough, in which the dignified demeanours of Yudhisthira and Draupadi will not be a matter of much distinction. The two episodes where Yudhisthira is the hero are more sober, quite in keeping with the character of Yudhisthira. In Ajagara-Parvan,127 a python catches Bhima and would not release him until Yudhisthira answers his questions which are mainly ethical. The python in the end is revealed as Nabusa, an ancestor of the Kurus. Similarly, in Araneya-parvan, 128 the four brothers, being thirsty, rush to drink from a lake, ignore the guarding Yaksa's warning not to drink without answering his questions, and life dead. Finally Yudhisthira answers all the questions -- again mostly ethical, religious and philosophical to the Yaksa's satisfaction, and with his grace. 123 AdiP. 214. 124. Vir P. 2.21. pratijnain sandhako'siniti karisyami mahipate / 125 VirP. 2.2. supan asya karisyami kusalo'smi mahanase / 126 VirP. 1.20. sabhastaro bhavisyami tasya rajno mahatmanah / VirP. 3.16-17. sairandhryo raksita loke bhuj isyah santi bharata / saham bruvana sairandhri... 127 Van P. 173-178. 128 VanP. 295-298.

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112 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics. brings all the four back to life. Yaks finally reveals himself as Yudhisthira's progepitor Dharma himself. The similarity of pattern in both these tales is note-worthy. In both, brothers are either dead or threatened with death. The taboo is answering the questions. The questions are mainly ethical, philosophical. The person chosen to answer them is Yudhisthira, because "Yudhisthira is conceived as standing in special relation to Dharma, as being in fact the embodiment of Dharma ... of the five brothers Yudhisthira alone is able to answer the questions of Dharma, who confronts him in the shape of a Yaksa."129 The questioner finally is revealed in one as his ancestor, in the other as his progenitor. ** The style of putting such questions and answers in the form of riddles is also very interesting. Such riddles are found in Rgveda, in Atharvaveda, in Upanisads, in the famous Buddhist work "Milinda-panho" (The Questions of King Milinda), in the epics, in the stray subhasitas of the classical period - in fact, at every stage of our traditional literature, as it is a very popular conventional element of folk-style. Even the apparent form of the tale - enigmatic ethical and philosophical questions and their answers framed in some Upanisadic episodes like that famous one of Naciketas in the Kathopanisad conforms to the folk-style. But most interesting to u; is the central motif of both the episodes -- which is compulsion to answer the engmatic questions, failure in which being punishable by desth. The compulsion takes the form of the threat of death of brother Bhima in the first story, of the water-taboo in the second story of Yaksa. The motif is well-known even in the folk-literatures of the other parts of the world. Its independent origin everywhere is confirmed by the very different details filled in the tales of those areas. Take, for example, the famous Sphinx-story of ancient Egypt. The half-lion half-man creature asked every passer-by : "Which is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning. on two at noon, on three in the evening ?" and for centuries went on eating up the numberless passeis-by who all failed to solve the riddle. Finally, wben someone answered : "it is man" (which is the correct answer, the morning, noon and evening metaphorically being those of the human life viz, the childhood, youth and old age) the sphinx turned into stone. There is another tale of "The Emperor and the Abbot" or "King John and the Bishop" which is very well-known in the European countries, of which 571 variants have been collected and collated and analysed by Anderson, and noted as an example of the historico-geographic method of studying folk-tales by Stith 'Thompson, 130 In it, a king asks a bishop certain questions failure to answer which within a stipulated period would be punishable by the latter's death. Finally, some friend of the bishop (either a cow-herd or a miller or any other common man) goes to the king in the dress of the bishop and answers the questions. The bishop heaves a sign of relief. 129 On the Meaning of the Mahabharata, V. S. Sukthankar, 1955. pp. 63-64. 130 Folk-tale, Stith Thompson, Indiana, 1946, pp.432 ff,

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The Tales in Mahabharata 113 It is obvious that the central motif in all the four tales - two native and two from other countries - is the same, the wide differences as to the details which an out the motif into fullfledged stories betray their independent origins, which fact, in view of the sameness of the motif, is a sure sign of the tales being purely fictitious popular folk-tales. An important difference in the forms of these tales will be interesting to note. The European form of the tale is that of an episode, since there are no supernatural elements occuring in it. The Egyptian tale presents the motif in the garb of a myth. The Sphinx symbolises death. We fear death until we have not known the nature of life. Once we know that the human life is comparable to a day, it rises, it shines, it sets, we are no longer afraid of the black abyss of the night - that endless void of death. (Does it imply a hope of rebirth also ? Does it show the very unstable, very momentry, transitory nature of life thus making one indifferent to it ? For us, it is only a matter of guess) Death remains no Death. So viewed, the tale tries to explain the nature of life and death symbolically, which makes it a myth. The two pative forms, particularly the second one with the Yaksa in it, are almost fairy-tales, "The fairy-tale's miracles occur on the material plane; on the spiritual plane (affec tions, characters, justice, love) law abides ... In the fairy-tale, the youngest son the ugly duckling, the Cinderella, submits patiently until heaven in the shape of the fairy godmother) stoops to virtue's aid. Fairy land is the happy hunting ground of children."131 The miracle of the four brothers dying and coming back to life is on the material plane only; the law on the spiritual plane - Yudhisthira's complying with the taboo of the Yaksa rewarded with the life of one brother, and his sense of jugtice and propriety in asking Madri's son Nakula back to life rewarded with the lives of all the brothers - abides. Instead of the youngest, here we find the eldest succeed. ing. Heaven stoops to virtue's aid, not in the shape of the fairy godmother, but in the form of Yaksa -- the progenitor father (or the ancestor). The story-land is an easy learning ground for the psychological children. The two tales thus show almost all the characteristics of a fairy-tale. Even Stith Thompson would agree that "the hero-tale may be....00 more than an ordinary folk-tale of wonder, which wo generally know as the fairy-tale. Our term is inaccurate, since most of the tales thus described have nothing to do with fairies but only with marvels of all kinds" 132 Both the tales of Yudhisthira show these characteristics completely; they are folk--talos of wonder, they tell of the marvels, but Stith Thompson would not allow them to be called fairy-tales without reservations. "The fairy-tale is more nearly pure fiction than any other folk-tale form, since it is not bound by any religious belief or any demands of truth to life."133 How can we say of these two tales that they are not 131 DWLT, p.115. 132 ibid. p.125. 133 ibid. S. T. 15

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114 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics bound by any religious belief ? But we shall class them as fairytales all-right. Stith Thompson may try to put the reservation, but we shall point out that the distinction between a myth and a fairy-tale often blurs and "our term is inaccurate". In a slightly different way, we may as well point out, even the tales of Arjuna and of Bhima are "no more than an ordinary folk-tale of wonder", and, therefore, all, at a stroke, can be classed as fairy-tales. Of course, the atmosphere group-wise differs considerably. It is romantic in Arjuna-tales, full of awe and wonder in Bhima's tales, it very definitely becomes religiously sober in the tales of Yudhisthira. But whether pleasant or awe-inspiring or reverentially impressive, they are all tales of wonders. They are all fairy-tales. It should be noted here that the folk-tradition of the epic has almost entirely neglected the two sons of Madri in the sense that no secondary tales are added to the epic in their names. This is a little surprising in view of the fact that the twins are said to be the sons of Asvina who played such an important role in restoring Cyavana, an eminent Bhargava sage, to youth and vigour. The story itself is included in the Tirthayatra section of VanP.134 However, the Bhargava redactors of the MBh in its final stage have nearly completely failed to reveal any interest in them. 3 Draupadi also, being a woman, is ignored in this respect, the only exception being the inclusion of the episode of her penance for obtaining a husband in her previous birth,135 but that is rather to explain away the obsolete custom of polyandry which later on came to be abhorred but which, by that time, also had become an unavoidable part of the epic-story. The valorous aspect of Arjuna's personality is more famous than the romantic one. He is a past master in archery which requires greater concentration and more refined and accurate intelligence. This is in sharp contrast to the crude and blunt weapon of mace which Bhima holds. The sharp arrows and the blunt mace are clearly symbolic of the respective qualities of Arjuna and Bhima. The contrast can be seen throughout the epic. In the Draupadi-svayamvara-episode, Arjuna pierces the target, Bhima handles the angry host of the kings.136 In the episodes of duels with Jarasandha 137 or Duryodhana,138 Bhima is always equal to the opponent. He can better him only after receiving some hint either from Krsna or from Arjuna. Arjuna the superb archer wins over Citraratha, 139 pleases even Lord Mahadeva in the form of Kirata,140 deals successfully with the nivatakavacas, 141 removes the Kalikeya and 134 Adhyayas 122-125. 135 AdiP. 189. 136 AdiP. 181. 137 SabP. 21.19-22. 138 SalP. 30. 139 AdiP. 158-159. 140 VanP. 13-42, particularly 39-42. 141 VanP, 166-169.

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The Tales in Mahabharata 115 the Pauloma demons,142 and drives back the entire Kaurava army single-handed in. the VirP,143 But our author is entirely impartial. He does not hesitate to show the blots on the escutcheon of this most glorious hero of the war of MBh. After Krsna's passing away in the MauP, Arjuna, a seasoned victor of many a battle, could not hold his own against the mere abhira robbers and failed miserably to protect the Yadava women-folk from being forcibly carried away by them.144 Vyasa's observation is prophetically passionless: "Strength, intelligence, glory and achievement all appear at their proper time and retire when their time is over. Time is the source of this entire world; Time, when He so desires, takes it back into Himself. Time becomes strong and Time, again, becomes weak. He becomes the Lord, and then He is commanded by others."145 As our popular saying goes it is Time, not min, that is powerful. Arjuna, with the same bow and the same arrows, was robbed by Kaba. It is, indeed, not impossible to reconcile to this situation philosophically. But the other two incidents where the hero stoops low are almost irreconcilable to the glorious picture of this hero. The incident of Ekalavya146 is too famous to need any reiteration here. Had Ekalavya not dutifully surrendered the thumb of his right hand and his entire future as an archer with it to Drona in satisfaction of the latter's designing and preposterous demand of the Guru's fee, the chapter of Arjuna's. glory as an unrivalled archer would have been differently written. But the simple young man was ensnared with wrong ideals. The story shows that vested interests had always adopted questionable means to retain their rights to superiority. With this goes also the episode wherein Indra approaches Karna at the time of the latter's daily worship and demands the latter's solar armour and earrings knowing well that the latter would not refuse anything to anyone at that particular time.147 Without the crafty helpers like Drona and Indra, one does not know, where the great archer Arjuna would have stood. And even after this, he had to shoot. arrows at Karna when the latter was trying to lift his chariot-wheels sinking in mire! What a great hero Arjuna is! We, of course, do not wish to sound political, but the similarity of the social situation, to which both the episodes of Ekalavya and of Karna point, is too insistent to be missed. Persons of lower strata of society have to struggle hard to come up, have to fight against a number of odds erected by the vested aristrocratic interests and often have to lose the battle. Even after they succeed in coming up, the 142 VanP. 170. 143 Adhyayas 24-62. Cf. VanP. 48.1. 144 MauP. 8.48-61. 145 MauP. 9.32-34. 146 AdiP. 123.1-39. 147 VanP. 284-294,

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Eplcs fight is not over. Ekalavya is an aboriginal youth and is never seen again throughout the epic, but Karga is almost constantly seen among the great warriors of the day. In fact, a number of episodes are narrated in the name of Karna and characteristically, they are all stories of his being socially rejected. Upon his birth, he is rejected by his mother;148 when young he is refused an equal combat by Arjuna who would not stoop to fight a low-bord;149 as a pupil he is rejected by Parasurama who would teach only Brahmins; 150 as a suitor he is rejected in the open assembly by Draupadi who would not marry a charioteer's son.151 "His greatest rival is Arjuna, for although he was the equal of the latter in archery, the world gave pre-ominence to a noble as against a charioteer's son."152 In the beginning. of SanP, Narada describes how severe his struggle was.153 Sukthankar's analysis of his character is brilliant and penetrating 154 and it is difficult to disagree with him. But the fact remains too clear to be ignored. "Vyasa sees all his faults. But he also sees that they were generated by the cruel ostracism of the world."155 The Sambuka episode from RM 156 should also be included here since it also shows, in a slightly different way, the attempts of the priestly class to retain their rights to social superiority by questionable means. The fact of its being in the UK is a clear proof of its interpolatory nature. While Rama was ruling, the son of a Brahmin met with a premature death. Rama convenes an assembly of the sages to know the cause of it. Narada says : a sudra must be performing penance somewhere in Rama's kingdom as a result of which the Brahmin child has died.157 Raina then finds out the sudra sage Sambuka practising penance on the Saivala mountain for obtaining heaven. He kills him with a sword. H. Jacobi comments: "The higher religious life has been denied to a sudra from the very beginning, specially he has been prevented from obtaining the highest stage of the 4th Asrama, which the Brahmins wanted to preserve as their special privilege. The restriction was, however, broken through by the mighty forces of Buddhism and Jainism, which did not debar even a sudra from becoming a bhiksu. Such a scandal should not happen in the kingdom of Rama, A severe punishment of the same would be a warning for a time, which did not rigidly maintain the holy order. So I am inclined to the view that the legend of Sambuka has originated in a country and a time, where the mixed monastic order, probably 148 VanP, 287-293. Also AdiP. 104, 4-15. 149 AdiP. 126-127. 150 SanP. 2-3. 151 AdiP. 178. *1827. 152 A New History of Sanskrit Literature, Krishna Chaitanya. p.21. 153 SanP. 1-6. 154 On the Meaning of the Mahabharata, pp.49-54. 155 A New History of the Sanskrit Literature, Krishna Chaitanya, p.211. 156 UK, 64-67. 157 UK. 65.23.

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The Tales in Mahabharata 117 that of Buddhists and Jains, had evienced itself."158 We may or may not accept the historical extension of the implications of the episode, but the picture in it of the brahminical attempts to prevent, even by questionable means, the persons of lower strata from infiltrating into their folds is undeniable. In the MBh episodes, the attempts are on a secular level, in the RM episode, they are on an ethicoreligious level. It is interesting to note that one peculiar incident is narrated in connection with Duryodhana. In VanP,159 Duryodhana with his companions visits the forests in all his royal pomp and glory with a view to Putting Pandavas to shame. On the way, however, he picks up a quarrel with Gandharva Citrasena who quickly takes him captive. He is rescued by the efforts of the Pandavas themselves. Duryodhana's embitterment is enhanced. For "the man with an inferiority complex does not forgive anyone who has witnessed his humiliation even though the latter subsequently helps him out of his predicament."160 Duryodhana, in his chagrin, vows to starve himself to death. He is dissuaded by the Daityas and the Danavas who take him to the netherworlds and tell him that if he dies, their cause will be lost. He is their only refuge as the Pandavas are of the gods. Daityas and Danavas are born among the Ksatriyas who will fight Duryodhana's enemies. They thus succeed in making Duryodhana give up his vow of fasting unto death. The episode is clearly a later addition. It is an anti-heroic tale in the sense that it is narrated in connection with the villain of the epic. To popular mind, Duryodhana is a bad character. His evil nature is emphasised is emphasised in the episode. Thus it conforms to the type to which the popular mind has reduced his character. But the more important function of the episode is that it puts the entire spic on a different level. The episode is "a very clear proof of the fact that the Kauravas were viewed by the epic poets as incarnations of the Asuras."16 Apart from this single episode, no other tale is added to the MBh in the name of Duryodhana. In the UK, on the other hand, there is a whole group of episodes narrated in connection with Ravana. His genealogy, his parentage, his previous victories, his devotion to Siva, his austere penance and its reward as boons, his tyrannies, his lewdness, even his defeats, in fact, a complete katha-cakra162 bringing out the salient aspects of his personality is given there. Looking for the reasons of such a glaring difference, we realize that the villain of the MBh belongs to the same race and the same genealogy as its heroes; again, since the story of the family-faction is narrated from the beginning, the tales of the heroes almost automatically become the tales of 158 The Ramayana, H. Jacobi, Tr, S. N. Ghosal, Baroda, 1960, pp. 74-75. 159 The Sub-Parvan called Ghosa-yatra-parva. 239-240. 160 A New History of Sanskrit Literature, Krishna Chaitanya. 161 On the Meaning of the Mahabharata, Sukthankar, p.65, 162 UK. 1-34.

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118 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics the villain also. For example, the narration of the education of the heroes is common for the villain also. The tales of the Kuru ancestors are the same for the heroes and the villain. The episodes of their escape from the lac-house or their winning Drau. padi for bride inevitably become the tales of Duryodhana's villainy or of his undoing and the resultant feeling of inferiority. Therefore, the fact that the villain of the RM belongs to a different race creates a scope for bringing in tales in connection with the villain also, while there is no such scope in the MBh since the villain also in it belongs to the same race and even family as the heroes do. The different race, genealogy and sect of the villain, thus, make room for more extraneous matter in the epic. The nature of the theme of principal story, thus, seems to affect the scope and nature of the secondary tales also. This, in its turn, will potentially affect the further interpretation of the principal tales by superimposition of the secondary material. As we have already seen in the previous chapter, the sectarian interpretation is possible in the case of RM, not in the case of MBh. 3. The Birth-stories The stories narrating the super-normal births of sages and the epic-heroes form another important group of tales. We have seen above in the consideration of the Rsyasonga-episode that the birth-stories of the sages reveal a pattern which is characteristically folk-imaginative. As we confirmed there 163 even the Greek myths reveal a pattern indicating that the seed of gods or great sages is nearly always fertile. Dr. Minoru Hara 164 recently tries to show that "These elements -- Indra's fear of ascetics' tapas, his tricks of seducing the ascetics through apsaras-es, the desertion of their offspring, and the motif of the etymologische legende - enable us to discern a line of artifice in Sanskrit literary composition."165 He says : ".... the question of the fate of the orphaned embryos leads to the formation of, and has a further connection with, the so called etymologische Legende."166 The logic of the line of artifice indicated by him is explained thus : "......on earth below a human being who is endowed with extraordinary qualities is supposed to have an extraordinary origin. Extraordinary beings originate out of the seed of ascetics who possess tapas in abundance, and are conceived by heavenly women. In order to explain the birth of such extraordinary children here a literary artifice is invented which links ascetics and apsaras-es, and this unusual combination is made possible only through the abovementioned cycle, that is, Indra's fear caused by ascetics; Indra's order to the apsaras-es to seduce the ascetics to sensuality; and the ascetics breaking their vow of celibacy."167 We quote Dr. Hara rather extensively because he treads very much 163 See fn.66 of Ch.II. 164 'Indra and Tapas', Brahmavidya (The Adyar Library Bulletin), Adyar, Vol. XXXIX 1975. pp. 129-160. 165 ibid. p.152. 166 ibid. p.150. 167 ibid. pp. 157-8.

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The Tales in Mahabharata 119 upon the same ground as we did in the Rsyasanga-episode but explains the function of the motif-structure rather differently. To us, it appears that the artifice, or more accurately the motif-structure, is not invented to explain the extraordinary origin of great characters, but has developed from the fertility-rites connected with the raingod Indra, and later on used to reflect the Brahmana-ascetic-dichotomy. The very word 'apsaras' -- 'one having the gait of water shows the connection of the motifstructure with rains. The difficulty in accepting Dr. Hara's deductions is that they are arrived at by comparing the motif-structures of the tales only as they are found in the epics, puranas and at the most Jatakas. They are not related to the other aspects like traditional, Vedic, folk-loristic, ritualistic ones, but if the tales are to be assessed and interpreted properly they must be so related. As Prof. Kirk points out, "The hard truth is that before offering a reasoned interpretation of any single myth one has to make a systematic investigation of the complex nature of myths as a whole."168 The four elements connected up by Dr. Hara in the artifice can be explained differently : Thus, in Indra's fear of ascetics' tapas, the fear is a later element; originally it was not fear but rather an aggressiveness reflecting the BrahmanaSramana-controversy. The seduction-motif has origin in the fertility rite. The motif of the desertion of the offspring is only interim, it does not have a distribution wide enough to warrant a hypothetical pattern of motifs and to arrive at a real conclusion';169 on the contrary, more often than not, it is the most widely popular crave for justifying the name by explaining its propriety which gives rise to what are called the etymologische legende'. Thus, Drona is so called because the seed from which he is born was kept in a trougb - 'drona'.170 Krpa and Krpi are so named because they were brought with compassion (krpa) by Santanu. 171 Matsya and Matsyagandha were born out of a fish (matsya) 172 Drupada was so named because the seed from which he was born was trampled upon with feet by his father 1173 Rsya-sraga' had a deer-horn on his head. 174 Sarasvata is sought to be explained metronymically by making him son of the river Sarasvati.175 Uddalaka was given that name because he rose, breaking the dyke, 176 Cyavana was so named because he dropped out of his mother's womb. 177 All these and many more of such legends are formed to justify the name; but many of them like those of Drona, Drupada, Rsyasonga, Sarasvata, Uddalaka, Cyavana are not the cases of orphaned embryos. To us, therefore, it seems that it is not the question of the fate of the 168 The Nature of Greek Myths, G. S. Kirk, Pelican, 1974. p.13. 169. Folk-Tale-, Stith Thompson, New York, 1946. p.379. 170 AdiP. 121. 4-5. 171 Adip. 120. 14-18. 172 AdiP. 57. 39-54. 173 AdiP. Appendix I, Passage 79, 11.174-176. p.926. 174 VanP. 110.17. 175 Salp, 50. 20-21. 176 AdiP. 3.29. 177 AdiP. 6.2.

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120 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics orphaned embroys that leads to the formation of etymological legends. It is rather the popular desire to justify the name of a character that acts as a motivating force in the formation of such legends. This popular tendency is also reflected in the general linguistic tendency to justify the meaning of a name as observed even in popular etymologies as well as in such etymological legends. As R. Anttila puts it, "Language has a general iconic tendency, whereby semantic sameness is reflected also by formal sameness". 178 If some of such legends are connected with the Ascetics' Tapas - Indra's Fear - Seduction by Apsarases -- motif-structure, the connection is only secondary, more accidental than' inherent.179 It will be observed that such etymological tales are more frequently narrated in connection with sages and brahmins than with ksatriyas. Tales of Matsya or of Drupada (this is relegated to the Appendix) are rather exceptional. But the etymological nature of tales is most general in tales of gods which are more generally known as myths or divine legends. Dr. Hara ends his article with a reference to the story of the birth of Skanda Karttikeya. The names of gods when explained etymologically, do normally give a clue to the central traits of those gods. Thus, the attempts to explain the name of Varuna from Vvs - 'to cover', or of Usas from vas - "shine', of Pusan from pus - 'nourish', of Visnu from >> vis - 'enter, pervade', of Dyaus from dyu - "shine', of Pithvi from prath - 'expand may not, after all, be futile; on the contrary, it is more likely that they might, with due precautions, help reveal the real meanings of many myths. The observation that the etymological tales are mostly narrated in connection with sages might seem, at first sight, to faveur Dr. Hara's deduction about the orphaned embroys since the sages do not breed a family; but a little thinking will reveal that whenever the tale-teller thinks of the embryo as an orphan he always takes care to provide a foster-parent for the orphan, as he provides sage Kanva in the case of Sakuntala, or sage Sthulakesa in the case of Pramadvara, or king Santanu in the case of Krpa and Kepi. The motif of the orphaned embryo, therefore, is brought in by Dr. Hara only to explain the imagined gap in the motif-structure, but is not necessary, as we have already shown in the discussion of the Rsyasonga episode 180 A greater variety of forms i.e, of content-structures as well as of functions can be observed in the birth-stories of the heroes and other characters of the epic. The 178 An Introduction to Historical and Comparative Linguistics, Raimo Anttila, 1972. p.89. 179 Regarding the story of Yavakrita referred to by Dr. Hara, it may be pointed out here that this story also reflects the Brahamna-Sramana dichotomy. Indra is the highest god of Vedic pantheon and it appears strange that he should oppose Yavakrita's efforts to learn Vedas. The reason is that Yavakrita's mode of learning Vedas is not Brahmanical. The correct way of learning the Brahminical Vedas is to hear them from the mouth of a teacher. Indra first tries to make him realise this by instructing him to learn them 'guror mukhat'. It is the sage's insistence to learn the Brahmanical lore in a non-Brahminical way--through penance which is characteristic of the Sramana tradition that turns him wrathful. 180 vide above p.43.

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The Tales in Mahabharata 121 reason of this variety is obvious. These heroes and the related characters play important roles in the principal parrative. The epic-poets, therefore, would naturally try to make the characters interesting by narrating different birth-stories in connection with them and trying thereby to emphasise and explain their characteristic peculiaritics. The birth-stories of these characters occupy two sub-parvans of considerable length : the Adivamsavatarana-parvan and the Sambhava-parvan. The former sub-parvan, after a summary of the events mainly from Adip181 (Adhyaya 55) and a regular pbalasruti (adhyaya 56), begins in Adhyaya 57 with the story of King Vasu Uparicara. The name, translated literally, means 'the luminous wanderer above' - most probably suggesting the sun. The story of Vasu Uparicara is divided into two parts: the first narrates his institution of the worship of Sakradhvaja, the second contains a myth leading to the birth of Satyavati -- the arch queen-nother of the Kuru-heroes and the mother of Sage Vyasa, the traditional author of the epic. In the first part, 182 Indra himself appears before the king performing penance, instructs him to stay in the country of Cedi, gives him a vaijayanti garland to make him unconquerable and also gives him a bamboo-pole.183 After a year, the king 'made the stick enter the earth'184 in order to perform Indra's worship. Since then, the kings every year perform the ceremony of digging the stick into earth just as Vasu did and take it out the next day. Significant also is the remark that, in this ceremony, lord Sankara is also worshipped in a comic form which he took of his own accord out of affection for the great king Vasu.185 Indra was pleased. He granted the boon that the persons and kings and kingdoms celebrating this Indra-festival will be rich and happy. The ceremony of making the stick enter the earth is symbolic of the mating of the divine pair Dyava-prthivi Performed in connection with Indra, the god of rains, the ceremony is nothing but a fertility rite, 186 and Indra's promise of richness and happiness for the performers of this ceremony is well justified. But more important is the reference to the worship of the comic form of Sankara. It is probable that the Indra-dhvaja festival was originally a ritualised form of the fertility rites and since mating is symbolised in the image of linga - the form in which Sankara is worshipped - Sarkara was attached to the festival. This part of the story definitely shows that the image of linga symbolising the act of procreation is the link bringing Indra and Sankara together. This little description of the details of Indra-dhvaja festival strongly 181 Adi P. vide above p. 20, last section of Ch.I. 182 Adip. 57. 1-27. 183 AdiP. 57.17. Cf. yastim ca vainavim etc. 184 Adip. 51.18. Cf. tasyah...... bhumau...... pravesam karayamasa.... 185 Cf, bhagavan pujyate catra hasya-rupena sankarah / svayam eva grhitena vasoh pritya mahatmanah ll AdiP. 57.21. 186 For Indra and fertility rites again, see above discussion in Ch.11.ii, under Rsyassnga-episode, S.T. 16

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122 Secondary Tales of the iwo Great Epics corroborates our remark about the Indra-fertility-linga-Sankara connection made above in the context of the probable lines of the study of the traditional names of Naga-chiefs.187 It is worthwhile to note here that Prin. J. T. Parikh has made a comprehensive study of the references to Indra-dhvaja festival and prepared a bypothesis188 that the festival could after all be the origin of the Sanskrit drama. Natyasastra of Bharata itself declares in its opening chapter that the first drama had adopted the beautiful Kaisiki vitti from the dancing Nilakantha189 and it was performed on the occassion of the Indra-dhvaja festival. 190 The erotic element in a fertility festival is too obvious to need to be stressed. The relation of the erotic and the comic is also apparent in our everyday life. Our private jokes, or the permisiveness that prevails at the Holi-festival are the evidences in point. The relation is acknowledged in Natyasastra also. Srngara (>'sraga'-phallic symbol !) is said to be the origin of Hasya.191 Imitation of Srngara is said to be Hasya.192 The relation of the erotic and the comic is also reflected in the characters of many a classical Sanskrit play in which the hero is normally occupied with amorous endeavours and is always accompanied by the traditional comic character of Vidusaka. We may add a supporting evidence. Natyasastra mentions Visnu as the deity of srngara and Pramathas as the deities of Hasya,193 Visnu is only another aspect of the Vedic Indra and later on called Upa-Indra. Pramathas are the attendants of Siva. The relation of Indra and Sankara bas originated in the symbol of linga, is reflected in the erotic and comic aspects of the Indra-dhvaja festival and is continued in the traditional theory and practice of the Sanskrit drama. A closer examination of Prin. Parikh's hypothesis may perhaps be very highly rewarding. Prin. D. S. Phatak 194 "bas collected some data regarding the festival but he hardly does anything beyond it. In the final paragraph, he says : "... Indra was not nly the god of rain in Vedic literature. He was equally a god of Agriculture". 195 As if the two aspects were different from each other ! Then though on a scanty and unimportant data and rather hastily, he draws an important and plausible conclusion: "Indra had already become the god of harvest and Indra-mahotsava was, thus, a harvest festival."195 187 Above Section i of this chapter. 188 Vide his article: 'Rise and Growth of the Vidusaka, BCGVB, Surat, No. 22-23, 1978-79. pp. 1-41, particularly sections 12, 13-14 of the article. 189 Nayasastra, (Vol.I, GOS Second ed., 1956). 1.45 190 ibid. 1.54-55--56. 191 ibid. 6.39. Cf. srngarad dhi bhaved dhasyo. 192 ibid. 6.40 Stngaranukstir ya tu sa hasyas tu prakirtitah / 193 ibid. 6 44. Cf. scogaro Visnudevatyo hasyah pramatha-daivatah 194 'Indra-Mahotsav'. Journal of the S. N. D. T. Women's University, Bombay, Vol. IV, 1973, pp. 1-6. 195 ibid. p. 6.

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The Tales In Mahabharata 123 The statement about Indra becoming the god of harvest is only lop-sided. But that Indra-Mahotsava was a harvest festival is very plausible. The period around the full-moon day of Bhadrapada-Indra-dhvaja festival was celebrated about this time -is the harvesting season in India. Prin. Phatak has missed the step next to this conclusion. The full-moon day of Phalguna is exactly at six months' distance, is about the period of another harvesting season in India and marks the day of the Holl-festival throughout the northern part of India. The erotic-comic-permissive elements connected with the Holi-festival have just been referred to. Is Holi-festival another Indra-Mahotsava ? The second part of the story of Vasu Uparicara is clearly a myth. Girikk, the daughter of the mountain Kolahala and river Suktimati, is married to king Vasu. Once, when the king is on a hunting expedition, and the queen in a receptive state, a hawk, commissioned by the king to carry his seed to his queen, drops it in the river. Yamuna where it is swallowed by a fish Adrika, a cursed apsaras, who gives birth thereby after ten months to the twins-king Matsya and Satyavati-and is released from the curse, 196 The names Girika and Adrika are synonymous. Both are from rivers. One is said to be the queen of, the other to bear the seed of, king Vasu. The mountain, the rivers and the significant names of the characters show the story to be a myth. Dr. Shastri considers the tale to be a solar myth. 197 We may add a supporting evidence by pointing out that the hawk-syena-connects the myth with the Suparna -story-cycle, for Suparna, as shown by Dange, originally meant a syena and not Garuda, 198 The narrative proceeds further to describe the birth of Vyasa, the traditional, author of the epic.199 Of the twins of the fish Adrika, the daughter Matsya was given to the fisherman Dasa. Since she stayed for some time under the care of a fisherman, she was Matsya-sagandha. Once sage Parasara desired her. She obtained two boons from him-that of virginity even after accepting the sage and an excellent bodily odour. She complied with the sage's desire and gave birth to sage Vyasa on the island of river Yamuna. Born on an island, the sage was called Dvaipayana (>dvipa-'an island'),200 As a son of Parasara, he was called Parasarya.201 Since he arranged Vedas, he become Vyasa (>vi+/as-to arrange"), 209 Satyavati is the daughter of a cursed Apsaras. She, from union with sage Parasara, gives birth to sage Vyasa, but there is no motif of an orphaned embryo. Again, Satyavati is nowhere called Matsyagandha-one with the fish-like smell. She 196 Adip. 57.32-53. 197 Vide above fn. 96. 198 Cf. This syena is called 'suparna' " (p.70) and "Garuda and Suparna are not one and the same". (p.90). Legends in the Mahabharata, S. A. Dange. Read also pp. 88-91 therein. 199 AdiP. 57.54-71. 200 AbiP. 57.71. 201 Adip. 57.69. 202 AdiP. 57.73.

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124 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics is referred to as Matsya-sagandha203_-the kin of a fisherman-which is quite a different thing. Quite likely, her birth from a fish, her being related to a fisherman, the easy glide from 'Matsya-sagandha' to 'Matsya-gandha', and the contrast it provided to the fact of an excellent body-odour which she obtained from the sage later on--all these factors seem to have incited the popular imagination to give the fishsmell-hence her name Matsyagandha-to Satyavati. The fact that the arch queen-mother of the entire host of the epic-heroes should be the daughter of a fisherman and, what is more, should be a virgin mother seems to have made the epic-poet quite upset. Therefore, he has overdone in providing the divins parentage to Satyavati. Her father Vasu Uparicara is shown to stand in very special relation with Indra. Her mother Adrika is shown to be a cursed Apsaras. The fishy smell of her body perhaps motivates the fact of the cursed Apsaras-mother being given the form of a fish. Her pre-marital lover is shown to be a great sage, and her pre-marital child is shown to be a rare literary genius! The over-doing itself renders the attempt to cover up her low birth rather suspicious. In the remaining portion of Adhyaya 57 are very briefly narrated, or rather simply counted, the births of the principal characters of the epic. Bhisma, the son of Santanu, was born in Ganga with the parts of Vasu.204 Dharma suffered a low birth by being born as Vidura on account of the curse of Sage Animandavya. The only fault that the sage had incurred was that in childhood he had pierced a female bird with a sharp grass-blade. The fault was not compensated for even by a thousandfold penance. It had to be repaid. So the sage, though not a thief, was yet suspected and impaled on a stake. Even a great sage is not spared from the irreversible law of karma-phala. For barbouring such a ruthless, almost mean, attitude, Dharma was cursed by the sage to suffer a mean birth. The divine births of Karna and the five Pandava brothers, the incarnation of Visnu as Krsna, the birth of Drona from a trough in which the seed of sage Bharadvaja had dropped. the birth of twins Krpa and Krpi (the mother of Asvatthaman) in the bunch of sara from the seed of sage Gautama Saradvat, the birth of Dhrstadyumna and Draupadi from the sacrificial alter of Drupada, births of Sakuni and Gandhari, births of Dhrtarastra and Pandu in the wives of Vicitravirya from the seed of sage Krsna Dvaipayana Vyasa, births of Abhimanyu in Subhadra, of the five sons of five Pandavas in Draupadi and of Ghatotkaca in Hidimba, of Sikhandin as Drupada's daughter turned later on by a Yaksa into a male - such are the various births briefly counted in this portion of Adhyaya 57. Many of these are again narrated in greater details at different places in the MBh. But their brief indications here with particular references to their original divine aspects are intended to prepare a background for what Dr. Sukthankar le the tale of Genesis in Adhyaya 58-59. After Parasurama's annihilation of the 203 Cf. AdiP. 57.54; 57.55. matsya-gahty-abhisamsrayat/asin matsya-sagandha'iva. 'sagandha' means 'belonging to one's own fold'. Cp. sarvah sagandh esu visvasiti/ Sakuntalam, Act v. 204 The story of Bhisma's birth is narrated in greater detail in Adip. 91-92-93. Also see below.

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The Tales in Mahabharata 125 Ksatriyas 3x7 times, Brahmanas begot in the Ksatriya-women a fresh Kaatriya clan to protect the earth. For some time all was well. Then Asuras were born and they oppressed the Earth. The Earth complained to Lord Brahman who ordered the gods. to be born on earth. The gods, with Indra at their head. went to Lord Narayana with a request to be born on earth. The gods adopted partial incarnation and destroyed the evil beings. At this point, Janamejaya's insatiable curiosity to hear everything right from the beginning creates an occasion for including a complete account of cosmology in the Puranic fashion. As many species of living beings as possible are accounted for in Adhyayas 59 and 60. Adhyaya 61 gives an account of human species ending with a list of the dramatis personae of the great epic itself shown to be partial incarnations of various gods and demons. It is obvious that the tale of Genesis as well as the puranic cosmological account could not have formed part of the original. The cosmological account serves to bring the epic nearer to Puranas, while in the tale of Genesis the incarnation theory is pressed into service and it helps to project the epic. as Sukthankar has shown, on the ethical plane, on a cosmic level,205 A bird's eye view of the entire AdiP. reveals a definite design in the arrangement of its matter. The movement from the most general or universal to the particular is clearly perceived. The following stages of the movement of the narrative towards its central event can broadly be pointed out: The tale of Genesis (AdiP. 58-59); a Purana-like cosmological account of all the living creatures (59-60), among them an account of the origin of human beings, tribe-wise and country-wise, ending with a list of the epic-personae introduced as partial incarnations of gods and demons (61); greatness of the race of Kurus illustrated by two stories-that of Sakuntala (62-69) and that of Yayati (70-88) one of national interest, the other of anthropologicomythological interest-; two formal genealogical accounts of the race of Puru (89-90); the individual accounts of births and careers of the various epic-characters beginning with that of Bhisma (91-93); the births of the other warrior-heroes of the epic (94 ff.); the jealousy of Kauravas (particularly of Duryodhana) (118 ff.); their attempts upon the lives of the Pandavas (119.39 ff; particularly 124 ff. viz. the Jatugrha-daha-parvan); the latters' escape, achievements, marriage, return and regainment of their share of kingdom. So the arranger of the contents of AdiP-the Vyasa' of AdiP-begins by throwing light, as it were, upon the origin of the world, then gradually narrows the focus upon the origin of the race of the epic-heroes, narrows it further upon the origin of the various epic-characters and then, concentrating upon the events which simultaneously show the progressive achievements of the heroes as well as accentuation of the jealousy of Duryodhana-the principal cause of the epic-conflict, gears the narrative in the direction of those events of SabP which, as we have already seen, mark the starting point of the nuclear epic. The gradual movement from general to particular is clear. 205 See above p. 78.

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126 Secondary Tales of the two Grear Eples . Of course, we can speak of such movement of the narrative only in a broad sense, for here and there, many divergencies in the broad outline will be observed. But once we perceive this basic principle of arrangement, the deviations from it can more easily be spotted and their causes or the functions they are intended to serve can be reasoned out more accurately. Thus, for example, the Janamejaya-story-cycle providing a sacrificial frame to the epic is formally completed in Adhyaya 53, and Adivamsavatarana parvan is said to begin from Adhyaya 54. Yet the first four Adhyayas, viz. 54-57, are taken up by more-or-less prefatory matter. Adhyaya 54 makes a formal announcement of Vyasa's arrival in Janamejaya's sacrifice. Adhyaya 55 gives an index-like summary of the epic-events the proper significance of which we have already seen above in Ch. I. i. Adhyaya 56 presents a formal statement of the great importance of the epic, as it were, by giving a semi-mythical account of his extra-ethical origin. Incidentally, the births of the other main characters are also briefly enumerated since, in this case, the mother of the epic-author also happens to be the arch-queen-mother of the epic-heroes. Divine or incarnative origins of some of the characters like Bhisma, Vidura, Karna, Kssna 206 and the five Pandavas are referred to; but a more proper account of their origin, based on the well-known principle of incarnation is found only after the tale of Genesis. Some references to the divine or incarnative origins of the epic-characters are bound to be repeated from the first into this second list207 which is intended to be exhaustive, which applies the principle of incarnation systematically to all the characters of the epic :(which the first enumeration does not do) and which finds justification, coming as it does after it, from the tale of Genesis. The tale of Genesis, the puranic account of the origin of living beings, and a systematic and exhaustive application of the theory of incarnation to the epic-characters envelop the epic-tale in a different atmosphere. They lend, as it were, a different viewpoint to the principal story, put the tale on an ethical plane, raise it to the cosmic level. They add, as it were, a fresh dimension to the epic tale. It should be noted that throughout the Adivamsavatarana-parvan, the Puranic atmosphere prevails and it is this sub-parvan which puts the tale on an ethical plane. The fact that in the next sub-parvan, called the Sambhava-parvan, the style and atmosphere become quite different in tone, become very classical, marks out the Adivamsavatarana-parvan as unitary in character, authored by some Puranic scholar, rather than some bardic poet, with a clear intention to give the story an ethical dimension. It is noteworthy that the unitary characteristics of such singular subparvans are also retained. The fact leads to a possibility that the division into sub-parvans may not be arbitrary; it may reveal some stylistic and functional peculiarities. The fact that the Sambhava-parvan falls more clearly into the pattern of the movement indicated above lends a sort of prefatory character to the entire Adivamsa 206 respectively at Adip. 57.76, 77-81, 82, 83-87 and 97-98. 207 respectively again at AdiP. 61.69, 79, 89, 90 and 84-85.

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The Tales in Mahabharata 127 vatarana-parvan which, it seems probable now, may have come into the epic later than the Sambhava-parvan. In Sambhava-parvan, the atmosphere and the style become very near to classical; in fact, at number of places, the tale of Sakuntala (Adip. 62-69) reminds us of classical poems. The greatness of Duhsanta in Adhyaya 62,208 the description of the ladies watching the hero from the terraces of their mansions, 209 and praising his valour (!) in Adhyaya 63, Duhsanta's hunting expedition (Adhyaya 63) and the beauties of the forest 210 (Adhyaya 64), the hermitages and the activities therein (Adhyaya 64), are all described in a leisurely, rather a little grand, style reminding us of similar descriptions in the classical works. It is, therefore, not unlikely that they might have been penged under the influence of those famous classical descriptions. In that case, they will reflect the age of their composition (!) and admission into the epic. Some utterances in the grandiloquent speech of Sakuntala (Adhyaya 68-69) having close parallels in Manusmoti211 also point to the same line of approach. Adhyaya 7 gives a genealogy of the line of Kurus, in which most of the names are mythical. Consequently, the genealogy seems more fictitiously Puranic than real, as a glance below will show. 208 Comparable in comprehensiveness to some description of royal greatness from Bana. 209 Cp. Buddhacarita of Asvaghosa, Canto III. 210 Comparable, again, in comprehensiveness to the descriptions of Bana. 211. Compare, for example, AdiP, 68.25, 68.27, 68.28, 68,30 etc. with Manusmyti 8.84, 8.91, 8.85, 8.92 and so on.

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128 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics Pracetas 10 sons, burnt in cloud-born Fire (!) From them was born Daksa (m. Virini) 1000 sons 50 daughters Taught Samkhya (10 m. to Dharma by Narada 13 m. to Kasyapa 27 m. to Moon). Kasyapa Daksayani (eldest of the 13) Adityas (Indra etc.) Among them Vivasvat Yama Martanda Manu Brahmanas Studied Vedas. Ten Ksatriyas. Among them Ila. Pururavas (m. Urvasi) Ayu (and five others) (m. Svarbhanavi) Nahu sa (and four others) (m. Priyavasas) Yayati (and five others) (m. Devayani)-(m. Sarmistha) Yadu Turvasu Druhyu Anu Pury

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The Tales in Mahabharata 129 The genealogy, however, is not a bare enumeration of the names. Occasionally it also alludes briefly to the outstanding achievements of these great ancestors of the epic-heroes. Pururavas is said to have stayed with Urvasi in the Gandharva region and brought the three-fold fire for ceremonies. Nahusa made even sages pay the taxes, made them, like animals, carry him on their back, and having defeated gods became Indra. The story of the Yayati-Devayani-Sarmistha triangle is also briefly alluded to. The allusion to this last story, however, appears to be slightly more detailed - to rouse Janamejaya's interest, we suspect, who intervenes with a request for a detailed narration. So, the famous Yayati-story is narrated in the next ten Adhyayas (71-80) and a sequel called 'uttara-yayatam' in the further eight Adhyayas (81-88), The Yayati tale has been one of the few tales of India which have remained popular through the ages. One of the reasons of its popularity is the deduction of that famous maxim : "Desire is, indeed, never satiated with the enjoyment of the worldly pleasures. It is only aggravated like fire fed with butter". 212 The maxim is pronounced by Yayati while returning the youth of his son Puru which, he, after the curse of Sukracarya, had borrowed in order to enjoy the worldly pleasures to his heart's content. The three parts of the tale are very obvious : (1) The legend of Kaca (Adhy. 71-72), (2; The story of Yayati's marriage with Devayani, his attraction for Sarmistha, the five sons, sukracarya's curse, Yayati's accepting and returning the youth of his youngest son Puru, (3) Yayati's return from the heavens and his regaining them on the strength of his grandson's merits. S. A. Dange has fully dealt with the first part of the tale which he proves to be entirely mythical. He shows that "The main motif in the legend of Kaca is the swallowing and the disgorging of the initiate by the preceptor, with the gaia of new life on the part of the initiate. The legend represents a fine blending of the sacrificial rite of consecration described in the Brahmanas and the initiation rites of the savages",213 In the conclusion of his study of this legend, he again says : "The legend of Kaca mainly imbibes the main features of sacrificial consecration and initiation or Upapayana... The same motif of swallowing, disgorging and the gain of new knowledge can be seen in the initiation-rites of the savages, and this gives additional support to the contention that the Kaca legend is the legend of initiation"21 4 Regarding the second part also, it has often been observed that the names of the five sons of Yayati are actually the names of five tribes. "In the Puranas tribal 212 The passage is famous, though relegated to footnote on text-critical grounds. Cf. Adip. 693* and 840 * i na jatu kan:ah kamanam upabhogena samyati, havisa krsnavartmeva bhuya evabhivardhatell 213 Legends in the Mahabharata, 1969. p. 155. 214 ibid. p. 236. S.T. 17

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130 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics names are often inserted in the genealogies under the disguise of eponymous ancestors... Thus Puru, Anu, Druhyu, Yadu, Turvasha are the eponymous ancestors of the five allied tribes of the Rigveda. There is nothing in the Rigveda to indicate any blood relation between these tribes... But for the time being those five tribes were in confederacy against the powerful Bharatas. Probably this fact accounts for the statement in the Puranas that the five eponymous heroes were brothers, being the sons of the mythical king Yayati". 215 But, "how can we accept the common descent of Puru, Yadu, Turvasha. Anu and Druhyu from Yajati, who is as mythical or as historical as Vaivaswata Manu ?"?216 The name, Yayati' itself points to the tale being mythical. Derived from the duplicative form of the root ya-'go, move', the word 'Yayati' probably indicates the nomadic character of the Aryan tribes. Someone has also tried to show some Tantrik symbolism in the words like Sukra, Devayani, Sarmistha, Yayati, even Visaparvan, and so on. Again, the very sub-title "Uttara-yayatam" (Cp. The title "Uttarakanda" of RM VII) of the third part betrays its later composition. The contents, mainly concerning eschatology, also underline its fictitious nature. Thus the entire story-cycle of Yayati is mythical, symbolic, fictitious, and there is no point in insisting upon the historicity of its characters. The tale itself is indeed an interpolation in the epic. But how even these tales are subjected to further interpolations within themselves is interesting to note, On Adip. 87.5, the editor of the AdiP remarks : "This stanza, which seems to make a fresh beginning to the conversation between Yayati and his grandsons, seems to link up directly with the end of adhya. 83; the intervening eschatologial discourse between Yayati and Astaka which is in part most obscure and incoherent, and so clumsily worded as to be almost unintelligible, has all the appearance of being an old interpolation."217 This will show how varied are the stages by which interpolations have poured into the great epic. One might as well question the propriety of discussing these two stories : that of Sakuntala and of Yayati in the section of the birth-stories. Well, if the author of AdiP can include them in the Sambhava-parvan, why can't we put them under the group of the birth-stories ? Adhyaya 89 and 90 give us again two geoealogies which are interesting in many ways. One of the two is in the usual sloka metre but the other is in Brahmanical prose. Apart from some deviations in the chronological details, the following genealogy, given in Adhyaya 89, is rather curious. 215 The Aryanisation of India, Nripendra Kumar Dutt, Calcutta, 2nd Edition, 1971. pp. 105-106 216 ibid. p. 140. 217 Adiparvan, BORI, Poona. p. 992.

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Samvarana (m. Tapati) Kuru (m. Vahini) The Tales In Mahabharata Asvavat Abhisvat Citraratha Citraratha Muni Mui Janamejaya Janamejaya Pariksit Subalasva Adhiraja Viraja Salmala Uccaihsravas Bhadrakara Jitari Janamejaya Kakasena Ugratena citrasena Indrasena supepa Bhimasena Dhitarastra Pandu Bablika Nisadha Jambunada Kundodana Padati Vasati Kundika Hastin Vitarka Kratha Kundala Havihsravas Indrabba Sumanyu Aparajita ** ** After a lacuna, the genealogy is resumed as under: Pratipa Devapi Samtanu Bablika

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics The genealogy should have naturally ended with the generation next to that of Dhstarastra and Pandu, since at that point we have reached upto the generation of the epic heroes. What is felt to be a lacuna should have been a natural completion. The resumption of the genealogy after the lacuna also ends rather unsatisfactorily, since Pratipa and Santanu belong to the two steps higher than that of DhrtarastraPandu and the line was expected to continue for three to six generations after Samtanu. Pariksit and Janamejaya are shown to be the immediate ancestores of Dhrtarastra-Pandu instead of being their descendents in the fourth-fifth generation. Even the children of Dhitarastra are different from Duryodhana and his 99 brothers. Actually the names Kundika, Hastin, Kundala, Havihsravas of the son of Dhrtarastra as well as other names in the genealogy like Janamejaya, Dhitarastra, Uccaihsravas, Kundodara, Kratha create a strong impression that this genealogy has more to do with some Naga-tradition rather than with the Kuru-race known to us from the Puranas. Some sort of attempt at superimposition of the Naga-myth upon the heroic tale may well be suspected. Janame jaya's insatiable curiosity to hear the genealogy of his ancestors once again with fuller detits occasions its second narration in Alayaya 90. This second genealogy is in Brahmanical prose. It is also interspersed with Anuvamsa slokas, just as Brahmanas would be interspersed with Gathas. Fresh names occur in the line. Their chronology is, of course, different. In this Adhyaya, the chronology of the names from Pratipa onwards runs properly, i. e. in accordance with their mutual relations as found in the epic. A slight variation in style within the genealogy is noteworthy. The genealogy begins with Daksa Prajapati and runs upto Pratipa for about 40 generations in a more-or-less stereotyped fashion--"So-and-so married soand-so. In her, so-and-so was born of him" - with very few negligible exceptions. From Pratipa downwards the genealogy is a little more detailed, and creates also an impression of summarising the events of Adip with the only exception of the incident of Uttara's giving birth to a still-born child Pariksit whom Krsna re-enlivened. The genealogy is carried down upto Asvamedhadatta, the grandson of Janamejaya himself! With the story-group of Bhisma's birth and youth,218 the Sambhavaparvan, trueto-its-name begins. (1) In the assembly of Brahman, the hem of Ganga's garment was blown by wind. Mahabhisa stared at her. For this shamelessness, he was punished to suffer a mortal birth. He was born as Santanu, the son of Pratipa.219 (2) The eight Vasus were cursed by Vasistha for some small fault to suffer human birth. They requested Ganga 220 who, in the form of a beautiful woman, married Santanu, (with an understanding not to be questioned why for whatever she did),221 gave 218 AdiP, 91-94. 219 AdiP. 91. 1-7. 220 Adip. 91.9-19. 221 AdiP. 92.33-35.

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133 the Tales in Mahabharata birth to the eight Vasus one after the other, and threw them in her waters as soon as they were born, thus freeing them immediately from the curse. 222 The last, however, who possessed one-eighth parts of all the Vasus, 323 was retained as a token of their gratitude for Santanu who helped in their release. Tl.is last Vasu was Bhisma. He, however, was destined not to marry and create progeny, 224 so that with his death no part of the Vasus would be left over in this mortal world. Then, when the youthful prince saw his father's attachment for Satyavati he took the 'fierce' vow (hence his name 'Bhisma'>Page #147
134 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics not, the remarks are interesting indeed. He also rightly observes that the motif of throwing the child into water or fire in such folk-tales points to the popular belief that a dip into water or passing through fire removes all impurities or sins of a person. Bhisma's step-brother Citrangada died young in a battle against a Gandharva king. The younger Vicitravit ya was consecrated after Santanu. 330 For him, Bhisma abducted from Svayamvara the three daughters of the king of Kasi, defying the host of other kings assembled there. The eldest sister Amba had pre-decided to marry the king of salva, so Bhisma respectfully sent her to salva-raja 231 The story is carried further and completed in the UdyP.232 Amba was repudiated by Salva-raja. So she turned to Bhisma. Bhisma was firni on his vow of celibacy. Spurned from both the sides, Amba immolated herself with a desire to avenge, and was born as sikhandia -born a female and then turned into a male. Bhisma would fight all the heroes but sikhandin who was originally a female. So Arjuna finally puts sikhandin in front of him, and pierces Bhisma from behind Sikhandin. The extension of the Amba-episode in Udyp thus provides motivation for the death of Bhisma who is, otherwise, blessed with a death at will.233 The other two princesses Ambika and Ambalika accepted to marry Vicitravirya who was so enamoured of these two beautiful ladies, and expended himself so heavily in carnal enjoyment with them as to invite upon himself pulmonary consumption and died childless.234 Satyavati now requested Bhisma to produce children in the wives of his dead step-brother in conformity with the accepted practice of Niyoga, 235 but Bhisma was firm upon his vow of celibacy. 236 Instead, he suggested that, in such cases, Brahmins should be requested to produce children in the Ksatriya-women. To corroborate his suggestion, he gives two illustrations; first, he points out that, after Parasurama's annihilation of the Ksatriyas, Brahmins created progeny in the Ksatriyawomen.237 Then, he narrates the story of Sage Dirghatamas. The story can be divided in two parts. (1) Bphaspti lustfully approached Mamata, the wife of his elder brother Utathya. She was carrying her husband's child at the time, and explained the situation but Bihaspati could not control himself. Then the embryo protested, upon which Bphaspati became angry and cursed it to lifelong darkness. Hence the child came to be known as Dirghatamas.238 (2) The blind and aged sage Dirghatamas was 230 AdiP. 95. 231 Adip. 96.2-51. 232 UdyP. 173-192 233 Cf. AdiP. 94.94 234 AdiP. 96. 52-59 235 Adip. 97. 9-10 236 AdiP. 97.14 ff. 237 AdiP. 98. 1-4. 238 AdiP. 98, 6-16.

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The Tales in Mahabharata 135 abandoned and thrown into the waters of Ganga and was resurrected therefrom by King Bali who wanted a child to be produced in his queen by the sage. The queen, however, sent her maid-servant in her place. In the maid, the sage produced eleven children-sage Kaksivat etc. When Bali knew of the folly of her queen, he sent her again to the sage and a pious prince Anga was borp.239 The motifs of the two parts of this story are found repeated in that portion of the principal story which now follows. Satyavati next turned to her previous son Vyasa Dvaipayana Parasarya with a request to perform Niyoga upon her widow daughters-in-law. The sage agreed.240 When, however, he approached the queens, the first queen closed her eyes being unable to look at the ugly sage, so her child Dhitarastra was born blind. 2 41 Then the second queen turned pale out of fear. So her child was born anaemic, 'pale' as the very name 'Pandu' would indicate.24 9 When Satyavati was told of this by Vyasa, she asked the senior queen to receive the sage once again. But the queen could not bear the idea of having one more encounter with the sage and put in her place a maid who, however, received the sage with a devoted mind and gave birth to Vidura, an incarnation of Dharma, 243 In all these cases, the mother's attitude towards the sage who approached her, is shown to have psychological repercussions so deep as to reflect upon her child. Mamata's unwillingness to receive Brhaspati is similarly shown to result in the child's blindness. All the four incidents are intended to illustrate the rule that the mother's psychological condition at the time of conception invariably affects the constitution of the child to be born. Further, the motif of tricking the sage possessing repulsive qualities by switching a maid in the place of a queen is also repeated in the illustrative as well as the principal story. A question, not very significant, may arise. When Bhisma narrated the incident of sage Dirghatamas being tricked with a maid by the queen of King Bali, was he anticipating something like it also on the part of the widow queens of his stepbrother? It is not very unlikely, since the sages, completely engrossed in spiritual pursuits, would naturally be inattentive to their rustic, rather uncouth, appearance, thus causing repulsion in the sophisticated ladies of the upper and royal classes, particularly when it comes to having intimate relations with them. More pertinent is, however, the question of Niyoga. The tale of Dirghatamas is obviously intended to prepare us psychologically to receive the fact that the immediate ancestors of the epic-heroes were born of the custom of Niyoga. Bhisma has prefaced the tale with the words that he would indicate the eternal law for the ksatri 239 Adip. 98. 17-32. 240 Adip. 99. 34-35, 42-43 241 AdiP. 100. 6-10. 242 AdiP. 100 14-17. 243 AdiP. 100. 22-29

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics yas. After hearing it, and having observed the ways of the world, the queen-mother may decide the course of action in consultation with wise priests expert in the matter of Apad-dharma.44 The ways of the world are very well reflected in Bhisma's discourse. The first part of the story of Dirghatamas describes a situation in which a sage like Brhaspati also approaches his elder brother's wife simply for the sake of carnal enjoyment even when she is 'enceinte'. In comparison, Bali's desire to obtain progeny in his queen with the energies of a sage like Dirghatamas is more accep table, though it cannot be called an apad-dharma. But in a situation where there is no progeny, there is nothing wrong in approaching Brahmins with a request to pro create in the ksatriya-women. On the contrary, as an apad-dharma it is entirely accep table. 136 It will not be out-of-place to note here that Manusmrti also enjoins Niyoga as an apad-dharma. It is enjoined that when there is no progeny, the widow may obtain the desired progeny by Niyoga either with a younger brother-in-law or a sapinda.245 In the same breath, Manusmrti denounces the custom and makes it clear. that Niyoga should be looked upon only as an unavoidable evil,248 Bhisma's wordsapad-dharmartha-kusalail and lokatantram aveksya also reveal a similar attitude.247 Bhisma's discourse more than justifies Satyavati's choice of Vyasa for Niyoga, The situation wherein Vicitravirya dies childless has necessitated recourse to Niyoga as an apad-dharma, an unavoidable evil. That Bhisma is not the proper person for this is also obvious. For one, he is not the younger brother-in-law, and again if he is to procreate in his step-brother's wives in order to produce a royal heir, where was the sense in his renouncing the throne and his vow of celibacy 7248 The next choice is a Sapinda. Vyasa can be called a Sapinda on the mother's side. Moreover, he is a brahmin, the son of sage Parasara; and Bhis na has unwittingly249 pointed out that it is the traditional Dharma that, when the situation demands, brahmins should procreate in the ksatriya-women for ksatriya-women are seen in the world to resort even to 244 AdiP. 97. 25-26, Cf. Tat te dharmam pravaksyami ksatram rajni sanatanam// irutva tam pratipadyethah prajnaih saha purohitaih/ apad-dharmartba-kusalair lokatantram aveksya ca// 245 Cf. Manusmyti IX. 58-59, jyestho yaviyaso bharyam yaviyan vagrajastriyam/ patitau blavato gatva niyuktav apy anapadi// devarad va sapindad va str ya samyan niyuktay/ prajepsita' dhigantavya santanasya pariksaye 246 ibid. ix. 64-58. 247 See above fn. 244. 248 Satyavati herself has realised the irony of the situation as her request to Bhisma almost to go back upon his vow reveals. Cf AdiP, 97.11 rajye caivabhisicyasva bharatan anuidhi ca darans ca kuru dharmena ma nimajjih pitamahan// 249 because when Bhisma gives his view about the situation, he does not know that Vyasa Parasarya is Satyavati's son. His relation to Satyavati is revealed to Bhisma only when Satyavati tells him after his discourse. Cf, AdiP. 99. 4-17.

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The Tales In Mahabharata 1,37 remarriage.250 If, therefore, Niyoga must be resorted to, Vyasa as a mats-sapinda and as a brahmin sage is doubly qualified to perform the duty. An attempt to closely follow the rules laid down in Manusmoti is obvious here. At other places even ideal and verbal closeness to Manusmrti is so insistent throughout the epic that their mutual relation merits a study by itself. The verbal similarity has been indicated above in the case of the Sakuntala-story. We shall also have an occasion below to refer to more of such cases. Here we may only point out that this relation between the epic and the smoti-work seems to have an important bearing upon the period of the second stage of the epic, It is very likely, that the first redaction of the epic was made under a strong influence of the Manusmoti. We may put it as a hypothesis open for a further scrutiny, It will be interesting to note bere the views of a lawyer-scholar on this point of Niyoga. 'Dhitarastra and Pandu, without doubt, were the issue of niyoga practised on the wives of the deceased king but without any special preparatory confabulation of the kind outlined in the Epic... Niyoga could not have been an Aryan practice... It nevertheless unfortunately is the case that any practice anywhere observed to have been followed in that country, once it was able to find lodgement in some form or other of written literature, had a tendency in times which were very different from ours to take rank as acara with a possibility of becoming even sadacara.. I feel bound and constrained to cut out the whole Satyavati-Bhisma colloquy and its uncomely issue as Brahmanic elaboration more ingenious than artistic. A practice which is disapproved is made to take on a sacred ritualistic character and the fast trace of doubt and misgiving is caused to be removed by the Veda-Vyasa counterfeit. Its very perfection as a counterfeit condemns it. The person selected does, for a miracle, turn out to be just the one who is able to satisfy the opposing points of view of both the Dowager and the Regent; for is not Vyasa at the same time a very "superior" Brahman and a "brother" too of the deceased ?"251 In answer to Janamejaya's curiosity, the tale of Dharma being born as Vidura on account of the curse of Sage Animandavya is once again narrated in detail in Adhy.101. Karna's birth, alongwith his parenthood by Adhiratha, his famous generosity and his consequent loss of the inbora protective armour and earrings at the hands of Indra is briefly narrated in Adhy. 104, Gandbari's prematurely forced delivery of the hundred sons who were then reared up in hundred vessels filled with ghee is already referred to above on p. 104. We find a small complex of tales woven round the births of the five epic heroes occupying Adhy. 109-115. The tale of sage 250 AdiP. 98.5. loke'py' Acarito drstah ksatriyanam punarbhavah/ 251 Indo-Aryan Literature and Culture (Origin), Nagendranath Ghose, Second Edition, Choukhamba, Varanasi, 1965. pp. 184-86, $. T. 18

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138 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics Kindama's curse upon Pandu (Adhy. 109) has been referred to and discussed above on p. 174. Consequently Pandi with his two wives goes to live on Mount Satasonga (Adh. 110.) Pandu's inability to procreate on account of the curse once again brings in the problem of Niyoga. The situation is twice referred to as "Apad'.252 Pandu mentions a number of types of sons almost in the same descending order of preference253 as found in the Manusmoti.254 What is more, Manu himself has been mentioned by name in this context. 255 Soon after in the speech, Pandu requests Kunti to create progeny by Niyoga, and to support his stand, he alludes to one saradandayani (daughter of Saradanda) who was the wife of a hero (? Virapatni), and who, at the instance of her elders, gave birth to three valiant sons Durjaya etc. by choosing to stay with a twice-born.256 Kunti vehemently repudiates the suggestion fervently hoping that Pandu himself should approach her for the sake of progeny. She corroborates her view by narrating a queer ancient tale: There was great love between the famous king Vyusitasva and his beautiful queen Bhadra Kaksivati. By over-induIgence with her, he invited upon himself pulmonery consumption and died childless. While the queen, embracing the dead-body, was wailing piteously, some inherent voice told her that on certain days she should sleep on her bed with her dead husband. She did so and obtained three Salva and four Madra princes. Kunti hopes that some such miracle will take place in the case of Pandu also who will be able to procreate in her with the power of Tapas or Yoga (Adhy. 112). Pandu again explains calmly that, in ancient times, there was no restriction for women in regard to their association with men even outside marriage. But once when the wife of sage Uddalaka was being taken away by a brahmin in front of her husband, the son, sage Svetaketu could not bear the insult and laid down that thenceforward no woman should court a man other than her husband uoless he himself asks her to do so for the sake of progeny. Any woman transgressing this restriction will incur a sin of embryonicide. Thus, under instruction of her husband king Saudasa Kalmasapada, queen Madayanti approached sage Vasistha and obtained a son, Asmaka by name. Kunti also should emulate her example (Adhy. 113). Kunti, then, obtains Yudhisthira from Dharma, Bhima from Vayu and Arjuna from Indra (Adhy. 114). Madri obtains the twins Nakula and Sahadeva from Asvina (Adhy. 115). Adhy. 116 describes the end of king Pandu.257 The complex is interesting in many ways. Pandu refers to the episode of Madayanti approaching Vasistha for progeny following her husband's instruction. The reference is fully set out in Adhy. 173 below. King Kalmasapada was cursed by sage Sakti to become a man-eater. Once he caught the male of a brahmin couple about 252 AdiP. 111.22 & 30. 253 AdiP. 111.27-30. 254 Manusmoti. IX. 166-181. 225 Adip. 111.31. Cf, manuh svayambhuvo' bravit 11 256 AdiP, 111. 33-35 257 Refer above p. 74,

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The Tales in Mahabharatu to become intimate, and devoured him in spite of the beseeching cries of the woman whose fertile period was thus being rendered futile. The woman cursed the king that he would meet his death when trying to approach his queen in her fertile period, and immolated herself. It can be seen that the motif-structures of the three tales--that of Pandu, that of Kalmasapada and of Krauncavadha in RM-- are closely parallel. In all of them, killing the male of a pair in union results in a curse upon his killer. Of course, the curse is pronounced in one by the pierced sage himself, in the other by the bereaved woman. In the RM-tale it is pronounced by the sympathetic witness - sage Valmiki. The curse also reflects such a distinction. In the MBh-tales the killer is denied the enjoyment of the female company with a threat of death; in the RM-tale, tbe killer is denied the happiness of a steady life for breaking a steadfast pair. A comparison of the kinds of sons mentioned by Pandu with those mentioned in the Manusmoti as well as a reference to Manu by name seems to support the hypothesis we have just presented above. Pandu's allusion to Saradandayani is one more example of the custom of Niyoga so widely prevalent in the society as reflected in the MBh. It is observed in connection with this episode along with such others that "Though the smrtis usually allow only one son, the Epic tradition permits maximum of three sons perhaps because of the belief that having one son was as good as having no son. When Pandu desired more sons, Kunti refused saying that the limit is of only three sons and she would be a bad woman if she indulged further in that practice. Similarly Vyasa gave three sons to the widows of Vicitravirya and saradandayans also bore three sons called Durjaya and his two brothers". 258 At such places, Dr. Vora's observations seem acceptable, but at many other places, her deductions seem ill-informed and therefore misguided. For example, the tale of Vyusitasva and Bhadra is taken by the doctor to be an "example of the very chaste wife."259 Observes she : "Absolute fidelity in marriage, wherein sexual relations outside wedlock, even for the purpose of procreation were not approved of, is held to be the ideal in support of which is cited an example of the chaste queca Bhadra, who when forced to procure sons from outside agency conceived them by lying by the side of the corpse of her husband through the power of her chastity". 260 Now a little thinking will make it clear that the tale has something to do with the upasamvesana ceremony of the Asvamedha Sacrifice. Dissolved as a Karmadharaya compound, the name Vyusitasva (vyusitah asvah) can mean 'a dead horse' where the first member of the compound is past passive participle of vit vas-'to stay, to go far, (metaphorically) to die.' 261 In the upa samvesana ceremony of Asvamedha the 258 Evolution of Morals in the Epics, Dhairyabala P. Vora, Bombay, 1959. p. 88. 259 ibid. p. 88. 260 ibid. p. 41. 261 Cp. also the root pra+vi- 'to die' (derivative p.p.p. 'preta'). The root vi - vas - also has the advantage of the second meaning 'to shine'. Thus, the name 'Vyubitabva'

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140 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics queen is expected to tie down with the sacrificed horse. We have also already pointed out that the sacrifice is a fertility-rite.282 The queen Bhadra in this tale is shown to sleep with the dead body of her husband named "Dead Horse", in order to obtain progency. The name of the queen 'Bhadra' will also be found very significant in the light of the Brahmodya which "is associated with the ritual of coitus"263 and which is recited by "The queen who lies with the sacrificially killed horse."63 The queen repeats thrice: "O Amba, Ambika, Ambalika! None leads me, the horse sleeps with Subhadra from Kampila."263 The affinity of the names Bhadra and Subhadra, the name Vyusitasva and the sacrificed horse, the ceremony of Upasamvesana and the motif of sleeping with the dead body of the husband (called "Dead Horse"), the the common purpose of fertility, all these factors go to prove that the words of the brahmodya are ideally reflected in the central motif of the tale which has, thus, a very vital relation with the upasamvesana ceremony of the Asvamedha Sacrifice. Dr. Vora examines the tale from a sociological point of view and takes it to present an ideal of conjugal fidelity and chastity upheld by Kunt in protest of Pandu's suggestion for Niyoga, but the irony of the situation is that the tale itself idealises the upasamvesana ceremony which in its turn is based on the custom of Niyoga as pointed out by Willibald Kirfel.264 The tales should first have been studied from at folk-loristic-anthropological point of view, and then the outcome of such a study should have been utilised as data for further sociological studies. Dropping the first step can lead to contradictory results. Again, Dr. Vora says: "It should be noted that throughout the Epic Kunti stands for the new conception of sex-morals eventhough she had herself committed breaches according to the moral standard of those concepts." The doctor seems to be overenthusiastic in her attempts to save the character of Kunti. Actually, unless we ascertain the dates of the various portions of the epic there is hardly any point in talking about old sex-morals or new ones. The temptation to express an unholy idea in this context is irresistible. Kunti knows that the female company is fatal for Pandu. In answer to Pandu's suggestion of Niyoga for progeny, the example she cites shows the woman securing progeny from the cropse of her husband. And mark her words; "You only, O joy of the Kurus! (dissolved as a Bahuvrihi compound, 'one who possesses shining horses') may also mean the sun, and the relation Sun (=Indra) = the god of fertility obtains in many primitive religions, 262 See above p. 35 263 A Folk-Custom in the Asvamedha', S. A. Dange, Journal of the Oriental Institute, Baroda, Vol. XVI, No. 4, June 1967. p. 323. Cf. ambe ambike'mbalike na ma nayati kaicana/ sasaty aivakah subhadrikan kampila-vasinim// Vajasaney; Samhita: XXIII.18. Cf. Dange's article, p. 323; "...the ritual of coitus imbibes the idea of Niyoga current in ancient India to obtain a 'ksetraja' son". Cf. 'Asvamedha, the king of Sacrifices', B. H. Kapadia, JUB, Vol. XXX, part 2. Also see above pp. 35-36 264

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s in Mahabharata approach me for progeny."-265 The tale cited by her imbibes the upasivesava ceremony, in which, originally, the male was slowly strangled while he impregnated the chief queen.266 Does Kunti wish to convey that even as he would die, Pandu himself should impregnate the queen in order to obtain progeny ? that she would stick fast to her vow of chastity even at the cost of her husband's life? Should not her overjustificatory attitude be understood as an attempt to cover up (may be, unconsciously) her pre-marriage motherhood of Karna ? Does the author of this portion realise what a damage he is doing to the character of this mother of the epic-herces ? Though svetaketu, the son of Uddalaka, is a well-known figure of the later Upanisadic times, there is no reference to him as a social reformer in any of the Vedic works. The Kamasutra of Vatsyayana, however, refers to him as one who abridged the original science of love enunciated by Nandin into 500 Chapters. He is also referred to there as being responsible for prohibitting wine and extra-marital sex for the brahmins so that they can protect their wives in a better way.267 The epic-tale of Svetaketu laying down the rules of fidelity of the married couple to each other seems to be an extension of the rules for brahmins ascribed to him in the Kamasutras. The excepetion of Niyoga to be adopted in the cases of childlessness is also appended to the genral 'exposition', which makes the tale relevant in the context, The stories of the births of sage Krna (Adhy. 120) and of sage Drona (Adhy. 121) have already been dealt with in the beginning of this section. To Drona, Asvatthaman was born in Gautami, As soon as he was born, he cried loudly. Having beard his cry, the internal spirit said : Because his strength like that of a horse has gone into all directions with his cry, this boy will be named Asvatthaman (Asva+ sthaman, 'Having the strength of a horse'). It may be noted, that though a case of etymologische legende, this is not an example of the orphan-motif-story. One more example against Dr. Hara's theory. The final portion of Adhy. 121 relates the incident of Drona's pupilship under sage Parasurama.268 The tale of Ekalavya also bas been referred to. 369 After the education of the Pandavas and their escape from the 265 266 Adip. 112.4. apatyaya ca mam gaccha tvam eva kuru-nandana || also see the blokas preceding and following. Cf. Dr. B. H. kapadia's article ; "After this, the Mahisi, the first queen of the king was caused to lie down by the side of the dead horse so that she can insert in her organ the penis of the horse. She should have cohabitation with it." (p.15) "The Mahisi should lie (sic) by the side of the dead man and under a cloth should carry on cohabitation." (p.16) "While or shortly after his sacrificial death he was made to cohabit with the first queen of the king. As he was throttled, his penis would be made to get erected, there will be discharge of semen. Through this type of sacerdotal procreation the queen can be really pregnant, the god king can have a corresponding offspring." (p. 17) JUB, Vol. XXX, part 2. cf. Vats yayana Kama-Sutras I.1.9, and V. vi. 48. See above pp. 68-69. See above pp. 115 ff. 267 268 269

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics lac-house built by Duryodhana to burn them alive, the episodes of Bhima's slaying the demons Hidimba and Baka 270 run upto Adhy. 152. The next section called Caitrafatha sub-parvan occupies Adhy. 153-173. Therein are narrated (1) the story of the birth of Dhestadyumna and Draupadi from the alter of Sacrifice enunciated by king Drupada in order to avenge the insult inflicted upon him by Drona (Adhy. 154-155); (2) the story of Draupadi's former birth in which she could not get a proper husband, pleased Lord Sankara with penance, whom she, in elation at her success, requested for a husband five times, and obtaining a boon of five husbands, chose to have them in her next birth (Adhy. 157, the story is repeated below at Adip. 189. 41-47); (3) the episode of Gandharva Angaraparna who is defeated by Arjuna, becomes his friend and narrates the following cluster of tales (Adhy. 158-159); (4) the story of Tapati, the daughter of Sun, and Samvarana, a famous king in the line of Kurus, who obtained rains by bringing Vasistha in his kingdom (Adhy. 160-163); (5) (a) the story of Visvamitra's unsuccessful attempt to spatch away the Kama-duh Cow of Vasistha, and his consequent performance of penance; (b) Sakti's curse to Kalmasapada to become a man-eater who, possessed by an evil spirit inspired by the evervengent Visvamitra, began by first eating up his curser - sage Sakti, the eldest son of Vasistha and then devoured all other sons of his (Adhy.166); (c) Vasistha's unsuccessful attempts of suicide which he eventually gave up when he knew that Adrsyanti, his daughter-in-law, was bearing the child of his son Sakti (Adhy.166-167); (d) Vasistha's procreating a child upon the queen of king Kalmasapada who was rendered unable to procreate due to a Brahmin-woman's curse (Adhy.168), (we have dealt with this story above in this section only); (e) Vasistha's attempt to appease the wrath of his grandson Parasara by narrating the story of Aurva, whereupon Parasara vented 'his wrath in the Sacrifice of Rak sasas from which he was desisted after some time by the sages Atri, Pulastya, Pulaha and Kratu (Adhy. 169 and 172); (f) the story of Aurva whose Bhargava clan was annihilated by Kstavirya and who, as soon as he was born, blinded the entire host of ksatriyas by his lustre, and then threw his anger into the ocean where, in the form of the vadava-fire, it constantly consumes the water (Adhy. 169-171). The last tale of the bunch has links in many directions. Its first close parallel is the tale of Cyavana, 271 another sage of the Bhrgu line. The names of both the sages are justified etymologically. Cyavana was so called because he slipped (v cyu) from the womb of his mother. Aurva is so called because he was born by breaking open his mother's thigh.27? As soon as he was born, Cyavana burnt his father's thief to ashes. Aurva also, as soon as he was born, blinded the ksatriyas - the enemies of his ancestors. The irresistible anger of the child for the killer or antagonist of his father 270 pp. 108 ff. above. 271 See above p.93. 272 Cf. Adip. 170.8. sa aurva iti viprarsir urum bhittva vyajayata || This, of course, should be understood metaphorically only.

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The Tales in Mahabharata 143 or ancestors is the central element in the tales of Parasara and Janamejaya also. Aurva, Parasara and Janamejaya, further, are checked by ancestors or sages, who are related either to the aggrieved or the afflicted party. Aurva is said to have only heated the worlds with his penance intended to destroy the worlds, but Parasara is reported to have actually instituted a sacrifice of Rak sasas just as Janamejaya did that of Nagas. Thus, the tales of Cyavana, Aurva, Parasara and Janame jaya form a cluster which reveals a gradual shift in the motif structures, leading to the tale of Janamejaya. The story of Kalmasapada and other episodes connected with the VisvamitraVasistha-controversy are already referred to above.273 The story of Tapati is interesting in two ways. (1) It seems to have some connection with the present river Tapti. It will not be missed that the present city of Surat is often referred to as Suryapura and the sub-town on the opposite bank of Tapti is called Rander, the seat of Rannade or Randaldevi---the wife of the Sun-god. The area of South Gujarat is still known among the traditional brahmins as Bhrgu-ksetra; Sukthankar has shown that the final edition of MBh was prepared under a very strong influence of the Bhargava Brahmins. It is quite likely that the Bhargava redactors might have left in the epic some imprints of their geographical associations in the form of such tales. (2) It is said in the latter part of the tale, that after his marriage with Tapati, king Samvarana enjoyed himself in her company for twelve years in the mountains and during those twelve years it did not rain in his capital and kingdom. Then Vasistha brought bim to the town and all was well again. Apparently it reminds us of the tale of R$yasonga. But the case is reverse here. The king himself has to be brought back to to his kingdom by his priest so tbat it may rain. It is then said that Tapati eventually gave birth to Kuru in whose line finally the epic-heroes appeared. This Kuru is famous through the Kuruksetra the land of which, it is said, he tilled with his own hands,274 The story has, therefore, twofold releyance : it is the birth-story of the progenitor of the race of the epic-heroes, and of the person who tilled the field which finally became the battlefield of the epic-heroes. We may be pardoned, however, if we suspect some agricultural myth even in this tale. Tapati has often been called in this tale the "younger sister of Savitri"275 She is another aspect, the heat, of the sun. Sarvarana (derived from sam+v vr-'to cover, cover up',) taking her into the mountains may symbolise the heat of the sun being covered up by the clouds. So long as the clouds are away, it does not rain. Only when they return, it rains. And only then the heat covered up with clouds gives birth to Kuruthe tiller of the field. 276 Whether this interpretation be acceptable or not, the 273 See above p. 61 ff. 274 SalP. 53. 275 "Savitry-avaraja'. Cf. Adip. 160.7, 161 20, 163.1. 276 The name Kuru has a protonym Kurus in Avesta. Whether it has some connection with the root krs - 'to plough' is still a matter of research,

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Eples Dames of Tapati and Samvarana, Tapati being the second daughter of Sun, association of rains with the presence of Samvarana, and the birth of the tiller-king - all these elements, point to a strong probability of a myth being imbibed in the tale. It should be noted that the tale is introduced with the merest pretext of Arjuna being addressed as Tapatya - "the descendant of Tapati". The address is the most unusual and unique in the entire MBh and is clearly intended to introduce the tale. The episode of Arjuna's fight with the Gandharva may be considered a part of the principal tale, since here by becoming a friend of Arjuna, and later on in VanP by taking Duryodhana prisoner, he plays some part in the principal tale, and becomes a character in it. Finally, we come to the episodes connected with the birth and the polyandrous marriage of Draupadi. "She is the central figure of the story...and every other figure derives importance from the relation in which he or she stands towards her, as friend, kin or enemy". 277 She is shown to be born, alongwith her brother Dhsstadyumna, from the sacrifice which Drupada performs in order to be able to avenge the insult which his brahmio schoolfriend Drona has inflicted upon him. But, she is shown to be married to the Pandavas, and "The Pandavas, it will be remembered, were Kaur. avas and had taken as active a part (Arjuna's, according to the Epic, was the most determinative) as their cousins in the transaction which gave occasion for the special creation of these instruments of revenge". 378 Could she, then, be married to the Pandavas ? Mr. Ghose, in his forceful language of a lawyer, makes out the case that Drona. is entirely fictitious and is imposed upon the Epic from outside. "One fiction breeds a dozen others. The dressed-up defeat and humiliation of Drupada at the hands of his Brahman adversary makes it a poetical necessity, on the part of the Brahman author, to provide that Drupada in his turo should get (as a gift from Brahmans, of course) a son who will square his accounts for him with Drona, and a daughter destined in a parallel manner to bring death and destruction upon the House of Drona's Kaurava allies. But to allow these children to be begotten on the body of Drupada's chaste consort would have so uoduly delayed the scheme of revenge (Drona was getting on in years and the Pandavas had already attained marriageable age), that the miracle-working Brahmans cause them to come out of the materials of the very yajna through the magic efficacy of which all this was to be accomplished. So are born (Suta-Magadha fashion) Dhrstadyumna, the son, fully armed and accoutred for the act of revenge; and Krsna-Draupadi (she of the Saga) in the full glory of beauteous maidenhood". 279 Stripping off of its linguistic intonations, basically the argument seems very sound. That Drona might have belonged to the 277 Indo-Aryan Literature and Culture (Origins); Nagendra Nath Ghose, Varanasi, 1965. p.170. ibid. p.193. ibid pp. 192-3. 278 279

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1 The Tales in Mahabharata original Epic may well be suspected also from the fact that it was felt necessary to emphasise his character by repeating the tale of his birth and growth almost in the t same words within a small span of some thirty Adhyayas of AdiP only! 210 If Drona is fictitious, the motif of Drupada's intention of taking revenge upon him, the sacrifice for the purpose of revenge and Draupadi's birth alongwith Dhrstadyumna from it will all fall down as mere Brahmanic concoctions. Mr. Ghose contends, that even the Svaythsara of Draupadi is a mere poetic fiction. "Draupadi's marriage with the Pandavas was arranged, without advertisement (at least of the kind which is implied in a svayashvara ceremony) by private treaty, Krsna-Madhava taking a leading, and perhaps the determinative, part in the negotiations. It was a deliberately. planned out political marriage. Every other consideration was subordinated to the one and only object of the marriage, namely, the alignment of the Kurus, the Pancalas and the Vrsn's on one side in the struggle that was being waged against Jarasandha... the marriage had to be concluded in the way it was, against the wishes it might be. of the Pandavas themselves, but in accordance possibly with the dictation of Drupada and his kin, because at that time at any rate the marriage was in accordance with the custom of his House, and a group-marriage provided a better guarantee for the success of his plans..281 According to this opinion, the polyandrous marriage, being a political necessity, was slyly winked at by Krsna, was accepted by the Pandavas probably against their wish but under the oppression of the circumstances and was well in accordance with the custom of the House of Drupada. S. A. Dange also justifies this non-aryan type of marriage of the Aryan princes very much by the same. arguments of political necessity,282 It will, however, be interesting to note that, in his book 'Himalayan Polyandry'283 D. N. Majumdar has drawn attention to the fact. that, even to this day, the people of the two villages Jaunsar and Bawar situated at the foot of the hills of the Himalaya believe themselves to be the descendants of Duryodhana and Pandavas respectively, and traces of the polyandrous marriage-customs are still discernible in their society. Whether the Pandavas were Aryans, and whether the custom of polyandry was once prevalent even among Aryans are further disputable questions much beyond the scope of our investigation. But the anthropological study. of the customs of the people of Jaunsar-Bawar makes it possible that the Pandavas, after all, may not have been as unwilling to enter into such a marriage as is normally supposed. 280 Cp AdiP. 121.3-10 and AriP. 154.1-8; AdiP. 121.16-22 and AdiP. 154.8-12; AdiP. 122.1-11 and AdiP. 154.11-16, and AdiP, 129.1-3 and AdiP. 154.18-24. 145 281 Indo-Aryan Literature and Culture (Origins), pp.196-8. 282 The Pandava Riddle', S. A. Dange, Journal of the University of Bombay, Vol. XXVI, pt.2, Arts No. 32, 1957. 283 Himalayan Polyandry, D. N. Majumdar, Asia Publishing House, Bombay 1, 1962. S. T. 19

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146 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics And that is the bedrock of the problem - this polyandrous marriage of Draupadi. "... there is no possibility of any doubt that such customs as polyandry and levirate were existing in their society. But in course of time these customs were gradually coming into disfavour."284 "...although at the time the Mahabharata came to be written, Kuru-Pancala...was a country where the most approved Aryan practices were observed, at the date at any rate of the events of the Saga, it might have been and apparently was a good deal behind this stage, considering the proneness for resorting to niyoga found in the former principality and the five-husband marriage which admittedly took place in the teeth of all sastric precedents."285 The problem has been neatly put by Mr. Ghose in these words. "The fact is that the Brahman author of this part of the Epic found himself up against a stubborn piece of the original Saga narrative which had become traditionally so fixed and notorious that it did not admit of exclusion or erasure, against a fact (in other words) which he could neither ignore, explain away nor satisfactorily account for."286 It has taxed all the ingenuities of the Brahmin author of these portions of AdiP who was hard pressed by the incumbent necessity of explaining in a satisfactory manner this polyandrous marriage of Draupadi to a society in which the custom of polyandry had long before become obsolete, unheard-of, alien, even abhorrent. On the one hand, Dharmasaztras were entirely against such a marriage. On the other hand, the portion had become an unavoidable part of the original parrative. What a hard pill it must have been to the epic-redactor can be surmised fro.n the number of ways in which he tries to explain away the unpalatable fact. What could indeed be more puerile than to seek to account for this marriage (i) by the necessity which existed of seeing to that even a casually dropped remark of that living flame of a woman" (arccirivanalas ya),287 Kunti (who imagining that her son had brought in food to eat and not a live girl to marry had advised them to divide the same up amongst themselves), was literally fulfilled !288 (ii) by the apprehension which had to be eliminated that over such a prize girl the Pandavas might fall out amongst themselves in the way Sunda and Upasunda, 289 the Daityas, did over Tilottama in the legend...?'290 There is also a tale of Draupadi's previous birth in which she, as an ascetic maiden, pleased lord Sankara by her fierce penance and asking in clation for a husband five times, obtained the boon of getting five husbands; she then chose the realisation 284 "The Origin of the Pandavas', M. J. Kashalikar, Journal of the Oriental Institute; Baroda. Vol.XVI, No. 4, June 1967. p.359. 285 Indo-Aryan Literature and Culture. pp.198-99. 286 ibid. p 197. 287 AdiP. 185.7. 288 AdiP. 182.fr. 289 Adip. 201-204. 290 Indo-Aryan Literature and Culture, p.197.

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The Tales in Mahabharata 141 of her boon to be postponed to her next birth; i.e. her birth as Draupadi.291 Her five-husband marriage, therefore, is presented to be as good as pre-destined in accordance with the famous principle of Karma-phala. Like the tale of Drona, this tale is also twice narrated in almost identical words and the very attempt to emphasise it by repeating it condemns it ! Even lier birth froin sacrifice and her five husbands' births due to the divine levirate are such details as can be looked upon as attempts to render this polyandrous marriage unblemishable. Such an attempt to forestall any possibility of blemish upon the character of the heroine by showing her birth from sacrifice (or sacrificial ground) can also be observed in the case of Sita. There, even Rama's character is shown to be born of the sacrifice. Such is the strong impress of the sacredness of sacrifice in popular mind that birth out of a sacrifice immediately renders the character crystalpure and his actions uoreproachable and beyond question. Some of Rama's undignified but politically wise steps, Sita's stay at Ravana's house, and Draupadi's polyandrous marriage are such details as are glossed over by making the characters born from sacrifice. The Pandavas are shown to be born pot from sacrifice, but of the custom of levirate. We have already seen above that Manusmoti does grant approval to the custom of Niyoga but only with great reluctance. We have noted there the discrepancy between the smoti-allowance and the Epic-practice in regard to the number of sons to be obtained through this custom of Niyoga. 292 Mr. Ghose has something else to say on the point : "I can well believe Pandu (who tbough younger became heir to the Royal succession according to law superseding his born-blind elder brother, Dhstarastra) falling so seriously, and to all appearances hopelessly, ill that he had to tale leave of and retire from the toils and responsibilities of the Royal office, of his withdrawing accompanied by his still sopless wives (Pstha-Kunti and Madri) into a salubrious hill-tapovana for health's sake; and then recovering from these ailments sufficiently to be the actual father of as many as five lusty healthy sons...and truly, when you find the widow of a person, circumstanced as (when he retired) Pandu was, return home after many years' absence and present before the world not one but five strapping lads as the issue from the loins of her invalided (and now deceased) husband, the matter is naturally made the subject of ill-natured speculation and comment by persons who have an interest in making them...One can understand the reason why the authors of the Epic (whose partiality for the Pandavas and their cause is open and undisguised) should avoid all allusion to it, and at the same time pro abundanti cautela seek to cover up the traces by some acceptable theory of ksetraja procreation. The most natural to suggest would have been, of course, to assign the credit of actual fatherhood to some superior Rsi denizen of the tapovana to 291 AdiP. 157 and 189.41-47. 292 Fn. 258 above.

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Eples which Pandu had retired... But neither law nor propriety would sanction the vicarious procreation by even a superior Brahman of five hefty sons in succession. This I conceive to have been the real origin of the cock-and-bull story that figures in the Epic of gods, real gods, being made by mantras, derived (only those gods knew how) from a holy Brahman again, to come down and perform this obliging service for Pandu."293 Mr. Ghose arranges the pieces of zigsaw so perfectly that it is difficult to find a hole in it. 148 The author, therefore, chooses to show the five sons of Pandu as born of divine levirate. But a levirate is a levirate. Making it divine does not remove the stigma attached to it. The author tries to show the practice of niyoga as one widely practised. The fathers of the epic-heroes and villains are also shown to be born of levirate. Kings like Kalmasapada had taken to the practice. After Parasurama's total annihilation of the Ksatriyas, even Brahmins had performed Niyoga upon the Ksatriya-women. Both Svetaketu and Manu have sanctioned it. Still, in spite of the fact that levirate is shown to be so widely prevalent, the author yet feels constrained to add a Pancendropakhyana294-the tale of the five Indras-, an ingenious piece of Brahmanical concoction. The tale runs thus: In the gods' sacrifice at Naimisa-forest, Yama was engaged as the sacrificial killer. So he could not kill people who grew both in number and years. Gods complained to Brahman who pacified them. While returning, they saw a lotus in the river Ganga. Going near, Indra saw a woman crying whose tears had become the lotus. On inquiry about the cause of her weeping, she led Indra to a god who steadied the arrogant Indra, and showing four other previous Indras like him ordered all the five to be born on earth. They, however, were granted the request to be procreated by gods, namely Dharma, Vayu, Maghavan and Asvinau. The woman was. made their wife. The god himself with Narayana was born as Balarama with Kesava. According to this tale, then, the five epic-heroes are the five Indras born as Pandavas. The subtle distinction will have to be made that Dharma, Vayu etc. the seed-layers while the epic-heroes themselves are actually all the incarnations of five Indras. The contradiction in the case of Arjuna that Indra will be the seed-layer as well as the incarnation will have to be overlooked. Draupadi, according to this version, will be an incarnation of Laksml; according to the other story about her. previous birth, just mentioned above and which follows on the heels of this tale in this very Adhyaya, she will be a woman born with a destiny to have five husbands. To some extent, this story contradicts the incarnation motif of the Adivarsavataranaparvan also. Yet, the tale is very much there, and reveals by its over-doing the anxiety of its author to cover up the fact of the heroine's polyandrous marriage. author leaves no stone unturned, as it were. He musters up as many justifications as 293 Indo Aryan Literature and Culture, p.188. 294 AdiP. 189.1-40.

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The Tales in Mahabharata he can lay his hands on -- the principle of Karma-phala, the theory of incarnation, the custom of Niyoga, the efficacy of a sacrifice (and even fabricating an entirely new character - that of Drona - if we believe Mr. Ghose) - all conceivable things are set together in one big bunch to justify one centrally important, obsolete and unavoidable detail of the original Saga. They sometimes even cancel each other. Apparently, the author lacks any sense of propriety and proportion. But through a maze of tales we can see the singularity of purpose and uniformity of pattern. Except for some few narratives of the ancestors of the epic-heroes, all other tales are, in one way or the other, intended to validate and consolidate the polyandrous marriage of the epic-heroes and its heroine. A minor observation may be added. All the tales of Niyoga are narrated in connection with the ksatriyas only. The brahmins play the role of the procreator, but the ksetra' is always a ksatriya-woman. No brahmin is shown to be born of Niyoga. Saradandayani appears by name to be a brahmin-woman, but she is called there a vira-patpi. This may be adduced to the superioristic arrogance of the Brahmins, but another fact is more important. Manu says: "This animal-custom, which is denounced by the learned brahmins, was laid down even for human beings when king Vena was rulling the territory."295 Brahmins denounced it, but since the time of king Vena, the custom has been prevalent among human beings. This distinction is clearly reflected and consistently maintained throughout in the birth-stories of the epics. The arrogant tendency of the brahmin-redactors apart this once again provides a close link between the MBh and the Manusmrti. Another poivt of contact between AdiP and Manusmoti also must be noted. We see that Manusmoti gives some allowance, though reluctantly, to the custom of Niyoga. So we also find in the MBh the custom of Niyoga to be widely prevalent, and rather often resorted to. But the polyandrous type of marriage, Manusmrti does not countenance at all. And the author of the AdiP is hard put to justify the stubborn and notorious detail of the polyandrous marriage of Draupadi, and the fellow has to take recourse to the superhuman agency - the fatalistic tendency in the case of Draupadi and divine agency in the birth of the Pandavas. It will not be missed that no other Niyoga than that of the epic-heroes is ascribed to divine agencies. A normal Niyoga in the case of the heroes would not have been enough to justify and sanctify their peculiar type of marriage. This difference in the treatment of the customs of polyandry and levirate also points to some affinity between the MBh and Manusmoti. The tales of the AdiP which now follow have already been dealt with in the previous section. The last episode of the AdiP - that of Khandava-burning has also been dealt with in the last section of the first chapter. That brings us to the end of AdiP. 295 Manusmrti. IX.66. Cf.: ayam dvijair hi vidvadbhih pasu-dharmo vigarhitah / manusyanam api prokto vene rajyam prasasati //

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130 (4) The Tales of Sabhaparvan Compared to those in the AdiP, the tales as such in the SabP are very few and far between. More frequent, however, are allusions to certain famous tales or episodes. Sometimes even complete tales are set so briefly that they would look more like a summary of the tale than a tale itself. Fully set secondary tales in SabP are only these (1) The tale of the birth of Jarasandha (16.12 to 18.27), (2) that of the birth of Sisupala (Adhy.40), (3) that of the hypocrite old swan (38.30-40), (4) that of the quarrel of Virocana and Sudhanvan (61.58-79). (5) and that, relegated to the appendix of the Fire and the princess of king Nila. Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics Allusions to some famous tales or episodes are also very interesting in SabP. In Adhy. 3, there are a number of allusions to the sacrificial achievements of Bhagiratha, Indra, Sankar, Brahman, Vasudeva etc.29 intended to show the greatness of the place of Bindu Lake on the Mount 'Gold-Peak' from where Maya Danava brings the wealth to build the wonderful assembly-hall for Yudhisthira. The brief reference to the only king Hariscandra who obtained a place in Indra's assembly by performing Rajasuya297 is calculated to provoke Yudhisthira to emulate his example. A passing reference to the annihilation of the Ksatriya clan by Parasurama is again of Bhrgu-interest 298 Adhy. 13 the history of Yadavas-Kamsa-Jarasandha conflict recreating the political situation. Within it is briefly given the episode of the deaths of the great friends Hathsa and Dibhaka each of whom, having heard of the death of the other committed suicide.299 Their death has weakened the position of Jarasandha very much. The memory of Brhadratha's great achievement in killing the strong bull and getting three drums prepared from bull's leather, is associated with main entrance of the city of Girivtaja where the drums are still beaten.300 We may note here that the rather over-accurate time indication of the duel between Bhima and Jarasandha, said to begin with the first. day of Kartika, and to continue day-and-night till on the fourteenth night the anti-hero. gets tired and killed brutally, smells of some mythical superimposition upon the episode.301 The chariot on which the victorious heroes ride is associated with the victories of Indra against Danavas and in the war caused by the Tara's abduction by Moon. 302 Its history is also given.303 Apart from the chariot's divine association, such references also seem to remind one of Krsna's being an incarnation of Visnu by 296 SabP. 3.8 15. 297 SabP. 11.52-60. 298 SabP. 13.2. 299 SabP. 13.39-42. 300 SabP. 19.14-16. 301 SabP, 21.17-18. In the Purnimanta Lunar Calendar these days would correspond to the dark half of the month of Asvina of our Vikrama-samvat Calendar and the night of Jarasandha's death would correspond to that of Kali Caturdasi. 302 SabP. 22.16 & 18. 303 SabP. 22.27.

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The Tales in Mahabharata 151 which name he is actually addressed in this context.304 Narada also is reminded of the event of partial incarnation which took place before, and sees Krsna as such.305 Bhisma also conforms to such an attitude.306 Such references pre-justify in a philosophical way Krsna's act of slaying Sisupala which would otherwise have appeared autocratic. IC. There is a profusion of derogatory allusions to the events in the past lives of Bhisma and Krsna in the speeches of Sisupala in Adhyaya 38 where Sisupala revitalizes his oratorial attack. Allusions to Krsna's childhood adventures in kiiling the demons in various forms, in his breaking down the axis of the cart, in his holding up the Mount Govardhana, his killing Kamsa 307 etc. are followed by allusions to Bhisma's past life - his abduction of Amba who loved someone else, his 'inability to have children, the insult of niyoga in his brother's wives being performed by a stranger (i.e. Vyasa) etc.308 In between he also refers to the bird Bhulinga 309 and narrates the tale of the hypocrite swan. Bhisma simply derides him by relating his birth-story. Then Krsna himself alludes to some episodes showing Sisupala's attempts to harrass the Yadavas in an ignominious manner.310 An insulting retort from Sisupala on the point of Rukmini's abduction311 brings his death in a flash at the hands of Krsna. Duryodhana, while explaining his plan to Dhstarastra, alludes to Indra's betrayal of Namuci312 to justify betrayal as a rightful code of political conduct. In the latter part of SabP, all the allusions or tales are put into the mouth of Vidura, that Aisop of the Bh. Thus in the speech with which he tries to dissuade the intoxicated gamesters fron the ga ne of dice which has reached a dangerous stage, there are three allusions. The first is to the very famous "Maa-in-the Well" story. Vidura says : ''Having found toddy, a drunkard would never recognize the fall. Either, having climbid (the tre:) be sinks himself (ia the intoxication) or suffers a fall". 313 The words madhu and prapata have a covert reference to the famous story which is completely related by Vidura himself at the instance of Dhstarastra in StrP.314 304 SabP 22.33, where Krsna is addressed as 'visno' and 'purusottama'. 305 SabP. 33.12, 14-17, 19-20. 36 SabP 37.11. Cf. nun: m etat samadatum punar icchaty adhoksajab / yad asya sisupala stham tejas tisthati bharata / 307 SabP. 38.7-11. 308 SabP. 38.21-23. 309 SabP. 38 17. 310 SabP. 42 7-11. 311 SabP. 42.15 & 18-19. 312 SabP. 50.20. 313 SabP. 55.4. Cf. madhu vai madhviko labdhva prapatam na'vabudhyate / aruhya tam majjati va patanam va'dhigacchati // 314 Cf StrP. 5-6,

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152 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics Some twice-born lost his way into a dreadful forest infested with ferocious animals fearsome even to Death. Seeing them the fellow was horripilated and much perturbed. Then he saw the dense forest covered with the hands of a fearful woman. It was also surrounded by the five-hooded serpents. In the middle of the forest was a well covered by creepers and concealed. The man fell there and got entangled in the bough of creepers and was hanging there head-down, feet-high. Then, again, he saw on the well a mighty elephant with six heads and twelve feet. On the branches of the trees lived dreadful bees, collecting honey. The dripping honey was drunk by that man as he was hanging. His thirst, however, was never quenched. And even in that situation, his hope of life did not diminish. The tree was also being cut by black and white rats. The tale is only a sustained metaphor which is explained by Vidura himself. This world is the forest; dieseases, the ferocious animals; old-age, the fearful woman; human body, the well; Time, the great serpent; the hope of life, the creepers from which the man hangs; year with its six seasons and the twelve months, the elephant; days and nights are the white and black rats; desires are the bees and the joy in the earthly objects of desire is the dripping honey. It does not become a tale, it remains only a metaphor. But it is a gem of such metaphor-stories reflecting the Sramana view of life, as Winteroitz rightly points out.315 The motit seems to have been so popular that the epic-redactors bave used it for a completely opposite purpose. While wandering in the forest, the sages Jaratkaru316 and Agastya317 see their ancestors hanging head-down from the branch of tree sprung from the side-wall of a pit in the forest, and the branch is being cut by a cat. The branch is the body of the sage himself, the rat is Time. When the sage, who has not yet been married, dies childless, the ancestors will fall in the hell. The sage, thereupon, agrees to get married and procreate so that his ancestors may obtain deliverance. Thus the very motif which the ascetics used for preaching the renunciation of the world has been used craftily by the Brahmin redactors for preaching acceptance of the world, Vidura also refers in the same speech to an "historical" episode in which sukracarya advises the Asuras to give up one of their own brethren, Jambha, in order to save the whole clan. Vidura quotes the famous sloka of the sage which says : a man should be given up to salve one's family, one's family should be given up for the sake of one's own village, the village for the territory, and for the sake of one's Self, this entire earth should be given up.318 Vidura had quoted the same sloka once before, at the time of the birth of Duryodhana, 319 when, seeing the ill-omens upon the prince's birth, he had advised the Kauravas to give the child up. Vidura repeats that advice now. 315 History of Indian Literature. M. Winternitz, Tr. Mrs. S. Ketkar, Calcutta, 1927. Vol.I.ii. p.408. 316 AdiP. 13.11-27. 317 VanP. 94,11-15. 318 SabP. 55.11-12. 319 AdiP. 107. 32

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The Tales in Mahabharata 153 Just as, Vidura says, Duryodhana should be abandoned, Pandavas should be enfolded under wings. Vidura almost summarily relates the tale of a person who, out of greed, killed some gold-laying (lit. gold-spitting) wild birds staying in his house, in order to get all the gold inmediately, and thereby destroyed both present and future gains.320 Similar is the attempt of the Kauravas to snatch away everything from the Pandavas immediately. The story of the gold-laying birds is famous. The motif is well-known. There is a story in sanP in which Ssnjaya "from the grace of Narada obtained a son whose excreta were gold; Suvarnashthivin was slain by some robbers but afterwards revived by Narada".321 "There is an ass with the same gift in Sicilianische Marchen No. 52" 322 There is in Pancatantra a story of a bird which has a golden excreta. The bird, however, is caught by a hunter, is presented to the king and let loose carelessly by the minister.323 But the tale as referred to by Vidura itself is very famous even as an Aesopic fable. When Draupadi also is finally won over in the famous game of dice, Duryodhana asks Vidura to bring Draupadi in the assembly-hall to receive commands from her new masters. Vidura warns him that he is digging his own grave like that goat which, having dug up with his feet the earth in which was buried a bent-up sword and which, thus being sprung up, cut the throat of the goat itself.334 Kavathekar325 compares the tale to its various versions in Aitareya Brahmana3 26 and in Jatakakatha,327 and concludes that the tale must be a very popular one. This is also confirmed from that fact that Patanjali refers to a maxim called ajakspaniya-nyaya.328 Usages like "digging one's grave" found in almost all the languages, also point to the popular currency of the central motif of the tale, There is a rather detailed reference to a bird called Bhulinga, 329 which is said to live on the far side of the Himalayas, which is said always to speak "ma sahasam" 320 SabP. 55.12-13. 321 Index to the Names in the Mahabharata, S. Sorensen, Delhi, 1963. p.667. SanP.31. 322 The Ocean of Story, Ed Penzer, Vol.I, p.11 fn.l. 323 Pancatantram, Nirnayasagar Press, Bombay, Tenth Edn., 1959. Story III. 14. pp.257-8. 324 SabP. 59.8. As F. Edgerton has shown ("The Goat and the Knife" Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol.LIX, pp.366-8) the critical reading solves a number of difficulties of interpretation created by corrupt reading. The critical version is as follows: ajo hi sastram akhanat kila'ikah sasire vipanne padbhir apasya bhumim! niktntanam svasya kapthasya ghoram tadvad vairam ma khanih panduputrajh 325 Sanskyla Sahitya Men Nitikatha ka Udgama Evam Vikasa (Hindi), P. N. Kavathekar, Chowkhamba, Varanasi, 1909. pp.357 ff. 326 II.vi.3. 327 No.481, Takkariya jataka. 328 Cf. Laukika-nyayanjalih, Ed. G. A. Jacob, Bombay, 1907. p.1, Referred to in Kavathekar, p. 141. 329 SabP. 38.17 and 41.18-22, S. T, 20

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics ('don't act rash') and yet to pick up particles of flesh sticking between the teeth of an eating lion. This is, however, not a tale. The speech and action of the bird are presented as its mutually contradictory characteristics of both of which, put together, constitute the single motif of a hypocrite person. The single motif by itself, however, does not give us a tale. It is only when the motif is linked with another motif to create a structure that a tale results. This is seen in the tile of the old hypocrite swan. 330 Thus, the old swan by the sea-shore was dharmavac, so the other birds put faith in him and left their eggs and young ones in his care. But the action of the old swan was quite the opposite, so he ate up the things to be cared for. When this was noticed, it led to the inevitable result: the birds killed the old swan ! 154 The tale is interesting in a number of ways. As a tale, it offers an interesting comparison with the description of that other bird Bhulinga which is merely a motif, but not a tale, though both illustrate the quality of hypocrisy. It is said that in connection with the tale, the Purana-vid people relate a gatha also. In the constituted text, the gatha is reconstructed in a very unusual m-tre called 'Halamukhi'. It runs thus: "When your heart is put aside, O bird, you are crying falsely! Your unholy act of eating up the eggs belies your speech."331 The tale reminds us of that another famous tale from Hitopadesa, the tale of "the vulture and the cat."332 There, an old and invalid vulture who is looking after the eggs and young ones of other vultures when they are out, gives shelter to a hypocrite cat who eats up the eggs etc. unknown to the old bird. When he knows that the birds have noticed the loss, he escapes and the old vulture becomes the scapegoat and is killed by the birds. The comparison of the two versions of the tale is very interesting. An old invalided bird, taking care of the eggs and small ones of a group and, in return, being taken care of by th: young reflects the structure of our traditional joint family. Again that the sufference of the punishment lies in both the tales with the old bird points. to the fact that basically the tale is the same. But in the Hitopadesa version, the motif of hypocrisy is transferred to the cat, though its punishment remains with the bird. The bird, here again, is a vulture, instead of a swan. A vulture is known for its qualities of keen observation and sharp attack, A cat is known for its quality of cunningness, at least in Indian culture. All the qualities are desirable for political success. The purpose of Hitopadela is obviously to teach the political maxims. In the MBh version, an old hypocrite is exposed to punishment. In the Hitopadesa version an old and weakened politician falls prey to a crafty opportunist whose punishment. he bears. The MBh version is intended, apparently to teach a forthright behaviour, 330 SabP. 38.28-40. 331 SabP. 38.40 antaratmani vinihite rausi patraratha vitatham / anda-bhaksanam asuci te karma vacam atifayate /

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The Tales in Mahabharata 155 actually to instigate the assembled kings against Bhisma; the Hitopadesa version purports to teach a constant alertness of all the faculties lest a weakened politician be cheated by a cunning opportunist at any time. The Jataka-version of the tale333 exactly corresponds to the MBh-version with just one difference that the hypocrite bird there is a crow, a better substitute for the purpose for a swan. This correspondence with the Jataka version which is generally supposed to be older, the particle kila' used at the beginning of the narrative, 334 the retention of a gatha which itself appears to be very old, and the comparatively simple structure of the narrative --- all these aspects go to prove that here we have a very old form of a popular fable, which reappears later in the Hitopadesa in a different form developed with a view to extract from it, not ethical, but political wisdom. The two tales of the births of anti-heroes Darrated in the SabP - those of Jarasandha and Sisupala - have already been referred to above.335 We saw there that they are narrated in the stream of the principal story at a point where the characters themselves occur - of course, to meet with their end at the hands of the hero. The birth-tale and the death-episode put together create an impression of having heard a complete - almost a self-complete -- life-story. Since they are antagonists, some repulsive elements are bound to be added to their birth-stories. Thus, to justify the name 'Jara-sandha', 336 the child is shown to be born in two halves (in the two queens because they ate each a half of the mango-fruit given by the sage), which are then joined by the demoness, Jara by name. Sisupala is born with the deformations of having three cyes (one in the forehead), four hands and the cry like that of a donkey 1837 The peculiar popular sense of propriety can be seen at work in such cases. A peculiar feature in both of these cases must be carefully noted. Jarasandha is said to have captured some eighty six kings and kept them herded together in his capital Girivraja. When the number of the captive kings reaches a hundred he would sacrifice them as an offering to I ord Mahadeva.838 He is said to stand in special favour of Lord Sankara339 whom he has seen with his physical eyes. He is then overcome and crushed by the crafty policy of Krsna. The deformations with which sisupala is said to be born - particularly the three eyes and four hands - are again reminiscent of Lord Sankara. His Saivaite peculiarities are shown to drop off as soon as 332 Hitopadesa, Nirnayasagar Press, Bombay; Sixteenth Edn., 1958. Story 1.3. pp. 16-19. 333 Jataka No. 384. Dhammaddhaja Jataka, 334 SabP. 38.30. vsddhah kila samudrante..etc. 335 See above p.59. 336 SabP. 16.31-40, 17.6. 337 SabP. 40.1. 338 Cf. SabP. 13.62-63, 14.17-19. 339 SabP 17.19.

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156 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics Kssna takes him on his lap.340 Saivism thus is symbolically shown to lose ground before Vaisnavism. Sisupala is also slain in the wink of an eye by Krsna. And this Ktsna, let us not forget, has been, oft and on, identificd with the Highest Principle, has been referred to and praised as an incarnation of Lord Visnu. It seems that in its final stage, the epic has been consistently retouched from the Vaisnavaite point of view, which is shown throughout the epic to be superior to all other sectarian viewpoints, saivaite in particular. This we have also shown above in the case of Ravana-katha-cakra.341 Looking at it in a dispassiunate manner, there seems to be much truth in what Mr. Ghose ( again !) has to say about the Jarasandha-episode. "Jarasandha, it appears, was not only subduing the other kings, he was, contrary to prevailing Indo-Aryan political practice and understanding, annexing their kingdoms to his own, which indeed was the reason of his keeping so many kings in his capital city as captives. Sisupala and the other so-called allies of his appear from the accounts to have been his satraps or generals or other similar mandatories rather than feudal vassals or tributaries. The fear and hatred inspired by this unprecedented policy of annexation, pursued as it moreover appears to have been with ruthless determination for years on end, would naturally give currency to stories (unquestionably false) of his cruel disposition, of the plans which he had matured of offering his prisoners as victims at a great thanks-giving sacrifice to be held for victories won, and other like caoards which made him pass into oral tradition for a veritable ogre, an impression which is entirely contradicted by even a superficial examination of what written records we find of him ... It is Jarasandha's chivalry, coupled with KTsna's disregard of it, which enables this unexpected result (i.e. of the former's death) to be so easily achieved ... There is in all these descriptions of Jarasandha and his country just that suggestion of envious regard which shows that the superiority of this land in point of civilization and culture over the rest of Northern India and the superior capacity for governance of its kings were not open to question". 142 In the Digvijaya sub-Parvan, Sahadeva went to conquer the southern direction. When he reached the city of Mahismati, King Nila there countered him severely with the help of Fire. Why did Fire help him against a sacrificial cause ? It is said : Formerly, Fire in that city was enjoying extragamous relations in the form of a Brahmin. When the king tried to punish him, he became fiery. The king became supplicant. Then, the Fire gave a boon to the females of that country of free enjoy. ment. The females became unpunishable for indulgences at their will. The king also obtained a boon that his army would then have no fear from Fire.343 The popular version of the tale shows Fire being caught with the princess herself. Failing to subdue 340 SabP. 40.16-17. 341 See above p.78 342 Indo-Aryan Literature and Culture (Origins), PP.202-4. 343 SabP. 28.17-36.

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the tales in Mahabharata Fire, the king gave away the princess to him. Substantially the tale remains the same. The cultural implications of the tale are interesting. Women in the south used to become priestesses in the temples. Their society was female-centred. When the Vedic religion reached in that matri-centric country, the fire was kindled by women only. They bad the right of performing the daily worship-ceremony which was gradually taken over by the Brahmins. The priestesses have now remained merely as templedancers or Devadasis. But the above tale indicates that though the original Vedic tradition would have frowned upon such practices, yet when the Aryans reached these countries, they had no other alternative than to come to an understanding with them, and accept the customary practices of the female-centric societies willy-nilly.344, In Adhyaya 61, there is an interesting tale told by Vidura. Draupadi has been won over by Sakuni for Duryodhana in the famous gam: of dice. Her pertinent question is : Had Yudhisthira lost his own self first in the game of dice or had he lost Draupadi first? The intricacy of the problem is this. If Yudhisthira loses his own self first, he becomes a slave and loses all rights to property in which a wife is also included. He then has no property even in the form of a wife whom he can stake; if at all he does so, the stake may not be considered legal. Consequently Draupadi may not be considered as won as a stake in the game of dice, may not be considered as a slave and be ill-treated. Karna takes the view that if Yudhisthira has lost everything and himself and become a slave, whatever property that belonged to him (including a wife, Draupadi) formerly now automatically becomes the property of the winner who is free to treat of his booty in a way he likes. Karna then asks Duhsasana to take away the clothes of all the Pandavas as well as of Draupadi. Then follows the famous episode of Draupadi-vastraharana in which Duhyasapa struggles hopelessly to insult Draupadi by disrobing her but fails. Vidura then urges the members of the assembly to express their dispassionate opinion about the problem posed by Draupadi, and narrates the episode of Prahlada.345 The episode runs thus : Prablada was the king of Daityas. His son Virocana had an argument with Sudhanvan, a descendent of Angiras, about their relative supremacy over each other for the sake of a girl. They had a bet of their lives. For decision, they approached Prahlada. But Sudhanvan warned that if the latter gave a false judgment, Indra would shatter his head. Prahlada, afraid at this, asked Kasyapa about the fruit of not answering a question or answering it falsely. Kasyapa enunciates to him the fruit of not answering a question either personally or in an assembly, and of answering it wrongly. Prahlada then gives the judgment in favour of Sudhanvan. The tale becomes still more interesting when we notice that the rules enunciated by Kasyapa about answering a problem are almost entirely taken verbatim from 344 For a fuller treatment, read "Bharat man Anek Sanskritio no Sangam". Gujarati (Confluence of Many Cultures in India). Ksitimohan Sen, Tr. R. Raval, Buddhiprakash, Vol CXVI. No. 6, June 1969. 345 SabP. 61,58-78.

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epits Manusmoti.346 This proves that the slokas concerning the rules of the responsibility of the senators in regard to the correct solution of a problem paused before them by an inflicted person were already existing, either in the Smoti-work or even in popular currency, and the tale within which they are framed now is entirely fictitious, concocted merely to provide a pretext for including those slokas into the epic. The slokas by themselves are, however, very pertinent in the context of the episode of Draupadi-vastrabarana in an open assembly of elders and scholars which is of central and a source-like importance to the epic-narrative. That also explains the necessity of concocting a tale for the inclusion of those slokas. If Vidura is shown to quote them from a current Smsti-work, it would obviously be a fault of anachronism - the character of a tale of yore quoting from a current Book of Ethics. So the slokas are shown to be quoted, not from a recent Smoti-text, but from an ancient, so-called 'historical, tale. The tale is prefixed with the recurrent refrain : 'atrapy udabarant imam itibasam puratanam', 347 so well-known to us from a number of tales of the Santi and Anusasana Parvans. Like that other recurrent refrain 'tatra tasyadbhutam karma slunu me janamejaya'843 which indicates a fictitious heroic tale, this refrain also is a sort of ballmark for the fictitious nature of the tale prefixed by it. Mostly such historical tales are intended to frame a didactic discourse. This is a sort of a customary tale-form which is seen to be prevalent even in the philosophical discourses of the Upanisads. The episodic or stor y-element in all such epic-tales is so thin and evidently pretextual that no one would claim for it any historicity particularly in the epics and Puranas where fiction and concoction are the order of the day, are more a practice than an exception. Their reliability as historical material is as certain in the Upanisads as it is uncertain in the epics. The reason of this difference is obvious. The very search of the Upanisads is for the ultimate truth, the very atmosphere of the Upanisads rings with this veritability. On the other hand, the romantic popular imagination is seen rampant in the streets of the epic-world. So, whenever a didactic discourse must be included in the epic, the customary itibasa-form of folk-tale is resorted to, but the form is no guarantee of the episode described in the tale being actually historical. The epic-atmosphere does not care for, and therefore, offers no guarantee of its historical reliability. The Upanisadic tale-form is adopted for didactic purposes, but without the Upanisadic sincerity for truth. The fuller tales of the SabP seem, more or less, to represent the three large groups of tales in the MBh. The birth-stories of Jarasandha and Sisupala represent the birth-story-group which occupies such a huge portion of AdiP. The tale of King Nila and Fire contains some legendary material concealing some cultural aspect. Many of such legendary tales of different regions are collected in the VanP. The parable of the hypocritic bird and the didactic Itibasa-tale of Virocana-Sudhanvan represent the form's 346 Cp. SabP. 61.67-68, 69, 70, 71, 76 with Manusmrti, VIII, 82, 12, 14, 18, 19 and 74 respectively. 347 SabP, 61.58ab. 348 Cf, AdiP. 206,7.

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The Tales In Mahabharata 159 which are so commonly met(with in the santi-Anusasana-parvans. The general uniformi. ty of the respective groups of tales is noteworthy. The reason of such uniformity lies in the functions these groups are intended to serve. The birth-stories are intended to satisfy the popular curiosity to hear everything from the beginning. The event of birth in itself does not offer much variety, hence the varieties of the birth-stories as we saw in the previous section also serve to break the monotony of the stories having the same basic motif. The tales of the VanP are intended to serve only as pastim.. So any tale is welcome. A wide variety of tales can very naturally be accommodated in the group, the only condition being that the tale must please. The tales of the third and the largest group are, on the other hand, collected with an intention of edifying. The newlycrowned prince Yudhisthira must be instructed in the laws of an ideal statesmanship, to which end, not only Itibasa-tales but even some fables and parables are employed, just as they are in the Pancatantra. (It should be noted, that they are very rarely, if at all, employed in the VanP.) The two most important of the functions of poetry as counted by Mammata - namely, to delight and to edify349 - are seen to motivate the two largest collections of tales within the epic. It is possible to show some further broad sub-patterns even within these large groups. The three main sections of the SanP are the Raja-dharma-parvan, the Apaddharma-parvan and the Moksa-dharma-parvan. It will be observed that most of the tales in the first section are of the didactic-itihasa-type.350 The reason is obvious The section is intended to teach the duties of an ideal statesman, and such itihasatales can serve as very convenient containers of the laws to be enupciated, besides adding to them the stamp of a traditional authority. The next section -- that of Apad-dharma - however, abounds in fable-type of tales and reminds one of the Pancatantra.351 The obvious similarity of function is that both the Apad-dharmasection and the Puncatantra are intended to teach practical politics, where, pot ideal, but practical, basic, down-to-carth viewpoint must prevail. Hence the majority of the animal-tales. The last section of Moksa-dharma (including the Narayanya section) by the very nature of its subjects justifies the profusion in it of the allegorical tales and philosophical dialogues352 of the Upanisadic kind. Anusasana-parvan has no 349 Kavyaprakasa of Mammata, I.2. Cf. Kavyam yasase'rtha-krte vyavaharavide sivetara-kataye 1 sadyah para-nirvstay c kanta-sammitatayopadesayuje // 350 e.g. the itibasa of sage Utathya and king Mandhat(SanP., Adhy.91-92), of king Vasu manas and sage Vamnadeva (Adhy.93-95), of king Vasumanas and Bphaspati (102-104), of Prince Ksemadarsin (105-107), of the origin of Danda (121), of sage Kamanda and king Angar istha (123), of Indra and Prah]ada (124) and so on. 351 Cr. "The most interesting and instructive part of the present Sub-parvan are the beast fables, the most attractive of them all being that of a tiny little mouse". S. K. Belvalkar, Introduction to Santiparvan, Cr. Edn, Poona, 1966. p.cxcvi. 352 Many of these like that of Jajali and Tuladhara (Adhy.253-256) of Prahrada and sage Ajagara (Adhy.172), of Bhrgu and Bharadvaja (175-185), of Manu and Bhaspati (194-199), the Guru-sisya-samvada (203-210,, that of Jaigisavya and Asita-Devala (222) of Indra

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160 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics definite topic. It deals with a variety of subjects and has, therefore, a variety of the tale-types. The tales in the VanP, on the other hand, lend themselves to easy groupings under four heads. The most obvious two large groups are (1) the Tirtha-yatra-parvan353 and (2) the Markandeya-samasya-parvan.354 Both of them relate mostly tales of sages, gods-goddesses, famous ancient kings and myths. The distinction is superfluous; in the former group, some tales are shown to be connected with some holy places, while in the latter, even this flimsy pre tense is given up. (3) The three Upakhyanas - those of Nala, 355 Rama356 and Savitr!357 -- are included to console the disconsolate on the maxim of 'duhkhe duhkhadhikam pasyet',358 And all these overgrowths of stories are interspersed with (4) the heroic tales - Arjuna's achievement of divine weapons from Indra and Siva, Bhima's slaying the demons Kirmira, Jatasura, Raksasas, Gandharvas etc., Yudhisthira's extricating his brothers from the clutches of Nahusapython and Dharmayksa.359 The great collection of tales in Van also brings up the question of the so-called temporal hiatuses. There is no doubt, that all the tales and episodes in VanP are intended to serve just one purpose - that of filling up the gap of the uneventful twelve years of compulsory seclusion to the forest-life. It is observed that such large gaps of uneventful years are bound to occur in any tale which runs for some decades and into generations. Such tales, no doubt, disturb the flow of the principal narrative, but Sukthankar eloquently tries to justify their inclusion in the epics. Talking of the digressions in MBh in the form of secondary tales, he says: "At places these digressions crowd together, rising up in big imposing piles, as in the Aryanyaka, santi and Anusasana Pa.vans : sometimes they are far and few between, when the story advances at a more rapid and, to us, congenial pace, as in the Sabha, Virata, Sauptika and Stri parvans. These excursions do not, in reality, disturb the archetectonic beauty and harmony of the composition as a whole, though at first sight they may appear to do so. For, as PISANI has pointed out, at least the longer ones of these digressions have been introduced into the story in such a manner as to fill up "Temporal hiatuses" consisting of uneventful years, hiatuses which are bound to occur in a very detailed and elaborate narrative covering a period of nearly two centuries.360 and Bali (216-218), of Indra and Namuci (219), of Vyasa and his son Suka (224-247) have become famous. For a complete and detailed conspectus, one should refer to the introduc tion to Santi-parvan (Critical Edition) by S. K. Belvalkar and P. L. Vaidya. 353 Van P. 80-153. 354 VanP. 179-221. 355 VaaP. 50-78. 356 VanP. 258-2 75. 357 Van P. 277-283. 358 Cf. Van P. 49.36. yas tvatto duhkhitataro raja'sit etc. 359 See above the section of Tales of the Heroes', pp.108ff. 360 On the Meaning of the Mahabharata, Sukthankar, p.33,

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The Tales in Mahabharata 161 We only need to point out that the glaring fact that ratio between the span of these so-called 'temporal hiatuses' and the amount of such extraneous element seems to be rather in an inverse proportion does not seen to corroborate the observation. The period between the fall of Bhisma and his death - from Daksinayana to Uttarayana - the period of a few days, at the most of six months, is filled up with two voluminous parvans-Santi and Anusasana - with a total of some seventeen thousand verses. Against this, the twelve years of the Pandavas' exile into forest are filled up with a single parvan-the Vanaparvan-and with some twelve thousand verses. Still greater wonder is that the period of Adip can be shown to be from the beginning of the Earth - we are not joking, the tale of Vasu Uparicara and the Adivamsavataranaparvan stand testimony to this -- upto the event of Arjuna's burning the Khandava forest; yet this nearly infinite gap of time is filled with a parvan of about six thousnd verses. We shall not be blamed if we feel disinclined to agree with Dr. Sukthankar's eloquent observations regarding the temporal hiatuses. The author of these voluminous digressions had actually no sense of the archetectonic beauty and harmony of a composition of art. Dr. Sukthankar's observations might be acceptable only in the case of VanP, but not in the other two cases. It is not difficult to observe even within the small compass of the SabP that the secondary tales when narrated fully do hamper the smooth flow of the epic-narrative, When there is only a passing reference or allusion to some famous story or some past event in the life of an epic-character, such reference or allusion adds to the force of the narrative, particularly of the emotive arguments. Thus, in the dialogues of Sisupala and Krsua derogatory references to each other's past deeds add to the conflicting tension of the episode which very dramatically mounts up in a small but sharp repartee about Rukmini and the surprisingly quick climax of Sisupala's abrupt death at the hands of Krsna. But, compare the effect that Bhisma's narration of the birthstory of sisupala creates. It definitely slackens the pace of the rising graph and weakens the tension. Similarly, the allusive references in Vidura's speeches do add to the force of his arguments, but in the midst of the horripilating experience of the shameless episode of Draupadi-vastra-harani which leaves even elderly scions of Dharma like Bhisma and Drona dumbfounded, what effect does the itihasa-tale of Prablada-Virocana-Sudhanvan create ? Does it add to the grimness of the atmosphere in any way ? Does it accelerate the emotive force of the situation ? To us it seems that a detailed narration of even a single secondary tale definitely acts as a detriment to the flow of impassioned dialogues or forceful narrative. It is not without an aesthetic reason, that the poet of the central Kandas of RM has almost completely refrained from including narrations of any secondary tales ! S.T. 21

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CHAPTER IV CONCLUSIONS In a study of this type, the consideration of individual tales and groups would contain discussion and criticism on them and would embody its results. Therefore, much may not remain to be said by way of conclusions. However, a sort of general recapitulation of the observations already made before and some further observations on their basis will not be found out-of-place here. (1) The two Great Epics occupy an important place in our national life. Primarily they profess to narrate only one single connected tale each. Yet the presence of innumerable secondary tales in them, though inessential, is yet imposing and glaring. An enquiry into the purposes they serve would be interesting and instructive. The tales are for the most part drawn from the floating mass of folk-literature. The relation of the epics with Atharvaveda, with the Bhrgus, their being called "itihasa", their relation with and development from the popular bardic poetry, their preservation, amplification and popularity in the oral folk tradition - all of these go to prove the folk-literary character of the epics, which can be shown to possess the characteristics of folk-literature as described by Stith Thompson. As collections of tales, the epics are unique. In introducing secondary tales, the techniques of frame-stories and emboxing-tales are resorted to, and in these the epics are similar to the other world-famous tale-collections; but unlike them, the epics were primarily intended to narrate only one single connected tale each, and the overgrowth succeeded in completely obviatisg their epic-characteristic, The emphasis in folk-literature is on the tale, i.e. the content-structure, and not on the aesthetic form. The verbal form of a folk-tale is not steady; therefore, the form of a folk-tale is decided by the nature of its contents, whereas the content-structure of a folk-tale. which can be called its inner form, often decides in the epics the function of a particular tale. A functional approach to the study of these tales, therefore, would be more appropriate. The epics themselves often reveal such an approach adopted in grouping their secondary tales. The term 'Secondary' is relative. To decide what is secondary, we should first decide what is 'primary' or 'original'. The motif-pattern of the opening episc des of the Nala-story, of RM (AyK) and MBh; the index in Adip, 55; and an analysis of the chain of events concerning Maya Danava yield that the entire AdiP, like BK, is secondary. Implications of the MBh being called "Jaya" itihasa make it very proba

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Conclusions ble that the original MBh ended with Yudhisthira's coronation. Therefore, that tale or episode may be called secondary which is not original, which is not connected in any way with the principal characters, or more correctly, with the central the epic, or again, shows stylistic differences or creates internal contradictions or unnecessary duplications etc. A peculiar sense of propriety is observed in the tales of the heroes. The epic-poets portray the epic-heroes as human characters with complex personalities. But when the epics become popular, the popular mind reduces the finely modelled characters into contrasted types, and "the characteristics once chosen are preserved, and become only clearer as the drama develops"; fresh tales added to the epic, then, conform to and emphasise only the chosen characteristics of a character. Such tales reveal a peculiar pattern in characterisation, Birth-stories also reveal reveal some definite patterns. Birth-stories of many a sage possess the motif of tapo-bhanga deliberate or accidental due to an apsaras. If it is deliberate, the efficient cause is invariably Indra. In such tales, he is generally portrayed as coward and mean under sramanic influence, but the Rsyasrnga-tale gives us the clue that all such tales have their origin in the primitive rites of agricultural as well as procreative fertility the god of which is Indra. The so-called "etymologische legende" must be explained as due to what is known in Linguistics as the general iconic tendency of a language "whereby semantic sameness is reflected also by formal sameness"2. This means that it is a natural tendency of any language (or of any language-speaking people) to use the language always meaningfully and to try to render the words (including names) meaningful even by creating tales if needs be. Etymological tales are due to this tendency of language. All other explanations would be only incidental and, therefore, insignificant. 163 both The birth-stories of the Ksatriya-protagonists reveal a pattern of Brahmanical motifs, in which the institution of sacrifice and the theory of incarnation pressed into service to establish the super-normal character of the epic-principalities. Rama and Krsna are incarnations of Visnu. Rama, moreover, is born due to the sacrifice. Sita and Draupadi (and Dhrstadyumna) are born from sacrifice. The Pandava-brothers are born as partial incarnations of the five gods, Bhisma is born. out of the eighth parts of the eight Vasus. Vidura is Dharma incarnate! The MBh poets could not do away with the two unsavoury facts about their v heroes the mystery around their births and their polyandrous marriage. To explain the former they resort to the custom of Niyoga. They appear to put in very special efforts to play down the effect of the custom by showing it to be at 1 2 On the Meaning of the Mahabharata, Sukthankar, p. 44. An Introduction to Historical and Comparative Linguistics, Raimo Anttila 1972. p. 89.

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164 221 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics widely practised one. The MBh-heroes, Dhrtarastra-Pandu-Vidura, the three sons of Saradandayani, the son of Kalmasapada, Anga - the son of king Bali, rather the entire fresh race of Ksatriyas after they were once totally exterminated by Rama Jamadagnya,-all these are illustrations of the births due to the custom of Niyoga 70 The latter is sought to be explained by resorting to the famous motif-structure of action-fruit-rebirth. Draupadi, as a virgin ascetic in her previous birth, has performed penance as a result of which she has obtained the boon of five husbands from Lord Sankara. She must enjoy the fruit in this birth now. The curse-motif is just another form of the same basic structure. All actions have their fruit - good or bad. They are accumulated. When ripe they must be enjoyed by their doer for which He should be reborn. His actions thus become his destiny. Boons or curses are nothing but only symbols of the fruit of his own actions. And destiny is unalterable. So was Draupadi's marriage. Obviously, in both the above cases, the secondary epic poets were dealing with customs which had become obsolete and unpalatable in their contemporary societies but which, at the same time, were undetachably welded to the original principal tale. The difference in the treatment given to those two is significant. The mystery around the births of the heroes is sought to be explained by the custom of Niyoga which is shown to be widely prevalent among Ksatriyas. The fact of the polyandrous marriage, however, is justified not by prevalence but by the destiny or the karma-phalaprinciple. This difference in treatment is in accordance with the attitude of Manusmrti which condones Niyoga as an apad-dharma but does not countenance a polyandrous marriage under any circumstances. The influence of Manusmrti on MBh is clearly visible at a number of places. Manu is often mentioned by name and quoted verbatim and in extenso. This relation of Manusmrti and MBh may have some bearing on the problem of the period of the first recast of the MBh. In connection with the custom of Niyoga, it should be noted that the custom is shown to obtain in the Ksatriya class only. And the procreators are almost invariably the Brahmins or the sages. The custom is never shown to be practised among the Brahmins, because they rank with gods (Cf. Bhu-devas) and sages and we have seen that the seed of gods and sages is believed to be infallibly fertile. In connection with the karma-phala theory, it is observed that the principle is resorted to for motivating almost each and every detail of the principal narratives. Such a tendency seeks to explain everything as predestined in accordance with the karma-phala theory, completely undermines the human interest and often damages the subtle characterisation of the original poem by reducing the characters to broad simplifications and destroying thereby their finer shades. If Ravana kidnaps Sita, he is lewd, he cannot be gallant; but if he did not so much as touch Sita, that must be due to the curse of Nalakubara. 4

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Cancausions The epics are consistent in showing all the antagonists (except Duryodhana, who belongs to the same fold as protagonists) to be the worshippers of Siva. Thas, the tales of Ravana and his clan and ancestors in RM, and of Jarasandha and Sisupala (and even of Asvatthaman3) in MBh, show them to be worshippers of Siva from whom they derive their strength ultimately to lose at the hands of the protagonists who are always the incarnations of Visnu. The tales clearly reveal the marks of the struggle for supremacy between the Vaisnava and the Saiva sectarian, the epics being shamelessly and consistently used in the service of Vaispavism. In the case of MBh, Sukthankar shows that the merest story of the fratricidal war Darrated with a chronicler's faithfulness is only a second-rate subject. But by adding a number of secondary tales based on the incarnation-motif, the epic-tale is presented as a mere recurring incident of the constant struggle between Devas and Asuras, as a mere pbase in the cosmic evolution. Only by its projection on an Ethical Plane in this way is achieved the real depth and significance of the epic-story. Sukthankar shows that, with the help of the stories like that of king Dambhodbhava, the same epic-story can be viewed on a metaphysical plane also. In the case of RM, as we have shown above, only on the strength of the secondary tales, a sectarian interpretation of the original tale is made possible. The secondary tales thus help project the epic-stories on the various levels of interpretation. In the beginning of this study, we had agreed to eschew the comparative aspect of these tales for far of unwieldiness of the matter. But by making some exceptions, as, for example, in the case of Rsyasnga-tale, Abalya-tale, Visvamitra-story-cycle, Janamejaya-sarpa-satra, etc. we have also made amply clear that, in order to understand the exact implications of any tale, it must be properly viewed against the background of its full development. It must be related to its inythical, ritualistic, traditional, linguistic aspects so as to decide whether it yields any real historical data or has a ritualistic iconisation, or symbolises some philosophical concept or metaphorises some actual event. When this precaution is not taken, and the tales are studied simply as they are found in the epics-puranas and Jatakas, the study may not turn out to be anything more significant than a mere patternistis study (as Ds. Hara's), or it may lead to false (Rsyasonga's historicity established by Pargiter etc.) or even contradictory (Dr. Vora on the Vyusitasva-Bhadra-tale) results. A proper approach to these tales is a "must", a great desideratum. The results arrived at by.. such studies may then be used as historical or sociological data. The Rsyasonga-tale, the Ahalya-tale and the Vyusitasva-Bhadra-tale very clearly show that they are purely mythical. They iconise certain ritual, agricultural or sacerdotal beliefs rooted in primitive folk-life and preserved traditionally. The characters are only symbolic. To believe them to be historical, to try to establish their contem 3 SauP. 7 and 17-18.

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166 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics poraneities and chronologies on the basis of such tales and, then, to attempt to reconstruct some history on the basis of such data would be, to say the least, misdi. rected efforts. Sukthankar takes the cow in the story-group of Vasistha-Visvamitra-conflict to be symbolic of Viraj. The cow, according to him, is a point of contact between the Vedic and the epic ideology. Vasistha and Visvamitra are taken by Hariyappa to be embodiments of Sattva and Rajas. We have pointed out a possibility that their conflict might be symbolic of the struggle of the two most eminent Vedic gods Varuna and ladra for superiority. Similarly the Rsyasonga-tale, the Abalya-tale, the Tapati Samvarana-tale are possibly agricultural-fertility-myths. Vyusilasva-Bhadra-tale is symbolic of the Upasamvesana rite of Asvamedha. Dange bas shown that the Kacalegend is symbolic of the initiation rites, the Ocean-churoing legend represents the Soma-pressing-ceremony. Cumulatively speaking the epic-stories are more often than not personifications or concretisations of some Abstract Vedic ideas. Philosophical concepts or sacrificial rites are often put in the concrete form of a story. ...... It is only a corollary of the above that the tales often indicate the vicissi. tudes through which our Vedic gods pass. Rsysonga-tale points out the Vedic Indra, who, from being agressive, turns to be coward under the Sramanic influence. The ta. les of Vasistha-Visvamitra-conflict might indicate the stages through which the Vedic gods Indra and Varuna pass, or, in other words, indicate "a silent transition in thought from the many gods to whom the most elaborate forms of sacrifices were ordained in the Vedas to the one Absolute of the Upanisads".4 The tales, thus, might show some very interesting mythical developments. It is interesting to compare certain recurrent motif-structures which sometimes yield very striking results. The tapo-bhanga motif-structure, for example, studied in relation to the Rsyastnga tale, reveals the real nature of Indra's role in it which originally was a fertility-rite. The motif of punishing the sinful mother reflected in the Cirakarin-tale shows a popular method of criticism by rearranging certain details in the same motif-structure. Comparison of the motif-structures at the beginning of the two epics with that of Nala-story reveals SabP to begin the original cpic. Revenge of the father's murder is the motif of the tales of Cyavana, Aurva, Parasara, Janamejaya, Parasurama. The last three are reported to have attempted to exterminate the whole races of the enemies - of Rak sasas, of Nagas, of Ksatriyas, Tales like those of Puloman, or of Ruru-Pramadvara turn out to be purely fictitious as revealed by a study of their motif-structure. The secondary tales often introduce peculiar contradictions in the epics. The episode of Rama's performing Asvamedba beautifully frames the epic, but strikes at the ideal of Rama, the steadfast lover, symbol of conjugal fidelity. The Vyusitasva 4 On the Meaning of the Mahabharata, Sukthankar, p. 69,

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Conclusions 167 Bhadra-tale is cited to illustrate the ideal of conjugal fidelity, but the ritual ceremony it symbolises imbibes the custom of Niyoga. The Nalakubara episode seeks to protect Sita's chastity against Ravana, but it devalues both the characters. . - (2) It is observed that even within the epics groups of tales are generally formed according to their functions, and the sameness of their function is often reflected in the formal similarity of those tales. This we have particularly noted towards the end of last chapter where we have shown the functional patterns in the tales of VapP., SanP. and AnuP. In the cases of RM, AdiP and SabP also we have shown this by studying the tales groupwise. It also seems likely that where such bunches of tales are found, they were introduced into the epics as bunches only and not as separate tales one after another. This can be corroborated in another way also. From our detailed discussion of the tales of Adip, we can point out that almost all the sub-parvans therein are constituted of a functionally homogenous groups of tales. Thus, PausyaP. has the Uttanka-story-group held together by the common moral of strict obedience to the preceptor's instructions, linked preceptilineally, and intended to introduce the Janamejaya-story-cycle as well as to instigate him to perform the sacrifice. The Paulo naP, made up of fictitious tales of Bhargava interest, also serves to introduce the Janamejaya-story group by the parallel motif-structure in the tale of Ruru and Pramadvara. AstikaP, as the story group of Janamejaya's snakesacrifice is titled, serves to frame the epic-narrative. Adivamsavataranap. is Puranic in style and content, presses the tale of Genesis and the motif of incarnation in service, and is intended, most probably, to project the epic-tale on a cosmic dinension. SambhavaP., apart from the two tales of the ancestors of Kuru race, is niostly made up of the birth-stories of the epic-personae, the chief interest being in justifying the birth of the epic-heroes through Niyoga. The Hidimba-vadha-P and Bakavadha-P are heroic tales of Bhima; the Arjuna-vanavasi-P, Subhadra-harana-P. and Harana-harika-P. are tales of Arjuna's love-affairs; the Caitraratha once again narrates tales of Kuru-ancestor Samyarana and Vyasa's ancestors Vasistha-SaktiParasara. The Svayamvarap tries to explain and solve the confusion about the polyandrous marriage of the epic-heroes; the Jatu-erh 1-1ahaP, the Vaivahikap, Viduragi. manaP and the Rajya-lambhaP take the epic in the direction of its central episode. The Khandava-daha--P connects the entire AdiP with the SabP. This shows that the division of MBh into sub-parvans is more useful in deciding the original or secondary nature of the contents since the sub-parvans are, for the most part, homogeneous in the nature of their content, style or function. Besides these sub-parvans, the redactors leave their fingerprints in a number of ways. Style istic differences, genealogies and ir dez-summaries, references to and reflections and influences of the contemporary works, divisions into sub-parvans, and even titles and

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168 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics sub-titles of the portions, and matter creating internal contradictions - these are the various indicators of secondary material in the epics. We have tried to show the utility of each one of these types of evidences in the body of the present thesis and, we are in position to say that, if attacked methodically, the problem of deciding the secondary material in the epics particularly, in the MBh may not be as difficult as it seems at first sight. At least, many major portions will be easily. sifted. Of course, it goes without saying that any dogmatic approach or preconceived notions about things will prove strong hindrances in the path of truth. Sexual symbols might be in abundance. Fertility rites might have been believed as sacred as the sacrificial ones! Drona might not have belonged to the original saga! The index in AdiP. 55 and genealogies in Adip 89-90 might turn out to be quite difierent from what they appear to be at first sight. We shall have to be prepared to make a number of adjustments conceptually and psychologically. (3) In regard to the inclusion of secondary tales, certain functional patterns are observed to be common to both the epics. Sacrifices provide the occasion for narrating the epic-tales. Automatically, they also function as frames for the epics. Epic principalities are, again, shown to be born from sacrifices. The tales of Genesis and the incarnation-motif are brought in to provide the heroes with divine qualities. Tales which show the epic-personalities of the heroes in making are prefixed to the original epic. For this, there is the justification of the chronological arrangment of events. There is a system in the arrangement of the tales of BK and those of AdiP. The former are arranged in a pattern of ascendo, the latter reveal pattern of from general to particular, of a focus gradually concentrating upon the event of the beginning of the original epic. Significant again is the pattern in both the epics in which the heroes, when they are on their way to win a bride, achieve certain feats which add to their epic-stature, whether it be moral or martial. They are both almost entirely made up of secondary tales, thus making the original epic begin with the second book. So far, Adikanda (= BK, see abov: pp 21-22) and Adip are similar. But their differences are also equally significant. BK combines the pilgrimagemotif and the purpose of including the wondrous puranic tales with the same group of tales showing the hero-in-the-making. In the MBh, these two functions are associ-. ated with the other groups of the tales. Again, RM is content with narrating the birth-stories of the hero and the heroine only. On the other hand, the MBh narrates the birth-stories of the heroine, the heroes, their fathers and grand-fathers, their protector and their procreator, of the arch-queen-mother, and so on. Again, RM is content by framing the epic in Rama's Asvamedha sacrifice. In the MBh, the epic is framed in Janam jaya's sacrifice, and this again is framed with Saunaka's 12-year sittra. Two tale-groups that of Uttank and of Ruru - Pramadvara -

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Conclusions 169 are brought in to introduce the Janamejaya-tales-group. Again, the fact of the five brothers being the heroes, the myetery around their births and their polyar drous marriage create easy occasions for bringing in many more tales. Thus, the tales introduced in the Adip for these purposes have no parallel pattern in the BK. It is again a commonplace observation that in the RM, the secondary tales are either prefixed or suffixed to the original epic in two special Kandes-BK and UK. In the MBh no such scruple is observed, and the secondary tales are pushed in at any conceivable opportunity. Yet two large collections of secondary episodis (other than the AdiP) are the two so-called temporal hiatuses. We have observed that there is no conceivable pattern in the tales of UK which are roughly clustered around persons (Ravana, Hanumat, Satrughpa) or events (Asvamedha) or places (Danda). The two temporal-hiatus-groups, on the other hand, do have at least the unity of function. The VanP tales are intended to fill up the yawning gap of twelve years and they are all narrated primarily to please. The tales of the other large group -- those of SanP and Aoup -- are all intended to edify. There are also observed some further patterns of formal nature appropriate to the functions the tales must serve. At other places in the MBh tales are also clustered as piligrimage tales to console such as tie famous group of tales of the sixteen kings called the sodasa-rajakiya. MBh, thus, reveals a wonderfully varied mosaic of the patterns of groups of secondary tales. In the RM, things are simple. Tales are grouped at the two ends. Those prefixed reveal a well-thought-out purposeful pattern. Those suffixed have no pattern at all. The mode of occurance of the secondary tales in the body of the epics is also observed to have significant patterns. When the tales are briefly alluded to, i.e., summarily referred to in a passing manner in a stanza or two, they add to the force of emotion or argument of the principal narrative. Such allusions are found in abundance in the dialogue-portions of the SabP where they make the dialogues more forceful, emotions more turbulent, conflict sharper and atmosphere darker. In the MBh, such allusions, when they occur in bunches, nearly always mark the genuine portions of the original cpic. It is further observed that normally, such allusions in the MBh are either to the past events in the life of the charactor or to some famous parable. With regard to the 'Itibasa'-type of tales (ie. tales of events that are supposed to have taken place in the lives of persoas other than the epic-personae), the tendency is to set them in all the relevant details systematically in the RM, on the other band, even in its central Kandas allusions themselves are rare, with the result that the depiction of emotions in RM is more chaste, the characterisation more 'idea!' the dialogues more sober, the atmosphere more serene, and the style more evenly dignified. Whenever, again, the allusions do occur in the RM, they allude to the famous tales of the Itihasa '-type (such as those of Sakuntala or Damayanti etc.) and not to the parable; or past events. Thus, freedom from allusions to famous tales $. T. 22

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170 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics is a characteristic of the dialogues of RM, whereas a free and significant occurance of such allusions is characteristic of the dialogues of MBh. When, however, a secondary tale is fully set, it does harm the unity of the epictale, for it removes for the time being our attention from the flow of the principal narrative. In the original RM, there are no secondary narratives in ihe sense that they remove our attention from the principal narrative. The so-called sravana-episode,5 coming as it does after Raina's departure for the forest-life, shocks us into realisation that this must mean a painful death for the aged king, thus preparing us for the coming events. The crow-episode is, again, the best and the most personal token of recognition of Sita, the very expression of love in which is enough to goad Rama to rescue her from the captivity of the demon antagonist. What is more, there is no duplication in their narration. They are set here for the first time, and the fact that the principal characters in both the episodes are not different from their narrators gives them a reminiscent character and a surprise value. There is no insistence on a chronological narration of events. . On the other hand, there are, in the Mih, a number of tales which have characters entirely different from the epic-personae, which are complete in themselves and which are brought into the epic-narrative with clearly parabulous intentions. Such are the tales, for example, of the demon brothers Sunda and Upasunda, of PrabladaSudhanvan-Virucana, of the old hypocrite bird and many others. They have no aesthetically inherent conn:ction with the principal narrative. The moral drawn from such a tale serves as a tag to attach the tale to the epic. This moralising attitude is a distinct characteristic of the secondary tales of the MBh. Two large parvansSanti and Anusasana-- are nearly entirely filled up with didactic tales. The purpose of the two collections is openly didactic. There is no question of any aesthetic or even tag connection. As opposed to this, the didactic purpose as a primary function in the inclusion of any secondary tale is almost entirely absent in RM. You may draw a moral from the Ahalya-tale or the Visvamitra-story-group but to teach that moral is not the primary function of that tale in the epic. This difference in the attitude behind inclusion of the secondary tales stands well in agreement with the general concepts of the epics - of RM as a kavya, of MBh as a sastra. We may conclude this chapter by making certain suggestions for further studies. The story-cycle of Vasistha-Visvamitra-conflict must be studied vis-a-vis their position in relation to the Vedic gods Varuna and Indra. It can also be studied in relation with the Subrahmanya litany. Indradhvaja festival in Dharmasastras, in popular practice and literature, needs to be studied in relation with the origin of 5 AyK. 57-58. 6 SK. 36. 12-32.

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Conclusions 171 Sanskrit Drama, as Prin. J. T. Parikh has suggested. The relation of Manusmrti and MBh should be made more clear. The Naga-element as reflected in the M8h (alongwith the Puranas) should be studied more completely by setting it in its historical and cultural background from Vedic literature. Dange has studied the Nagatheme in relation with the Garuda-legends. It can also be studied in relation to the gods Indra and Mahadeva. In fact, the whole of the Naga-culture needs to be excavated from the mounds of oblivion. Similarly a study of RM vis-a-vis the Mundaculture holds the potentiality of throwing some useful light in the hitherto unknown corners. And, perhaps, a small study of the etymological stories of the two epics may also have its own usefulness.

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INDEX I SANSKRIT NAMES AND IMPORTANT WORDS [1. Names of Rivers (R) Mountains (Mt.) and Cities (C), kingdoms (K) and Classes (cl.) are also included. References to story-cycles or tales are also included herein. Some topics and motifs like niyogu, karma-phala etc. are also included. Names occuring only in genealogical tables on pp. 77, 128 & 131 are omitted, but if they occur elsewhere, they are indicated.] Ambalika-134, 140 Ambika-134, 140. Ayodhya-29, 34, 44, 49, 50, 62, 63, 67, 76. Amsavatara-(see Avatara) Agastya-44, 49, 59, 60, 80, 83, 85, 88, 104, 152. Agni (=Fire)-20, 42, 44, 51, 56, 57, 84, 91, 93, 102, 105, 106, 150, 156, 158. Anga-135, 164. Anga (K)-34, 43. Angaraparna-142 Angaristha-159 Angirasas (cl.) 3, 52, 85, 157. Aja-kspaniya-153 Ajavika-56 Anjana-80 Aaimandavya-124, 133, 137. Auri-65, 142, Adrsyanti-142 Adrika-123-4, Adhvaryu-32 Anaranya-72, 74, 76, 82. Anasaya-88. Anu-128, 130. Anustubh (metie)-31. Anuvamsa (slokas)-132 Apsaras(es) (cl.)-5, 74, 118, 119, 163. Abhimanyu-91, 110, 124. Ambarisa-62, 63 Amba-134, 140, 151 Araja-73, 83. Aruna-91 Arka (Tree)-90. Arjuna-17, 18, 20, 25, 74, 79, 91, 101, 102, 105, 107, 111, 114-116, 134, 138, 142, 144, 148, 160, 161, 167. Arjuna Kartavirya-76, 86, 87. Arthavada(s)-56, 83, 87. Arbuda (Mt.)-104-106 Alambusa-39, 51. Avatara (Amsavatara or incarnation)-33, 47, 48, 61, 69, 70, 71, 78, 79, 82, 87, 117, 125, 126, 133, 148, 149, 151, 163, 165, 167, 168. Asmaka-138. Asvattha (Tree)-69. Asvatthaman-44, 124, 141, 165. Asvamedha-1, 29, 32-38, 46, 47, 71, 83, 84, 87-89, 94-97, 139, 140, 166, 168, 169. Asvamedhadatta-132. Asvasena-101, Asvina-90, 114, 138, 148.

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Index-1 173 Astaka-130. Astavakra-59 Asita Devala-60, 91, 92, 159. Asura(s) (cl.)-54, 55, 117, 125, 152. Abalya-45, 51-59, 61, 69, 89, 89, 93, 165, 166, 170. Ahimsa-76 Akhyana(s)-3, 5, 24. Acara (sad-)-137 Ajagara-159. Adikanda-21-2. Adi-kavya-27. Apad-dharma-136, 138, 164. Abhira-25, 115. Ayur-atiratra-96 Aruni-54, 55, 90-92, 119, 138, 141. Aryavarta-86, Asandivat (C) -95, 96. Asuri Sampat-108. Astika-97 Ugrasena-95, 96. Ucca ih-sravas-103, 131, 132, Utathya-134, 159. Uttanka-90-93, 95, 96, 101-3, 168. Uttara-110, 132. Uttarayana-161 Udumbara (Tree) - 68. Uddalaka (see Aruni) Upamayana-129. Upamanyu-90, 92. Upa(sam)vesana-46, 139-141, 166. Upasunda-20, 24, 48, 146, 170 Upendra (also see Visnu)-62, 122. Uina-50, 51, 83. Urvasi--43, 74, 75, 110, 128, 129, 133. Ulupi-20, 110. Usanas-73, 82, 85, 87. Usas-41, 120. Urmila-28. Kcika-50, 58, 62, 68, 69, 85. Rta-64-5. Rsyasanga-28, 34-47, 58, 59, 66, 70, 85, 87, 118-121, 143, 163, 165, 166. Ekacakta (C) -108 Ekalavya-115, 116, 141 Ik svaku-51, 59, 61, 63, 72, 74, 8.1, 85. Itibasa (tales) 2-5, 7, 22-24, 34, 49, 161, 162, 169. Indra-17, 42, 43, 45, 50, 53-59, 62, 64, 65, 76, 80, 81, 86, 89, 91, 93, 1014, 106, 107, 115, 118, 120-5, 128, 129, 137, 138, 148, 150, 151, 157, 159, 160, 163, 166, 170. Indra-jit-76 Indra(=Sakra)dhvaja-103, 121-3. Indra-prastha-105. ladra-sabha-17. Indrota Daivapa Saunaka-95 Ila-83, 89, 128. Airavata-91, 98, 102, 103 Aurva-50, 142-3, 166 Kamsa-1:0, 151 Kaksivat-135 Kaca-66, 129, 166 Kanva-120 Kadru-74, 98, 99. Karna-67, 68, 74, 105, 115, 116, 124, 126, 137, 141, 157 isana (=Siva) 42, 78. Ugra-sravas-9, 19, 22, 92, 97.

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174 Karma-phala-75, 124, 133, 147, 149, 164. Kali-16, 18, 23, 26, 68. Kalmasapada (see Saudasa) Kasyapa-34, 41, 42, 44, 128, 157 Kanyakubja (C) -68 Kama (deva) -49, 59. Kamadhenu (or duh)-57, 61, 142 Kamanda-159. Kamasrama-49, 59 Karusa (See Malada) Kartika (month)-150 Kartikeya (see Skanda) Kalakeya(s) (cl.)-83 Kalikeya-114. Kaliya Naga-106. Kasi (C) -105, 106. Kinkara-62. Kindama-74, 138. Kirata-114. Kirmira-108, 160. Kicaka-108. Kundala-131, 132. Kundalini-103, Kundodana-131, 132. Kundika-131, 132 Kunti-138-41, 146, 147. Kubera (also see Vaisravana)-17, 72, 76, 108. Kumari-32 Kumbhakarna-71, 77. Kumbhinasi-82. Kuru-131, 143. Kuru-ksetra-60, 96, 101, 107, 143. Kuru(s) (cl)-(see Kauravas). Kuru-jangala-106, Kuru-Pancala (C) Kusa-58. Kusasva-49. Kusilava(s) (cl.)-5. Krtavirya-142. - Kusadhvaja-66, 71, 85. Kusanabha-50, 58. 105, 146. Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics Krttika(s)-51. Krpa-44, 120, 124, 141. Krpi-44, 119-20, 124. Krsasva-49. Krsna-6, 17, 20, 47, 48, 70, 78, 79, 101, 102, 106, 110, 111, 114, 115, 124, 126, 132, 145, 148, 150, 151, 155, 156, 161, 163. Kesarin-80. Kaikeyi-26. Kaitabha-82. Kaisiki Vrtti-122. Kolahala (Mt.)-123. Kosala (K)-86. Kaurava(s) (cl) (or Kurus)-18, 68, 78, 101, 102, 104, 105, 117, 125, 127, 132, 152, 153, 167. Kauravya (Naga)-98, 102-4. Kausalya-37. Kausika (Visvamitra)-54-58. Kausiki (R) (=Satyavati) 50, 58, 62. Kratu-142. Kratha-131, 132. Kraunca-vadha-139. Ksatriya(s) (cl)-18, 67-70, 86,117, 120 125, 128, 134, 148, 163, 164, 166 -women-134, 136, 148, 149. Ksanti (paramita)-75 Ksetra-149 K setraja-147 Ksema-darsin-159 Khanti (Paramita)-75. Khara-83 Khandava (Forest, burning) 18, 20, 101103, 105-7, 111, 149, 161. Khandava-prastha (C) 17, 20. Ganga-20, 49-51, 58-61, 107, 124, 132, 133, 135, 148. Ganesa-31

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Index-1 175 Gandhamadana (Mt.)-109 Gandharva() (cl)-160. Gaya-92. Garuda-5, 66, 99, 123, 171. Gatha(s)-3, 5, 95, 96, 132, 154, 155. Gadhi-50, 58, 68, 69. Gandhar. (K)-!46. Gandhari-74, 104, 106, 124, 137. Gargya Trijata 85. Galava 58 Girika (R)-123 Girivraja (C)-50, 150, 155. Getsamada-65 Grdhra-marjara -154. Gotama-54-6. Gomati (R)-84 Govardhana (Mt.)-106, 151. Gautama--51-58, 61, 5, 124. Gautami-141. Gaur-atiratra-96. Ghatotkaca-124 Jambhasura-152. Jaratkaru-93, 133, 152. Jara-155 Jarasandha-20, 59, 114, 150, 155, 156, 158, 165. Jayadratha-25. 84. Jaya-kavya-5, 20, 22-24, 162. Jaya-49. Jajali-159 Jatavedas (=Agni)-49 Jamadagny? (See Parasurama) Jimuta-108 Jivatman-79 Jaigisavya-199. Jyotir-atiratra-96. Dibhaka-150. Dudubha-93. Caksubravas-97. Candra-150 Caru-68 Citrakuta (Mt.)-85. Citraratha-52, 91, 114, 131. Citrasena (Gandharva)-117. Citrangada-134. Citrangada -20, 110 Cirakarin 8, 52, 89, 166. Cedi-121. Culi-58 Cyavana-50, 59, 8, 85, 87, 92, 93, 14, 119, 142, 143, 166. Taksaka-90-93, 95, 97, 98, 101-6. Taksasila (C)-96, 97, 101, 104, 106. Tantra-103, 130. Tapati (R)-131, 142-4, 166. (Tapatya=Arjuna) Tapas-75, 76, 118. Tapobhanga-103, 166. Tanasa (R)-28, 30. Tataka-49, 59. Tara-85 Tara-150 Tilottama-146 Tura Kavaseya-95 Turvasu-128, 130, Tuladhara-159 Trita-60 Trisanku-61-63, 65. Treta-67 Jatasura-108, 160. Japaka-50, 61, 66, 81, 102 Janamejaya-12, 19, 23, 25, 29, 74, 89 108, 125, 126, 129, 131, 132, 137, 143, 158, 165-9. Jamad-agoi-52, 53, 67, 69, 92. Daksa-42, 49, 60, 128, 132. Daksinayana-161 Danda-73, 83, 85, 87, 88, 159, 169.

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176 Dadhica-60. Damayanti-16, 18, 26, 169 Dambodbhava-79, 165. Dasagriva (Ravana)-77 Dasaratha-26, 32, 34-9, 44, 46-8, 58, 66-8, 84. Danava(s) (cl.)-117, 150. Dasa- 123 Dasa-rajna (Sukti)-62. Diti-51 Dirghatamas-134-6. Duhssana-94, 108, 157. Dubsanta-127. Duryodhana-17, 20, 25, 26 60, 78, 94, 108, 114, 117, 118, 125, 132, 142, 144, 145, 151-3, 157, 165. Durvasas-74, 165. Deva(s) (Gods)-125 Devadasi (s)-157. Devayani-128-30, Devapi Arstisena-105, 131. Deva ura War(s)-24, 78. Daitya(s) Cl.)-117, 146, 157, Daivapa Saunaka-96 Dyava prthivi-121. Dyaus-41, 99, 120. Drupada-105, 106, 119, 120, 124, 142, 144, 145 Drubyu-128, 130, Drona-44, 67, 68, 105, 115, 119, 124, 141, 142, 144, 145, 147, 149. 161. Draupadi-18, 20, 25, 84, 94, 105, 106, 109, 111, 114, 118, 124, 142, 144-9, 153, 157, 158, 11, 163, 164. Dvadasa-varsika-satra (twelve-year-sacrifice of Saunaka) 12, 29, 92, 168, Dvapara-67, 68. Dvaita (Forest)-104. Dvaipayana (Vyasa)-123. Dharma-108, 110, 112, 124, 128, 133, 135, 136, 138, 148, 160, 161, 163. Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics Dhatr-91. Dhrta-rastra-20, 79, 94, 98, 102-6, 124, 131, 132, 135, 137, 147, 151, 164. Dhystadyumna-124, 142, 144, 145, 163. Dhaumya-59, 90-92. Nakula-105, 109, 113, 138. Namuci-151, 160. Nara-79. Narmada (R.)-77 Nala-16, 18, 23, 26, 160, 162, 166. Nalakubara-72-75, 84, 164, 167. Nalinika-39, 42, 43. Nahus-104, 111, 128, 129, 160. Naga(s) (cl.)-74, 97-107, 143, 166. Naga-pancami-100. Naga tradition-132, 170. Naga-tribal myth-107-8 Narada-17, 18, 21, 28, 59, 116, 128, 151, 153. Narayana 79, 125, 148 Nimi (Janaka)-85. Niyoga-20, 134-41, 146-49, 151, 163, 164, 167, Nivatakavaca-114. Nisadha-16, 131. Nisada-28, 0. Nita-150, 156, 158 Nilakantha (=Siva)-122 Naimisa (Forest) 92, 148, Patancala Kapya-91. Parasurama-28, 53, 67-71, 74, 85-7, 116, 124, 134, 141, 148, 166. Rama Jamadagnya-18, 52, 59, 67, 79, 86, 164, Rama Bhargava-18, 67-70, 87. Parasara-123, 136, 142, 143, 165, 167. Pariksit-91 95, 96, 101, 105, 131, 132. Parivrkta-32. Parjanya-91, 102 Pasupati 41, 42

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Index I 177 Pancala-106. Pandava(s)-17, 18, 20, 23, 48, 59, 68, 78, 91, 104-6, 109, 110, 124-6, 141, 144, 145, 147-150, 157, 161, 163. Pandu-17, 18, 20, 74, 105, 124, 131, 132, 135, 137-41, 147, 148, 164. Papa-krtya-96-7. Paramita's)-75 Pariplava-33. Palagali-32. Pitrdeva(s)-56. Patresti (or Putriya isti or Pautri isti)-35 38, 46, 47, 50. Purana(s)-1-5, 9, 33, 42, 46, 47, 61. Purana-vid-154. Puranika(s)-2, 5, 9, 34. Puranist(s)-44, 45. Puru-125, 128-30. Pururavas-110, 128, 129, 133. Purusa-medha-35. Pulastya-76, 77, 142 Pulaha-142, Puloman (male) 93, 115, 166; (female)93. Puskara-18, 23, 26. Pusan-120 Prthvi-120, 125. Paulastya-vadha--84 Pausya-90. Prajapati-41, 42 44, 77. Pratipa-131, 132. Pratnati-92. Pramatha's)-122 Pra nadvara -92, 93, 120, 166-168. Prayaga--85. Prasenajit-52. Prahlada-157, 159, 161, 170. Pratikamin-94. Phalasruti-19, 121. Phalguna (month)-123. Balarama-60, 148, Bali-49, 69, 135, 136, 160, 164. Bindu-(iake)-150. Buddha-3, 11. 75-76. Bshadratha-150 Brhaspati-85, 134-6, 159. Brahman (Supreme)-65, 79. (Godhead)-17, 28, 31, 41, 47, 50, 62, 71, 72, 80, 83, 84, 87, 93, 125, 132, 148, 150. Brahma-rsi-62, 69, 87. Brahmcarin-68. Brahma-Teja3-61 Brahmadatta-50, 58. Brahmaverta-106. Brahmodaya(s)-9, 34, 45, 69, 74, 75, 116, 120, 140. Brahmana(s) (CI.)-128, 134, 136, 144, 148, 157, 164. Br. Tradition-76. Bhakti (cult)-70. Bhagiratha-50, 58. Bhadra Kaksivati-138-40, 165-7 Bharata-82 Bharad-vaja-44, 65, 77, 35, 124, 159. Bhadrapada-123. Bharata (Akhyana)-5, 22, 68. (war) 68. Bharata(s)-105, 106, 130. Bhargava(s)-(See-Bhrgus) Bhiksu-116. Bhima-20, 60, 104, 108. 109, 111, 112, 114, 133, 150, 160, 167. Bbimasena (br. of Janamejaya) 95, 96,131. Bhisma-20, 23, 67, 68, 94, 95, 105, 107, 124-6, 132-7, 151, 155. 161, 163, Bhulinga-151, 153, 154. Bhrgu (sage)-49, 68, 69, 85, 93, 159. Bhtgu-ksetra-143 Bhrgu(s)=(Bhargivas)-3, 18, 19, 47, 52. 53, 70, 86, 92, 94, 96, 114, 162, 167. Bhrguisation-(See General Index). Bhtgvangiras(es)-S5. Bika (Dem21)-0, 108, 142. Baka Dalbhya-60. S. T. 23

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178 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics Bheda-19-20. Bhrats-dyuta-18. Yaksa-73, 74, 10-3, Yaksa(s)-50, 77. Yajamana-32, 34. Yadu-128, 130. Yama-17, 76, 128, 148. Yana-Sabba-17. Yamuna (R.)-111, 123. Yayati-20, 85, 125, 128, 129, 130. Yavakrita-59, 120. Yadava(s)-74, 150, 151. Yudhisthira-16-18, 20, 23, 26, 84, 94, 95, 104, 108-9, 111-4; 138, 150, 157, 159, 160, 162. Mankanaka-60. Maniman-108. Matsya-123, (K.) 106,119,120. Matsya(sa)gandha-119, 123, 124, (See also Satyavati) Madayanti-138. Madra (K.)-91.106, (Princes)-138 Madhu-82 Madhura-82 Manu-128,130,138.139.148,149,159. Manthara-49. Mamala-134-5. Maya Danava-17,18,21,101,150,162. Maruta(s)-51. Marut(s)-81. Malada (K.) (and Karusa)-49,50,59 Mahadeva (=siva)-41, 42, 61, 81, 82, 96, 97, 114, 155, 171. Mahabhisa-132 Mahavira-11, Mahisi-32, 141 Mahendra (M1.)-71. Mahodaya-62. Matarisvan-84 Madri-74, 113, 114, 138. 147. Mandhatr-82, 159. Marica-48, 49. Marttikavata-52 Mabismati-156 Mitra-Varuna-52. Mithila-50, 51, 61. Muladhara Cakra-104. Mrga (constellation)- 41 Meghanada-87. Medhatithi Kanvayana-54, 57. Menaka-43, 54, 57, 62, 93. Mena-54, 57. Mesa-vrsina (Indra)-56, 57. Rajas (guna)-63, 69, 166. Rambha-62, 72, 73. Raksasa(s (Cl.)-50, 62, 77, 108, 142, 160, 166. Rajasuya-16-18, 22, 26, 83. Rama-6, 12, 23, 26, 27, 28-88, 116, 147, 160, 163, 164, 166, 168, 170. Ravana-23, 47, 48, 68, 71-84, 86, 87, 102, 117, 147, 164, 165, 167, 169. Ravana-Katha-Cakra (Story-Cycle)-71, 85-7, 89, 133, 156. Rahu-80. Rukmini-151, 161. Rudra (=Raudra, Siva) -41, 42, 69. his eight names-42. Rumanvat-52. Ruru-92, 93, 166-8. Renuka 52, 89. Romapada-34, 35, 38, 44. Rohini-41. Laksmana-28, 48, 58, 66, 82, 87, 88. Laksmi-148 Lanka-77, 80. Lavana-82, 83, 87, 88.

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8 Index i Linga-77, 121, 122. Lokapala-51. Lokaveda-2. Lomasa-59. Lomaharsana-1 Varuna-17, 64, 65, 76, 84, 120, 166, 170. Vasistha-35, 38. 43, 46-9, 57, 61-6, 68-70, 75, 85, 87, 132, 138, 142, 143, 166, 167, 170. Vasu-52, 124. 133, 163. Vasu Uparicara -107, 121, 123, 124, 161. Vasu- manas-159 Vajimedha-see Asvamedha. Vadavi-agni-142. Vamadeva-65, 159 Vamana (incarnation)-49, 59, 69. Vayu-50, 80, 81, 108, 138, 148. Valin-76, 80. Valmiki-6, 7, 16, 28-32, 34, 82, 84, 85 87. 139. Vavata 32 Vasuki-74, 98, 102, 103. Vasudeva-150. Vicitravirya-124, 134, 136, 139. Vidura-20, 79, 94, 95, 124, 126, 133, 135, 151-3, 157, 158, 161, 163, 164. Vidula-24. Vidusaka-122. Videha-86. Vidhatr-91. Vinata-98, 99. Vindhya (Mt)-83. Vibhandaka-34, 41-44, 106. Vibhisana-71, 77. Viraj-65, 166. Virocana-49, 150, 157, 161, 170. Visakhayupa-104. Visala-59. Visala (c)-51, 59. Visravas-50, 77. Visvamitra-5, 28, 43, 48-50, 54, 55, 57, 58, 61-7, 69, 70, 75, 86, 87, 142, 143, 165, 166, 170 Vdeg Redactors-66. Visvavasu-52, 82, 93. Visnu-47, 49, 50, 59, 61, 69-71, 75, 779, 82, 85-7, 120, 122, 124, 150, 151, 156, 163, 165. Vaisnava (s)-47, 70, 78, 165. Vaisnava (bow)-67, 69, 70. Vaisnavism-156, 165. Vrtra-49, 59, 83, Vrtra-Vadha-49, 104. Vrsadarbha-25 Vrsanasva-54, 57. Vrsaparvan-130. Veda-90-92. Veda(s)-3,54,128. Vedavati-71-3, 85. Vena-149 Vaijayanti-121. Vaisampayana-9, 19 20, 22, 29, 96. Vaisali (C)-49. Vaisravana-50, 77. Vaisvanara-105, 106. 179 Vyasa Parasarya Dvaipayana-6, 19-22, 29-31, 115, 123-5, 135-7, 139, 151, 160, 167. Vyusitasve-138-40, 165, 166. Sakuni-105, 124, 157. Sakuntala-20, 93, 120, 125, 127, 130, 137, 169. Sakti-63, 138, 142, 167. Sakvari (metre)-49. Sankara (=Siva)-77, 78 121, 122, 142, 146 150, 164. Satasrnga (Mt.)-138. Satananda-61, 86, 87. Satrughna-82, 83, 88, 169. Santanu-20, 105-7, 119, 120, 124, 131-3. Sabala (=Kama-dhenu)-61. Sambuka-71, 83, 87, 116.

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180 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics Saradvat-44, 124. Sarmistha-128-130. Salya-68, 105 Santa-34, 42. Sapa-74-76, 80, 83, 86, 89, 132, 133, Saradandayani-138, 139, 149, 164, (called Vira-patni 139, 149) Salva-raja-131;-Princes--138. Sikhandin-124, 134, Sibi-25, 59, 60. Siva-44, 49, 51, 89, 117, 160. 165. (also see Isana, Nilakantha, Mabadeva, Rudra, Sankara) Saiva Bow-66-69. Saivaites-78, 155, 165. Saivism-156. Sisupala-59, 150, 151, 155, 156, 158, 161, 165. sisna-devah-103. Suka-160. Suktimati (R)-123. Sukracarya-129, 130, 152. Supaka-29, 92. Sunahsepa-62, 63, 65, 85. Sudra-116 Sudraka-29. Sudra-32, 37. Surpa-nakha-48, 77, 83. Srrigara-46, 122. Saivala (Mt.)-83, 116. sona-50. Saunaka-12, 19, 92, 94, 96, 168. Syena-123. Sramana-45, 66, 119, 120, 152, 163, 166. Sravana -36, 37, 74, 170, Srutasravas-96, 97. Srutasena-95, 96. Srutavati-60. Sveta-83. 85, 87, 88. Sveta (Mt.)-51. Svetaketu-138, 141, 148, Sodasa-rajakiya-169. Sagara-85 Sanjaya-9. Sattva (Guna)-63, 69, 166. Satyavati-20, 50, 105, 121, 123, 124, 133 7, (See also Matsya(sa)gandha) Satyavati (=R. Kausiki)-58, 68, 69. Satrajita (Satanika)-105. Sanatkumara--34, 35. Sapinda-136, 137. Saptarsi(s)-63. Samudra-manthana (or Ocean-churning) -51, 59, 61, 103, 166. Sarama-96. Sarayu (R)-49. Sarasvati-41, 71. Sarasvati (R)-62, 104, 119, Sarpa-bali-100 Sarpa-rajni-98. Sarpa-satra (or Snake-Sacrifice)-12, 19, 29, 74, 89-108, 165. Sahadeva-105, 138, 156. Sarasvata-119. Savitri-143, 160. Siddhasrama-48-50, 58, 59, 69, 84, 87. 88 Sita-29, 32, 33, 37, 48, 66, 72-6, 81, 85, 147, 164, 167, 170. Sukanya-59 Suketu-49. Sukesa-77, 78, Sugriva-76, 80. Sudas (Paijavana)-68, Sudhanvan-150, 157, 161, 170, Sunda-20, 24, 48, 49, 146, 170. Suparna (Story-cycle)-123. Suparni-99. Suprabha-49. Subahu-48. Subrahmanya (Litany)-53, 54, 56-58, 65, 170. Subhadra-20, 110, 124. Subhadra (from Kampilya)-140. Sumati-51.

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Indexi Sumantra-34, 35, 47. Sumitra-2 Sumeru (Mt.)-80. Suvarnasthivin-153. Susena-52, 131. Suhrd- dyuta-18. Suta(s)-5, 33, 34, 47, 99, Suta Purani-(See Ugra-sravas) Surya-pura (C)-143, Srnjaya 153. Soma-104. Somada-58. Soma-sravas-96, 97. Saudasa Kalmasapada-63, 64, 82, 138, 139, 142, 143, 148, 164, Skanda-44, 50. 51, 60, 61, 120. Sthagara-88, Sthulakela-93, 120. Hamsa-150. Hanumat (man)-37, 80-81, 85, 87, 169. Harivas (Epithet of Indra)-58. Hariscandra-17, 18. Halamukhi (metre)-154. Havihsravas-131, 132. Hastin-131, 132, Hastinapura (C)-20, 95, 101, 104. Hasya-46, 122. Hidimba-20, 108, 142. Hidimba-108, 124. Himavat (Himalayas)-50, 51, 153. Holi (Festival)-122, 123. 181

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INDEX II A-Works and Authors (English, Gojrati, Hindi etc.) [Initial articles are neglected. Research papers are included, and indicated by*. Books and Research Papers are italicized. ] Aeneid : 23 Caste and Class in India : 32. Ancient Indian Historic al Tradition : 44, Chaitanya Krishna : 108, 116, 117. 49, 56. Chandra, Lokesh : 53. Anderson : 112 Chanson de Roland : 23. * Antipathy to Rajasuya : Why ? 83. Chaturvedi Giridhar Sharma : 41. Anttilla, Raimo : 120, 163. Chaucer : 9. 11, 12, 60, 61. Arabian Nights (AN): 11, 12, 29. Chronology of Ancient India : 42, 44, Aristotle : 14. 56, 100. Arora U.P. : 107, 133. Conti Noel : 40. Art of Tantra, The : 103. Critical Studies in the Mahabharata : 3,8, Aryanisation of India 130 18, 24, 52, 53, 68. * Asvamedha, the King of Sacrifices : 32, 35, 140. * Asymedha; Its Original Signification ; 32 Dandekar R. N.: 1, 7. * Authorship of the Ramayana, The : 85 * Dasagriva or Dasanana of the Ramayana : Avesta : 143. 81, 102. Dange S.A. ; 8, 32, 36, 42, 45, 57, 66. 102, 104, 109, 123, 129, 140, 145, 166, Bachofen J.J. : 99 Decameron : 11, 29. Bar-Illan, David : 40. Dictionary of World Literary Terms Batra S. N. : 81, 102. =DWLT) : 4, 7, 9, 13, 113. Belvalkar S.K. 159, 160. Dumezil G.: 107. Benfey Theodor : 10. Dutt Nripendra Kumar : 130, Beowulf: 5, 3. Dutt Romesh Chunder : 6 * Bharat man Anek Sanskritio no Sangam (Guj.) : 157. Bhatt G.H. : 30, 39, 56. Edgerton F. : 94, 153. Bloomfield M. : 105. Eggeling Julius : 54. Boccacio : 9, 11, 12. Eliade Mircea : 107. Border Raids : 5 Encyclopaedia of Literature : 2 Browning Robert : 39. Evolution of Morals in the Epics :1, Buicke, Camille : 28, 30, 37, 81, 102, Eyre Vincent : 99. By the Fireside (Poem) : 39 Canterbury Tales : 11, 39. 60. Cassell's Encyclopaedia of Literature : 7 Festschrift Thomas : 81. Folk-tale : 112, 119.

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Index II Folk-Custom in the Alvamedha, A: 32, 36, 100, 140. Fontaine, La 9 Gandhi, Mahatma: 76. Ganga-Santanu Legend, The 107, 133. Geldner: 64. Ghose, Narendranath: 137, 144-146, 156 32, Ghurye G.S. "Goat and the Knife, The Great Epic of India, The Grimm Brothers: 10. Hara, Minoru: 118-20, 141, 165. Hariyappa H.L.: 1, 3, 4, 8, 63-66, 69 166. 44. Hazra R.C. Held G.J 107. Hiltebeital, Alf: 107. Himalayan Polyandry: 145. Hira Lal 81. 153. 110. History of Dharmasastra: 32-34, 98, 100. History of Indian Literature (Vol. I) 3. 7. 16, 24-5, 28, 152. Histo y of Sanskrit Literature: 3. Homer: 16, Hopkins E.W. Hudson W.H. 5. Hugo, Victor: 80 Hymns of the Atharvaveda; 105. 110. Iliad 5, 16, 23. ndex to the Names in the Mahabharaia: 91. 153. Indo-Aryan Literature and Culture (Origins) 137, 144-148, 156. *Indra and Tapas: 118 *Indra Mahotsav : 122 Introduction to Historical and Comparative Linguistics 120, 163. Introduction to the Study of Literature: 5. Jacob G.A. 153. Jacobi H. 23, 24, 28, 81, 99, 116, 117. Jaya Samhita, i.e. The UR Mahabharata : 20 Jha Commemoration Volume 81. Julius W. H.: 53 Jupiter, Mars, Quirinus (IV): 107. 183 Kalevala 5, 23. Kane P.V. 32-34, 98, 100. Kapadia B.H. 32. 35, 36, 64, 140, 141. Karmarkar R.D.: 32-33. Kashalikar M.J.: 146, Kavathekar P.N. 153. Keith A.B. 32, 39, 55 Kibe 81. Kirfel Willibald 35, 140 Kirk G.S. 43, 119. *Legend of Vasu Uparicara: 107 Legends in the Mahabharata: 8, 102, 104, 123, 129. Lonnrot: 5 Luders 39 Ludwig: 99 Macdonell A.A.: 3, 39, 55, 57. Mahabharata - A Criticism: 25 Mahabharata: An Ethnological Study: 107. Majumdar D.N. 145 Majumdar R.C.: 44. Marriage of Heaven and Earth in Vedic Ritual: 45. Nature of Greek Myths: 43, 119. New History of Sanskrit Literature, A: 108, 116-7, Nibelungenlied: 5, 23.

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184 Sacondary Tales of the two Great Epics Oceam of Story : 9, 153. Odyssey : 5, 23. Oldham C.F. : 99. On the Meaning of the Mahabharata : 7, 47, 78-79, 86, 112, 116-7, 160, 163 166. Oldenberg : 105 * Origin of the Pandavas, The : 146. Shah U.P. : 80 Shakespeare : 45, 80. Shastri A.D. : 25, 107, 123.. Shastri K. K. : 20 Shende N.J, : 85, Shipley Joseph T, : 2, 4, 7, 9. 13. Some Problems of Indian Literature : 10. Sorensen S. :91, 153. Studies in the Epics and Puranas of India : 81. Sukthankar Memorial Edition (Vol. 1): See Critical Studies in the Mahabharata Sukthankar V.S.: 3, 7, 18, 22--24, 39, 47, 52-3, 60, 65, 75, 78, 79, 86, 110, 112, 116-7, 124-5, 143, 160, 161, 163, 165, 166, * Pandava Riddle, The : 145. Parab K.P. : 36. Pargiter F. E. : 44, 46, 49, 56, 58, 165. Parikh J.T. : 122, 170, * Pariplava (Revolving Cycle of Legends) at the Asvamedha : 33 Pastoral Symbolism from the Rgveda : 42, 57. Penzer N.M. : 9, 153. Phatak D.S. : 122-3. Pisani : 60, 160. Pradhan S.N.: 42, 44, 46, 49, 56, 58, 100. Purana-Parisilana (Hindi) : 41 Pusalkar A.D. : 44, 81. Tawny C.H. : 9. Tempest, The : 45, 80. Thite G.U. : 47, 83. Thompson Stith ; 4, 7, 112-114, 119, 162 *Unicorn as a Phallic Symbol : 49. Upadhye A.N.: 11 Rama-Katha (Hindi): 28, 30, 37, 81, 102, Ramayana Das (The) : 24, 28, 81, 117. Random House Dictionary : 40 Rawson Philip : 103 Religion and Philosophy of the Vedas and the Upa'risads : 32. Rgvedic Legends Through the Ages : 1, 3. 4, 8, 63-4, 66. *Rise and Growth of the Vidusaka : 122. Riddle of the Ramayana : 28 Roth : 105. Vaidya C.V. : 25, 28. Vaidya P.L. : 160. Vedic Age, The : 44. Vedic Index of Names and Subjects : 39, 41, 44, 46, 55,57, 64, 91-92, 96, 104-6. Vedic Reader for Students : 57. Vedische Studien : 64 * Virataparvan, A Study : 25, 107. Visvamitra : 64 Vogel : 104. Vora, Dhairyabula P. : 13)-140, 165. Samskrta Sahitya Men Nitikatha Ka Ud gama Evam Vikasa Hindi) : 153. Scott: 5. Sen Ksitimohan : 157. * Serpent-Sacrifice Mentioned in the Maha bharata : 98 ff. Wikander, Stig : 107. Winternitz M : 3, 7, 10, 16, 23-5, 28. 98-100, 152. Wordsworth : 31. Yoga Immortality and Freedom : 107 Zimmer : 105,

Page #198
Index II s. 185 .. B. Works and Authors (Sanskrit, Pali etc.) [Sub-parvans are included with '(S)' suffixed. Major parvans and kandas are accompanid by their abbreviations. ] Rgveda : 3, 41, 47, 62, 65, 103, 105-6, 112, 130. Kgveda Aranyakas : 57. Atharva-Veda : 3, 46, 47, 92, 98, 103, 105, 112, 162. Anukramani P. (S) : 89, 92. Anu-dyuta P. (S): 17. Anu-Sasana P. (AnuP): 23, 25, 158, 159, 160, 161, 167, 169, 170, Abhijnana Sakuntalam : 124. Abhiseka-natakam : 77. Ayodhya-k. (AyK) : 16. 33, 36, 37, 85, 162, 170. Aranya-k. (ArK) : 28. Arghabhiharana P. (S) : 26. Arjuna-Vanavasa P. (S): 109, 167. Alambusa-Jataka : 39, 42, 43, Asvaghosa : 127. Ajagara P. (S) : 111, "Adi Kanda' : 21, 22, 168. Adi-p. (Adi P): 3, 5, 18-23, 27, 29, 31, 42, 44, 47, 50, 63, 67, 74, 78, 89149, 150, 152, 158, 161, 162, 167, 168, 169 Adi-vamsavatarna P. (S) : 78, 121, 126-27, 148, 161, 167. Apad-dharma p. (S) : 159 Araneya p. (S) : 111. Aranyaka-p. : See Vana p. (Van P) Asvamedhika-p, (AsVP) : 23. Asrika p.: 107. Aitareya Brahmana : 41, 95, 98, 105, 153. Kathopanisad : 112. Katha-Sarit-Sagara (KSS) 11, 12. Kathaka-Samhita : 105. Katyayan 1-Srauta-Sutra : 98, 100. Kadambari : 29-30. Kama-Sutras : 141. Kovya-prakasa : 15, 159. Kavyalamkara : 15 Kausitaki Brahmana : 49 Khandava-daha p. (S) : 167. Gopatha Brahmana : 105 Govindaraja: 36-7 Ghosi yatra-p. (S) : 117 Cariya-pitaka : 76. Caitraratha-p. (S) : 142, 167. Chandog ya upanisad : 3 . Jatug!ha-daha-p. (S) : 125, 167, Jarasandha-Vadha p. (S) : 26. Jataka : 11, 39, 45, 76, 153, 155, 165. Jaiminiya - Brahmana : 53-55. Takkariya Jataka : 153. Tandya Mahabrahmana : 98, 103. Tilaka-tika : 36-7. . Tirtha-yatra-p. (S) : 114, 160 Taittiriya Aranyaka : 53, 56. Uttara-Kanda (UK) : 2, 12, 16, 21, 27, 29-32, 34, 50, 71, 89, 116-17, 130, 133, 169. Uttara-parvan' : 22. Uttara-yayatom (S) : 129, 130. Udyoga p. (UdyP) : 53, 58, 79, 80, 135. S. T. 24 Digvijaya-p. (S) : 26, 156 Dyuta-p. (S) : 17. Dhamma- ddhaja Jataka : 155

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186 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics Nandin : 141 Nalinika-Jaraka : 39, 42-3. Nalopakhyana (s) : 16. 160, Natya-Sastra : 46. 122. Narayaniya Section (S) : 159. Raja-dharma-p. (S) : 159, Rajya-lambha-p. (S) 167. Ramopakhyana (S): 16, 23-4, 30, 84, 160, Laukika-nyayanjali : 153, Panca-tantra (PT): 11-2. 29, 153, 159, Panca-Visa Brahmana : 96, 100, 106, Pancendropakhyana : 148. Patanjali : 153. Padma-purdna : 39, Parva-Sangraha-p. (S) : 89, 92, Pauloma-p. (S) : 167. Pausya-p. ($) : 97, 167. Vakrokti-Jivitam : 13. Vana p. (VanP) : 16, 25, 39, 42-3, 5?, $9-60, 67-8, 74-5, 84, 104, 108, 110 111, 114-7, 119, 144, 152, 158-60, 161, 167, 169. Vatsyayana : 141. Valmiki : See Index I Vijna pana-bhasya : 54-5, Viduragamana-p. (S) 167. Vidula-putranusasanam (S): 22, 24, 115. Virata-p. (VirP): 25, 107-8, 110-11, 160. Vetala-pancavinsika (VP, : 29. Vaivahika-p. (S) 167. Vyasa: See Index I Baka-vadha-p. (S) : 167. Banabhatta : 127 Bala-k. (BK): 2, 5, i2, 16, 18-9, 21-2, 27, 28-71, 72, 75-6, 79, 85-9, 106, 162, 168, 169. Buddha-Carita : 127. Brhat-Katha-Kosa : 11. Brahma-purana : 37. Bharata : 46, 122. Bhamaha : 15. Bhasa : 77. Bhisma-p. (BhiP) : 23. Matsya-purana : 2. Manu-Smrti : 127, 136-9, 147, 149, 158, 164, 170. Mantra-p. (S) : 17, 18, 26. Mammata : 15, 159. Mahaprasthanika-p. (MahP) : 109. Markandeya-samasya-p. (S) : 160. Milinda-panho : 112. Mundakopanisad : 79. Mokfa-dharma-p (S)159, Mausala-p. (MauP) : 25, 74, 115, Satapatha-Brahmana : 42, 49, 53-55, 94. 6, 99, 105, 107. Salya-p. (salp) : 60, 62, 114, 119, 143. Sankhayana-Srauta-sutra : 98, 100. Santi-p. (SanP) : 23, 52, 67, 74, 1'16, 153, 158-60, 161, 167, 169, 170. Sisupala-vadha-p. (S) : 26. Srimad-bhagavad-gita : 41. Sadvinia-Brahmana : 53-55, 57, Sodasa-rajakiya : 169, Sabha-p. (SabP) : 16-20, 24-27, 59, 94, 108-9, 114, 125, 150-161, 166, 167, 169. Sabha-varnana-p. (S) : 17. Sambhava-p. (S) : 121, 126-7, 130, 132, 167. Samaveda : 3, 47. Savitryupakhyana (S) : 160. Simhasana-dvatrimsika (SDV) : 11-12, Yajurveda : 3, 47, 53. Yuddha-k. (YK) : 23,

Page #200
Index 11 Svayamvara-p. (S) : 167. Svar garohana-p. (SvaP) : 22, 96. Sundara-K. (SK): 37, 80, 170. Suparnakhyana : 5, 99, 104, Subhadra-harana-p. (S) : 109, 167. Sauptika-P. (SauP) : 160, 165. Skanda-Purana : 93. Stri-p. (StrP) : 22, 74, 151, 160. Harana-harika-p. (S) : 167. Harisena : 11. Hidimba-Vadha-p. (S): 167. Hitopadesa : 11, 12, 154-5.

Page #201
INDEX III GENERAL (of non-Sanskrit names, words, topics) Abbot, The-(see Emperor), Death-112-3. Achilles-16. Design (of BK, UK, AdiP. etc.)-87, 88, Aesop-151. 125. Aesopic Fables-153. Duplicate Introductions (or Versions)Allegorical Tales-91. 94-95 Arabians-9. Aryans-99. Earrings-91. Ascetic-(see sramana *ISN) Elephant (Six-headed)-152. Ass (with golden Excreta)-153. Emboxicg-87. Emperor, The, and the Abbot-112. Bards-2, 5, 9, 47, Epic (on smaller level, within Epic)-16, Bardic Poetry-24, 25, 162. 82. Bawar-145. Eponymous Ancestors-130. Bbrguization-67, 68, 114, 143. Eros-133. Bishop, The-(see John, King) Erotic-122-3. Black & White Rats-152. Eschatology ("logical myth)-107, 130. Brahmanical Prose-92, 130, 132. Esthonians-98. Brahmanism-45. Ethical Plane (MBH on-126. Brahmicide-36, 37, 49, 83, 89, 104. Ethical Riddles-112. Bride-winning Test-109. Ethnological interpretation-107, Buddhism-6, 45, 75, 116. Etymological Stories-49, 90, 119-20, Buddhists-3, 117. Etymologische legende-118, 163. Bull-41. Fable-13. Caliban-80. Fairy-tale-13, 113. Casanova-110. Feminicide-50, 52, Charity-83. Fertility rite(s)-43, 46, 103, 119, 121, 122. Chastity-110. Fire (See Agni-ISN) Cinderella-113. Fire-Ordeal-84. Comic-122-3. Folk-Criticism-53. Constantinople-9. Folk-(lore) literature-2, 13, 162. *Content'-13. Folk-tale-7-11, 13, 15, 113, 162. Cosmology (Puranic)-125, Folk-style-1)2. Cousins (rift among)-20. Form (Aristotelian)-14, Crow-155. Formula-110. Fratricide ("cidal war)-17. * ISN - Index of Sanskrit Names (Index I) 'Function'-13.

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Index til 189 Genealogy (preceptilineal)-90. Genealogies-51, 77, 79, 84, 127, 128, 131, 132. Genealogies (Brahmanic)-46. Genealogies (Puranic)-43, 46. Genesis (Tale of)-47, 89, 124, 125, 126, 165, 167. Greeks-93. Greek Myths-107, 118. Gupta Kings-70. Metaphor Stories (see Allegorical Tale Middle East- 9. Moon (=Candra)-150. Motif'-13. Motits borrowed-93, 94. Motif-Structure-118-120. Munda Culture-171. Myth-13, 107, 113, 120, 121, 123. Mythology-2. Historicity-44-45, 130. Horn-40, 41, 42. Hypocrite Old Swan-150, 151, 154. Nomadic Aryans-130. Obedience to Preceptor-89. Ocean-Churning (see Samudra Manthara ISN) Orphaned Embryo-118-20. Iconic tendency-120, Incarnation (See Avatara ISN). Incognito stay-110, 111. Index(es)-19, 20, 92. Initiation rite (s) (=apanayana-ISN)-129. Interpolations-130. Ira(e)ivan-81. Papuans-41. Peleus-133. Persians-9. Phallic Symbol-40, 41, 103. Pilgrimage Tales-59, 60, Polyandry-114, 145, 146 149, 163, 164, 169. Popular imagination-109, 113, 124. Pre-Vedic mythology-107. Prince Charming-109, 110. *Psyche-133. Pyrennes-99. Jainism-116. Jains-3, 117. Jaunsar-145. Jealousy of Antagonist-26. John, King & the Bishop-112. Kaba-115. Krishna-worship-6. Laughter-116. Legend(s)-5, 13, 107. Levirate (see Niyoga ISN) Lithuanians-98. Luchon-99, 100. Rindaldevi-143. Rander-143. Rats-(see Black etc) Raw1-9. Redactions of MBH)-21, 23, 53, 70, 83, 86. Revenge-91, 93, 95. Riddles-112. Magic Mimetic or Sympathetic-45, 98, 99, 109, Man-in-the-Well-151. Mating (ritual)-45. Sacrificial Consecration-129. Sectarian interpretation-78, 118. Sejuction-tales-45, 119. Shooting test- 109.

Page #203
190 Snake-sacrifice (see Sarpa-eatra ISN.) Social situation-115, 116. Solar Myth-107, 123. Sphinx-112, 113. Styx (River)-133. Surat (see Sarya-pura ISN) Sympathy for neglected charactors. 82. Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics Totomism-133. Trojan war-16. Twelve-yoar-Sacrifice (see Dvadasa Vaisika-Satra ISN) Ugly Duckliog-11). Unicorn-39, 40, 44 (also see Rgyasonga ISN) Taboo-112, 113, 133. Teacher-pupil Relationship-91. *Tempest' in Reverse-45, 46. Temporal Hiatus-60, 161, 169, Thetis-133. Time-113. Totem-81. Vaiznavaite(s)-(seo Vaisnavas ISN.) Vedic Mythology-107. Venice-9. Villain-76, 118. Virgin-40. Virgin Mother-124. Youngest Son-113,

Page #204
SELECT BIBLIOGARAPHY SANSKRIT TEXTS (a) Vedic 1. Rgveda-Sambita 2. Vajasaneyi-Samhita 3. Atharvaveda-Samhita 4. Aitareya-Brahmana 5. Kausitaki-Brahmana 6. Jaimintya-Brabmana 7. Sadvinssa-Brahmana (a) Sadvinia-Brahmana with Vijnapana-Bhagya 8. Satapatha-Brahmana 9. Taittiriya-Aranyaka 10. Mundaka-Upanisad 11. Chaudogya-Upanisad 12. Suparnadhyaya . (b) Epics-Puranas 13. MAHABHARATA (Critical Edition, Bhandarkar Oriental Reredrch Institute, Poona) 13. O) Srimad Bhagavad-Gita 14. RAMAYANA OF VALMIKI (Critical Edition, Oriental Institute, Baroda) (a) RAMAYANA OF VALMIKI with Commentary of Govindaraja (b) RAMAYANA OF VALMIKI with Tilaka-ka-. Ed. K. P. Parab, Nirnayasagar Press, 'Bombay, 1902, 15. Matsya-Purana 16. Brahma-Purana 17. Skanda-Purana 18. Padma-Purana 19. Srimad-Bhagavata-Purana (c) Classical 20. Pancatantra, Nirnayasagar Press, Bombay, 10th Edo., 1959. 21. Hitopadesa, Nirnayasagar Press, Bombay, 16th Edn., 1958. 22. Buddhacaritain of Asvagbosa 23. Abhiseka-nataka ascribed to Bhasa 24. Abhijaana-sakuntalam of Kalidasa

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192 Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics 25. Kadambari of Bhatta Bana. 26. Katha-sarit-sagara of Somadeva 27. Bphat-katha-kosa of Harisena 28. Vetala-pancavim satika 29. Simhasana-dvatrinzika ! (d) Scientific 30. Manusmsti 31. Astadhyayi of Panini 32. Kamasutras of Vatsyayana 33. Natyasastra of Bharata, Vol. I, GOS, Baroda 34. Kavyalamkara of Bhamaha 35. Vakroktijivitam of Kuntaka 36 Kavya-prakasa of Mammata 37. Laukika-Nyayanjalih, Ed. G. A. Jacob, Bombay, 1907 PR KRIT TEXTS 38. Cariya-Pitaka 39. Ja takas ENGLISH 1. Anttila, Raimo--An introduction to Historical and Comparative Linguistics, 1972. 2. Arora, U. P.--"The Ganga-Saatanu Legend" (Journal of the Ganganath Jha Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, Aliahabad. Vol. XXVII, parts 3-4. July Oct. 1971). 3. Bar-Illan, David - "The Unicorn as a Phallic Symbol". (Eros, Ed. Ginzburg Ra. Iph. New York, Vol. I, No. 3. Autumn 1962). 4. Batra, S. N.--"Dasagriva or Dasanana of the Ramayana" (Journal of the Orien tal Institute, Baroda. Vol. XXIII, Nos. 1-2. 1973). 5. Bhatt, G. H., Ed. The Valmiki-Ramayana (I. Bala-kanda), Baroda, 1960, 6. Bloomfield, Maurice, Tr. Hymns of the Atharvaveda, Sacred Books of the East Series, Vol. XLII, Delhi, 1964. 7. Brown, Arthur-"Folk Literature" (Cassell's Encyclopaedia of Literature Vol. I, Ed. S. H. Steinberg, London, 1953.) 8. Chaitanya, Krishna - A New History of Sanskrit Literature, Bombay, 1962. 9. Dandekar, R. N. "Epics-Indian Literature" (Encyclopaedia of Ljieralure, Ed. Joseph T. Shipley, New York, 1946.) . 10. Dange, S. A.-"A Folk Custom in the Asvamedha" (Journal of the Oriental In stitute, Baroda. Vol. XV!, No. 4, June, 1967). 11. Dange, S. A.-Legends in the Mahabharata, Delhi, 1969,

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Select. Bibliography 12: Dange, S. A. -"The Pandava Riddle" (Journal of the University of Bombay, XXVI, part 2, Arts No. 32, 1957). 13 Dange, S. A.- Pastoral Symbolism in the Rgveda, Poona, 1970. 14. Dumezil, Georges (See Wikander, Stig). 15. Dutt, Nripendra Kumar - The Aryanisation of India, Calcutta. 2nd Edn., 1971. 16. Edgerton, Franklin -"The Goat and the Knife" (Journal of the American Orie tal Society, Vol. LIX). 17. I dgeition, Franklin, Ed.---The Mahabharata (II. Sabha-Parvan), BORI, Poona, 1944. 18. Eggeling. Julius, Tr.--Satapatha Brahmanu, Sacred Books of the East Series, Vol. XXVI, Delhi, 1963. 19. Eliade, Mircea - Yoga : Immortality and Freedom, Bollingen Series LVI, Princeton, 1971. 20. Ghose, Nagendranath - Indo-Aryan Literature and Culture (Origins), Varanasi, 2nd Edn., 1965. 21. Ghurye, G. S.-Caste and Class in India, Bombay, 2nd Edn., 1957. 22. Ginzburg, Ralph, Ed. (See Bar-Illan, David). 23. Gode, P. K., Ed. (See Sukthankar, V. S.) 24. Hars, Minoru-"Indra and Tapas" (Brahmavidya, Adyar Library Bulletin, Adyar, Vol. XXXIX, 1975). 25. Hariyappa, H. L.-Rgvedic Legends Through the Ages, Poona, 1953. 26. Held, G. J.-The Mahabharata-an Ethnological Study, London, 1935. 27. Hiltebe ital, Alf-"The Mahabharata and Hindu Eschatology" (History of Reli. gion, Chicago, Vol. XII, No. 2, 1972. Summarized in Praci-Jyoti, Kuruk. shetra, Vol. IX, 1973). 28. Hopkins, E. W.-2he Great Epic of India, New Haven, 1920. 29. Hudson, W. H.-- An Introduction to the Study of Literature, Harrap, London, 1927 30. Jacobi, H.--Das Ramayana (Tr. Dr S. N. Ghosal, Oriental Tostitute, Baroda, 1969. 31. Kane, P. V.--History of Dharmasastra, Vol. II, part ii, Poona, 1941, 32. Kapadia, B. H.-"Asvamedha, the King of Sacrifices" (Digest of W. Kirfel's (q. v.) article, Journal of the University of Bombay, Vol. XXX (New Seri es) Part 2, Arts No. 36, Sept. 1961). 33. Kapadia, B. H.-Visvamitra (io the Vedic, Epic and the Puranic Literature), Va'. labh Vidyanagar, 1971. 34. Karmarkar, R. D.-"The Asvamedha : Its Original Signification" (Annals of Bhandarkar Oriental Research lastitute, Poona, Vol. XXX, parts III-IV. 1949). 35. Karmarkar, R. D.-'The Pariplava (Revolving Cycle of Legends) at the Asva medha" (Annals of Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona. Vol, XXXIII. 1952).

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics 36. Kashalikar, M. J.---"The Origion of the Pandavas" (Journal of the Oriental In stitute, Baroda, Vol. XVI, No. 4. June 1967). 37, Keith, A, B.-The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and the Upanisads, Vol. II, Harvard Oriental Series, Vol. 32. 38. Kirfel, Willibald -"Der Aswamedha un der Purusamedha" (Beitrage zur indischen Philologie und Alter tumskunde, Vol. 7. 1951), See Kapadia B. H. 39. Kirk, G. S.- The Nature of Greek Myths, Pelican Books, Harmondsworth, Eng. land. 1974. 40. Macdonell, A. A.-A History of Sanskrit Literature, Delhi, 1962. 41. Macdonell, A. A-A Vedic Reader for Students, Madras, 4th Edn., 1957. 42. Maedonell, A. A. & Keith, A. B-Vedic Index of Names and Subjects, Vols. I & II, Delhi. 1958. 43. Majumdar, D. N. -Himalayan Polyandry, Bombay, 1963. 44. Majumdar, R. C., Ed.-(See Pusalkar, A. D.) 45. Pargiter, F. E.- Ancient Indian Historical Tradition, Delhi, 1962 46. Penzor, N. M., Ed. The Ocean of Story (Katha-sarit-sagara of Somadeva, Tr. c. H. Tawney), Vols. 1-X, Delhi. 1968. 47. Phatak, D. S. -"Indra-Mahotsav" (Journol of the S.N.D.T. Women's Univer sity, Bombay, Vol. IV, 1973). 48. Pradhan Sita Nath-Chronology of Ancient India, Calcutta, 1927. 49. Pusalkar, A. D.--Studies in Epics aud Puranas of India, Bombay, 1963, 2nd im pression. 50. Pusaikar, A. D.--"Historical Traditions" (1he Vedic 4ye, Ed. R. C. Majumdar, Book IV) Bombay, 1965. 51. Rawson, Philip-The Arts of Tantra, Delhi, 1973. 52. Rice, Edward P.-The Mahabharata : Analysis and Index, London, 1934, 53. Shah, U. P., Ed.-The Valmiki-Ramayana (VII. Uttara-kanda), Baroda, 1 75. 54. Shastri, A. D.-"The Legend of Vasu Uparicara" (Bulletin of the Chunilal Gan dhi Vidya Bhavan, Surat, No. 6-7, 1959-60) 55. Shastri, A. D.-"Virataparvan-A Study" (Bulletin of the Chunilal Gandhi Vi. dya Bhavan, Surat, No. 4, 1957). 56. Shende, N. J.--"The Authorship of the Ramayana" (Journal of the University of Bombay, Vol. XII (New Series) Part 2, Arts No. 18, Sept. 1943). 57. Shipley, Joseph T.-See Thompson, Stith. 58. Shipley, Joseph T.-See Dandekar, R. N. 59. Sorensen, S.- An Index to the Names in the Mahabharata, Delhi, 1963. . 60. Steinberg, S. H., Ed. (See Brown, Arthur). 61. Sukthankar, V. S.--"The Bhtgus and the Bharata : A Text Historical Study" (V. S. Sukthankar Memorial Edition. Vol. I, Critical Studies in the Maha... bharata, Ed. P. K. Gode), Bombay, 1944. 62. Sukthankar, V, S.- On the Meaning of the Mahabharata, Bombay, 1957, 63. Sukthankar, V. S., Ed.-The Mahabharata (I. Adiparvan), BORI, Poona, 1933.

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Select Bibliography 64. Sukthankar, V. S., Ed.-The Mahabharata (III. Aranyakaparvan), BORI, Poona, 1942. 65. Tawney, C. H.-(See Penzer, N. M.) 66. Thite, Ganesh U.-"Antipathy to Rajasuya: Why" (Sambodhi, Ahmedabad, Vol I, No. 3, 1972). 67. Thompson, Stith-Folk-Tale, Indiana, U.S.A, 1946, 68. Thompson, Stith-Folk-Tale" (Dictionary of World Literary Terms, Ed. Joseph T. Shipley), London, 1970. 69. Upadhye, A. N., Ed.-The Brhat-Katha-Koia of Harisena, Bombay, 1943. 70. Vaidya, C. V-Mahabharata-A Criticism, Delhi, 1966. 71. Vaidya, C. V.-The Riddle of the Ramayana, Delhi, 1972. 72. Vora, Dhairyabala P.-Evolution of Morals in the Epics, Bombay, 1959. 73. Wikander, Stig-"La Legende des Pandava et la Substructure mythique du Mahabharata" (Tr. in Jupiter, Mars, Quirinus, IV.) Paris, 1948. 74, Winternitz, M.-History of Indian Literature, Vol. I, (Tr. Mrs. S. Ketkar), Cal 195 cutta, 1927, 75. Winternitz, M.-Some Problems of India1 Literature, Calcutta, 1925. 76. Winternitz, M.-The Serpent-Sacrifice Mentioned in the Mahabharata" (Tr. N. B. Utgikar, Journal of the Bombay Branch of Royal Asiatic Society (NewSeries), Vol. 2, No. 1, 1926). HINDI MARATHI GUJARATI 1. Bulcke, Camille-Rama-Katha, (Hindi), Prayag, 1950, 2, Chaturvedi, Giridhar Sharma, Mm. Pt.-Purana-Paritilana (Hindi), Patna, 1970. 3. Kausalyayan, Bhadanta Anand, Tr;-Jataka (Hindi, in 5 volumes). Prayag, 19411954) 4. Kavathekara, Prabhakara Narayana-Samskrta Sahitya Men Nitikatha ka Udgama eva Vikasa. (Hindi), Varanasi, 1969. 5. Sen, Kshitimohan-"Bharata man Anek Sanskritio no Sangam" (Tr. in Gujarati by Ravishankar Raval, Buddhiprakash, Ahmedabad. Vol. CXVI, No. 4, June 1969). 6. Shastri, Keshavram K. "Mahabharata manthi Jaya-Sambita ane Bharata-Samhita" (Gujarati, Svadhyaya, Baroda, Vol. VIII, No. 3, 1971). 7. Thite, Ganesh U-"Samavedtya Sahityaci Vaidika Yajna Karmata Bhara" (Marathi, Navabharata, Sept. 1973).

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