Secondary Tales of the Two Great Epics

SR No.: 001566
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Rajendra I Nanavati
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1982
Total Pages: 210
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Literature, Mythology, & Story
File Size: 15 MB

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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, Adikända (= 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 Aśvamedha 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 - Pramadvarā -