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DHURTAKHYANA:
(I. 5; II. *5*; IV. *3*), the details of the legends are more specifically traced in the additional passages recorded in the foot-notes and Appendix of the critical edition of the Mbh. That only means, the recension of the Mbh. which reached Haribhadra's ears was more inflated than our critical text which is constituted according to well-established and judiciously evolved canons of text criticism based on the available Mss.
Some of the legends quoted by Haribhadra appear to have been pieced together from different sources, even with mutual contamination (I. *6*; III. 3). It is creditable to Haribhadra that the number of such cases is quite small. This is inevitable in those days when one had to depend mainly on memory, which was a storehouse of all traditional lore, and not on books, as we do today.
Among the legends, the sources of which Haribhadra has clearly mentioned, some are found in the present-day texts with substantial agreement in details (I. *7*; II. *1*, *2*; III. *9* V. 7); but in three cases (I. *3*, 6; II. 6), though the sources are given as Bharata and Ramayana, we do not find any passages in the present-day texts to support Haribhadra. That Karna was born from Kunti's ear is a common story, quite popular even to this day, though not found in the Mbh.; and it is not surprising, if it was current in the days of Haribhadra too. First, karna means the ear, and popular etymology would certainly weave out such a story; secondly, there is as well a psychological motive, namely, by Karna's birth through the ear Kuntr's virginity remains intact, his generation by Sürya being after all miraculous, nay supernatural. Though Mbh. makes no mention of such a legend, I think, the birth of Kieskas from ktcakas or bamboo-hollows is similarly based on popular etymology; such a legend might have been current in the days of Haribhadra; and it is quite in tune with a host of legends in the epics and Puranas with which the miraculous germination of the semen into human beings' is a regular apparatus for the generation of the great men of the past about whose birth nothing exciting was specially known to the chronicler'. Coming to the episode of Jatayu, the epics do mention the mountain-like shape of Jatayu; and thereby Haribhadra's purpose is served. But the details of the story cannot be fitted in the present mould of Valmiki's Ramayaps. Haribhadra is quoting a Sanskrit vereo in that context; and it would indicate that he has some definite source before him.
My observations on the sources of Haribhadra's legends, I am quite aware, are tentative; and I hope that those scholars, who have better library facilities at their disposal and who have a closer study of the Puranas, would try to shed more light on this topic,
5. Sanskrit and Gujarati Dhurtākhyānas
The Sanskrit version of the Dhärtäkhyana, included in this edition,
I The Sanskrit and Gujarati Versions do not give this quotation.
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