Indian Antiquary Vol 27

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 83

MARCI, 1898.) THE SOUTH-INDIAN RECENSION OF THE MAHABHARATA.
79
(a) Deandgari (Bombay) edition.
(6) South Indian MS. 204a. (24) consisting of Anukramanika
dhyáya and Parvasan
graha (?). 1045-105a. (25) This Vyâsa first taught to
his son 'Saka, then to other
fit pa pils. 1056-107a. (26) Then he composed another
Samhitá for the gods, another for the Pitsis, one for the Gandharvas, besides
the one for men. 107b-109a. (27) Nârada recited them to the
Devas, Asita Devala to the Pitsis, Suka to the Gandharvas, Yakshas, and Rakshas, Vaisampâyana to
men. 1096. (28) I (Sauti ?) recited 100,000
slokas. 110-111. (29) Duryodhana and Yudhişthira
represented as trees. It will be admitted at once that neither of the two versions sketched above is quite satisfactory.
In both versions Vyása considers how he might teach the Mahabharata to his disciples, whereupon the god Brahman appears. The Northern recension here introduces Gaņeśa 'who, on Brahman's suggestion, is charged with writing down the Mahabharata. But we are not told that this copy made by Ganesa was ever used by Vyâsa as a means of instructing his disciples. On the contrary, it is pretty clear from vy. 80-83 that the legend of Ganesa was chiefly invented in order to enhance the vastness of the Mahabharata, and the profoundness of its teaching, and to shew the skill of Vyasa in dictating the poem without a stop. The statement in v. 81 abont Sauti, Suka, and Sanjaya knowing 8,800 verses comes in quite abruptly and contradicts the statements of v. 109. Even more abrupt is the transition from v. 93 to vy. 94 seqq. Sauti says that he is going to speak about the flowering and the production of fruit of the tree called Mahábharata. Then follows the story of Vyasa's Niyoga, his instructing Vaisampayana, and reciting the poem at Janamejaya's sacrifice (vv. 966-99a). It is just possible, thongł not probable, that the summary in vv. 996-101 was intended to be the description of the flowering and production of fruit' of the Mahdbharata tree. Bat it seems to me more probable that vy. 110 899., if not 112 sqq., should follow immediately after v. 93.
In the South Indian recension, the allnsion to Vyasa's Niyoga (vv. 966 seqq.) follows, more properly, after v. 54. But we meet with the same difficulty in the Southern, as in the Northern recension, when Vyasa begins to consider as to the best method of teaching the Mahabharata, and Brahman appears. It is by no means clear how Vyåsa derives any help from the god in his perplexity, unless it be by Brahman's describing the Mahabhárata as a tree, of which the eighteen Parvans are root, branches, etc.
There is, in the Southern version too, a hiatus after the words of Sata or Santi, "I will speak of the branches, flowers, fruits, etc., of that tree (vis., the Mahabharata)," but this hiatus is, at any rate, not so great as in the Northern recension, I am pazzled by the two lines :
भनुक्रामिणमछुपायं वृत्तान्सानां सपर्वषां। इदं द्वैपायनः पूर्व पुषमद्धपापयच्छुकं ॥