Indian Antiquary Vol 31

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

Page 12

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JANUARY, 1909.
has made use of many s'nitidstra' (Nöldeke, I. c., p. 180), so that we are justified in calling his epon! either a kávya or a smrti, unless we prefer to give it both titles, inasmuch as the first term refers moro to the form and the second more to the contents. What then of Başa's and Subandhu's calling the Mahabharata a kdvya (Cartellieri, Vienna Or. Journ., XIII., pp. 57 899.)? Does it follow from that statement, as Winternitz argues, that the Mahabharata was the great national poem of India before the didactic elements were added to it? I think we must be careful in applying our precise European definitions to literary works of India ; thus the Visnudharmottara-Purana is styled by Alberuni Visnudkarma (Bühler, Ind. Ant., 1890, p. 882) and in the Pardaara-Smrti it is quoted simply 88 Dharma (ed. Islampurkar, Vol. I., part ii, pref. p. 7); and the Mahabharata itself is often called the fifth Veda, a name which points to the fact that some people looked upon it as a sectarian book.
III. - The Pandava-saga. There has been much discussion about the curious fact that the five brothers, who occupy such a prominent position in the epic, are, in opposition to every Indian law, represented as married to one woman. Dahlmann tried at first to explain this polyandry as a mere invention by the author for the sake of illustrating the doctrine of the undivided family. But as no one was willing to follow him in this explanation, he combined it, in his second work, with another proposed long ago by Lassen, vit., the five brothers represent as many members of political federation. Unfortunately there is not a single historical fact in support of such a view, and Dahlmann himself makes use of the same argument (Genesis d. Mhbhr., pp. 177 899.) to refute the hypothesis, according to which the polyandric marriage of Draupadi was a real historical event. As in the last case ethnological coincidences prove nothing. so in the first the lack of historical evidence is not made up by the · Five Tribes of the Veda. Now, if, on the one hand, the story of Draupadi has not been invented by the author, and, on the other, if it is not a historical event, we are compelled to acknowledge in it a poetical license. Polyandry was, it is true, against Indian custom, but it existed among many of their neighbours, and therefore was familiar to the Indians. This is also the way in which Jacobi looks upon the vexed question (G. G. A., 1899, pp. 884 899.), and in adopting this standpoint we escape the necessity of supposing with Holtzmann (D. Mhbhr., I., pp. 30 sq.) and Winternitz (J. R. A. S., 1897, p. 752; W. Z.K.M., XIV., p. 68) that the Brahmans invented legends to justify a real polyandric marriage. What authorises us, e.g., to take the Pancendropakhyana for a younger rationalistic supplement? I cannot but agree with Barth (J. d. Sav., 1897, p. 45) that we go astray, at least in the present state of the Mahabharata question, if we try to find out chronological stratifications in the published text 10 The satasdhasri sasihitd bears & striking likeness to a mosaic work composed of innumerable little stones. If we wish to get an idea of its technic, we must above all examine, how many kinds of stones of the same size or the same colour have been made use of; but during this inquiry the age or provenance of the stones will be of little, if any, value to us.
But let us retarn to our subject.
It is a most characteristic feature of the Indian mind to represent one personage under different aspects (avatdra, jdtaka), and the five brothers might very well turn out to be personifications of as many qualities of a single hero :-- his righteousness is personified by Yudhisthira, his strength by Bhima, his skill by Arjuna, his beauty and vanity by Nakula and Sahadeva. Moreover, the story of Indra's tejas, which quits him, - as it is told in the Márkándeya Purana, - reminds one of the Iranian legend of the hrarenó, the majesty, which quits Yima in consequence of his sin. Further, it is very curious that instead of asvin the vedic word násatyall is here used,
On the other hand, Lillie in his work Buddhiem in Christendom (London, 1887) suggests that "in reality the five sonn (i. e., the Pandavas) were one man."
• Of. Franke, Lit. C. Bl., 1900, p. 1016. 16 I exprorror this conviction some time ago. See my article on the Khoddi-me, W. 2. K. X., 1806, p. 325.
11 In the Veda ndsalya seems to be a single person, out of which the 'twin brothers' may very easily evolve. Could asuin not signify a centaur ?