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MEHENDALE: Mahabharata Studies I
refer to some place-name far from Hastinapura. About its exact identification we may not be certain now. It may refer to the Kumara-vişaya in the east whose king Srepimant was conquered by Bhimasena (Mbh. 2. 27.1) and which lay near Cedi and the Kosala countries"; or it may refer to the Kumara-tirtha (in the south?) referred to in the Brahmandapurāna 3. 13. 86".
All this is not said to assert that akumaram cannot mean up to the children.' In suitable contexts it can very well do so. In the Mahabharata itself where ākumāram is used with reference to nagara or pura it means • upto the children Eg. भकुमारं नरम्यान तरपुरं वै समन्ततः आर्तनाद महच्चक्रे 9. 1. 16; also 1. 118. 30.
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(2) A Few Cases of Internal Incongruity in the Sabhāparvan. (i) Enumeration of the Gandharvas in the Indrasabha.
In the Sabha parvan, Närada, at the request of Yudhisthira, describes for him the Halls (sabha) of Indra, Yama, Varuna, Kubera, and Brahman (Adhyayas 7-11). When this description is over, Yudhisthira in stanzas 43-48 of Adhyaya 11 recounts the special features of all the five sabhas as described to him by Narada. When he comes to the Indrasabha he says i "Oh sage, you have enumerated for the sabha of Satakratu the gods, the Gandharvas in brief, and the different great seers." When we compare the information contained in this stanza with the contents of the constituted text of Adhyaya 7 which describes the Indrasabha, we find that the gods and the various sages are, indeed, enumerated, but as for the Gandharvas there is only a general reference to them, 10 along with the Apsaris, and they have not been enumerated even briefly. A general reference to the Gandharvas (and the Apsaras) is found in the descriptions of all the sabhas and therefore it cannot be looked upon as a special feature of the Indrasabha. On the other hand, it is for the Kuberasabha that the Apsarlisl and the Gandharvas13 are enumerated in details. This can thus be a specia
7 Among those people who brought tribute to Yudhisthira at the time of the Rajasūya are listed the Kundamānāḥ. For this reading adopted in the critical edition (2. 48. 13) there is a variant Kumāras ca. Since the word occurs with Kasmiraḥ, the Kumāras, mentioned here, could be from the north-west.
● कौमारं च सरः पुष्यं नागभोगाभिरक्षितम्। कुमारतीर्थे स्नात्वा तु त्रिदिवं याति मानवः ॥
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satakratusabhāyām tu devāḥ samkirtitā mune uddeśata's ca gandharvā vividhai ca maharṇayaḥ 2. 11. 47. Devabodha glosses uddeśaḥ samkepah. van Buitenen, however, distinctly".
10 tathaivapsaraso rajan gandharvas ca manoramaḥ
devarājam satakratum 2. 7. 21.
11 2. 8. 35 (of Yama ), 2. 9. 23 ( of Varuna), 2. 11. 19, 36 ( of Brahman).
12 2. 10. 10-11; also *111, 112.
18 2. 10. 14-17. Stanza 14 mentions two classes of Gandharvas - those that are named 4 Kimnara' and those that are named Nara'. The listing that follows seems to enumerate the Gandharvas of the Kimnara' type. It is likely that this listing concluded somewhere and then followed another list viz. that of the Yakṣas (cf. st. 18).
Madhu Vidya/410
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