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The Tales in Mahabharata
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his father's death themselves are sufficient to infuriate Janamejaya against Takşaka who prevented the senior king from coming back to life. Two, throughout the snakesacrifice-story-group Uttanka is hardly ever mentioned except at one or two insignificant places. 19 He does not occupy any office at the snake-sacrifice which is instigated by him. There is a whole list of the priests 20 who officiated at the snake-sacrifice, but there is none among them from the brāhmins mentioned in the Uttanka-story-group. If Uitanka really instigated the king, is it not strange that he himself does not participate in the sacrifice ?
The second story-group contains two tales. The first is of sage Burgu.21 The demon Puloman had chosen the beautiful lady, also Puloman by name, for himself, but her father gave her away to sage Bhțgu. Once, in the sage's asbence, the demon came to his hermitage, asked Fire whether the enceinte woman was the wife of Bhrgu and getting from him a correct answer in affirmative, kidnapped her. The angry embryo, however, slipped out (v cyu, hence his name 'Cyavana') of its mother's womb and by its sun-like lustre, burnt the demon to ashes. The Fire who had ans. wered correctly was cursed by the sage to be 'all-eater' but Lord Brabman explained that everything would be purified with his flames. The similarity of the names of the demon and his chosen woman remind us of the same motif occuring in the tale of Jaratkāru22 also. The curse of Bhrgu and its remedy by Brahman are only a sort of a various interpretation of the fact. But the name Puloman which is also given as the name of the wife of Indra at some places23, and the motif of the lover approaching his beloved - the wife of a sage in his absence, remind us of Indra approaching Ahalyā. Thus, every little spare-part of the tale is borrowed from eleswhere, and the tale reveals an entirely fictitious — not my thical — motif-structure.
The case of the second tale of the group is also not different. Pramadvarā, daughter of Menakā by Viśvāvasu, was left by her near the hermitage of sage Sthūlakeśa who kindly brought her up. She was bitten by a serpent and died only a few days before her marriage to Ruru, fourth in descent from Bhrgu. Ruru was mad with grief. At the suggestion of an angel he gave half of his life and revived her. To avenge, he then decided to kill each and every serpent he saw. Once, a non-poisonous snake Dudubha told him that it was not fair to avenge one serpent's folly upon the lives of all serpents, even non-poisonous, and that destruction of serpents was the task of Ksa. triya Janamejaya, not of a Brahmin. That occasions the tale of Janamejaya. The birth of Pramadvarā from Menakā and her bringing-up by sage Sthūlakeśa as well as the father's name Viśvāvasu (reminding us of Viśvāmitra) are clearly the motifs of the Sakuntalā-tale.24 The two motifs of avenging one serpent's act of biting
19 at AdiP. 46.25, 46.41. 20 AdiP. 48.5-10. 21 AdiP. 5-7. 22 AdiP. 13.25a. Sā nāmni ya bhavitri me. 23 Cf. Skanda-puräna. 4.4.80. 24 Cf. AdiP. 65.20-66.15.
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