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The Tales in Mahabharata
125
Ksatriyas 3×7 times, Brahmanas begot in the Ksatriya-women a fresh Kaatriya clan to protect the earth. For some time all was well. Then Asuras were born and they oppressed the Earth. The Earth complained to Lord Brahman who ordered the gods. to be born on earth. The gods, with Indra at their head. went to Lord Narayana with a request to be born on earth. The gods adopted partial incarnation and destroyed the evil beings. At this point, Janamejaya's insatiable curiosity to hear everything right from the beginning creates an occasion for including a complete account of cosmology in the Puranic fashion. As many species of living beings as possible are accounted for in Adhyayas 59 and 60. Adhyaya 61 gives an account of human species ending with a list of the dramatis personae of the great epic itself shown to be partial incarnations of various gods and demons. It is obvious that the tale of Genesis as well as the purănic cosmological account could not have formed part of the original. The cosmological account serves to bring the epic nearer to Purāņas, while in the tale of Genesis the incarnation theory is pressed into service and it helps to project the epic. as Sukthankar has shown, on the ethical plane, on a cosmic level,205
A bird's eye view of the entire AdiP. reveals a definite design in the arrangement of its matter. The movement from the most general or universal to the particular is clearly perceived. The following stages of the movement of the narrative towards its central event can broadly be pointed out: The tale of Genesis (AdiP. 58-59); a Purāṇa-like cosmological account of all the living creatures (59-60), among them an account of the origin of human beings, tribe-wise and country-wise, ending with a list of the epic-personae introduced as partial incarnations of gods and demons (61); greatness of the race of Kurus illustrated by two stories-that of Sakuntala (62-69) and that of Yayati (70-88) one of national interest, the other of anthropologicomythological interest-; two formal genealogical accounts of the race of Puru (89-90); the individual accounts of births and careers of the various epic-characters beginning with that of Bhisma (91-93); the births of the other warrior-heroes of the epic (94 ff.); the jealousy of Kauravas (particularly of Duryodhana) (118 ff.); their attempts upon the lives of the Pandavas (119.39 ff; particularly 124 ff. viz. the Jatugṛha-daha-parvan); the latters' escape, achievements, marriage, return and regainment of their share of kingdom. So the arranger of the contents of AdiP-the Vyasa' of AdiP-begins by throwing light, as it were, upon the origin of the world, then gradually narrows the focus upon the origin of the race of the epic-heroes, narrows it further upon the origin of the various epic-characters and then, concentrating upon the events which simultaneously show the progressive achievements of the heroes as well as accentuation of the jealousy of Duryodhana-the principal cause of the epic-conflict, gears the narrative in the direction of those events of SabP which, as we have already seen, mark the starting point of the nuclear epic. The gradual movement from general to particular is clear.
205 See above p. 78.
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