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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epits
Manusmộti.346 This proves that the ślokas concerning the rules of the responsibility of the senators in regard to the correct solution of a problem paused before them by an inflicted person were already existing, either in the Smộti-work or even in popular currency, and the tale within which they are framed now is entirely fictitious, concocted merely to provide a pretext for including those slokas into the epic. The ślokas by themselves are, however, very pertinent in the context of the episode of Draupadi-vastrabarana in an open assembly of elders and scholars which is of central and a source-like importance to the epic-narrative. That also explains the necessity of concocting a tale for the inclusion of those ślokas. If Vidura is shown to quote them from a current Smsti-work, it would obviously be a fault of anachronism - the character of a tale of yore quoting from a current Book of Ethics. So the ślokas are shown to be quoted, not from a recent Smộti-text, but from an ancient, so-called 'historical, tale. The tale is prefixed with the recurrent refrain : 'atrāpy udābarant imam itibāsam purātanam', 347 so well-known to us from a number of tales of the Santi and Anuśāsana Parvans. Like that other recurrent refrain 'tatra tasyadbhutam karma śļuņu me janamejaya'843 which indicates a fictitious heroic tale, this refrain also is a sort of ballmark for the fictitious nature of the tale prefixed by it. Mostly such historical tales are intended to frame a didactic discourse. This is a sort of a customary tale-form which is seen to be prevalent even in the philosophical discourses of the Upanisads. The episodic or stor y-element in all such epic-tales is so thin and evidently pretextual that no one would claim for it any historicity particularly in the epics and Purāņas where fiction and concoction are the order of the day, are more a practice than an exception. Their reliability as historical material is as certain in the Upanişads as it is uncertain in the epics. The reason of this difference is obvious. The very search of the Upanişads is for the ultimate truth, the very atmosphere of the Upanişads rings with this veritability. On the other hand, the romantic popular imagination is seen rampant in the streets of the epic-world. So, whenever a didactic discourse must be included in the epic, the customary itibāsa-form of folk-tale is resorted to, but the form is no guarantee of the episode described in the tale being actually historical. The epic-atmosphere does not care for, and therefore, offers no guarantee of its historical reliability. The Upanişadic tale-form is adopted for didactic purposes, but without the Upanisadic sincerity for truth.
The fuller tales of the SabP seem, more or less, to represent the three large groups of tales in the MBh. The birth-stories of Jarāsandha and Siśupāla represent the birth-story-group which occupies such a huge portion of AdiP. The tale of King Nila and Fire contains some legendary material concealing some cultural aspect. Many of such legendary tales of different regions are collected in the VanP. The parable of the hypocritic bird and the didactic Itibāsa-tale of Virocana-Sudhanvan represent the form's 346 Cp. SabP. 61.67-68, 69, 70, 71, 76 with Manusmrti, VIII, 82, 12, 14, 18, 19 and
74 respectively. 347 SabP, 61.58ab. 348 Cf, AdiP. 206,7.
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