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The Tales in Mahabharata
161
We only need to point out that the glaring fact that ratio between the span of these so-called 'temporal hiatuses' and the amount of such extraneous element seems to be rather in an inverse proportion does not seen to corroborate the observation. The period between the fall of Bhişma and his death - from Dakşiņāyana to Uttarāyana - the period of a few days, at the most of six months, is filled up with two voluminous parvans-Santi and Anušāsana - with a total of some seventeen thousand verses. Against this, the twelve years of the Pāņdavas' exile into forest are filled up with a single parvan-the Vanaparvan-and with some twelve thousand verses. Still greater wonder is that the period of Adip can be shown to be from the beginning of the Earth - we are not joking, the tale of Vasu Uparicara and the Adivaṁśăvataraņaparvan stand testimony to this -- upto the event of Arjuna's burning the Khāndava forest; yet this nearly infinite gap of time is filled with a parvan of about six thousnd verses. We shall not be blamed if we feel disinclined to agree with Dr. Sukthankar's eloquent observations regarding the temporal hiatuses. The author of these voluminous digressions had actually no sense of the archetectonic beauty and harmony of a composition of art. Dr. Sukthankar's observations might be acceptable only in the case of VanP, but not in the other two cases.
It is not difficult to observe even within the small compass of the SabP that the secondary tales when narrated fully do hamper the smooth flow of the epic-narrative, When there is only a passing reference or allusion to some famous story or some past event in the life of an epic-character, such reference or allusion adds to the force of the narrative, particularly of the emotive arguments. Thus, in the dialogues of Sisupāla and Krsua derogatory references to each other's past deeds add to the conflicting tension of the episode which very dramatically mounts up in a small but sharp repartee about Rukmiņi and the surprisingly quick climax of Siśupāla's abrupt death at the hands of Krsna. But, compare the effect that Bhisma's narration of the birthstory of śiśupāla creates. It definitely slackens the pace of the rising graph and weakens the tension. Similarly, the allusive references in Vidura's speeches do add to the force of his arguments, but in the midst of the horripilating experience of the shameless episode of Draupadi-vastra-harani which leaves even elderly scions of Dharma like Bhişma and Droņa dumbfounded, what effect does the itihāsa-tale of Prablāda-Virocana-Sudhanvan create ? Does it add to the grimness of the atmosphere in any way ? Does it accelerate the emotive force of the situation ? To us it seems that a detailed narration of even a single secondary tale definitely acts as a detriment to the flow of impassioned dialogues or forceful narrative. It is not without an aesthetic reason, that the poet of the central Kāndas of RM has almost completely refrained from including narrations of any secondary tales !
S.T. 21
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