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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics
poraneities and chronologies on the basis of such tales and, then, to attempt to reconstruct some history on the basis of such data would be, to say the least, misdi. rected efforts.
Sukthankar takes the cow in the story-group of Vasiştha-Viśvāmitra-conflict to be symbolic of Virāj. The cow, according to him, is a point of contact between the Vedic and the epic ideology. Vasistha and Viśvāmitra are taken by Hariyappa to be embodiments of Sattva and Rajas. We have pointed out a possibility that their conflict might be symbolic of the struggle of the two most eminent Vedic gods Varuņa and ladra for superiority. Similarly the Rsyaśộnga-tale, the Abalyā-tale, the Tapati Samvaraņa-tale are possibly agricultural-fertility-myths. Vyuşilāśva-Bhadrā-tale is symbolic of the Upasaṁveśana rite of Aśvamedha. Dange bas shown that the Kacalegend is symbolic of the initiation rites, the Ocean-churoing legend represents the Soma-pressing-ceremony. Cumulatively speaking the epic-stories are more often than not personifications or concretisations of some Abstract Vedic ideas. Philosophical concepts or sacrificial rites are often put in the concrete form of a story.
...... It is only a corollary of the above that the tales often indicate the vicissi. tudes through which our Vedic gods pass. Rşyśộnga-tale points out the Vedic Indra, who, from being agressive, turns to be coward under the Šramaņic influence. The ta. les of Vasiştha-Viśvāmitra-conflict might indicate the stages through which the Vedic gods Indra and Varuņa pass, or, in other words, indicate "a silent transition in thought from the many gods to whom the most elaborate forms of sacrifices were ordained in the Vedas to the one Absolute of the Upanişads”.4 The tales, thus, might show some very interesting mythical developments.
It is interesting to compare certain recurrent motif-structures which sometimes yield very striking results. The tapo-bhanga motif-structure, for example, studied in relation to the Rsyasțnga tale, reveals the real nature of Indra's role in it which originally was a fertility-rite. The motif of punishing the sinful mother reflected in the Cirakārin-tale shows a popular method of criticism by rearranging certain details in the same motif-structure. Comparison of the motif-structures at the beginning of the two epics with that of Nala-story reveals SabP to begin the original cpic. Revenge of the father's murder is the motif of the tales of Cyavana, Aurva, Paraśara, Janamejaya, Paraśurāma. The last three are reported to have attempted to exterminate the whole races of the enemies - of Rāk sasas, of Nāgas, of Ksatriyas, Tales like those of Puloman, or of Ruru-Pramadvarā turn out to be purely fictitious as revealed by a study of their motif-structure.
The secondary tales often introduce peculiar contradictions in the epics. The episode of Rāma's performing Aśvamedba beautifully frames the epic, but strikes at the ideal of Rāma, the steadfast lover, symbol of conjugal fidelity. The Vyusitāśva
4 On the Meaning of the Mahabharata, Sukthankar, p. 69,
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