Secondary Tales of the Two Great Epics

Author(s): Rajendra I Nanavati
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 36

Introductory
23
believed by some writers".57 This shows that Jaya' was a name applicable not to MBh alone, but to a certain class of works to which MBh itself must have originally belonged
It still remains to be clarified, what was the nature of this class of works. Perhaps, the best pointer is the name 'Jaya' itself. It must have been a class of works which described victories - obviously in wars. The subject of wars was perhaps the most fascinating to the ancient people of all nations. The famous dictum 'yuddhasya kathā ramyā' needs only to be reminded in this context. The valorous deeds of the heroes in war always fascinated the people, attained national significance and formed the chief subject of the ancient heroic poetry - lays and ballads and ākhyānas — from which all the great national epics like Iliad, Odyssey, Kalewala, Nibelungenlied, Beowulf, Chanson de Roland, Aeneid, Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata -- all, principally, the tales of wars and victories – have developed. MBh is often referred to in the body of the epic itself as Bharata Akhyāna, and that mast have been its original name and its original form. It must have been an ākhyāna describing the war between the two families of Bhārata clan, ending in the victory of one of the sides, the Pandavas.
Considering it from the point of view of its artistic form, therefore, war must have been the central event, the climax of events, and the events of StrP and Yudhisthira's coronation must have formed its denouement. That should be the logical end of a Jaya' type of Itihāsa. This can also be confirmed from the RM where the original epic is believed by all to be ending in the events of YK with Rāma's victory over Rāvana and his coronation. Even in the Nala-story, Nala finally wins over Kali, over Puskara (of course, in the game of dice) and is reinstalled upon his throne. We would not be far from right, therefore, in postulating that Yudhişthira's coronation after his victory in the war must have been the termination-point of the original epic, and the events thereafter, from sānP onwards upto the end must have been added subsequently.
Here also we can distinguish between the secondary and the tertiary stages of interpolations. The events from ĀśvP upto the end are mostly connected with the heroes, though not with the central theme, and therefore, must belong to the second stage; while the didactic purpose of the material of sānP and AnuP containing Bhīşma's sermons to Yudhisthira on royal and moral duties of a king as well as the framing purpose of the first half of AdiP containing Janamejaya-story are too obvious to leave us in any doubt about their inclusion in the latermost stages of the epicredaction.
But we must point out again that there is no direct textual evidence to support our statements in the preceding two paragraphs; whatever is stated here must be
57 ¡bid, p. 989. B.5.136. 18 in the quotation is Bhip. 136.18