Secondary Tales of the Two Great Epics

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

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Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics
taken as .conjectures based on the logical implications of the term "Jaya' as applied to the epic, and to be corroborated by further evidences.
It should be noted in this context that, within the MBh itself, the only other episode to be called by the name of Jaya' is that of Vidulā-putrānuśāsana which is only an advice of Vidulā to her son to act bravely on the battlefield. No other secondary tale is called 'Jaya', though the term Itihasa is applied to many other secondary tales and incidents. 58 Also none of the secondary tales narrates the war of human heroes as its central theme. Some incidents or tales would seem to contradict this dictum at first sight but that the contradiction is only apparent and not real can be shown very easily. "Vidula's Advice' is only a sermon, without the actual war in which her son must have fought. Rāmopākhyāna is obviously an abridgement of the RM59 and not an independent tale. Devāsura wars are to be classed as wars of nonhumans, and even then, they are never actually described but only referred to. Fights between individuals lik: the one between Sunda and Upasunda do occasionally occur in some tales but the distinction between a combat and a war is too obvious to be reiterated.
These considerations lead to some obvious conclusions : The central theme of a 'Jaya' Itihāsa must have been a war, most probably a war of human beings. The RM and the MBh were originally tales of wars of human beings. Even in the form in which we have the epics today, war-tales of human beings are, indeed, the core of these epics. Though RM has nowhere been called a Jaya' Kāvya by name, it can obviously be placed in that group with absolute propriety, and the only reason why it has never been called by that name seems to be that long back, RM had ceased to be recognized as an Itihāsa and was accepted as Adi-kavya. But the very fact that it had been chosen for an epic-treatment points to the great probability of its being a human-war-story, a Jaya' type of Itihasa.
On the other hand, Vidula's sermon is actually called a Jaya' Kavya, but whatever portion of Vidula's story remains is anything but a war-tale. Yet, even in its mutilated form it also leaves no doubt that in its original fuller form, it must have been a tale of human war. Therefore, there must have been more, perhaps many more, such 'Jaya' ballads, since wars, small and large, were not only too common in those days but they also possessed an uncommon influence upon and attraction for the common man.
However, it must be noted that, barring the two great epic stories themselves, no other example of such bardic poems has come down to us, even among those preserved in the epics. Whatever Akhyānas are preserved in the epics, particufarly in the MBh,
58 See, for instance, atr āpy'udäbarantimam itihāsam purätanam/SabP. 61.58. 59 Cf. The Rāmāyana; H. Jacobi, Tr. S. N. Ghosal, pp.58-59; History of Indian Literature. M.
Winternitz. Tr. Mrs. S. Ketkar, Calcutta, Vol.I. pp. 516-7; Sukthankar Memorial Edition, I, V. S, Sukthankar, Ed. P. K. Gode, pp. 413-4, etc.