Secondary Tales of the Two Great Epics

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

Page 44

The Tales in Rāmāyaṇa
any familiarity with the episodes of these two Kandas. Therefore, MBh must have been finalised before the late Kāadas were given their present shape and RM attained its present form. This is confirmed by the silence and mention of these events in the two catalogues respectively. It is also significant that the extra episodes of the second list are clearly demarcated as belonging to the two Kandas either in the beginning or in the end. This means, these two Kāņdas are later than the other Kāndas.
It is shown that even among these two Kāndas, UK is later than BK. We can further point out that even in BK, Vālmīki is mentioned nowhere except in these four Sargas. In this, the affinity of the Sargas to those parts of UK wherein Vālmīki figures is greater than to the rest of the BK. Therefore, if we agree that BK belongs to the second stage in the development of RM, and UK to the third, then these four Sargas will have to be placed in the third stage alongwith the UK.
Sarga 2 gives us that beautiful prefatory episode wherein sage Vālmīki goes to the river Tamasā to take his daily bath, sees the male of a pair of cranes in union being pierced by the arrow of a nişāda hunter, hears the piteous wails of the female and is so deeply moved that his feelings find a spontaneous and immortal expression in the rhythin of the classical anuştubh couplet. The tale is, as if, made to illustrate Wordsworth's famous definition of poetry --'a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.' Almost all the commentators of RM take the pair of cranes as symbolic of the hero and the heroine, the arrow being the dart of separation which, thereafter, became almost eternal. Incidentally, the tale also shows the potentials of the classical anustubh which, in contrast to the Vedic anusţubh, is more restrained and more rhythmic, thus better suited to the poetic requirements of the sombre and dignified pace of the epic. The sage also is revealed to possess a very sensitive, sympathetic, imaginative heart, and therefore, the most appropriate person to handle the tender, pathetic, beautiful Rāma-story. The tale, as it shows the origin of poetry, is beautiful in itself and in the context of the epic, it is brought to serve many useful purposes.
The beauty and usefulness of the tale is realised more clearly when contrasted with the episode prefaced to the MBh, wherein Lord Ganeša agrees to work as a scribe for sage Vyāsa. The sage dictates to him the entire MBh continuously for three years. The tale is clearly a foolish imitation of the RM-tale referred to above, and serves no better purpose than to provide to the author of the MBh a status higher than that of Lord Ganesa himself. It is a foolish answer to the wondering question whether it is possible for a human being to write out such a huge corpus of heterogenous matter and it can satisfy only the lowest layer of intelligence. Rightly has it been relegated to the appendix. 10 Compared to this, the author of the Valniki--episode in RM reveals a much more refined artistic sense. 8 ibid. Ch. III. 9 ibid. p. 143. 10 vide Footnote to Appendix passage 1, AdiP. Pp. 384-85 Even the passage 1 wherein Brahmā
praised MBh is merely a stale imitation of the RM-tale wherein Lord Brahmā informs sage Valmiki about the best of human beings (BK. Sarga 1.)