Secondary Tales of the Two Great Epics

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

Page 61

Secondary Tales of the two Great Epics
an incarnation of the Highest God, the redactor reveals a very deep sensitivity. Kṛṣṇa is not the hero of the epic, The Pandavas are the heroes. But Kṛṣṇa is the character commanding their highest respect and exerting greatest influence on their activites as well as guiding them deftly through many a thick of the situations. In showing this Kṛṣṇa as an incarnation of the Highest God, the redactor very aptly shows the benevolent sākṣibhāva of the Supreme God. The creatures bear fruits of their actions but the Almighty helps the right succeed in the end. He is not the Actor, he is only Moulder.
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(3) The Entourage Tales
Sargas 17 to 21 narrate the episode which, in a way, can be said to belong to the principal story. Viśvamitra comes to Dasaratha and asks from him his son Rāma for ten days for guarding his (i.e. Visvamitra's) sacrifice from demons Marica and Subahu. Dasaratha hesitates, but Viśvämitra narrates the history of the weapons 2 which Visvamitra possesses, and persuades the king to comply with the wish of the sage whereupon the king agrees. The sage Viśvämitra then proceads with the two princes Rama and Lakṣmaṇa in the direction of Siddhasrama where he intends to perform the sacrifice.
The episode has many significant implications. It is Visvamitra, and not Vasistha, who equips Rama with those divine weapons which eventually become his strongpoint in his fight against Ravana and his commanders. Visvamitra's image is raised at the cost of Vasistha who, as the family priest of the Solar race, has a right and a responsibility to shape the hero's personality properly so as to prepare him for the great task which awaits him. The demons obstructing the sacrifice are, again, said to be acting upon the instruction of Ravana; of these demons, Tataka, the wife of Sunda, and Subahu, the son of Upasunda, are killed by Rama; while Marica is made senseless and flung into distant oceans." On the one hand, tnis shows Rama, the great bow-wielder, in the making. He, with the help of Lakṣmaṇa only, fights back the three demons with their host. On the other hand, the episode is also perhaps intended to serve as the starting point of the conflict between the hero and the entagonist, since the demons obstructing the sacrifice are said to be instigated by Ravana himelf. The duplication is obvious. The real starting point of the epic conflict is the famous insult of Surpanakha who, then, incites Ravana's lust for revenge as well as for the beautiful Sita.
82 BK. 20.13-17.
83 BK. 26-27.
84 BK. 19.18.
85 BK. 23.25 & BK. 25.
86 BK, 29.19.
87 BK, 29. 16-17,