Secondary Tales of the Two Great Epics

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

Page 62

The Tales in Rāmāyaṇa
The history of the weapons which Visvamitra possesses is narrated by Vasistha. Kraśva married two daughters of Dakṣa Prajapati, Jaya and Suprabha by name. Each gave birth to fifty brilliant never-failing weapons. Visvamitra knows them all. This Kraiva has been traced to the Vaisali line of kings by Pargiter,88 but the name of the Vaisali king as given in the critical edition of BK is Kuśaśva. Krśaśva the father of the weapons, should have been a mythical person, while Kušaśva perhaps refers to some historical person. It is better to believe them to be two different persons instead of identifying them as Pargiter does. Pradhan does not mention the name.
On their way from Ayodhya to Siddhaśṛama, Viśvāmitra narrates some tales connected with the places of their halts. On the bank of the confluence of the rivers Ganga and Saraya, they halt at Kämäśrama where, Viśvamitra narrates, Śiva burnt Kāma.89 Then they are in the dense forests of the Malada and Karaşa. Indra incurred the sin of Brahmicide by killing Vrtra. He was washed here of the sin by gods, and he blessed the country with prosperity,90 Presently, country is ravaged by Tataka, the daughter of Suketu, wife of Sunda, mother of Marica, and cursed by sage Agastya to become demoness for attacking him in fury upon the sage's killing of her husband,92 order to remove Rama's disinclination to kill a woman, Viśvāmitra refers very briefly, in one sloka each, to Indra's killing of Manthara, the daughter of Virocana, who wanted to destroy the Earth,93 and to Visņu killing the wife of Bhṛgu who desired to make the world without Indra. On reaching Siddhâśrama, Visvamitra tells the princes that that is place where Visnu in his Vämana incarnation took everything away. from Bali in just three steps.95
The tales of Kämäśrama, and Siddhaśrama are clearly myths and, therefore, there is no justification in narrating them as events of local history.
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Similarly the tale of the Malada-Käruşa country is artificially connected with the myth of Indra's Vṛtra-vadha by taking advantage of the names of the country. Such etymological stories are very common, not only in the epics and Puranas but also in Vedic literature. The metre sakvari is so-called because with stanzas in that metre, Indra could (sak) kill Vṛtra,96 Fire obtained creatures as soon as he was born, so he is called Jätavedas.97 In the same way, the Epics also either refer to the known legends 88 Ancient Indian Historical Tradition, p. 147.
89 BK. 22. 9-15.
90 BK, 23. 16-23,
91 BK. 23. 24-27.
92 BK. 24. 4-12.
93 BK. 24. 17.
94 BK. 24.18.
95 BK. 28. 2-12.
96 Kausitaki Brahmana, XXIII. 2: tad yad abhir vṛtram asakid dhantum tac chakvarīṇām sakvaritvam.
97 Satapatha Brahmayat IX, v, 1.68: yat taj jataḥ paiünn avindata iti taj jätavedaso játavedastvam. S. T. 7