Secondary Tales of the Two Great Epics

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

Page 73

Secondary Tales of the two Great Lipics
Another group of such tales is in the SalP. Balarāma decides to remain neutral in the great battle and goes out on pilgrimage. His return, just at the time of commencement of the mace-fight between Bhima and Duryodhana, creates an occasion for including another large group of pilgrimage tales. The tales included here are comparatively less famous like those of the sage Trita, of Dakşa's curse to the Moon, of sage Mankapaka, of Baka Dālbhya, of the birth and career of Skanda Kārttikeya, of Srutavatis, of sage Asita Devala, of Dadhica, of the virgin ascetic, of Kuruksetra and so on.
It can be observed that, with some rare exceptions like that of Sibi, all these tales are the tales of sages and ascetics. This is in keeping with the frame of pilgrimage within which they are brought together. Of course, the device of pilgrimage is very useful in accommodating tales (sometimes even cycles of tales like that of Agastya149 in VanP) of various descriptions and various places, yet the seriousness of the purpose of pilgrimage puts a limit upon the variety; an accent on exaggeration - the constant feeling of wide eyes -- is discernible. The religious attitude of the listeners also prompts the narrator to include more episodes of wonderful - supernatural elements.
A comparison of these tales with those of Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' will be instructive. There, the pilgrims tell stories by turn. But the purpose of telling stories is nothing more serious than passing time on the way. The mood is light and the purpose frolick. The themes of the tales are also generally social, their treatment is realistic and sometimes even comic; this can potentially accommodate a much wider variety of tales. The narrator is different with each tale which reflects his individual characteristic; again, there is no necessity of connecting th: tales with some place -- holy or otherwise. The differences can be summed up by calling the native group as the pilgrimage tales, while the English group may be called as the pilgrims' tales.
The narrative style of the tales of the SalP leaves rather an impression of hurry, but the VanP-group of tales is narrated in a fully leisurely fashion since the pilgrims are supposed to have a lot of time. Actually pilgrimage and pilgrimage-tales are just one of the answers to the exiles' problem of filling up the twelve-years' gap of forestlife -'the temporal hiatus' as Pisani and Sukthankar would call it. But we shall have occasion to refer to this function of filling up the temporal hiatus later on. Here we may just point out the characteristics of the entourage tales of BK by comparing them with the other group of tales.
The visitation of boly place lends only direction to the pilgrims' movement in the 'Cantebury Tales', it is not the end in the narration of the tales; the end is simply to pass the time pleasantly. On the other hand, in the two groups of tales in the MBh, such a visitation itself is the end, and even the tales are intended to serve the same religious purpose. That is the reason why all the tales are connected with the holy places visited or to be visited by the pilgrims. The tales included in the BK also
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VanP, 94 - 103. The last tale in the cycle is how Agastya drank up the ocean. To explain how it was filled up again, the story of Gangā's descent is narrated in VanP 104-108.