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
tions which might be super-imposed upon then by means of the secondary tales. The basic structures of the epic-nucleii also work as a check upon the type of secondary tales which would be added to the epics, and which in their turn would evolve different interpretations of the epic-nucleii.
(2) The Other Tales
The naration of Rāvana's encounter with Vālin is the last episode of Rāvaņagroup of tales. It occasions the tale of Hanumat. Why Hanūmat, Emore powerful and doer of many more wonderful valorous deeds than almost any other character of RM, did not burn Vālin, friend as he was of Sugrīva? To answer this query of Rāma, sage Agastya narrates the story of the birth of Hanumat, his childhoodadventures, and a minor curse in Sargas 35-36 of UK. His story is also sufficiently well-known to Indians. Hanūmat is said to be the levirate-son of Vāyu, born in Añjanā, the wife of King Kesarin of the Sumeru mountains.221 Once, when his mother was away, the child, tormented by hunger, jumped at the Sun, believing him to be a fruit. Vāyu ran after him, lest the Sun should burn him. The Sun did not burn him as he was a mere child. But Rāhu who was going to swallow the Sun just at that time was afraid of this new creature claiming the Sun, 'and complained before Indra, who struck the child dead with his thunderbolt. Vāyu became angry and choked up the systems of urination and defecation of the beings. Brahmā, however, intervened, re-enlivened the child with his touch and asked all the gods to bless the child with various boons. The child, becoming unruly, troubled the sages who then cursed him to remain ignorant of his own strength.
If we were Agastya, we would have explained Hanūmat's strength and simplicity by pointing out the parallels of Shakespeare's Caliban in 'The Tempest or Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame. But in the Purāņic world everything should be explained properly as resulting from either a divine parentage, or boons or a curse. All the three are present here. Every aspect of Hanumat's personality is separately motivated, his great strength by the divine boons; his simplicity by the sages' curse, and jumping capacity by his divile parentage. This last is rather curious. One thing is very certain. Hinūmat's childhood feat of jumping at the rising Sun is brought in with a clear motivation of making his other great jump over the ocean described so poetically in the SK appear plausible. When we realize, following the recent deliberations of the scholars regarding the original Lankā,222 that 'sāgara' is actually nothing more than a large, perhaps very large, lake, we immediately perceive that Hanūmat must have swum across the so-called 'sāgara' and his great swimming is described with poetic hyperbole as a jump. The hyperbole has, however, some actual basis. Han umat is a Kapi-a monkey' i.e. belonging to a
220 Cf. Udy P. 94.3-4 221 UK. 35. 19-20. 222 For a very complete discussion of the problem of the location of Lankā, read the Intro
duction to UK, by Dr. U.P. Shah, Baroda, 1975. pp. 31-50.