Secondary Tales of the Two Great Epics

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

Page 94

The Tales in Rämāyana
tribe having monkey as its totem.223 And monkeys do jump even across the trees. So, the great swimming of this hero of the 'monkey' tribe can very well be described as a great jump across the mountains. The fact of the hero being a 'monkey' justifies the transformation of the great swimming into a great jump and what is lacking in plausibility is filled up by the poetic imagination. Now, the strength of jumping through the air naturally needs to be fathered by the god of Wind. The great jump, itself a poetic hyperbole, is sought to be justified by a still further exaggerated act of the child's jumping at the Sun. Naturally, such feats cannot be justified without divine causation. Popular imagination, like poetic imagination, knows no bounds.
But another corrollary of this mode of argument is rather significant. If we have succeeded in showing that the motif of Hanūmat's being the son of Vāyu has developed according to the logic as shown above, then we are removing an important corroboration of the theory that the Rāma-story is a metaphorical presentation of the rains-agriculture-phonomena224 in which Rāma, the lord of Hanumat, represents Indra, the lord of Maruts. As we saw above, Vāyu's fathership of Hanumat can more plausibly be explained in another way, and therefore, Rāma-Hanūmat-relationship is not intended to be similar to Indra-Maruts-relationship.
We may point out another fact which also weakens the agriculture-metaphoricaltheory. The name "Rāvana' (sought to be explained as ru 'to shout, to cry') is thought to be representing the thunder of the clouds in that theory. Recent studies have shown that “Rāvana is a sanskritized form of the Tamil word ireivan or iraivan which means "god', 'king', 'sovereign' and 'lord'."225 This will mean that "Rāvana' is not a personal name, but a general name meaning any king, at the most a king of a particular line, just as 'Janaka' means, not the father of Sītā, but any king of the line of Janakas.226 Again, this linguistic aspect of the name 'Rāvaņa' renders all etymological explanations and consequently any deductions based thereon worthless. Apart from the agricultural-metaphor theory mentioned above, there is a tale which says Rāvana obtained the name from Lord Mahadeva by making a roar which terrified all the three worlds.227 7 he tale, worthless as it is, is further confirmed to be a purely fictitious one, like all such etymological tales. 223 ......the identifications of Vanaras and Rākşasas by different scholars, Kibe430 (430.
Festschrift Thomas, pp, 144-145.) and Hira Lal431 (431. Jha Comm. Vol., pp. 151-161.) take them to be inhabitants of the country round Amarkantak;" Studies in Epics And Puranas
of India, A. D. Pusalkar, Bombay, 1963. pp. 202-3. 224 The interpretation of the latter part of Rāma-story as an Agricultural myth bas been
given by H. Jacobi in The Rāmāyana (Tr, by S, N, Ghosal, Baroda, 1960, pp. 97ff.). It has
also been partly discussed by Camille Bulcke. Vide his Rāmakathā, Prayāg, 1950, pp. 14ff. 225 'Daśagriva or Daśāgana of the Rāmāyana', S. N. Batra, Journal of the Oriental Institute,
Baroda, Vol. XXIII. Nos. 1-2, p.43. 226 Cf. Rama-kathā, Bulcke, p.9. 227 See above, under the section The Entourage Tales.
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