Secondary Tales of the Two Great Epics

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

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The Tales in Ramayana
the inclination to emphasise Sita's purity became stronger, and no other intelligent answer except a recourse to divine intervention was possible to such a delicate and highly personal problem. Still, gods testifying to Sita's purity was one thing, the actual fire-ordeal is quite another thing. The latter is crudely popular, it duplicates the motif very artlessly, and must have have been added in the latest stages of the epic.
That brings us to the question of the authorship of UK. N. J. Shende had tried to show that "the Bhrgvängirases influenced directly or indirectly the enlargement of the epic."254 He bases his conclusion on a survey of the Bhrgvängiras element in the epic as it was available then in its Bombay edition. But many of the references to and tales of the Bhrgvängiras sages are now relegated either to footnotes as starpassages or to appendices. For example, the references to Bhrgvängiras in B.Ayk. 32.33 now becomes star passage 763. Angiras and Bbṛgu performing sacrifice for Nimi at B.UK. 55.9 are now thrown to Appendix I passage No. 8 with the whole sacrificial episode. The reference to Gargya Trijata as an Angirasa is now *766 of Ayk. Bṛhaspati is born as Tara, the chief of monkeys, now in 491 of BK. Bharadvāja, the pupil of Valmiki, now accompanies him from footnote *139 of BK. Gautama performing at Nimi's sacrifice is now in Appendix I, passage No. 8 of UK. The story of Nimi Janaka being revived from a bodiless condition by Bhṛgu and that of Usanas' curse to Yayati are also now in Appendix passage No. 8 of UK, while in passage No. 7 is relegated the tale wherein Visņu slays Bhrgu's wife for giving shelter to demons and invites Bbrgu's curse upon his own self to be born as mortal and to bear separation from his beloved wife. Of course, the tales of Rsyairnga, of Abalya Gautama, of Vedavati (daughter of Kusadhvaja Barhaspatya), of Ušanas" curse to Danda, of Sunaḥsepa (son of Reika Bhargava), and of Parasurama still remain. Bharadvaja, a sage of Prayaga receiving the exiles and showing the way to Citrakuta in Ayk still very much remains a character of the principal tale. A tale in which Sagara is shown to be born with poison (hence his name 'Sa-gara') on account of sage Cyavana's blessings in spite of his mother being poisoned by her co-wife is retained in AyK. 102.16-18, while put in the footnote in BK as *1272. Still, however, the theory of Prof. Shende loses much of its force, as almost half of the references and tales supporting his theory are not accepted in the critical text.
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We should point out at this stage that Sage Agastya is shown to narrate quite a large part of the UK. The entire Ravana-katha-cakra and the tales of Hanamat, plus the tales of King Sveta, and King Danda are narrated by Agastya. As Prof. Shende shows, "Agastya is the brother of Vasistha, the purohita of the Iksvākus. This explains the presence of Agastya-element in the epic",255 But it does not explain the prominance of Bhrgvängiras-element. Again, "In nearly 45 out of 77 chapters 254 'The Authorship of the Rāmāyaṇa', Journal of the University of Bombay, Vol.XII (New Series) part 2, Sept. 1943, p.24.
255 ibid.