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Sectional Studies
K. Bruhn
lels, even parallels of a later date, are used in a systematic manner since they will throw additional light on the basic text in many cases.
stereotypisiert' worden sind, werden sie Jahrhunderte hindurch immer wieder un verändert erzählt ..." (ALSDORF Ku: p.21, fn.1). But as a rule, ALSDORF's last statement applies only to parts of a version. If we prepare a "running comparison we notice frequent and abrupt changes between similarity and dissimilarity (BRUHN Ca, Pp.136-37: contamination). In short, we cannot explain the dialectics of similarity and dissimilarity, nor do we know the psychology of the ancient authors and redactors, and We will, in most cases, not be in a position to construe convincing genealogical tables. But, in spite of all this, an accurate comparison of different versions is hardly less important than textual criticism. In both cases the original form may remain beyond Our reach, so that the approach is, in the long run, in both cases descriptive rather than historical. Furthermore, many textual configurations are midway between a family of manuscripts of the same text and a family of versions of the same story. The Avašyaka
supplies good examples of such intermediate cases (see LEUMANN Av and BALBIR Āv). Let us add that we find in the universal history of the Svetämbaras many
arts which are transmitted in numerous parallel versions so that a systematic comparison becomes inevitable (see ALSDORF Ku: 19-44 on Sthülabhadra, BRUHN Ca: 74-75 and BHAYANI Sa on the Sanatkumāracarita). In this connection one could even visual. ize a table which lists the different versions available for each part of the UH. Comparisons in other parts of Jaina narrative literature, or in the non-narrative literature of the Jainas, can probably be based on the same methodology, but there may be deviations of one type or another. (ii) Closely related to the preceding subject is the study of conflicting accounts and statements in the two epics (2.9). S.A. SRINIVASAN's studies on incoherences in the extant Rāmāyaṇa have already been mentioned. The scope of such enquiries could be widened by extending the textual material - one should include at least the Mahabharata -- as well as the typological spectrum. A special configuration exists, of course, in the Rāmāyana, with the unsolved question of "Välmiki's version", but that should not prevent us from studying the problem in the Mahabharata as well. On the typolog. ical side, the study should also cover, in addition to incoherences, gaps, unexplained details, superfluous repetitions (GRÜNENDAHL Ga), and narrative flaws of every description (compare, for example, the puzzling account of Kali's release in the Nalopakhyana, BRUCE Na: p.xii). Finally, we would like to add a few remarks on the relationship between scheme "li" and related parts of this article. Scheme "ii" is not only connected with scheme "", but also with the minor strategies recommended on pp.43-44 and connected with "quantity management". As a consequence, we need in the entire
atever the peculiarities of the individual case - a uniform or at least coordinated idiom which makes the investigations accessible to both specialists and non-specialists. Likewise there may be a coordination in the sense that narrative paral
(iii) We already mentioned that some motifs occur very frequently in our texts, not in the trivial sense that they enjoy special "popularity", but because they belong to the bed-rock of Indian narrative literature. Such motifs (e.g."childlessness", BLOOMFIELD Pa: 203-04) are so widespread that a collection of stories using them
d be a kind of introduction to Indian narrative literature. These motifs deserve our attention for two closely connected reasons. On the one hand, the phraseology of the motifs is standardized but at the same time diversified; on the other hand, the course of events as presented in the motifs is always similar but by no means identical. Therefore we have to define the typology of such motifs, both on the phraseological and on the narrative level. We point only to jātismarana (BRUHN Ca: p.147), curse (SMITH Ex), oath (HARA Oa), and invigoration (HARA In) as illustrations of the dynamism of standard motifs.
We can extend our observations to the field of dogmatics and consider, in the first place, specific topics which are interesting on account of their varied phraseology: Change of existence (LEUMANN Au: 1-2), parcanamaskara (BALBIR Da: 176), ratribhojana (BALBIR Sp), anadhyaya (BALBIR An), and samyaktaticara (BRUHN Ah: App. 10). Refer for the pancanamaskara also to JACOBI Er: 35, METTE Na: 130, ROTH Pa, and SHAH St: 97-103. Further examples will be found mainly in the field of practical dogmatics and in the borderline area between dogmatics and narrative literature. It is, on the whole, also the proximity to these two areas which separates the topics presently under consideration from dogmatic topics in general.
A second step takes us to the area of dogmatic topoi. We start with the famous double topos of (a) "the turtle and the yokehole" and (b) "the gradation list of rarities". Refer to BOLLÉE SO I: 29-30, to BALBIR VI: 77-78 (mainly fn.34), and to BHOJAK Ca: 252-53. Another well-known topos, occurring in different forms, is man's essential loneliness. See BOLLÉE Sū II: 80 and, earlier, UPADHYE Ka (introduction: pp. 24, 41, 46; text: vss. 74-79). J.J. MEYER has discussed the same topos both in MEYER Da (pp.110-11, 362) and in MEYER Hi (pp.153-54). A series of comparisons, all illustrating emancipation, occurs in several early Jaina texts (BALBIR Ta: 454-56). although no topos in the strict sense, this series is also relevant to the present discussion, Broadly speaking, in the case of dogmatic material scheme "ili" mainly serves the purpose of philological and literary comparison. But the emphasis is always on the individual item, and we consider in iii" only topics and topoi which occur frequently and which are not restricted to closely related texts. The study of closely related texts may include observations of a similar character (e.g. compare OKUDA Mü), but it is not part of our scheme "ii".
