Study Of Mahabharata

Author(s): J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong

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法華文化研究 (第10号)
geographical lists and genealogies. (5) Attributable to ascetics, forest-hermits and mendicants were legends of saints, aphorisms, fables, parables, fairy-tales, and moral tales. As to the date of the Mahabharata, Winternitz arrived at the following conclusion: "1. Single myths, legends and poems which are included in the Mahābhārata, reach back to the time of the Veda. 2. An epic Bhārata' or 'Mahābhārata' did not exist in the Vedic period. 3. Many moral narratives and sayings which our Mahābhārata contains, belong to the ascetic-poetry, which was drawn upon, from the 6th century B. C. onwards, also by Buddhists and Jainas. 4. If an epic Mahābhārata already existed between the 6th and 4th centuries B. C., then it was but little known in the native land of Buddhism. 5. There is no certain testimony for an epic Mahābhārata before the 4th century B. C. 6. Between the 4th century B. C. and the 4th century A. D. the transformation of the epic Mahābhārata into our present compilation took place, probably gradually. 7. In the 4th century A. D. the work already had, on the whole, its present extent, contents and character. 8. Small alterations and additions still continued to be made, however, even in later centuries. 9. One date of the Mahabharata does not exist at all, but the date of every part must be determined on its own account." We have quoted the English translation of Winternitz which, though published in 1927, presents the same text with only some additional bibliographical references.
The most recent exposé of the analytical theory is to be found in van Buitenen's introduction to his translation of book I of the Mahabharata (Chicago, 1973, pp. xiii-xxv). Van Buitenen first outlines what he calls the central story of the Mahabharata, which possesses an extremely complex plot. Van Buitenen writes: "Whatever historical realities may also have been woven into the epic, it is not an accident of dynastic history; however fortuitous its career of expansion, the epic is not an accident of literary history. The grand framework was a design." This central story has proliferated to an extreme degree. We may, with greater or lesser certainty, identify the central parts of the narrative and "later" accretions to the central story. Still, the latter were understood within the framework of the former. The second perimeter contains the accretion of secondary materials to the central story. As an example van Buitenen mentions the divine birth of the Pandavas and other heroes. According to van Buitenen: "Such further elaborations are disappointing because they rob the human actors of much of their motivation.... The elaborations are disappointing also because they show little respect for the Gods themselves. The Gods pressed into service to explain human affairs are mostly of a venerable Vedic antiquity, but their mythology is decaying." The third perimeter consists of the brahminization of the epic by brahmans who