A History of Sanskrit Literature c13.41

c13.41

The episodes of the *Mahābhārata* are numerous and often very extensive, constituting, as we have seen, about four-fifths of the whole poem. Many of them are interesting for various reasons, and some are distinguished by considerable poetic beauty. One of them, the story of Çakuntalā (occurring in Book I.), supplied Kālidāsa with the subject of his famous play. Episodes are specially plentiful in Book III., being related to while away the time of the exiled Pāṇḍus. Here is found the *Matsyopākhyāna*, or “Episode of the fish,” being the story of the flood, narrated with more diffuseness than the simple story told in the *Çatapatha Brāhmaṇa*. The fish here declares itself to be Brahmā, Lord of creatures, and not yet Vishṇu, as in the *Bhāgavata Purāṇa*. Manu no longer appears as the progenitor of mankind, but as a creator who produces all beings and worlds anew by means of his ascetic power.