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A History of Indian Literature v1.c9.s5: Brahmanical Myths and Legends in the Mahābhārata

A History of Indian Literature v1.c9.s5

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Brahmanical Myths and Legends in the Mahābhārata

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The fact that the old Indian bard-poetry has not been preserved in its pure originality is due to the circumstance that the Brahmans took possession of the Mahābhārata. To the same circumstance, however, we are indebted for the

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[^1) ]: V, 135, 12; 16. [^2) ]: XII, 29. A similar list of ancient kings who were noted for their generosity is to be found in VII, 56-71.

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preservation in the Mahābhārata not only of numerous myths of gods, and legends, important for the history of mythology and tradition, but also of some remarkable creations of Brahmanical poetic art and valuable specimens of Brahmanical wisdom.

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Interesting from the point of view of mythology and tradition is the frame-story of the Snake sacrifice of Janamejaya,¹ into which there is again interwoven a tangle of stories, snake-legends, myths of the bird Garuḍa and others. But what is here called "*Snake-sacrifice*" is in reality a snake-charm, *i.e.* an exorcism for the annihilation of snakes. Janamejaya's father, Parikṣit, had been bitten to death by the snake-king Takṣaka. In order to avenge the death of his father, King Janamejaya arranges a great sacrifice,² at which all the snakes of the earth are compelled, by the exorcisms of the priests, to come from near and far and cast themselves into the fire. This is described in our epic with great vividness:

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¹ I, 3, 13-58; XV, 35. Freely rendered in German verses by *A. Holtzmann*, "Indische Sagen"; literally translated into German prose by *W. Porzig* (Indische Erzähler, Vol. 15, Leipzig, 1924). Similar legends also exist in Europe, especially in the Tyrol; cf. my treatise "Das Schlangenopfer des Mahābhārata (in Kulturgeschichtliches aus der Tierwelt, Festschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde und Linguistik," Prague, 1904).

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² The Mahābhārata is supposed to have been recited in the intervals of this sacrifice. See above, p. 324. *Porzig* (l.c.) suggests that the Āstīkaparvan was originally much more closely connected with the Mahābhārata as a frame-story, and that it was not Vaiśampāyana, but Āstīka himself who related the whole of the Mahābhārata, and thereby saved the snake-king Takṣaka. There are but very weak grounds for this hypothesis. It is more probable that the whole of the Āstīkaparvan was originally an independent poem, which was only later connected with the recitation of the Mahābhārata. *Cf.* *V. Venkatachellam Iyer*, Notes of a Study of the Preliminary Chapters of the Mahābhārata, Madras, 1922, pp. 352 ff.

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"The sacrificial ceremonial now began in accordance with the prescribed rules for the snake-sacrifice. Hither and thither hurried the priests, each one eagerly fulfilling his appointed task. Wrapped in black garments, their eyes inflamed by the smoke, they poured the sacrificial ghee into the blazing fire, whilst saying the incantations. They caused the hearts of

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all snakes to quake, and called them all forth into the jaws of the fire. Then the snakes fell into the flaming furnace, distorting their bodies and calling piteously on one another. Palpitating and hissing, embracing one another with their heads and their tails, they hurled themselves in their masses into the brightly glowing fire......great snakes and small snakes, many, of many colours, terrible biters of mighty strength as that of a club, snakes full of venom; driven by the curse of the mother, the snakes fell into the fire.”[^1)

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With this legend of the snake-sacrifice, the ancient myth of Kadrū and Vinatā, occurring already in Vedic texts,[^2) is here combined. Kadrū, “the red-brown one,” is the earth and the mother of the snakes, Vinatā, “the curved one,” is the vault of heaven and the mother of the mythical bird Garuḍa. And there is also interwoven the myth of the *twirling of the ocean*,[^3) which occurs also in the Rāmāyaṇa and in the Purāṇas, and is again and again related, or used for purposes of illustration and comparison by poets of later times. How gods and demons, united in ardent labour, twirl the ocean in order to obtain the draught of immortality, the mountain Mandara serving as a twirling-stick and the snake-prince Vāsuki as a rope, how the moon then arises out of the foaming mass, then Lakṣmī, the goddess of good fortune and of beauty, the intoxicating drink Surā and other precious things, until at last the beautiful god Dhanvantari, holding the draught of immortality in a shining white goblet, appears from out of the ocean,—all this is described, if one may say so, with “life-like” graphicness.

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One more of the snake-legends interwoven into the frame-story deserves mentioning, namely the story of Ruru partly only a duplicate of the legend of the snake-sacrifice

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[^1): I, 52. [^2): Taittirīya Saṃhitā, VI, 1, 6, 1; Kāṭhaka, 23, 10; Śatapatha-Br. III, 6, 2. The myth of Kadrū and Vinatā from the Āstīka-parvan translated by J. Charpentier, Die Suparṇasage, pp. 167 ff. On the same myth in the Suparṇādhyāya S. above, pp. 312 f. [^3): I, 17-19.

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itself, for, like Janamejaya, Ruru vows to annihilate all snakes. This happens as follows :

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Ruru, son of a Brahman, once saw the lovely virgin Pramadvarā, daughter of an Apsaras, and was seized with love for her. She becomes his bride, but a few days before the wedding, she is bitten by a poisonous snake while she is at play. She lies there lifeless, as though asleep, more lovely than ever. All the pious hermits approach, and, moved by pity, burst into tears, but Ruru goes forth into the depth of the forest in his sorrow. Lamenting loudly, he invokes the gods to have regard to his penance and his pious life, and to give his beloved back to him. Then a messenger from the gods appears, and announces that Pramadvarā can only be recalled to life if Ruru will yield half of his own life for her. Ruru agrees at once, and the King of Law, *i.e.* the god of death, gives his consent for Pramadvarā to be recalled to life. Soon afterwards, on a happy day, the two are wedded. Now Ruru vowed to destroy all the snakes in the world, and thenceforth, whenever he saw a snake, he killed it. But one day he happened on a non-poisonous snake, which asked him to spare it. It was in reality a ṛṣi who was compelled to live as a snake in consequence of a curse, and who was now released from the curse by his meeting with Ruru. In his human form he admonishes him to desist from destroying living creatures.¹

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¹ Extract from I, 8-12.

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Ruru, the hero of this legend, is a descendant of that *Cyavana*, of whom it is already related in the Ṛgveda,² that the Aśvins made him young again. The story of this rejuvenation is told in detail in the Brāhmaṇas,³ and a version of the legend is to be found in the Mahābhārata too.⁴ It is instructive to compare the Vedic form of the legend with that in the epic. I therefore give below the contents according to the Mahābhārata, and draw attention in the notes to the most important deviations of the Brāhmaṇa narratives.

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² Rv. I, 116, 10, where he is called Cyavāna.

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³ Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa IV, 1, 5. Translated into German by A. Weber Indische Streifen I (Berlin, 1868), pp. 13 ff. Jaiminīya-Brāhmaṇa, III, 120 f. *Cf.* the interesting study of E. W. Hopkins, "The Fountain of Youth" (JAOS., Vol. XXVI, 1905, pp. 1-67, and 411 ff.), in which the legend of the *fountain of youth* is traced not only in India, but also among other peoples.

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⁴ III, 122-125. References to the last part of the narrative also XII, 342 ; XIII, 156 and XIV, 9.

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*Cyavana*, a son of Bhṛgu, practised severe austerity on the shore of a lake. He stood motionless as a post for so long that a mound of earth formed over him, on which the ants crawled about, and he himself looked like an ant-hill.¹ Into the neighbourhood of this lake King *Śaryāti* once came with many followers. His young daughter *Sukanyā*, romping about in the forest with her playmates, came upon the ant-hill, in which only the two eyes of the ascetic were visible like glow-worms. Out of wantonness and curiosity the young girl poked about in the two shining things with a thorn and—poked out the eyes of the ascetic.² Filled with anger, the saint caused retention of urine and constipation in the army of Śaryāti.³ The king for a long time sought the cause of the misfortune, and when it transpired that the great ascetic had been offended, he went to him to obtain his forgiveness. The latter will only be reconciled if the king gives him his daughter as his wife. So the young girl becomes the wife of the frail old man. One day the two Aśvins see the young wife just as she is stepping out of her bath, and try to persuade her to choose one of them as her husband instead of the ugly old man. She, however, declares that she wishes to remain faithful to her husband. Then the two physicians of the gods propose to her that they should make her husband young, and she should then choose between them both and the rejuvenated Cyavana. As Cyavana agrees to this, she consents also. Thereupon the Aśvins let the old ascetic step into the lake and they themselves also dive into the water, whereupon they all three come out quite alike and in the dazzling beauty of youth. Now Sukanyā is to choose, and after mature consideration, she decides for her own husband Cyavana.⁴ The latter, in return for having been rejuvenated, promises to make the Aśvins into Soma-drinkers. At a great sacrifice which he performs for Śaryāti, he presents the Aśvins with the Soma. The king of the gods, Indra, however, will not concede that the Aśvins, who wander about as physicians among mortals, can be worthy of the Soma. But Cyavana takes no notice of the objections of Indra, and continues to sacrifice to the Aśvins. The enraged Indra is about to hurl the thunderbolt upon him. At that moment, however, the saint paralyses the arm of the god; and in order to humble him thoroughly,¹ he creates, by virtue of his asceticism, a terrible monster, *Mada*, *Intoxication*. With his huge mouth (the one jaw touches the earth, while the other reaches up to the sky) he approaches Indra and threatens to swallow him. Trembling with fear, the prince of gods implores the saint to have mercy, and the latter, satisfied, lets *Intoxication* vanish again, dividing him among the intoxicating drink Surā, women, dice and the chase.²

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¹ The Brāhmaṇas know nothing of these ascetic practices. Cyavāna is there only an "old, ghostly-looking" saint.

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² In the Brāhmaṇas it is the young lads in the retinue of the king who insult the old ṛṣi, pelting him with lumps of earth.

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³ According to the Brāhmaṇas the punishment consisted in the arising of discord in the retinue of the king. "The father fought with his son, the brother with his brother." (Śat.-Br.) "The mother did not know her son, nor the son his mother" (Jaim.-Br.)

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⁴ The Śat.-Br. knows nothing of the fact that the Aśvins also step into the lake. But the Jaim.-Br. records that Cyavāna had already previously given Sukanyā a sign by which she would recognise him.

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¹ In the Śat. Br. there is no question of any humiliation of the god; Cyavāna only provides the Aśvins with the means by which they are voluntarily made participators in the Soma-drink by Indra and the other gods. In the Jaim. Br. there is, it is true, a trial of strength between ṛṣis and gods, and the ṛṣis create *Mada* to support them. But as Indra and the gods flee from the monster, the sacrifice threatens to become an Indra-less and god-less one, and the ṛṣi begs Indra most politely, with prayers and invocations, to return. It is only in the version of the Mahābhārata that the god is completely humiliated by the saint.

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² In the Jaim-Br. the demon Intoxication is transferred *only* to the Surā (brandy).

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We see here clearly, as in many other cases, that the brahmanical poetry which is contained in the epic, represents a much later phase of development than that of Vedic literature. The characteristic of this later brahmanical poetry, however, is exaggeration, lack of moderation in general, and especially immoderate exaltation of the saints—Brahmans and ascetics—over the gods. Even in the actual *Indra-myths* connected with the Vedic legends of the gods, Indra is no longer the mighty champion and conqueror of demons, as we knew him in the hymns of the Ṛgveda.³ It is true that the old legend of the battle between Indra and Vṛtra survives, it is even related twice in considerable detail in the Mahābhārata,⁴ but the main stress is laid upon the circumstance that Indra, by killing Vṛtra, burdened himself with the guilt of Brāhman-murder. It is related in great detail how he first had to free himself from this terrible guilt, suffering many humiliations. We have seen, that for a time he was even robbed of his heavenly throne, and Nahuṣa occupied his place.¹ The belief that the supremacy of Indra may be shaken by the austerities of pious Brahmans is exemplified by numerous legends. It is even said² that asceticism can compel Indra himself to enter the home of Yama (the god of death). And often indeed does Indra have recourse to the proved expedient of allowing a beautiful Apsaras to seduce a saint who, through his severe austerities, threatens to become dangerous to the gods.³

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³ Cf. above, pp. 82 ff.

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⁴ III, 100 f.; V, 9-18. The references to this fight are numerous. The legend of the fight of Indra with Namuci, IX, 43, is a duplicate of that of the Vṛtra-battle.

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¹ See above, p. 381.

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² III, 126, 21.

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³ *Cf.* A. Holtzmann, in ZDMG. 32, 1878, pp. 290 ff., about Indra in the Mahābhārata.

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*Agni*, too, the friend of Indra, has, in the myths of the Mahābhārata, lost much of his old glory as a god. Yet the myths related of him are still connected with the Vedic ideas of fire and of the god of fire. Already in the Ṛgveda he is called "the lover of maidens, the husband of women."⁴ But the Mahābhārata tells of Agni's definite love affairs. Thus he once became enamoured of the beautiful daughter of King *Nīla*, and the sacred fire in the king's palace would burn only if fanned by the beautiful lips and the sweet breath of the king's daughter. There was nothing for it but the king must give his daughter in marriage to Agni. In gratitude for this, the god grants him the favour that he may become invincible and that the women of his town may enjoy complete freedom with regard to sexual intercourse.⁵ The gluttony, too, of Agni, is already spoken of in the Veda. The legends of the Mahābhārata relate, however, that in consequence of the Ṛṣi *Bhṛgu's* curse he became an "eater of all things." That Agni has several brothers and that he conceals himself in the water or in the friction-sticks, are also Vedic ideas, which already in the Brāhmaṇas led to the formation of myths¹; but it is only in the Mahābhārata that detailed stories are told about the reason why Agni hid himself, and how the gods found him again.²

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⁴ See above, p. 88.

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⁵ II, 31. A similar love story of Agni, XIII, 2,

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¹ *E. g.*, Śatapatha-Br. I, 2, 3, 1; Taittirīya-Saṃhitā, II, 6, 6.

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² *Cf.* A. *Holtzmann*, Agni nach den Vorstellungen des Mahâbhârata, Strassburg, 1878.

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To the legends which are known already in the Veda and which recur in the Mahābhārata belongs also the flood-legend of Manu and the fish, which has been related above³ according to the Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa. The narrative of the Mahābhārata, the "fish episode,"⁴ as it is called, differs from the legend as it is related in the Brāhmaṇa, in its greater detail and the poetical presentation, which is not lacking in poetic flights—as when it is described how the ship, "like a drunken wench," staggers to and fro on the agitated ocean. As regards the details of the story it is of importance that in the Mahābhārata, exactly as in the Semitic flood-legends, the taking of *seeds* in the ship is mentioned.⁵ I see in this one of the strongest proofs that the Indian flood legend was borrowed from the Semitic one.⁶ The conclusion of the legend in the Mahābhārata differs from that in the Brāhmaṇa. In the epic the fish declares that he is the god Brahman, and invites Manu to create the world anew, which the latter does by means of undergoing severe austerities.[^1)

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³ Pp. 209 f.

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⁴ Matsyopākhyāna, III, 187. German translations by F. *Bopp* (1829), F. *Rückert*, and H. *Jacobi* (in H. *Usener*, Die Sintflutsagen, Bonn 1899, pp. 28 ff.).

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⁵ Similarly in the Matsya-Purāṇa and in the Bhāgavata-Purāṇa, where the legend recurs.

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⁶ *Cf.* my treatise "Die Flutsagen des Altertums und der Naturvölker in Vol. XXXI of the Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien (Vienna), 1901, especially pp. 321 f. and 327 ff. I do not know how those who, like R. *Pischel*, Der Ursprung des christlichen Fischsymbols (SBA., XXV, 1905) deny the connection between Indian and Semitic flood-legends, account for this remarkable agreement.

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Less familiar is the profound and beautiful myth of the Goddess Death, which is related twice in the Mahābhārata.[^2) "Whose child is Death? Whence comes Death? Why does Death sweep away the creatures of this world?" Thus asks Yudhiṣṭhira, sorrowing at the departure of so many heroes who had fallen in the battle. Then Bhīṣma (resp. Vyāsa)[^2) tells him the story which Nārada once related to King Anukampaka, when the latter was inconsolable at the death of his son. The contents of the narrative are briefly as follows:

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When Grandfather Brahman had created the beings, they multiplied unceasingly and did not die. The worlds became over-filled, and the Earth complained to Brahman that she could no longer bear her burden. Then the Grandfather considered how he could reduce the number of beings, but he could think of no remedy. This enraged him, and the fire of his wrath issued from all the pores of his body, flames engulfed the world and threatened to annihilate everything. But god Śiva felt pity for the beings, and at his intercession Brahman withdrew into himself the fire which had arisen from his wrath, and ordered the origin and passing away of the beings; while so doing, however, there came forth out of the pores of his body, a dark-eyed, beautifully adorned woman, draped in a dark red garment. She wished to go on her way towards the South, but Brahman called to her and said: "Death, kill the beings of this world! For thou art born of my thought about world-annihilation and out of my wrath,

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[^1): At the new creation of the world there is no longer any mention of the "seeds" which he took with him! [^2): VII, 52-54, where Vyāsa comforts Yudhiṣṭhira, who is in deep distress at the death of Abhimanyu (see above, p. 363), with the story; and XII, 256-258, where Bhīṣma again tells the same story of consolation to Yudhiṣṭhira, who is lamenting at the departing of so many heroes who have fallen in the great battle. Probably the story was originally only in Book XII, for verses XII, 256, 1-6, in which there is mention of the many fallen ones *in the plural number*, are found again literally in VII, 52, 12-18, although here it is really only the lament for Abhimanyu which provides occasion for the narration. The poem has been translated into German by Friedrich *Rückert* (in Rob. Boxberger's "**Rückert-Studien,**" Gotha 1878, pp. 114 ff.), and by *Deussen*, **Vier philosoph ische Texte des Mahābhāratam,** pp. 404-413.

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therefore annihilate the creatures, the fools and the sages, all together!” Then the lotus-crowned *Goddess Death* wept aloud, but the lord of creatures caught up her tears in his hands. She implored him to release her from this gruesome task :

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“I bow to thee, O lord of beings, be merciful to me, that I may not sweep away innocent creatures—children, old men and people in the prime of life : beloved children, trusted friends, brothers, mothers and fathers ! I shall be reproached if they die away thus. Of this I am afraid. And I fear the tears of the unhappy ones, whose moisture will burn me in eternity.”

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But a decision of Brahman is irrevocable. She must submit to it, but the Grandfather grants her the favour that greed, anger, jealousy, envy, hatred, infatuation and shamelessness may ruin men and that the tears which were shed by the goddess and which he holds in his hand, may become diseases to kill the creatures. Thus no blame for the death of the beings rests upon her. On the contrary, the sinners perish through their own sin. But she, the Goddess Death, free from love and free from hate, is justice itself and mistress of justice,¹ sweeping away the living creatures.

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¹ VII, 54, 41.

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A proof of the fairly high antiquity which must be ascribed to this myth, as well as to that of Manu and the flood, is the exalted position which is allotted to the god *Brahman* in them. In the myth of the Goddess Death, the god Śiva is subordinate to Brahman, who addresses him as “little son.” Myths in which the god Śiva occupies a position far above all gods, indicate a much later stratum of brahmanical poetry in the Mahābhārata. The same is true also of the myths in which the god *Viṣṇu* plays the principal part. Frequently older brahmanical myths and legends were revised in accordance with Viṣṇu- or Śiva-worship, which is mostly not difficult to recognise. Such Viṣṇuite and especially Śivaite additions often appear like blots on a painting. They are easy to distinguish, and their removal only enhances the value of the poetry. As poetical productions, the narratives which are dedicated to the glorification of the gods Viṣṇu and Śiva, are quite inferior.¹

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¹ Devoted exclusively to the sectarian cult are portions such as the *Viṣṇusahasranāmakathana* (XIII, 149), the enumeration of the thousand names of Viṣṇu, the *Śatarudriya* (VII, 202), "the hundred names of Śiva," and the *Śivasahasranāmastotra* (XII, 284, 16ff.) "Praise of Śiva in a thousand names." *Cf.* above, pp. 185 f.

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A *Goddess Death* plays no part elsewhere in Indian mythology.² But, just as, in the above-related myth, the goddess of death becomes the goddess of justice, so in the whole of the Mahābhārata the idea prevails that *Yama*, the god of death, is one with *Dharma*, the personification of Law.³ But nowhere is the identification of the king of the realm of death with the lord of law and justice expressed so beautifully as in the most magnificent of all brahmanical poems which the epic has preserved, the wonderful poem of faithful Sāvitrī.⁴ The partly religious character of the poem, the intermingling of mythology, indeed of the ancient brahmanical mythology, in which Grandfather Brahman determines the destinies of mankind, and neither Śiva nor Viṣṇu plays a part—and the scenery of the forest hermitage in which the greater part of the action takes place, induce me to classify the Sāvitrī-episode among the *brahmanical* legend-poetry. Yet I am not quite certain whether it may not be a pious legend belonging to the old bard-poetry. For the independent action of the princess Sāvitrī, who goes forth in search of a husband, and remains steadfast to her choice, although the saint and her father raise warning protestations, the independence with which she practises asceticism, offers sacrifices, and takes vows upon herself,¹ and above all, her courageous intercession for the life of her husband, as well as her knowledge of wise sayings, by means of which she even impresses the god of death—all this recalls more the women of heroic poetry, such as Draupadī, Kuntī and Vidulā, than the brahmanical ideal of woman.² But whoever it was who sang the song of Sāvitrī, whether a Sūta or a Brahman, he was certainly one of the greatest poets of all times. Only a great poet was capable of placing this noble female character before us so that we seem to see her before our eyes. Only a true poet could have described in such a touching and elevating manner the victory of love and constancy, of virtue and wisdom, over destiny and death, without even for an instant falling into the tone of the dry preacher of morality.³ And only an inspired artist could have produced as if by magic such wonderful pictures before us. We see the deeply distressed woman walking by the side of her husband who is doomed to death; the husband, mortally ill, wearily laying his head on his wife's lap, the dreadful form of the god of death, who binds the man's soul with fetters and leads it away; the wife, wrestling with the god of death for the life of her husband; and finally, the happily re-united pair, wandering homewards in the moonlight with their arms around each other. And we see all these pictures in the splendid setting of a primeval Indian forest, whose deep stillness we seem to feel, and whose delicious fragrance we seem to breathe, when we surrender ourselves to the magic of this incomparable poem.

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² To my knowledge it only recurs once again in the Brahmavaivartta-Purāṇa by the side of Yama (Th. Aufrecht, Catalogus codicum MSS. Sanscriticorum in Bibl. Bodleiana, p. 22*a*).

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³ Concerning the god Dharma also see above pp. 330 and 374.

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⁴ III, 293-299: *Sāvitryupākhyāna* "episode of Sāvitrī" or *Pativratāmāhātmya* "the song in praise of the faithful wife." The story is told by the seer Mārkaṇḍeya, who, though many thousand years old, is eternally young, to Yudhiṣṭhira in order to comfort him with regard to the fate of Draupadī.

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¹ According to brahmanical precept a woman as such (separate from her husband) is not entitled to perform sacrifices nor to undertake fasts and other vows. (Manu, V, 155.)

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² This ideal is, in short, the "Griselda ideal"—the unconditionally obedient, submissive wife, of whom Manu teaches, V, 154: "Even if a husband is lacking in all virtues, only indulges in sensual pleasure and possesses no good qualities of any kind, he must ever be honoured as a god by a virtuous wife."

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³ The conversation between Sāvitrī and Yama, the god of death, who is at the same time Dharma, forms the nucleus of the poem. Some of the verses may have been badly transmitted Yet the fundamental thought of all the verses by means of which Sāvitrī so greatly pleases the god and vanquishes him, is sufficiently clear; it is the doctrine of wisdom that is one with love and goodness.

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How well the Hindus themselves appreciate the treasure which they possess in this immortal poem, is shown in the closing words which have been added to the poem in our Mahābhārata:

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"He who has heard with devotion the glorious story of Sāvitrī, that man is fortunate, his affairs will prosper, and never will sorrow visit him."

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Still at the present day, Hindu women annually celebrate a festival (Sāvitrīvrata) in remembrance of faithful Sāvitrī, to secure married happiness for themselves, in which festival the recitation of this poem from the Mahābhārata, forms an essential part of the celebration.¹

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¹ Cf. *Shib Chunder Bose*, The Hindoos as they are, 2nd ed., Calcutta, 1883, pp. 293 ff.

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The poem has frequently been translated into European languages including German.² But all translations, adaptations and imitations can only give a feeble idea of the incomparable charm of the Indian poem.

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² English translations by R. T. H. *Griffith* (1852, and Idylls from the Sanskrit, Allahabad 1912, pp. 113 ff.) and J. *Muir* (Edinburgh, 1880). German renderings by F. *Bopp* (1829), F. *Rückert* (in "Brahmanische Legenden," 1836), H. C. *Kellner* (Reclams Universal bibliothek, 1895). For other translations s. *Holtzmann*, Das Mahābhārata II, pp. 92 f. The Sāvitrī poem has also been adapted for the stage by Ferdinand Graf *Sporck*, with music by Hermann Zumpe, and produced in German theatres.

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Not all brahmanical legends are so pious and moral as that of Sāvitrī. Indeed, a whole volume could easily be filled with disgusting and obscene stories from the Mahābhārata which pleased the Brahmans. One of these legends has, however, rightly attained fame as a poem, and is, moreover, very important for the criticism of the Mahābhārata. This is the legend of *Ṛṣyaśṛṅga*,³ the ṛṣi who had never seen a woman. The contents of this ancient Indian tale are briefly as follows:

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³ III, 110-113. Freely rendered into German by A. *Holtzmann* in "Indische Sagen," and by J. V. *Widmann* (Buddha, Bern 1869, pp. 101 ff.). Very freely dramatised by A. Christina *Albers* in *Calcutta Review*, Nov. 1923, pp. 231 ff. ("The Great Drought"). J. *Hertel* (WZKM. 18, 1904, pp. 158 f.) and L. v. *Schroeder*, Mysterium und Mimus im Rigveda, pp. 202 ff., have tried to explain the Ṛṣyaśṛṅga poem as an ancient drama, a kind of "mystery play." It is really a ballad of the type of the Vedic Ākhyānas. H. *Lüders* (NGGW., 1897, pp. 1 ff.; 1901, pp. 1 ff.) has traced the older forms of this ballad, by comparing its different versions in Indian literature.

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Ṛṣyaśṛṅga,¹ born miraculously of an antelope, is the son of a saint, who grows up in a hermitage in a forest, without ever having seen any person besides his father. Above all, he has never seen a woman. Now there was once a great drought in the kingdom of King Lomapāda, and the sages declared: the gods are angry, and the rain will fall only if the king succeeds in bringing Ṛṣyaśṛṅga into his country. The king's daughter Śāntā² undertakes the task of enticing the young saint into the land. A floating hermitage is constructed of artificial trees and shrubs, and in this Śāntā sails to the dwelling place of Ṛṣyaśṛṅga. Arriving in the vicinity of the forest hermitage, the king's daughter steps ashore and takes advantage of the absence of the father of Ṛṣyaśṛṅga, in order to approach the youthful ascetic. She gives him magnificent fruits and delicious wine, plays coquettishly with a ball, and clings in a tender embrace to the youth, who thinks he sees before him a hermit lad like himself. Thereupon the maiden returns to the ship, as the father of Ṛṣyaśṛṅga approaches the hermitage. The old man notices the excitement of his son, and asks him what has happened. The latter then describes his adventure with the beautiful "youth" and his rapture at meeting him, in glowing terms, and says that he would fain practise the same "ascetic discipline" as yonder youth, for the yearns to see him again. But the father warns him that these are evil demons (rakṣas) who go about in that shape to disturb the asceticism of pious men.

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¹ The name means "the antelope-horned." As he has *one* horn on his head, he is also in Buddhistic versions called *Ekaśṛṅga*, i.e. "Unicorn."

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² In our Mahābhārata it is not Śāntā, but a courtesan, who seduces the saint. *Lüders* (l. c.) has proved convincingly, however, that not only in the original form of the legend, as it has come down to us in the *Jātaka*-book of the Buddhist Tipiṭaka but also in an earlier form of the Mahābhārata itself, the princess Śāntā was the seducer. Only some later rhapsodist or copyist took exception to a king's daughter being said to have seduced Ṛṣyaśṛṅga, and put a courtesan in her place, so that we do not know why the king finally gives his daughter in marriage to the saint. It may be mentioned that *Holtzmann*, in his free rendering (l. c.) has already made the princess Śāntā the seducer of Ṛṣyaśṛṅga.

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But no sooner has the father departed again, than Ṛṣyaśṛṅga goes in search of his young "friend." Soon he has found beautiful Śāntā, is enticed by her into the floating hermitage, and is carried away into Lomapāda’s kingdom. The moment the young saint enters the land, the rain begins to fall in torrents. The king makes him his son-in-law, after he has conciliated the old father by means of rich gifts.

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Various versions of this legend may be found in other Indian works of literature, especially in the Rāmāyaṇa, in the Padma-Purāṇa and in the Buddhist Jātaka book. It is easy to recognize that though the ballad is based on an old legend with a religious background, it was related in its original form with a racy humour whose indecencies the various revisors endeavoured to mitigate. The scene in which the ascetic’s son, who has never seen a woman, catches sight of the beautiful maiden, whom he takes for an ascetic, though her charms do not leave him unmoved, was certainly the central point of the story in the original version, and was described with a coarse humour, of whose rudeness some examples are still preserved in the Buddhistic Jātaka.¹ But how popular this humorous tale was, is shown by its being familiar in different versions in Tibet, China and Japan, and in its having left traces behind even in the unicorn-legend of the West.²

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¹ In the Gāthās of the Jātakas Nos. 523 and 526. These Gāthās are, according to *Lüders* (l. c., 1897, p. 38), “the oldest remnants of a literary setting of the Ṛṣyaśṛṅga-legend,” “and these verses were, at any rate, partly known to the author of the Mahābhārata version, and, translated into Sanskrit and more or less transformed, were included in his work.”

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² Cf. F. W. K. *Müller*, Ikkaku seunin, eine mittelalterliche japanische Oper, transkribiert und übersetzt, Nebst einem Exkurs zur Einhornsage (in the Festschrift für Adolf Bastian zu seinem 70. Geburtstag, Berlin 1896, pp. 513-538).

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The Ṛṣyaśṛṅga-legend is in the so-called *Tīrthayātrā*-section.³ The Ṛṣi Lomaśa, who has come in order to console the brothers of Arjuna,⁴ makes a pilgrimage with them. At every sacred place (Tīrtha) which they visit, the ṛṣi relates a story referring to that place. Thus there are collected in this section (certainly not belonging to the oldest parts of the Mahābhārata) numerous brahmanical legends. Here we find, for example, the above-related legend of Cyavana,¹ similarly the legends of the famous Ṛṣi *Agastya*. This great saint is asked by the gods, among other things, to dry up the ocean, so that they may fight against certain demons who dwell on the bottom of the ocean. The saint does this quite simply by drinking up the whole ocean. He is also the hero of numerous other brahmanical legends.²

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³ *i.e.*, “section of pilgrimages,” III, 80-156. Sacred places to which pilgrimages (*yātrā*) are undertaken, are called *Tīrthas*.

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⁴ See above, p. 348.

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¹ Pp. 391 f.

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² III, 96-109.

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While these Agastya-legends are intended to show the tremendous ascendancy of the brahmanical saint over gods and men, we find in the Mahābhārata also a whole cycle of legends, the heroes of which are the famous Ṛṣis *Vasiṣṭha and Viśvāmitra*,³ and in which, though in the end they also serve for the glorification of the Brahmans, there can still be perceived distinct traces of the struggle for supremacy between priests and warriors. The roots of these legends reach back far into the Vedic period, and they recur in various versions also in the Rāmāyaṇa epic and in the Purāṇas. The contents of the legend according to the Mahābhārata are briefly as follows:

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³ I, 177-182; V, 106-119; IX, 39 f.; 42 f.; XII, 141; XIII, 3 f. *Cf.* J. Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts. Vol. I, 3rd ed. (London 1890), pp. 388 ff., 411 ff., and F. E. Pargiter in JRAS. 1913, pp. 885 ff.

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Viśvāmitra was a warrior, the son of King Gādhin of Kanyākubja (Kanauj). One day, in the course of his hunting, he came to the hermitage of Ṛṣi Vasiṣṭha. The latter had a marvellous cow which fulfilled all his wishes. When he desired anything, whether food or drink, jewels or garments, or whatever it might be, he had only to say: “Give,” and the cow Nandinī granted it to him. When Viśvāmitra saw the excellent cow, he desired to have it, and offered Vasiṣṭha ten thousand ordinary cows for it. But the latter would not give it up, as it gave him everything he ever wanted for sacrificial purposes. Viśvāmitra now wanted to steal the cow, according to "warriors' custom." Vasiṣṭha, as a gentle Brahman, did not hinder him in this, but the marvellous cow itself brought forth out of its body, mighty hosts of warriors, by whom the troops of Viśvāmitra were defeated and put to flight. Then the proud king sees that the power of Brahmans is after all greater than that of warriors; he gives up his kingdom and performs severe austerities in order to become a Brahman, in which he succeeds after unutterable efforts.

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I may quote one other remarkable legend in this cycle of myths, because it recalls certain features of the Ahasuerus-legend:

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Even after Viśvāmitra has become a Brahman, his enmity with Vasiṣṭha continues. Instigated by Viśvāmitra, Kalmāṣapāda, who is possessed by a Rākṣasa, kills the sons of Vasiṣṭha. But the latter is so full of mildness that he will rather die than give vent to his anger. He is about to end his life, and throws himself down from Mount Meru, but falls on a pile of wool. He enters the fire, but it does not burn him. With a stone around his neck he throws himself into the sea, but is thrust out again living. So he returns with a sorrowful heart to his hermitage. But when he sees his home empty of children, grief brings him back anew to thoughts of suicide. He hurls himself into a swollen mountain stream, after having tied his limbs fast with ropes, but the current tears his fetters and throws him on to a bank. Wandering further, he comes to a river which is full of crocodiles and horrible monsters; he throws himself in, but the wild animals timidly shrink away from him. As he sees that he cannot die by his own hand, he returns again to his hermitage, after having wandered over hills and countries. On the way he meets his daughter-in-law Adṛśyantī, and he hears a voice like that of his son singing Veda hymns. It is the voice of his as yet unborn grandchild, who already in his mother's womb—Adṛśyantī has been pregnant with him since twelve years—has learned all the Vedas. As soon as he knows that he is to have descendants, he gives up his thoughts of suicide.

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While the literary value of this kind of brahmanical legends cannot be gainsaid, there are also numerous stories in the Mahābhārata which are invented purely for the purpose of the glorification of the Brahmans or for the inculcation of some brahmanical doctrine or other. We have, for instance, tales of pupils who go to the utmost extremes in obedience towards their teacher, like that Uddālaka Āruṇi, who is commissioned by his teacher to block a leaking dam, and does this, as no other way presents itself to him, with his own body. Or the story is told of a king who, as a punishment for having given a Brahman's cow to someone else, was changed into a lizard.¹ Other stories are intended to prove that there is no greater merit than giving cows to Brahmans. In a famous Upaniṣad the youth Naciketas, thirsting for knowledge, utilises his sojourn in the underworld to question the god of death about the Beyond. In the Mahābhārata, the youth, who is here called Nāciketa, asks to see the paradise of the cow-givers, and Yama delights him with a long lecture upon the merit which one acquires by presenting cows.² In order to prove that it is meritorious to give sunshades and shoes, it is related that Ṛṣi Jamadagni was once angry with the sun, and was just about to shoot it down from the sky, when the sun-god pacified him in the nick of time, by giving him a sunshade and a pair of shoes.³ Such stories are frequent especially in the didactic sections and books (XII and XIII). In these didactic portions of the Mahābhārata we find finally also numerous frame-stories called "Itihāsas" which serve only to introduce and give a certain form to the talks upon law, morality or philosophy. It is noteworthy that, in these Itihāsas, we occasionally meet with the same personages as speakers whom we met in the Upaniṣads, *e.g.*, Yājñavalkya and Janaka.⁴ And as in the Upaniṣads and the Buddhistic dialogues, so in the didactic Itihāsas of the Mahābhārata too, we meet learned women¹ as well as kings and sages.²

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¹ I, 3; XIII, 70 f.

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² XIII, 71. *Cf.* above, pp. 261 f.

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³ XIII, 95 f.

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⁴ XII, 18; 290; 310-320.

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¹ King Janaka disputes with the nun Sulabhā, XII, 320. King Senajit is comforted by the verses of the courtesan Piṅgalā, XII, 174.

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² Occasionally also gods, e.g., Indra and Bṛhaspati, XII, 11; 21; 68; 84; 103; XIII, 111-113.

Cites (15)