The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s2.29

c2.s2.29

If we begin by discarding what appears of most recent origin, we shall certainly strike out first what I have called the pseudo-Epic, and with it the books that follow; for, though pretending to carry on the tale, the fourteenth book, depending on the thirteenth, and existing for the sake of the Anugītā, must fall into the same category with its immediate predecessors; and the fifteenth, with its system of *nīti* leading into the later tales of the heroes after the war is over, takes us to that stage where the Harivaṃśa is but a natural sequence of the un-Epic nonsense preceding. The last two books we further see omitted in one of the Epic’s own catalogues; and, upon the grounds of the complete catalogue in the first book, and the opening chapters bearing on their face every mark of posterity to the account of the main story, we shall be inclined to put the greater part of the first book into the same list as that of the last. This would leave us at the second stage; and beyond this we cannot reject by books, but by sections; for Vishnuism stands side by side with Çivaism and the older Brahmaism, and the chapters of didactic dreariness are interwoven with the thread of the story. These preaching chapters, with the theological chapters, seem to me to belong to the same period of addition as the mass of unnecessary stories here and there interpolated, although some of the latter bear the stamp of being older each as a whole than the time when they were inserted into the Epic. The Bhārata tale alone would remain after this second lightening of foreign elements, but by no means the original tale; for we must bear in mind that the second principle of increase, the natural evolution of old scenes, was at work contemporaneously with the dynamic principle of insertion. Thus, after discarding the foreign elements in any one of the battle-books, we have in our strictly Bhārata residuum not simply the Bhārata tale of old, but that tale expanded by repetition, colored by new descriptions, etc., all at one with the story, but increasing its extent. A certain amount of elimination can doubtless be done here by striking out repeated scenes; but it will be at best an unconvincing critique. In some cases, as in the fourth book, we have a perhaps original episode of the Pāndus seeking alliance at Upaplavya first expanded, and then added to by absurd and unnatural scenes betraying of themselves their lateness; yet we should do wrong to reject the book altogether on this account. Comparing again with the Rāmāyana, we see that the most conspicuous difference between the poems is this: that while the Epic is not wanting in scenes romantic enough to lie parallel to the general tone of the Rāmāyana, the latter is totally wanting in those scenes and touches, familiar to the Epic, that reveal a period older than either poem taken as a whole. But, again, the general character and style of our Epic approaches nearest to that of the other poem in the battle-scenes; so that, were the characters exchanged, we could scarcely say from the general description whether we were reading of the war of Arjuna or of that of Rāma. The Mahābhārata, then, in such portions clearly stands on a par with the Rāmāyana; although, on the one side, there are Epic points untouched in antiquity by Vālmīki’s poem, and, on the other, there are smaller points of dress and implements in the latter that seem to indicate posteriority to the Epic.