SUMMARY

Pavel Grintser's monograph «The Old Indian Epic» treats problems connected with the oral genesis of the Sanskrit epic poems «Mahabharata» and «Ramayana» as well as problems arising out of a typological comparison of these with other epic monuments and folklore genres. Most of the scholars, in one form or another, admit the oral origins of the Old Indian epic but,

nevertheless,		concrete investigations, in the author's opinion, are general-
ly guided	by	the norms of written and not oral poetry. Such an approach,
meanwhile,	becomes the cause of a whole number of mistaken assumptions
on the nature		of the text, its stylistics, the peculiarities in the composition
and the content of the Sanskrit epics.

The first part of the monograph, «The Oral and the Written Traditions

in the Old	Indian Epic», cites numerous unambiguous instances contained
in the epic	and	serving as the evidence of its prolonged oral existense, the
conditions	of its	oral performance and pointing to the performing chanters.

The deciding feature of the oral genesis of «Mahabharata» and «Ramayana» is, however, the density, in their text, of stereotype phraseology, characteristic of orally-composed works. This fact allows us to apply to them, in full measure, the theory of the formulaic character of the epic language, produced by M. Parry and A. Lord on the basis of the Homeric and the SerboCroat epics.

The formulae of «Mahabharata» and «Ramayana» can be arbitrarily divided into six groups: the attributive, the narrative, the auxiliary (including those of time and place), of the direct speech, the maxims and the similes. The specific quality of the formulae is their direct correspondence with the metre, allowing the epic chanter to introduce them automatically into the lines he is composing or rather allowing him to construct the lines with the help of the formulae. The main Sanskrit epic metre, the twoline çloka, makes most prominent the ends of the semi-verses; this explains why almost all the formulae are built around the vehicle word standing before the caesura or in the ultimate foot of the verse. All this permits the crea-

tion	of several formulae	(similar or differing in meaning) on	the basis of
the	same vehicle word	as well as the creation of a great number	of formulaic

expressions, built according to the rules of the so-called «formulaic grammar». Besides, the synonymous formulae of the Sanskrit epic may be represented as two rows, equivalent on the plane of meaning, according to whichever of the two metrically strong positions they occupy.

A count of the formulae in several excerpts of «Mahabharata» and «Ramayana» shows that in the battle chapters they constitute 75% («Mahabharata») and 63% («Ramayana») of the text; the percentage is also high lor

			Summary	417
the narrative chapters: «Mahabharata» — 60%, «Ramayana» — 50%.				At
the same time the number of			traditional formulae falls considerably in the
didactic parts of the epic and			in a number of oases (first of all in the lyric
descriptions of		«Ramayana»)	we encounter a phenomenon which could be
described	as the	collapse of the formulae. One or another of the formulae
loses its	functional role, that		of being a means of constructing metrically

correct verses, and, undergoing lexical changes, is used for purely ornamental purposes, as a developed emotional métaphore or a simile. This serves as one of the arguments showing the influence of the devices and methods of written literature on the epic text, though occurring at a very latè stage—probably the editorial—of its composition.

The role of the oral tradition in the formation of the Old Indian epic allows us to interpret in a correct way the repetitions and the contradictions evident in the text, the peculiarities of its composition and the correlation of the different versions. The comparison with the other monuments of epic poetry, oral in their genesis or existence («The epic of Gilgamesh», «The Iliad» and «The Odyssey», «The Edda», «Beowulf», Central Asian epics, the Russian byliny, the Serbian folk poems, etc.), tends to show that plot and stylistic repetitions (including the repetitions of the so-called «themes»), contradictions of meaning, inserted episodes — all these belong to the basic features of oral epic poetry.

The oral transmission of «Mahabharata» and «Rämäyana» resulted, also, in the absence of a canon (which, anyway, was to be expected) and in the existence of several versions, contained in a variety of differing manuscripts. Textual dynamics and not statics is highly characteristic of the oral tradition and both «Mahabharata» and «Ramayana» could be found to exist in various recensions not only at the later but also at the earliest stages of their composition. All this makes untenable any reconstruction of the epic original* as well as the search for non-organic interpolations in the text. At the same time, the process of the formation of «Mahabharata» and «Ramayana» being extremely protracted (approximately from IV century B.C. to III century A. D.), we may speak of the presence of several strata and of the reinterpretation in the poems ©f the epic material belonging to the «heroic age» in the spirit of ideological and aesthetic theories of a later time, this re-interpreta- tion being consolidated by the written versions of the poems.

The aral origins of the Sanskrit epic give us the right to compare it, in the second part of the monograph —«The typology of the Old Indian Epic», with different genres' of the folklore. The composition of the main story in «Mahabharata» and «Ramayana», as well as in some other epic monuments, shows on scrutiny an apparent parallelism with the composition of the fairytale as represented in V. Propp's «Morphology of the Folktale», particularly with types 400,425, 301,313,500,511 of the Aarne —Thompson classification.

On the other hand the heroic epic in general, and that of Ancient India in particular, is characterized by no less exact structural correspondences with a number of archaic and classical myths. This allows us to pose the

418 Summary

question of a common archetype for the plots of the epic, the myth and the fairy-tale. The archetype contains, as a rule, such links as the disturbance of initial well-being, the hero's crossing from this world into the other, the would-be death of< the hero, the victory over the forces of the other world, the procuring of the objects indispensable for the recovery of well-being, the homecoming. In its turn, this archetypal model becomes realized through the specific form of the story about the search for the kidnapped (or missing) hero (or heroine). This may be seen in the classical epic («Mahabharata» and «Rämäyana», tho ancient Oriental and Homeric epics,the Mongol «Geser», the Uzbek «Alpamys», the Slavonic and Germanic match-making songs, etc.) and in the calendary myth, the two showing a marked compositional resemblance.

The isomorphous nature of the compositional model of the myth, the fairy-tale and the epic is, certainly, to be noted but they differ radically in their semantics. The epic is not an allegory of the myth and is not a re-interp- reted fairy-tale. The compositional set-up traditional for the narrative folklore genres served not as the s o u r c e but the m e a n s with the help oi which various historic stories, legends and traditions were organized into larger epic forms.

The presence of a common compositional set-up presupposes also the resemblance of the plot and some of the main motifs of the Sanskrit epic with those of other epics, first of all created in antiquity, while this resemblance cannot be explained by the theory of borrowings but only on the basis of comparative typological studies. However, within the framework of general typology the contents and the subject-matter of different epic poems are quite distinct and determined each time by the cultural and historical

milieu in which		the epic in question was created and started functioning.
The final stage in		the formation of «Mahabharata» and «Rämäyana»	falls
on the first	centuries A. D. and both these epics directly reflect the cultural
atmosphere	of the India of that era. The ways in which «Mahabharata»		and

«Rämäyana» transformed the heroico-epic material were different: in «Mahabharata» the heroic story, thanks to the conservatism of the oral tradition, kept intact its content and its plot, but these were now treated from a new, ethical, viewpoint under the influence of the spreading Hinduist theories which found their fullest embodiment in «Bhagavadgitä». «Rämäyana», unlike «Mahäbhärata», went from the heroic to the literary epic in which epic events are regarded, first of all, in their emotional aspect and the lyric, the subjective gains the upper hand over the heroic, the objective. «Rämäyana» became in this respect the precursor of the so-called «artificial» epic, known in India under the genre term «mahäkävya». The shift of the creative emphasis from the external, event-orientated stream of narration to its ethical or

emotional meaning, taking place during	the formation of «Mahäbhärata»
and «RämäyaijLa», became vitally important	for the further development of

Old Indian literature, in which such an introspective artistic orientation was now established as predominant.

ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ
От редколлегии									3
Предисловие									6
Ч а с т ь	Ь	Устная и		письменная традиция в древнеиндийском
эпосе									10
Глава		1.	Эпос о своем исполнении и исполнителях . . . .						15
Глава		2.	Техника повествования:			эпические формулы . .			32
Глава		3.	Формулы и неформульная речь						11
Глава		4.	Техника повествования:			«темы», повторы, катало-
	ги,	вставные		эпизоды					96
Глава 5. Рецензии и версии эпоса. Письменная редакция									121
Глава 6. Абсолютная и относительная хронология «Махаб-
	хараты» и «Рамаяны»								136
Глава 7. Историческая основа и многослойность древнеин-
	дийского эпоса								153
Ч а с т ь	П. Типология			древнеиндийского			эпоса		175
Глава 1. «Рамаяна» и сказка									178
Глава		2.	Особенности		композиции		«Махабхараты»	. . .	195
Глава		3.	Мифологические мотивы			эпоса			214
Глава		4.	Похищение		и поиск жены		в эпическом сюжете. .		246
Глава		5.	Эпос, миф и сказка						280
Глава 6. «Махабхарата»: от героического эпоса к эпосу ди-
	дактическому								297
Глава		7.	«Рамаяна»:		от героического эпоса к эпосу			лите-
	ратурному								331
Приложение		I							362
Приложение		II							385
Библиография									389
I. Санскритские				источники					389
II. Тексты, переводы, исследования на русском и европей-
ских	языках								390
Список	сокращений								405
Указатель имен индийских мифологических и эпических персонажей									407
Указатель названий произведений									412
Summary									416

Павел Александрович Грипцер

ДРЕВНЕИНДИЙСКИЙ ЭПОС Генезис и типология

Утверждено к печати Институтом мировой литературы

им. А. М. Горького Академии наук СССР

•

Редактор Л. Ш. Рожанский

Младший редактор Г. А. Бурова Художник Л. С. Эрман Художественный редактор Э. Л. Эрмаи Технический редактор Л. Ш. Береславская

Корректоры В. В. Воловик и Н. Б. Осягипа

»

Сдано в набор 4/1-1974 г. Подписано к печати 9/IX-1974 г. А-12007. Формат 60X90*/« Бум. № 1 Печ. л. 26,5

УЧ.-И8Д л. 27,63 Тираж 4-800 экз. Изд; JSft 3253 Зак. 189 Цена 1 р. 95 к.

Главная редакция восточной литературы издательства «Наука»

-Москва, Центр, Армянский пер., 2

2-я типография издательства «Наука» Москва, Шубинский дер,, 10

ГЛАВНАЯ РЕДАКЦИЯ ВОСТОЧНОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВА «НАУКА»

Вышли:

Бурмап А. Д. Бирманская драма середины XIX века. 143 стр.

Вавилов В. Н. Проза Нигерии. 159 стр.

Изучение китайской литературы в СССР. 384 стр.

З А К А ЗЫ НА КНИГИ ПРИНИМАЮТСЯ ВСЕМИ МАГАЗИНАМИ КНИГОТОРГОВ И «АКАДЕМКНИГА», А ТАКЖЕ ПО АДРЕСУ: 117464, МОСКВА В-464,

МИЧУРИНСКИЙ ПРОСПЕКТ, 12, МАГАЗИН № 3 («КНИГА — ПОЧТОЙ» ) «АКАДЕМКНИГА»

ГЛАВНАЯ РЕДАКЦИЯ ВОСТОЧНОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВА «НАУКА»

Выйдут:

Бабаев А. А. Назым Хикмет — жизнь и творчество. 342 стр.

Калинникова Е. Я. Англоязычная литература Индии. 248 стр.

Шидфар Б. Я. Образная система арабской классической литературы (VI—XII вв.). 252 стр.

ЗА К А ЗЫ НА КНИГИ ПРИНИМАЮТСЯ ВСЕМИ МАГАЗИНАМИ КНИГОТОРГОВ

И«АКАДЕМКНИГА», А ТАКЖЕ ПО АДРЕСУ: 117464, МОСКВА В-464,

МИЧУРИНСКИЙ ПРОСПЕКТ, 12, МАГАЗИН № 3 («КНИГА — ПОЧТОЙ») «АКАДЕМКНИГА»

ОПЕЧАТКИ И ИСПРАВЛЕНИЯ

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Напечатано

kazé

rarärja dehe dehe

v a h â m ç j a n e c v a r a

p a r s a t a m m a h a t a

ghrtäolmäplutämrsilj, vasaham

drupado^ bhavat datum

bhargavah pratäpavan nagasähvayam

p a n t r ä n s a m ä d ä y a vrksa1}

mahi si

pus put aviva

известной исследовательницы эпоса Р. Сен.

spi-crO-s vàoç

Левиафаномt или Paxaбом

NOBTOI gaäcvarathasamhadhäm '

raksasattàmaljL

P â n i n i

Следует читать

kaze raräfa

deve dehe v a h â r a ç j a n e ç v a r a

p â r s a t a i n m a h a t a

ghrtäclmäplutämrSib vasanam

drupado * bhavat

datum
b h a r g a v a h
pratäpavan
nagasähvayam
p a u t r â n	s a m â d â y a
vrkbali
mahisï

pus pit aviva

известного исследователя эпоса Р. Сена

ipia&svÉoç

Левиафаном или Раха-

иОМ

N66TOI

gafäcvarathasambädhäm

räksäsottamafy

Р а n i n i

Вяк. 3253