English
The epic character of the story has throughout been changed and almost oblite- rated by the didactic tendencies of the latest editors, who were clearly Brahmans, brought up in the strict school of the Laws of Manu. But the original tradi- tions of the PItodavas break through now and then, and we can clearly discern that the races among whom the five principal heroes of the Mah&bh&rata were bom and fostered, were by no means completely under the sway of the Brahmanical law. How is it, for instance, that the five Fd.ndava princes, who are at first represented as receiving so strictly Brahmanic an education, — who, if we are to believe the poet, were versed in all the sacred literature, grammar, metre, astronomy, and law of the Brahmans, — could afterwards have been married to one wife ? This is in > That Panini knew the war of the Bhftratas, has been rendered highlj probable by Prof. Lassen (Ind. Alterthumskunde, i. 691. 837.). The words which called forth Panini's special rale, (iy.2. 66.), can scarcely be imagined to have been different from those in the Mah&bh­a ; vis., Bharatah sangr&mah, saubhadrah sangrama^ It was impossible to teach or to use P4nini's Siitras without examples, which necessarily formed part of the traditional gram- matical literature long before the great Commentary was written, and are, therefore, of a much higher historical value than is com- monly supposed. The coincidences between the examples used in the Prati^akhyas and in Panini, show tliat these examples were by ho means selected at random, but that they had long formed part of the traditional teaching. See also Pan. vi. 2. 38., where the word ** mahabharata" occurs, but not as the title of a poem. £PIC TBikDITIONS BBMODELLED. 47 plain opposition to the Brahmanic law, where it is said, *^ they are many wives of one man ; not many husbands of one wife." ^ Such a contradiction can only be ac- counted for by the admission, that, in this case, epic tradition in the mouth of the people was too strong to allow this essential and curious feature in the life of its heroes to be changed. However, the Brahmanic editors of the Mah&bh&rata, seeing that they could not alter tradition on this point, have at least endeavoured to excuse and mitigate it. Thus we are told in the poem itself, that at one time the five brothers came home, and informed their mother that they had found something extremely precious. Without listening further, their mother at once told them they ought to divide it as brothers. The command of a parent must always be literally obeyed; and as Draupadi was their newly discovered treasure, they were obliged, according to the views of the Brahmans, to obey, and to have her as their common wife. Indian lawgivers call this a knotty point ^ ; they defend the fact, but refuse to regard it as a precedent. ' ^ S^ ^ JPSW W^ ^ilTOT ^f^ %qr^lT 1^^ ^^: q?n: ^•f^ii * ^1^ t^f%w: ^^J ijL^^i *i<**fri(Ji<f^ ^^ Cf. Sajana's Com. on Farasara. MS. Bodl. 172, 173. Another explanation is given bj Kumarila : iher does the fact that JIME=^:A„j„ • , ^ „ aw does not prohibit z^^<^lyga„,y, but it regard* ,nd marriage as lega.!:^ ^^d it reserves the prfvi- being burnt togrethe^^r— -^ith the husband to the and only lawful wxf<^ Such passages in the ; epics are of the gre^E^^-:i^st interest. We see in he tradition of the p^^i=>-;^3le too far developed to tself to l>e remodelle: ^M_ T>y Brahm^nic Diask'eu- There can be little <3L =• -_-2>t that polygamy, as we among the early rac^-- ^ :mzx their transition from jtoral to the agricultv:^ tMr-^^^1 life, was customary in Wereaa in Heroa<^ -fc m^ (v. 5.), that amongst iraciana xt was usual, ^a^^TTter the death of a man d out who had heG:r:B. *be most beloved of ves, and ito sacrifice Ib.<^:k- pon his tomb. Mela Hemdor, ^^7^^ as tr fc ^ general custom of the Herodotus (i^. 71. > ^.isserts a similar fact of rrnx"^^----- Civ. 2.) of the atk ITfe J^„^*r^ mjr^fa^logrisfull of instances' te nations ^* ^'^^ *^ ^ the customs of these ilous in +^ ^^P^ain vsrla-^^ *^ first seemed to be t the deatK ^ ^^^^ **•<' i fcf <^ ^^ ^'^ *he MahAbhArata, ut Ma<irS \?^ ^^ndu, i * ^ ^ '"°* ^""t* his lawful i king- ^j ***s most be2o-^'^**^ '^^'^ '" whose arms ' °f *>eir.'^^\ ^"<J who ^ ^ ^cessfully claims the d to anoti? ^""** witfi -fat 5^^=° and following her ^^er Jife.8 ^ rriiam, j. EPIC TRADITIONS BSMODELL£D. 49 T(ie sitme remark applies to the Rdm&yana. In this second epic also, we see that the latest editors were shocked by the anomalies of the popular tradi* tionSy and endeavoured to impart a more Brahmanic polish to the materials handed down to them from an earlier age Thus king Dal^aratha kills the son of a Brahman, which would be a crime so horrible in the eyes of the Brahmans, that scarcely any penance could expiate it.^ This is the reason why the young Brahman is represented as the son of a ^Mr^ woman, and tells the king so himself, in order to relieve him from the fear of having killed the son of a Brahman. The singular relation, too, between R&ma and Para6u-R&ma, was probably remodelled by the influence of the Brahmans, who could not bear the idea of their great hero, the destroyer of all the Ejshatriyas, being in turn vanquished by Rd.mai who was himself a Kshatriya. The Vedic literature, by the very sacredness of its character, has fortunately escaped from the remo* delling puritanism of the later Brahmans. There must, from the first, have been as great a variety in the intellectual, religious, and moral character of the Indians, as there is in the geographical and physical character of India. If we look at Greece, and consider the immense diversity of local worship, tradition, and customs, which co-existed within that snudl tract of country, and then turn > Cf. Mann, viii. 381. '^Nb greater crime is known on earth than slaying a Brahman, and the king^ therefore, must not even form in his mind an idea of killing a priest" ^^t Of r„ ,. -^^ ' .*^ *"® Same / ^ *he TtT , ^**4 S*. "X ^^ ^^aia. Some ^e^'^^ prevai^^h, ked to tH-e. ^^i^/i * certain xxr^^ > an ^tte*^^^ he people a-11 -,-lr&ir& existed Certain j.^^^Oi^avT^ Lhese sacrific5e .^,r-r authority o<^*i.^'*epa^*?^2 -eenfamilj^ nd ^^^ Ceremonies of l^^''^ the ^^^, he so-called dome^^ descried ^ Htism ^^^^ f^^^e people, ^z^^_^; rindr?."""^ ^^^or^ "^^^^3^ '^^'j^ /^a^ence. g a general lat^ ^^^^t^o^ .^^ 3 0-? \^^io.y^^^^ ^ to ihic'if ,1^-^*0 ^oC^'iix EABLT CXJSrrOSAS. his village and country, pro-vT-ded -tbese cs*°"*^,^^^. too grossly insult the morsil axid x-eligious feel the Brahmans. Although these domestJ-o cex-emouies Jfc^ ^^ sanctioned by the Brahma.nio la-w, tlie authoniy niini^j '^iniTO^ wrx ^^^i^ ^ "Vasishtha declares that it is iw?^'"'^^*^^^^ ^?rill <5ertainl7 not perfojK-a ^akha. He says, * A wiao I^^^^^^^fe !& $ b t^iat does is cal X^ the duties prescribed by ''^*^^^^^^-^^x- leaves the law of aia. a traitor to his ^hft. ^^"***^^x- ^^ nks into blind dav-lK Sakhft, and adopts that of ^"^* x^-i^^^'' ^°^ ^" another l&^v^ ness, having degraded a sacr-^" ^ *^^ ^P ^*^ °^° customs wk^:mrm book it is said: *If a xaBX% ^^T^^^c>x-^® or covetousness, :fci performs others, whether ou* ^ ^ ^l^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ Parifiisht. wiU fall and be destroyed/ ^^"^^^ *^ follow his own S&klz^ g the Chhandogas : • A fool wlm€> ^ — t^x-Jk: wiU be in vain/ -• wishing to adopt another on^, ^^%^^^o ^^^ ^'^!? observa^^-^ Only in case no special rule is 1*^^ ^^o^^ ^^ ^^^f """'"^ ' in some Grihyas, it is lawful to a^iop ^ ^ITVH dm '^ ^nrrarrgwira^^ ^wrwT^^J*^ ^y^wb^ifiOfa ^^ B 3 52 EARLY CUSTOMS. which they are founded does not lie directly in the sacred revelation of the Brahmans (Sruti), but in tradition (Smriti), a difference, the historical im- . portance of which will have to be pointed out here- after. As to the customs of countries and villages, there can be no doubt that in many cases they were not only not founded upon Brahmanic authority, but frequently decidedly against it. The Brahmanic law, ho¥rever, is obliged to recognise and allow those customs, with the general reservation that they must not be in open opposition to the law. Thus Afiva- layana in his Grihya-sfttras, says : — " Now the cus-^ toms of countries and places are certainly manifolds One must know them as far as marriage is concerned. But we shall explain what is the general custom.