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Book Reviews
As India is rocked by frenzied cries of fundamentalists, Hiltebeitel’s book is a welcome reminder that in medieval India, during the 12th to 15th centuries, the great classical epics Ramayana and Mahabharata were “rethought” in oral bardic poetry. This new form conveyed a new Rajput-Muslim culture that was strongly influenced by forms of south Indian goddess worship under the Pallavas, Chalukyas and Rashtrakutas and then moved southwards to create similar local epics. In this extremely valuable study Hiltebeitel concentrates on regional productions that stand out for “re-enploting” the classical epics: the Tamil Elder Brothers Story and Ballad of Raja Desing, the Telugu Epic of Palnadu, the Rajasthani Pabuji and the Hindi Alha. They celebrate small chieftains who, along with the divine heroines, are reincarnations of the epic figures with Dalit or Muslim protectors who have no counterparts in the epics. These little kings self-destruct by fighting one another and their territories are then swallowed up by the larger monarchs (Muslim in north India, Chola in Tamilnadu and Kakatiya in Andhra). Hiltebeitel perceptively expands his study to cover the solitary attempt at “puranicizing” the Alha story in the Bhavishya Purana, which presents a fascinating picture of how an anti-imperial, regional tale is transposed on to a cosmological stage with epic icons. Through this study we gain an invaluable insight into how epic folklore developed and disseminated in India through Dalit-Muslim interaction in different regions. Ironically, for instance, the Brahmin Asvatthama is reincarnated as the Dalit Campuka in the Elder Brothers. The purpose of this research is to bring out the interlinkages of these local martial tales with the cult of Draupadi that has been Hiltebeitel’s abiding pursuit for nearly two decades. Here it is only possible to provide an overview of some highlights. The protagonists in these narratives have companions who are low in social status and perform typical functions: separating the heroes from their armies, they draw them death-wards; obstructing smooth relations with divine heroines, they cut them off from sources of power and ensure evil effects from destructive females; finally they replace the heroes in battle. The rationale behind the creation of these tales appears to be the impulse to complete the “unfinished business” of the classical epics, such as Lakshmana’s with Surpanakha and Ravana in Pabuji and Draupadi’s dissatisfaction in the others, the blood of the Pandavas not having been shed to propitiate her. Krishna makes good that omission through a second Kurukshetra battle that is central to Alha and Krsnamsacarita (paralleled in the Tamil and Telugu martial tales). Hence, the two warring clans are reborn in the Agnivamsa in Delhi and Kanauj, whose rivalry consumes thousands of petty chieftains. Kali Yuga is established by Krishna through the destruction of the Agnivamsa to establish the Mleccha kings. It is Kali who brings Sahoddina from Gaura Desha (Ghur) to slay Prithviraj and seize his daughter-in-law Vidyunmala. Following the destruction, the wives of the fallen chieftains unite with Mlecchas to produce Jattas (the Jats) and a great mixed-caste mass of Vaishyas, Mlecchas and little chiefs. In coming to this, the Bhavishya Purana takes us through Adama and Havyavati (Adam and Eve) to Nyuha (Noah) for whom Vishnu creates Mleccha speech. Then, in the time of Musa, the Mleccha preceptor, four Mleccha languages take root in Bharatavarsha itself: Vraja bhasha, Maharashtri, Yavani and Gurundika (the British, three words exemplifying this, “Sunday, February, sixty”). To combat this, the sage Kashyapa visits Mishra (Egypt) and comes back with converted Mleccha disciples in an inverse exodus who are established in Magadha. Shalivahana, Vikramaditya’s grandson, establishes the Indus as the geographical border between Sind and the land of the Mlecchas. He meets in the middle of the land of the Hunas a saint called Ishamashi, born of a virgin womb, proclaiming the Mleccha dharma as enshrining the vow of truth. Five centuries later Bhoja, the tenth Paramara, seeks to re-establish these boundaries and on the banks of the Indus meets a Mleccha named Mahamada professing Paishaca dharma who is turned to ashes by Kalidasa’s prayers. His disciples return to Vahika country with his ashes and found the city Madahina (Medina). They carry a pestle (musala) instead of kusha grass. The Mleccha realms are divided between these Muslims, beyond the Indus, and those following Ishamashiha in various islands. The work foretells of a messianic Imam, the Mahdi, as the last Mleccha acharya. Thus, the Puranic tradition incorporates Islamic and Christian history, as it had Buddhism. Throughout the engrossing analysis of the whorls of meaning permeating these martial ballads, Hiltebeitel deftly gathers together threads that lead us slowly but surely through the labyrinth of interlinkages to the final link with the cult of Draupadi, the immaculate virgin goddess. By reincarnating as Bela in Alha, and subsequently as Yakajoti, the reborn Rani of Raja Desing in the south, she completes her cycle of seven births as sati. In Yakajoti’s story we encounter war cries invoking Allah, Hari and Govinda along with wedding chants calling on Allah and Radha, showing the Hindu-Islamic syncretism that had developed by then. Complementing Draupadi’s South Indian fire-walking cult, as Bela she is followed in a mass jauhar by widows throwing themselves into the fire-pit after the destruction of the little kings. All these re-imagined Draupadis are distinguished by the indomitable courage and shrewdness with which they face insuperable obstacles in a scenario that localises the epic dimensions of the Mahabharata. Hiltebeitel posits the fascinating notion of an “underground” pan-Indian oral folk epic that might interlink the Tamilian Draupadi cult, the Pandav Lilas of the Garhwal-Himalayas, Shams Pir’s Satpanth ginans (in which Shah ‘Ali becomes Krishna to protect Draupadi’s modesty and Buddha to slay Duryodhana and persuade the Pandavas to abandon idol worship), agam vanis and an underground Ismaili folk Mahabharata, existing parallel to the written Sanskrit tradition and perhaps contain relics of the Ur-epic. For that investigation, we eagerly await the subsequent volumes of Hiltebeitel’s research into the cult of Draupadi. Hiltebeitel’s astounding research is a telling lesson to Indian scholars who are quite unaware of the riches strewn on the surface of their own land. –
Pradip Bhattacharya |
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