Chapter 2 the Epic in Ancient Greece and in Ancient India
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CHAPTER 2 THE EPIC IN ANCIENT GREECE AND IN ANCIENT INDIA Though the main focus of the present study is going to be characterization, it nnust be borne in mind that characterization in an epic narrative will not have the same complexion as characterization, say, in a novel or a play. It will be appropriate, therefore, to focus in this chapter on the nature of the epics under study. Greece and India are blessed by the epic muse for they are the only ones who produced full-length oral epics that reflect the throbbing heart and soul of the people of ancient times. Other countries like England, France, Germany, Norway and Finland have their epics of the medieval age such as Beowulf. Le Chanson de Roland. Nibelunaenlied. the Edda and the Saga, and Kalevala respectively. Epics belong to the 'heroic age' and their heroes fight bravely for fame and/or to save their people from some demon or other dangers. Physical strength and valour are of supreme importance to these epics as they deal with warfare. The epics of Greece and India possess all these characteristics but they are different from the medieval epics because they go far beyond this and reveal nobility of character portrayal and a tragic awareness of life. The Iliad, the Odvssev. the Vaimiki Ramavana. and the Mahabharata are in a class of their own owing to these rare qualities. Lascelles Abercrombie rightly says in his The Epic that the reading of The Faerie Queene or Divina Commedia is not in the least like the experience of reading of Paradise lost or the Iliad. He points out that a poem may have epical qualities without being an epic. Lokamanya Tilak wrote eight editorials about the Mahabharata 19 while reviewing C. V. Vaidya's book Mahabharatacha Uoasamhara. He has discussed the form of epic in one of these articles. He puts these epics in one category and calls them arsha. These epics have proved to be great monuments of the ancient civilizations of Greece and India. Their contribution to the human heritage is immense because they put before us the core of those ancient civilizations, their raw vigor, aspirations and their efforts to define the meaning of life. So they are revered by the posterity. While making the reader aware of all-powerful destiny, they raise fundamental questions, questions that nobody has so far been able to answer. It is difficult to think of any other source, at once so comprehensive and intimate, to understand the heart of a civilization. The history they tell might have been much diluted but the poetic truth that they express is far more important. That is why E.V.Rieu said, "I would rather have the Iliad than the whole shelf of Bronze Age war reports, however accurate." ^ A) Similar origins : These epics are a mighty culmination of traditional raw material in the form of odes to brave warriors, legends, and stories from mythologies and contemporary lore. Nabaneeta Dev Sen has shown in her essay "Thematic Structure of Epic Poems in the East and in the West : A Comparative Study" how themes like abductions, rescues, sieges of cities, long journeys, exiles, 20 special weapons, single connbats, mutilation of dead bodies, lamentations are common in most of the epics. She rightly states, "The oral tradition all over the world shares a common style of composition, and therefore there are deeper affinities than obvious differences between the epics of the East and the West."^ Epos or oral folk narrative was shaped into the classical form of an epic poem in the epic dialect of Greek. Milman Parry, an American scholar, proved that Homer was a master and heir to a tradition of oral epic poetry that reached back over many generations, perhaps even centuries. Unlike ancient Greece, the Indian civilization presents its first flowering in the Veda. The Vedas consist of lyrics, dramatic lyrics, and philosophical discourses without any encompassing narrative sequence. Epics in India evolved out of this material as if it were a second flowering. Bards sang before risis at the yajna or before kings to praise their feats or their ancestors' feats. Lava and Kusha sang about Rama's feats and bravery during his Ashvamedha ya)na and this became the Ramavana. Rama was glorified as a god because he saved risis from demons and killed the demon king, Ravana. The Mahabharata has its origin in the songs that were sung before King Janamejaya to narrate the great deeds of his ancestors, the Pandavas. The epic poets shaped these malleable rudiments with a strong hand. Sometimes bards or minstrels sang songs of heroes to entertain the feasting nobles or at other important occasions. So the main theme of the epics is feats of warriors and how they brought glory to or saved their clan or their 21 community. Great adventures of heroes also became topics of epics. The Odvssev has an obvious connection with Greek explorations of the Mediterranean, perhaps with the commercial and colonial expeditions of the eighth century BC and the stories they brought back. Odysseus wades through all the difficulties and succeeds because of his ingenuity and bravery. In this way one could say that epics are sophisticated, re- woven productions based on archaic oral folk-tales of feats and adventures. They are mixtures of history and legends. These epics do not fail to convey ideas of lasting depth and significance. What Charles H. Taylor says about the Greek epics is true about the Sanskrit epics, too. "Although we know today that the Iliad and the Odvssev are the products of long oral traditions and may or may not have been shaped in their final form by the same man, the impact of each poem on our culture, as on Greek culture, has been as a "' coherent and meaningful whole." ^ These epic poems have made a great and widespread impact on both the eastern and the western cultures. B) Importance of bards : Bards were like "media", an institution and a force in ancient times. The heroes craved for glory and honour. The bards sang of this and made the heroes immortal in their songs. 22 So the heroes respected the bards very much. One of the odes quoted by Paul Merchant in his Epic says- "Many heroes lived before Agamemnon But all of them unknown, unmourned Have slipped into dark oblivion Because no poet praised them." '* In the Odvssev. when Odysseus killed all the suitors of Penelope, Phemius warned, "You yourself will repent it afterwards if you kill a man like me, a bard, singing for gods and men alike." ^ Odysseus did not kill him. Odysseus had become a theme of songs in his own lifetime as he heard the story of his own adventures in the court of Alcinous through the bard, Demodocus. Perhaps that is why Odysseus spared the bard Phemius in his court. In the beginning the bards entertained their masters by the recitation of heroic doings. Homer composed for listeners and not for readers and his art is the art which grew in the courts of the Greek conquerors and colonists of Ionia. The charming boys. Lava and Kusha, who later turned out to be his own sons, sang in praise of King Rama while his yajna was being performed. Soota sang about the great deeds of the ancestors of 23 Janmejaya, during the yajna The sagas of the heroes became epic poems when great bards added their wisdom and ripe contemplation of life to them even in that primitive state of civilization. C) War as the central theme : The Ramavana. the Mahabharata. and the Iliad have a great war as the central theme and the Odyssey has a shadow of the Trojan war on it. The Ramavana and the Iliad are similar in that they describe a clash of civilizations and also that one civilization (or its representatives) attacked and destroyed the other (for whatever reason!). All these wars are so terrible that they destroyed whole dynasties and brought about what has rightly been called yuganta, the end of an age. The kingdom of Lanka lost its glory and grandeur. It is described that Maruti burnt a big part of Lanka even before the war. A large number of warriors on the side of Ravana died in the war. The Mahabharata is an internecine civil war: hence more destructive. (For instance, more Americans died in their Civil War than in all the other wars combined.) Rajesh Kochhar says in his The Vedic People: Their History and Geoqraphv. "It is difficult to look for archaeological evidence for the Bharata battle itself. Maha in the Mahabharata refers to the embellishment of the accounts of the battle rather than to the battle itself. In view of the low level of technology available at the time and the fact that as many as five generations from Bheeshma to Abhimanyu could physically 24 participate in it, it is likely that the war was merely a skirmish and not an "earth-shaking" event, as it was later made out to be." ® It is difficult to agree with this remark because the loss of life in the Mahabharata war seems to be terrible. All the hundred Kauravas except Vikarna, the elders like Bheeshma, Drona along with their armies died and even on the Pandavas' side very few men were spared. It made Yudhishithira say that his victory was more like defeat. In Kama Parvan after the death of Kama, Sanjaya relates a long list of warriors on the sides of the Pandavas and the Kauravas who died in the war.