Author: Alf Hiltebeitel
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 560
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195655044
Description
This work offers an unprecedented exploration into South Asia’s regional epic traditions. Breathtaking in scope, this work is indispensable for those seeking a deeper understanding of South Asia’s Hindu and Muslim traditions.
Throughout India and Southeast Asia, ancient classical epics – the Mahabharata and the Ramayana – continue to exert considerable cultural influence. Draupadi among Rajputs, Muslims and Dalits offers an unprecedented exploration into South Asia’s regional epic traditions. Using his own fieldwork as a starting point, Alf Hiltebeitel analyses how the oral tradition of the South Indian cult of the goddess Draupadi and five regional marital oral epics compare with one another and tie in with the Sanskrit epics.
Drawing on literary theory and cultural studies, Hilterbeitel argues that the Draupadi cult, Mahabharata and the five oral epics share subtexts of regionality, the peripheriality of ‘little kingdoms’, landed dominant classes, and the goddess of the land. He reveals how the traditional plots are twisted and classical characters reshaped to reflect local history and religion and in , in doing so, sheds new light on the intertwining oral traditions of medieval Rajput military culture, Dalits (‘former untouchables’), and Muslims.
Breathtaking in scope, this work is indispensable for those seeking a deeper understanding of South Asia’s Hindu and Muslim traditions.
Contents
List of Maps and Tables / List of Plates / Acknowledgements / Conventions
Introduction
ORAL EPICS
Classical and Oral Epics
Epic Development and the ‘Real Hero”
Against Death and Deification
Bhakti, Regionality, and the Goddess
Back to the Frames
THE ELDER BROTHERS AND THE HEROES OF PALNADU
Births of the Heroes
Marriage and Virginity
The Virgin’s Blessings
Campuka’s and Anapotu Raju’s Stratagems
The Virgin’s Anger
Impalements
Satis, Revivals, Salvation
Transformations of Dasara
THE EPIC OF PABUJT
Birth of the Heroes
Marriage and Virginity
The Virgin’s Blessing
Dhebo’s Intervention
The Virgin’s Anger
Impalements
Satis and Salvation
Transformation of Dasara
OPENING ALHA
Portions and Incarnations
Sons of Devaki
Frame Stories and Divine Interventions
The Maro Feud
THE NINE-LAKH CHAIN
Treasures
Bela Demands Draupadi’s jewels
The Chains
Bela’s wedding
Bela’s Home bringing
Dasara
The Death of Malkhan
Sprouts
Bela’s Tour
THE STORY OF KRSNAMSA
What Kind of Text?
The Muslim Captivity of Udal
Solar and Lunar Lines
The Agnivamsa
Defending Folk Hinduism
KURUKSETRA II
Divine Plan, Master Plan
The Establishment of Kali and the Last of the Little Kings
Duryodhana’s Return
TIMES ROUTES THROUGH THE KRSNAMSACARITA
How do We Get to Where We are?
The Buddhists and the Agnivamsa
Vikramaditya’s Era
Purnic Nationalism
THEIR NAME IS LEGION
Rajputs and Afghans
Rajputs and Afghans Looking South
The Egalitarian Warband
Warrior-Ascetics and Wandering Minstrels
THE BALLAD OF RAJA DESING
The Story and its Settings
The Printed Ballad and an Oral Telling
Rajput-Afghan Heroism Goes South
BARBARIKA, ARAVAN, KUTTANTAVAR
Furthering the Case of the Severed Head
Reopening the Case
Tracking Barbarika
A Permeable Divide
THE MYTH OF THE AGNIVAMSA
Variants
Themes
Agnikulas, North and South
DRAUPDI BECOMES BELA, BELA BECOMES SATI
Disposing of the Kaurava Widows
Draupadi Becomes Bela
High and Low Satis
Bela Becomes Sati
Bairagarh
Questions, Questions
Abbreviations / Bibliography / General Index