OS on short stories contained in Mahabharat - Page 4

I am tagging members to read the stories above and restart activity in this forum.

Originally posted by: BrhannadaArmour

I am trying to restart activity in this forum by tagging members to read the stories above.

Thank you! I'll catch up on the stories when I'm a little free!

I am trying to restart activity in this forum by tagging members to read the stories above.

I am tagging members to read the stories above and restart activity in this forum.

I am trying to restart activity in this forum by tagging members to read the stories above.

This is why I was excited about this topic. We get to read the lesson discussed tales from Mahabharat. And Mahabharat is nothing but stories within stories.

I had never known about this story, glad you posted it.

Is this a typo or does it mean something,

Saṃjaya, they'd call it a jenny's motherly love, worthless and unmotivating.

Originally posted by: devashree_h

This is why I was excited about this topic. We get to read the lesson discussed tales from Mahabharat. And Mahabharat is nothing but stories within stories.

I had never known about this story, glad you posted it.

Is this a typo or does it mean something,

Saṃjaya, they'd call it a jenny's motherly love, worthless and unmotivating.

Mahābhārata mostly has stories told to the main characters, whereas Kathāsaritsāgara has more layers of story-within-story-within-story. We can talk about Kathāsaritsāgara in the Saṃskṛta Text Discussion Forum.

I translated the word kharī as "jenny" - a female ass/donkey. Elsewhere in the dialogue, the word kharī-mṛduḥ - submissive as a jenny - is what a prince shouldn't be.

Ruru

Rishi Bhrigu had a son called Chyavana. Chyavana's son was called Sukanya. Sukanya had a son called Pramati. Pramati had a son called Ruru, from Ghritachi.

There was a Sage called Sthulakesha, known for his austerities. At this time, Menaka conceived a child through King Of Gandharvas, Vishwavasu. She gives birth to a daughter and leaves her near hermitage of Rishi Sthulakesha. He adopted the daughter of Menaka and called her Pramadvara. She grows up to be radiant and beautiful.

Once Rishi Ruru comes to the Ashram and sees her. He immediately falls in love with her. Through his friends, he lets his father Pramati know about this. Rishi Pramati goes to Rishi Sthulakesha's ashram and asks for his daughter's hand for his son. Both fathers agree and decide to get them married when Uttarphalguna is ascended.

Tragedy strikes when a snake bites Pramadvara and she dies. Many Sages come there after knowing about this ad express grief. Ruru comes with his father Pramati, but leaves for the forest in sadness.

Ruru starts lamenting in the forest, saying if he has done right, then his beloved should come back to life. A voice in the Sky tells him when someone dies, they cannot be brought back. But he tells Ruru that Great God's have devised an antidote for this situation. Ruru asks the Messenger of Gods what it is, and he will do what he says. The Voice in the Sky tells him that he will have to give half his life for Pramadvara. Riru agrees. Then Vishvasu and the Messenger of Gods go to Dharmaraj and tell him about this. Dharmaraj agrees and Pramadvara is given half the life of Ruru.

Pramadvara wakes up from dead and then she gets married to Ruru. Ruru's life is shortened due to this.

This situation has affected Ruru a lot, so he started killing snakes whenever he saw them. Once he tries to kill an old, non-poisonous snake in forest. The snake asks him why is he trying to kill him when the snake did not try to harm him. Rishi Ruru tells him that after a snake bite almost killed his wife, he took a vow to kill any snake that he sees. The snake tells him that he is a non-poisonous snake, they don't harm anyone.

The dundubha replied, “O Brahmana! There are other snakes that bite mankind. The dundubhas are snakes only by smell; you should not kill them. We may share the same misfortune, but we do not share the same good fortune. We may share the same sorrows, but we do not share the same joys. Since you cannot differentiate between right and wrong, you should not kill the dundubhas.”

Rishi Ruru realizes it might be some Brahmana in the form of snake, and gets scared. He asks him how he became a snake. The snake tells him he was a Brahmana named Sahasrapata and got cursed by a Brahmana. To pacify him. Rishi Ruru asks him why he was cursed.

The snake tells him he was friends with another Brahamana named Khagama. When Khagama was performing Agnihotra, Sahasrapata made a snake out of grass and tried to scare him. Khagama gets scared and faints. After he gains consciousness, he curses his friend that since he made a mock snake to scare him, he will himself become a powerless snake. Sahasrapata gets very sad and tells him he did it only to make him laugh.

Seeing that my mind was thus agitated, the ascetic was moved and breathing hot and hard, he said, ‘What I have said must come to pass. But, O ascetic! Since you are always rigid in your austerities and unwavering from your rites, hear what I have to say and hold it close to your heart. When Pramati’s son, the pure Ruru appears, you will be immediately freed from the curse on seeing him.’ You are that Ruru, the son of Pramati. Regaining my form, I will tell you something for your benefit.

Then, Sahasrapata tells Ruru that a Brahama should not commit violence on other creatures. He should be learned in Vedas. His path should be non-violence. The duty of the Kshatriya is to keep order and give punishment. He tells him that King Janamjeya had killed many snakes. Then the snakes went to a Brahmana named Astika who saved them during snake sacrifice. Ruru asked him more about Rishi Astika but Shasrapata vanishes from there, telling him that a Brahmana would recite this story to him. Ruru tries looking for that Brahmana in forest, but doesn't find him. He collapses due to exhaustion. He wakes up and goes home. He asks his father about it and his father recount the story to him.

After this, the Astika parva begins.

Thanks for sharing this love story that introduces and also parallels the sarpasatra - Snake Sacrifice at which Mahābhārata was narrated.

Like Ruru's indiscriminate slaughter of snakes and lizards, Janamejaya's pursuit of vengeance against Takṣaka kills a multitude of innocent Nāgas, but ironically, Takṣaka survives.

The story begins with a genealogy, in which you wrote, "Chyavana's son was called Sukanya." This isn't the meaning of the Saṃskṛta text at Ādiparvan 8.1, where the locative word Sukanyāyāṃ indicates that Cyavana begot Pramati in Sukanyā - Cyavana's wife, whose story is told in Āraṇyakaparvan chapters 122-125.

The genealogy tells us that Ruru and Pramadvarā were the parents of Śunaka, since the sūta Ugraśravas is narrating the Bhārgava lineage at the request of their descendant Śaunaka. Contradicting this genealogy, Anuśāsanaparvan chapter 31 traces the lineage of Pramati, Ruru, Śunaka, and Śaunaka back to a kṣatriya named Vītahavya, who was made a brāhmaṇa by Bhṛgu to save his life from Pratardana.

Ruru and Pramadvarā both have apsaras mothers - Ghṛtācī (who also inspired the birth of Droṇa) and Menakā (who similarly abandoned her other daughter Śakuntalā).

The wedding date specified at Ādiparvan 8.13 is agre nakṣatre Bhaga-daivate - the next day of the constellation with Bhaga as its deity, meaning Uttarā Phalgunī. The convention in Indian astrology is that the moon is in conjunction with a different nakṣatra every day. The word "ascended" refers to a different astronomical event: the appearance of a constellation above the horizon, which happens once every day.

I've read about other fictional weddings that were scheduled for Uttarā Phalgunī days (Rāma and his brothers with Sītā and her sisters according to Rāmāyaṇa, Bālakāṇḍa 70.24, and Naravāhanadatta with Ajinavatī according to Bṛhatkathāślokasaṃgraha 20.163). Maybe this was the custom because the word bhaga signifies sex appeal, subhaga meaning sexy and durbhaga meaning unsexy, and getting married under the auspices of the deity Bhaga ensured saubhāgya, long-lasting sexual partnership.

Snake-bitten Pramadvarā is described with these words: bhūmau patitā (fallen to the ground), gata-cetanā (unconscious), vyasuḥ (unable to breathe), aprekṣaṇīyā'pi prekṣaṇīyatam'ākṛtiḥ (unwatchable yet of eye-catching shape), prasupte'va (as if sleeping), viceṣṭamānāṃ (spastic) and padma-varcasam (pink like a lotus). She's clearly not dead yet.

Ruru prays that if he has given charity, performed tapas, and served his elders correctly, his beloved should be revived; if he has controlled himself and observed vows since birth, Pramadvarā should get up right now.

The divine messenger's reply is: na tu martyasya dharm'ātmann āyur asti gat'āyuṣaḥ - there just isn't long life for a mortal whose lifespan is finished, you of moral nature! This is consistent with Pramadvarā stepping on the snake because she is mumūrṣuḥ kāla-coditā (about to die, directed by Time) and the snake is coditaḥ kāla-dharmaṇā (directed by the law of Time). So, the problem is that Pramadvarā is running out of time, not that death is irreversible as you wrote: "when someone dies, they cannot be brought back."

When the Gandharva king and the divine messenger appeal to Dharmarāja, their plea ends, mṛt'aiva yadi manyase - she's only dead if you decide.

Ruru's habit is to kill all jihmagas - those who move crookedly. Arrows that hit their mark in battle are often described as ajihmaga - not going off-course.

Sahasrapāt (thousand-footed; not Sahasrapāta which would mean thousand-times-falling) as the ḍuṇḍubha doesn't say, "Since you cannot differentiate between right and wrong." He says dharmavid bhūtvā - having become aware of morality, meaning that he expects an educated man like Ruru to be more discerning.

My mistake about Sukanya. While writing that, I was aware Sukanya is a female name so I had rechecked the text. I don't why I got confused, the text is pretty clear about Sukanya being wife of Chyavana and was Mother of Pramati.

Yes, Ruru and Pramadvara are both children of Apsaras. About three Drona story, wasn't Ghritachi flying in the Sky when Bharadwaj saw her?

About whether Pramadvara is dead or not, these are the words from BORI Critical English edition,

Someone whose mortal time on this earth has run out, cannot come back to life again. The miserly life has run out for this daughter of the gandharva and the apsara.

‘They addressed him in these words. “O Dharmaraja! If you so think, let Ruru’s beautiful bride Pramadvara, who is now dead, arise with half of Ruru’s life.”

It spells the name aas Sahasrapata, they always add an 'a' to all names at the end.

Also, in my previous post, all the passages that are in Italics have been copy pasted directed from Critical Edition.