Rethinking India's Oral and Classical Epics
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Rethinking India's Oral and Classical Epics
Rethinking India's Oral and Classical Epics Draupadi among Rajputs, Muslims, and Dalits
Alf Hiltebeitel
The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London
ALF HILTEBEITEL is professor of religion and director of the Human Sciences Program at The George Washington University. He is the author or editor of several books on Indian religion, anthropology, and literature.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London ©1999 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 1999 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99
1 2 3 4 5
ISBN: 0-226-34050-3 (cloth) ISBN: 0-226-34051-1 (paper)
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Hiltebeitel, AU. Rethinking India's oral and classical epics: Draupadi among Rajputs, Muslims, and Dalits / AU Hiltebeitel. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-226-34050-5 (alk. paper). -ISBN 0-226-34051-1 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Draupadi (Hindu mythology) 2. Mahabharata-History. 3. Rajputs-Religious life. 4. Untouchables-India-Religion. 5. Hinduism-Relations-Islam. 6. Islam-Relations-Hinduism. I. Title. BL 1138.4.D72H57 1999 294.5'923046-dc21 9-8762 CIP
eThe paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
To Madeleine Biardeau
Contents
List of Maps and Tables
x
List of Plates
xi
Acknowledgments
xiii
Conventions
xiv
1. Introduction
1
2. Oral Epics A. Classical and Oral Epics 12; B. Epic Development and the "Real Hero" 21; C. Against Death and Deification 29; D. Bhakti, Regionality, and the Goddess 37; E. Back to the Frames 43
11
3. The Elder Brothers and the Heroes of Palna9u 1. Births of the Heroes 52; 2. Marriage and Virginity 60; 3. The Virgin's Blessing 62; 4. Campuka's and Anapotu Raju's Stratagems 63; 5. The Virgin's Anger 66; 6. Impalements 70; 7. Satls, Revivals, Salvation 75; 8. Transformations of Dasara 81
48
4. The Epic of Ptibajr Births of the Heroes 89; 2. Marriage and Virginity 96; 3. The Virgin's Blessing 101; 4. Phebo's Intervention 101; 5. The Virgin's Anger 105; 6. Impalements 108; 7. Satls and Salvation 113; 8. Transformations of Dasara 114
88
5. Opening Alhil A. Portions and Incarnations 126; B. Sons of DevakI 134; C. Frame Stories and Divine Interventions 136; D. The Maro Feud 142
121
vii
6. The Nine-Lakh Chain A. Treasures 153; B. Bela Demands DraupadI's Jewels 155; C. The Chain 159; D. Bela's Wedding 162; E. Bela's Homebringing 164; F. Dasara 170; G. The Death of MaIkhan 173; H. Sprouts 179; I. Bela's Tour 186
153
7. The Story of ~~~sa A. What Kind of Text? 212; B. The Muslim Captivity of Udal 218; C. Solar and Lunar Lines 222; D. The Agniv~sa 228; E. Defending Folk Hinduism 232
211
8. Kuruk$etra II A. Divine Plan, Master Plan 241; B. The Establishment of Kali and the Last of the Little Kings 254; C. Duryodhana's Return 259
240
9. Time-Routes through the K':~fJlirrlSacarita A. How Do We Get to Where We Are? 265; B. The Buddhists and the Agniv~sa 278; C. Vikramaditya's Era 281; D. Pura~c Nationalism 294
263
10. Their Name Is Legion A. Rajputs and Afghans 299; B. Rajputs and Afghans Looking South 310; C. The Egalitarian Warband 320; D. Warrior-Ascetics and Wandering Minstrels 332
297
11. The Ballad of Raja Desing A. The Story and Its Settings 365; B. The Printed Ballad and an Oral Telling 369; C. Rajput-Afghan Heroism Goes South 394
364
12. Barbanka, Arav3!!, Kfit~~var: Furthering the Case of the Severed Head A. Reopening the Case 415; B. Tracking Barbanka 417; C. A Permeable Divide 431
414
13. The Myth of the Agniv~sa A. Variants 442; B. Themes 453; C. Agnikul as, North and South 462
439
14. DraupadI Becomes Bela, Bela Becomes SatI A. Disposing of the Kaurava Widows 476; B. DraupadI Becomes Bela 482; C. High and Low Satls 491; D. Bela Becomes SatI495 E. Bairagarh 501; F. Questions, Questions 508
476
viii
Abbreviations
513
Bibliography
515
General Index
543
ix
Maps and Tables
Maps 1. Major oral epic and related sites 2. Karempii magician, turns Udal into a parrot, puts him in a cage, and takes him to the JharkhaI:lC:! forest, the "hilly region between Birbhum ... and Benares" in Chota Nagpur (Dey [1899] 1927, 81-82). Having turned him into a man for a game of caupar (dice, parcheesi), she interrupts the game at midnight to propose to him: "Marry me and just do what I tell you. Give up the name of Lord NaraYaI:l, Udan, and say 'J91uda, J91uda.'" (Udal replies) "I will neither relinquish my dharm nor will I say 'Khuda . '.Khuda. '''29 When he refuses, she beats him, demanding that "he utter the Muslim cry of 'Allahu Akbar. ,,, He still refuses (W&G 257). Sunwa, a witness to all this, then uses her magic to become a female kite and come to Udal's rescue. As Grierson (W&G 257) puts it, she "commends his conduct in refusing to change his religion" (referring to his dharm, as above): "She beat you with a bamboo stave, why didn't you say the name 'J91uda'?" Then Udani [Udal] said to Sunwa, "I tell you, sister-in-law, I hold to the way of Rajputs, and to the honor [/aj, lit. "shame"] of grasping a sword. How will I give up my dharm [and] K~atriyahood [chatripan] and become a Musalman? I'll fall cut to pieces on the battlefield, but even then I won't let go of Ram's name."30 Since, however, Udal has been beaten by a woman, he refuses to let Sunwa bring him back to Mahoba and sends her instead to bring AIha and the army to defeat Subhia in battle. The Banaphars (Malkhan, now slain, incongruously included) then fight an army of five hundred gypsies whom Subhia creates with the "magic of Dacca. "31 Sunwa and Subhia contend with spells, and then as female kites, until Subhia's "spell of Blr
28See chap. 6, n. 50. 29l(Jludti is "the common Persian name of God": Lutgendorf 1997, 7-8, translating from Elliot [1881] 1992, 544. 3OLutgendorf 1997, 7-8, translating from Elliot [1881] 1992, 544. 310n Bengal as the land of black magic in north Indian folklore (something like Kerala in Tamil folklore), see Gold 1992, 63-66, 219-20, 265-66.
220
Chapter Seven
MahamdI" loses effect. Sunwa then defeats Subhia and tells Indal to kill her, but he refuses to kill a woman and instead cuts off her hair, ending her power (W&G 258). This is not very ambivalent, to be sure, but let me propose that it portrays the Banaphars in one last battle before the denouement, acting on their own rather than on behalf of kings, and showing how they contend with and triumph over Islamic forces that work at a popular or folk level corresponding to Alhli's own level. Indeed, the pur~'s version of this episode also portrays the heroes in one last geste before the final war and its aftermath, in which politically motivated and historically known Islamic forces invade for real. Yet whereas the heart of the Alhli story is that Udal resists conversion, the K':~1Jiif!lSacarita, to put it simply, envisions a Muslim captivity of God. Here ~~~sa meets a seductive Mleccha (again, Muslim) courtesan (veSyd) named Sobha (or Sobhana). She finds "the supremely delightful best of men (paraf!l ramyaJ!l ... puru~ottamam)" irresistible and wants to seduce him (28.6). This happens not at a Dasara fair but in ValmIki's "purifying lotus forest, the foremost iron bolt consisting of brahman (brahmamayam lohakrlakamuttamam) on the bank of the Ganga" (3). This is none other than the Naimi~a Forest, made once again, as it is not only in many pural;las but in the Mahtibhtirata, a site for pural;lic recitation. 32 Before concerning himself with Sobha, ~~~sa gives a thousand cows to Brahmans and asks the learned Sastris about the authors and "fruits" of each of the eighteen pur~s. Dividing the latter into groups of six according to the three gul;laS or qualities of primal matter, the sages tell him that the Bhavi~ya is among the lowest or darkest "tamasic" pural;las "devoted to the dharma of Sakti," and that, of all the pur~s, the Bhtigavata is the best (28.9-15)-another reinforcement of the interplay between Sakta and Vai~~va texts. ~~~sa listens to the Bhtigavata Sastra (sic) for seven days, and then gives more wealth to Brahmans and feeds a thousand of them. 33 Sobha, who seems not to have benefited from this edifying discourse, has become an almswoman (bhi~ukl) and set herself to meditating on "the heroic Mahamada, the Paisaca servant of Rudra" (28.20-21). 32See above chap. 4, n. 7, and Mbh 1.1.15: the Naitni~a Forest R~is ask the bard Ugrasravas for the "ancient lore proclaimed (proktam puriilJQm) by the supreme R~i Dvaipayana [Vyasa], which was revered (or "approved": abhipajiram) by the gods and Brahman ~~is when they heard it." See Bonazzoli 1981; Hiltebeitel in press-h and forthcoming. 33It is striking that the Bundela king Bir Singh Deo, ruler of Orccha from 1612-27 and notable for varied Brahmanical and pura~cizing interests, "according to later legend, was well acquainted with the dharmaSiistras and once listened for seven days to recitations from the Mahapuranas" (Kolff 1990, 131 and passim). One could say that ~~~aqlsa and Bir Singh Deo (and similarly other Bundelas, 137) were "brought up" to the same standards.
The Story of Kr~~sa 221 Mahamada ("the great drunk") is this text's name for Muhammad, and one wonders whether she is now a Muslim "gypsy" in the guise of a Buddhist nun. In any case, it is from worshiping Mahamada that she draws magical powers (maya) that enable her to transform Kr~~sa into a parrot, capture him in a cage, and take him home to Vahllka country to be her nightly lover and daily pet. As we have seen (chap. 6, § G), MHida's son Indula gets similar treatment when he is captured by Citralekha, whose father Abhinandana and his Tomara K~atriyas defend Vahllka with five lakhs of "Mlecchas of ghastly dharma" (paistlcadharmioolJ; 23.87-88). Now the Mlecchas are clearly Muslims;34 Muhammad is the Paisaca responsible for their dharma; and Vahllka, somewhat loosely located in the Punjab in classical epic sources, now extends into Balkh or Bactria. 35 When Sobha implores Kr~~sa to "protect me with the gift of pleasure," he lauds the World Mother (Jagadambika) by reciting the Ratrisakta (28.39), presumably the ~g Vedic "Hymn to Night, "36 and responds with a long, discouraging speech on the virtues of monogamy (clearly not taking his cue from Bhtigavata Purtl1Jn). Spousal fidelity, he tells her, is the "Aryan way" (aryavartman) , which he exemplifies further with the admonition, attributed to tradition (sm!Ji), that, "One should not speak YaVanl speech even with the breaths gone from the throat (00 vaded yavanfm bhti~af!l pra1JnilJ, kaf!lfhagatairapi); so even crushed by elephants, one should not go to a Jaina temple (gajairapzq,yamano 'pi na gacchej jainamandiram)" (53). Clearly the disasters of the Kali yuga are not limited to the magic of Mahamada. 37 Undaunted, Sobha continues her tricks, but to no avail. And eventually, rather than availing herself of the "magic of Dacca," she goes to MadahInapuram (Medina) to satisfy Mahamada himself, who then comes, speaking Ar~abha Bha~a ("bull talk"?), to the temple of Marusthalesvara, Lord of the wilderness (Le., Lord of the Rajasthan desert) to worship its Sivalingam. 38 The heroes and Sv~vatI (Sunwa) must then contend not 34The Elliot AiM, at least in Grierson's summary, does not seem to highlight the religious identities among king Abhinandan's nine Uikhs of soldiers (W&G 214). 35See Dey [1899] 1927, 19,221; 1927, 113. 36~V 10.127; later, Ahlada also worships Sarada with the "Day Sukta" (Divasakta; 31.93). 37Gahlot and Dhar 1989, 62-63, cite an overlapping Rajasthani "saying": "A Hindu had better be overtaken by a wild elephant than take refuge in a Jain temple, and he must not run across the shadow of it even to escape a tiger." Cf. the words attributed to Vi~J.1u Jagannatha spoken to Caitanya (called YajfiaJ11sa) at Purl at BhvP 3.4.20.91: "By whom Yavani speech is spoken; by whom the Buddha is glanced at; when a great sin overtakes, I stay here, extinguishing guilt. When a man has glanced at me, in the Kali yuga he is purified." See Hohenberger 1967, 15, and above nne 20 and 22 on Caitanya in BhvP. 38 28.62-63. Once again Mahamada is referred to as "the Paisaca skilled in the intoxication
222
Chapter Seven
only with Sobha and ten thousand gypsies (na!as) attendant upon Sobha's brother Sahura, but with Mahamada himself-rather than "the spell ofBlr MahamdI." "Devoted to meditation on Rudra," Mahamada produces lions, monkeys, flies, serpents, vultures, and crows with his magic (sambarf maya), but Sva~vatI neutralizes them by invoking the goddess Kam~I and creating far fiercer Tar~yas (Garuic frame or structure, and to discount Aufrecht's contention that it is a literary hoax perpetrated by an unscrupulous employee on the gullible owner of the Venkatesvara Press, whom Aufrecht otherwise credits with good service to the distribution of purat;Ias (1903, 276, 284). This press published its first printed edition of the Bhavi~ya PurtifJa in 1897. But if it is not a hoax, one can still not rule out parody. Pargiter, who sees the incorporation of Genesis material as a "pious fraud" and an "interpolation," nonetheless adds that being "able to point to such prophetic accounts in the literature would have been a valuable weapon . . . in the hands of the brahmans against adversaries of other creeds" ([1913] 1962, xviii, n. 1). Contextualizing such a view, Bonazzoli argues that a passage describing Jesus as Isamasma, Jesus/"Lord" -the-Messiah (3.3.2.21-32), is composed "by some clever pafJ4it" against the background of the nineteenth-century "Indian Renaissance" (1979a, 35-39): an argument, I will urge, that should be strengthened and extended beyond this one passage. Since both the Genesis-Exodus sequence and the Jesus passage are part of a Pratisarga Parvan "history" of the Mlecchas that also embraces the Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, the Mughals, and the British in Calcutta, the whole train would seem to be an answer to Muslims as well as Christians. Moreover, the Jesus-passage carries this Mleccha history directly into the Kf~1JLiJ!lSacarita, where its appearance in its second adhyaya sets it in a diptych beside a portrait of Muhammad in the third adhyaya. These consecutive adhyayas come between adhyaya 1, which tells of Siva's curse of the Mahtibhtirata heroes to be reborn in "AIhti," and adhyayas 4-6, which introduce the following: Kr~t;Ia'S promise to Kali to establish the MlecchavaqIsa; the actual incarnations starting with BhIma's as the Mleccha Talana or MIra Talhan (4.28-29); and the destruction of the AgnivaqIsa as prologued through the imperial "AgnivaqIsa" rivalry between Delhi and Kanauj.3O The diptych thus places Jesus and Muhammad at the center of those Kt:~1JLif!lSacarita events that bring the Pratisarga Parvan's wider Mleccha history into focus as it ties in with continuities from Mahtibhtirata to "AIhti." The two portraits are a study in contrasts. 30S ee chap. 5, table 4.
272
Chapter Nine
The Jesus passage is set amid events that follow the reign of Vikramaditya, who had established the four comers ofBharatavar~a at the Indus in the west, Setubandha (Rameshwaram) in the south, Badansthana (Badrinath) in the north, and Kapila in the east, with eighteen kingdoms therein. 31 A hundred years after Vikramaditya, within the eighteen kingdoms, "various tongues were established and many dharmas advanced (ntinabhti~alJ,sthitastatrabahudharma-pravartakt1lJ,)" (2. 14)-presumably not only the Buddhist and other "heterodox" dharmas, but Mleccha teachings gathering strength from outside. "Having heard of the destruction of the dharma," hosts of Sakas and others now entered Aryadesa by crossing the Indus and the Himalayas. They plundered the Aryas, seized their wives, and returned to their own countries (15-17). Salivahana, Vikramaditya's grandson (pautras) , then conquered the Sakas and other barbarian kings, seized their treasuries, made them submit to his royal staff (da'!4a) , defined the boundary of propriety (maryyada) to distinguish Aryas from Mlecchas, and established the Indus as the geographical border between Sindhusthana (Sind) as the "furthest of the Arya kingdoms," and Mlecchasthana, the land of Mlecchas, beyond the Indus. Sind, whose islamization begins as early as 711, thus becomes pivotal to this story, as it is to the story of Isma'III missions in India. 32 Having accomplished all this, Salivahana, now as supreme ruler over the Sakas, once came to a snowy mount (or Mount Himatunga), and there, in the middle of the land of the Hu~s (Huns), he "saw an auspicious man (puru~a) standing on a peak, yellowish-white-limbed (gaura1!lgam) and dressed in white (svetavastrakam) , " who joyfully announced himself; "Know me as the son of the Lord, born of a virgin womb, a proclaimer of the Mlecchadharma, whose highest goal is the vow of truth. "33 Asked further about his dharma, the son of the Lord replies that he has appeared because "truth has been destroyed in the borderless land of the Mlecchas," and that, as IsamasI, causing fear among the Dasyus, he has reached the status of MasIha (masfhatvam upagatalJ,). His dharma: by purifying the mind and body through murmured prayer (japam), one murmurs the taintless supreme (japate nirmala1!l para1!l) , so 31 3.3.2.9-13; cf. 3.2.23.7. 32MacLean 1989; Khan 1997a; Kassam 1995. 332.22-24: giristham purusam subham . .. gaurlif!lgaf!l svetavastrakamll ... isaputram ca mam viddhikumangarbhasaf!lbhavamlImlecchadharmasya vaktliramsatyavratapartiyanam. This Jesus passage is also translated by Bonazzoli (1979a, 32-34), summarized with translated verses by Hohenberger (1967, 17-18), and discussed with translated verses by Diehl (1981). I do not note all my differences in translation. Salivahana's encounter with the Huns, who invade India in the fifth and sixth century, must either be an intended anticipation or an unintended anachronism.
Time-Routes through the
K':~1Jii1!1Sacarita
273
that, "by the rule of truthful speech, by mental oneness, by meditation, one may worship the Lord (Isam) who is established in the maJ;lat among NizarI SatpanthIs "in theirjama 'at khanas [congregation places] on Friday evenings and other special evenings . . . a clump of earth from Karbala, over which the hazar Imam has recited some verses of the Qur'an, is dissolved. This is done on a special low table, in a white china pot containing clean water. It is then drunk by all the members of the community, who are present. This same water is also given to an Ismaili on his death bed. "192 The ghaq>at thus transforms NavaratrI while commemorating Karbala. At night-long ghaq>at vigils-on star-filled moonless nights, in fact-when the cup is passed that illumines the presence of 'All, the vision (darsan, dIdar) of his messianic army is illumined by the dust of Karbala. 193 In reverse, the saving of souls through the yugas, which Kassam considers a distinguishing feature of the garbIs, is found not only in them, but in the warlike ginans as well. 194 Indeed, the warlike/quiescent opposition simply does not hold. 195 In two successive garbIs, Shams sings, "This is the age (yuga) of the last battlefield; 0 my Brothers, be vigilant!" "no fifth age" follows (346, 347). It would appear that the aforementioned Ratnayug, the "age of jewels," is another name for the luminous cosmos of the apocalypse. Another garbI mentions that those whose minds are pure can witness the "pious gathering" of saved Medhas and RIkhIsars, along with the
191Personal communications, December 1997. 192Khakee 1972, 408, indicating also that Imamsharus do the ceremony with a tiny clump of earth from the tomb of Imam Shah. 193It is worth noting that the religiously "dialogic" Meos (see chap. 8, n. 43), whose singers know both a Mewati folk Mbh and "a rare narrative called Hasan Husain" (see chap. 1, n. 3) along with stories about the martyrdom and dismemberment of 'Ali (Mayaram 1997, 258), celebrate both Dasara and Muharram (46, 60). 1945ee n. 177. One might look further at the presumed lateness-Shackle and Moir even propose the late eighteenth century (1992, 200)-ofthe garbi songs. While they mention the names of later Imams and Pirs (Kassam 1997, 105), the criterion weakens when we realize that Shams's other ginans also mention the most prominent of them, ~adruddin (169, 234). 195Cf. Khakee 1972, 79-84, 224, 238-40, 263: the saving of the five, seven, nine, and twelve crores of souls through each yuga is accompanied by battles, and all the souls thus saved join the Shah's apocalyptic army, coming in a moment to join him on his chariot.
354
Chapter Ten
PaJ;l~vas
and the usual pura~c figures, "all present at the site of the Ganges"; "Pervading the gathering of the Ganges, they fill it night and day with Light. "196 The faithful who realize that they are ~~is are no less the oppressed of the earth than they are stars above. Finally, the cup of light will also be drunk in the eschatological marriage. Shams sings: Few understand the gha~ ceremony and the stature of the water-pot; The virgin of the universe [Visva-~varI] will drink it and wed Syama, Lord of the three worlds. She is called BibI Fa~imahknow that she is the virgin of the universe; FIr Shams says: the gha~ was established by the order (Jarman) of the Shah. (Kassam 1995, 265; cf. 268) It will be the ultimate interreligious marriage, for Syama, once again, is ~~t;Ul (that is, 'All as ~~t;Ul), and Fa~imah, Muhammad's daughter, is 'AlI's wife. Clearly Fa~imah, like DraupadI, is a virtuous woman of the yuga-this yuga. As Khan shows, it is from this ginanic theme that the Agam Vti1JfS of the Ramdeo cult derive their promise that the Nikalank avatar will consummate his long unfulfilled betrothal to a Dalit girl who represents the earth's oppressed and the earth itself. 197 Alternately, ~adruddln sings, "Soon my righteous sovereign will appear, the mounted Tenth Lord. The Lord Ali will wed the maiden creation"; but on the model of Muhammad's marriages, "four happy brides" will "greet the Master of the Resurrection (ktiyam sami)" at the apocalyptic ghawa~ (Shackle and Moir 1992, 89). There is also a Brahmanized variant in the Kalki Pura1Ja in which Kalki marries two K~atriya princesses (Khan 1997a, 410-12). The pura~c story would seem to bear much the same relation to the apocalypse of the Agam vti1Jfs that the Bhavis,ya Pura1Ja's Kfs.1JtilrzSacarita bears to oral Alhti. As one would expect, the Kalki Purti1Ja calls Kalki' s chief antagonist Kali rather than Kalinga (411), reminding us that Kali takes on new roles in the Pratisarga Parvan as a
196Kassam 1995, 258. Recall that Shams makes the sun descend; see n. 185, and the stories mentioned by Kassam (79 and n. 24, 379). Recall that according to Alberuni, Hindu astronomers place Multan on the line that runs from Lat\ka to Meru (chap. 4, n. 5). 1975ee n. 96 above. Khan takes Visva-kumvarI, "literally the Virgin Universe or the Virgin Earth. . . as a symbol of the converted community," or of "the mystic union of the NizarI community with God" (l997a, 413). The theme recurs in the "big" Dasa avatira (Khakee 1972, 405-6).
Their Name Is Legion
355
whole, and in the K':~1Jiif!lSacarita in particular, to enhance his profile as the reigning demon of the Kali yuga. Remembering that DraupadI is the model satI for the ghawat, and that primary among the satls whom she inspires are Dalit Medhas and Meghas, we must keep these varied identifications of the eschatological bride in mind in considering the low status Bela, and other Draupadls we shall meet. Although Shams Plr's garbls tell that he finally gets the Hindus to throwaway their idols and sacred threads and to see the Qur'an as the fourth and ultimate Veda, the transformation he works is one that carries to the very end a kind of religious bilingualism-in Kassam's terms, "a religious language mutually recognized by Hindus and Satpanth Isma'Uls alike" (1995, 110). Yet I believe it is not enough to say that the ginans "reveal a pedagogic method" by which the da '[s (missionaries) "were able to lead [the faithful] to the 'true path' (satpanth) consisting of nothing more than the fulfillment of their former beliefs. "198 They also left this space of "fluid signs" open to coexistence in a world where they could continue to value alliances with varying shades of comparably "open" Hindus: Dalits, villagers, kings and queens, and, as we have now seen, Bairagls, Sannyasls, and in particular Naths. Khan observes that if the Nizans "absorbed a number of Nath elements, and still more, 'infiltrated' the Nath milieu (very much in the manner of spies penetrating foreign circles under a forged identity)," the Naths, too, "when they had been approached by Ismaili missionaries . . . would have retained certain Nizari influences. "199 More than this, it would seem that Nizans and Naths were primary among those who spun material from their own and other Muslim-Hindu interactions to weave a common cloth that they, and others they influenced, could deploy on either of two different narrative registers. 2OO In the ginans and Agam v(l'![s, Nizans and those they 198Mallison 1989, 94-95; cf. Khan 1996, 36. 199J(han 1997b, 223; cf. 46-51, 139-40, 220-34. As we have seen, Naths, logIs, and Bairagis not only join Shams but trumpet and applaud'All's eschatological army (at n. 151 above). 2001 emphasize a double register as something open to "conscious" narrative permutations on both sides, with future and past interchangeable, since both Hindus and Isma'TIIs have cyclicalheirohistories (on those of the Isma'TIIs, see Daftary 105,139-40,219,231-49,29198; Corbin 1957). Others have interpreted the ginans' correspondences differently: e.g., Nanji as "anagogic," "mystic in the broadest sense," and a product of "mythopoesis" (1978, 100, 114); Asani as retaining "models of proper behaviour" for the "new converts" (1991, 14); Shackle and Moir as "confused" "accretions added by later authors" (1992, 23); Kassam 1994 more suggestively as a [potentially mutual] relation of figure and ground. Khan (see n. 92) and Kassam (1995, 6-19) are surely right to stress politics and critique confusionistic models of syncretism, and Khan to emphasize the messianic. For valuable comparative parallels to the hermeneutics of taqIyya, multiple and dialogic messianisms, open secrecy, and "justice beyond the la\y," see Caputo (1997,69-143) onlacques Derrida.
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influenced thematize a cosmic apocalypse of the future, which, as we have seen, also cycles itself through the past. AiM, sung by Nath and other minstrels and permeated by their idioms, thematizes a regional apocalypse of the past, which also holds promise of a once and future return. As is now evident, each tradition constructs these stories out of the same traumatic historical period and its events, from Shihab aI-DIn's massacre of Isma'IIIs to P~hIraj Chauhan's defeat of the Chandels; and from Shihab aI-DIn's defeat of PrithIraj through the fall of Alamiit. AiM thus forces us to problematize the wandering warrior-asceticminstrel because its heroes, one of them a ShI'I Muslim, become JogIBairagI-fighting-musicians and because their joint disguise has this double apocalyptic register. Only Aihii reflects such clear imbrication of a Muslim co-inspiration. But it would be a mistake, even if the Islamic ties are thinner and less precise, and if they give shape only to specific characters or incidents rather than share in the design of a whole story, to think that the sectarian traditions that feed other regional martial oral epics are without similar impulses. If we hold the question of prophetic images in reserve and reiterate the principle that, no matter what order or sect a regional oral epic singles out, intersectarian and intercommunal warrior-ascetic-minstrel traditions stand behind it, other regional oral martial epics begin to march in tune. In ptibajf, which as one would expect is closest in this regard to Aihti, two revealing episodes make it explicitly a matter of GorakhnathI JogIs. First, when the RebarI herder Harmal resigns himself to the dangerous task of reconnoitering Lailka201 for the she-camels that PabiijI has promised Kelam (PabiijI's brother's daughter) at her wedding, he announces his spy-disguise to his mother: "My mind is set on the ochre dress of the jogI" (J. D. Smith 1991, 343). No sooner does Harmal obtain his JogI paraphernalia in the market (including a pair of tongs from the ironsmith for his dhii¢) and "put on the fine dress of holy men and jogfS," than "the battle-hom of Guru Gorakhnath" sounds, announcing the arrival of a virtual army of JogIs led by Gorakhnath himself. 202 Answering Gorakhnath about his name, house, and home, Harmal says, "0 Guru, 0 holy man, a wandering jogf has no house and home; I am a master-jogf, wandering in all directions, bathing at holy places.... the Sky released me and Mother Earth took me." After other formulaic exchanges, Gorakhnath initiates Harmal and gives him the magic items
2010n Lanka, "land of witches" "beyond the seven seas," see chap. 4, n. 18. 202As J. D. Smith says, Gorakhnath's synchronism with PabOjI, in both oral epic and Naif.l.asI's chronicle, is not "serious history" but "an inflation of history occurring prior to NainasI's time" (seventeenth century) that is paralleled in other Rajasthani folklore (1991, 74-75).
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that will allow him to complete his Lailka mission. As with the Banaphars, Harmal's disguise has to fool his mother (though his wife sees through it) and his Rajput chieftain (PabfijI, though the latter's minister Cado sees through it) (343-52). Next, such formulas recur when the twelve-year-old Rfipnath is left as the last of PabfijI's clan to avenge the Ratho~s against Jindrav KhIcI. Once Rfipnath completes his revenge, he tells his grandmother, "I myself have remained a disciple of Guru Gorakhnath, and I need neither kingdom nor throne-I need nothing. Grandmother, give me your blessing; with your blessing my mind is set on the ochre dress of a joge." He establishes his dhfiJ;lI at a shrine he makes famous (Smith 1991, 464-77). His renunciation is perhaps gratuitous, since his clan's kingdom at Ko~fi has been destroyed, like Mahoba. Rfipnath combines the twelve-year-old's revenge of Udal with the final JogI-destination of Alba. Yet Pabaje goes beyond AlM in imprinting a sectarian seal: when Harmal and Rfipnath become JogIs, whether in the former's temporary disguise or the latter's permanent pledge, Gorakhnath authenticates the initiation himself by performing the heroes' painful "split-ear" (Kanphata) initiation (346,46768). This is something Alba and his companions seem to have missed. On the other hand, Pabajl's JogIs do not play music and sing. That is left to itinerant CaraJ).S, who sing praise-songs (chava~Is) of King Kan;m and the Pavar (Paramara) hero JagdIs, and narrative songs (parva~os) of PabfijI in the middle of his story (e.g., 334-35). Moving south, there is at first a striking difference. Elder brothers and Palnaqu heroes never wander as ascetics, much less as warrior-asceticminstrels. Yet as we have seen in chapter 3, each epic knows the figure of Vi~t;lu disguised as an almanac-bearing mendicant from KasI who comes to shape crucial scenes. In addition to carrying an almanac (like the Banaphar phewa in his JogI disguise), the Telugu Vi~t;lu, a Brahman, "wore ochre robes and carried a water pot, an ash pot, sacred grass, and a deerskin" (Roghair 1982, 336); the Tamil Vi~t;lu, an ascetic of unnamed caste,203 carries a right-spiralled conch and a "Gopala's box" filled with Siva's sacred ash (vipati). As noted in chapter 3 (item 7), this stock south Indian oral epic figure combines Saiva and Vai~t;lava features. In PalntiL/u, he comes not only from KasI but heads toward Kafici: from north to south, and from Siva's city to one "more generally known as a Vai~t;lavite city" (Roghair 1982, 244, 361). Moreover, he is not entirely alone. Each epic incorporates a story whose main older Tamil and Telugu tellings have been beautifully treated by Shulman: that of the husband and wife whose dedication to feeding
203In his first appearance, "He looked like an ascetic (tannliel) , a penitent (tavael) , a wandering renouncer (parateci), a Vai~J.1avite mendicant (tdea!!)" (Beck 1992, 104-5).
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Saiva ascetics brings them face to face with Siva himself in ascetic disguise, who has come to share their love (in Cekki!ar's twelfth-century Tamil Periya Purti1Jflm), or test them (in Telugu versions beginning with Somanatha's thirteenth-century Basavapurti1Jflmu), by demanding that they feed him their boy (1993, 18-86). With no need to repeat this famous "Ci!uttoJ;l~-Siriyala story" (named after the father), I note only how each folk epic incorporates a variant into its larger design and connects it with the almanac-bearing Vi~J;lu. PalntU!u's version introduces the story of Balu