Triveni Journal

1927 | 11,233,916 words

Triveni is a journal dedicated to ancient Indian culture, history, philosophy, art, spirituality, music and all sorts of literature. Triveni was founded at Madras in 1927 and since that time various authors have donated their creativity in the form of articles, covering many aspects of public life....

Revelation as Epic narrative: Epic Poetry East and West

Prof M. V. Rama Sarma

REVELATION AS EPIC NARRATIVE:
EPIC POETRY EAST AND WEST

Prof. M. V. Rama Sarma

All epic poetry is the same. Whether the epic is of ‘the East or West, North or South, its blood and temper are the same’ and it deals with ‘great actions and great characters in a style commensurate with the lordliness of the theme.’1 Epic poetry is classified into two categories, the authentic and the literary. The former is oral and the latter is written. Whether the poem is authentic or literary, it is primarily a poem of excellence and finish. Authentic epics like Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, the old English epic Beowulf and the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata belong to the oral tradition, transforming a number of lays into poems of epic dimensions. Virgil’s Aeneid, Valmiki’s Ramayana, Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata and Milton’s Paradise Lost are literary epics with a known authorship.

In all these epics revelation is introduced as a significant form of narrative. In Homer’s epics revelation comes from the gods above, when Athene or Venus appears to the hero at a crucial point with words of comfort or advice.2 Very often the gods and goddesses participate in human affairs and preside over their destinies. There is nothing mysterious about these revelations. They are direct communications with no implied suggestions or ambiguity about them. At the end of the ninth year when the Greeks seem to be wavering in their warfare with the Trojans, Hera asks Athens to rouse the Greeks from stupor. When Menelaus and Paris fight furiously Aphrodite, the daughter of Zeus, saves Paris by hiding him in a mist and snatching him away from the fight. Throughout the Iliad gods and goddesses vie with each other in helping their own heroes. When the old king Priam thinks of getting the corpse of his son Hector from the tent of Achilles, Zeus sends Hermes to guide Priam safely to the Greek camp. In the Odyssey Odysseus is exposed to trials and tribulations on the seas for ten years only because of the enmity of the sea-god Posiedon. So Hermes, the Envoy of the gods, is despatched by Zeus to release Odysseus and the goddess Athene, the protector of Odysseus, visits Ithacca to advise Telemachus to take active steps towards the discovery of his long-lost father. In Homer’s epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey gods and goddesses openly take sides and behave like human beings with prejudices and partialities for and against the Greek or Trojan heroes. Homer seems to regard his gods, though immortal, as made in the image and likeness of man.

Virgil’s Aeneid deals with the destiny of Rome. As the city of Troy is burnt Venus tells her son Aeneas to flee from Troy, and later revelation is given to him that he should go to Italy and be the founder of the Roman empire. Juno, the wife of Jove, creates problems for Aeneas for she is not favourably disposed towards the Trojans. Dido, queen of Carthage, falls in love with Aeneas and Juno tries her best to prevent Aeneas from going to Italy. Aeneas forgets his primary obligation and surrenders himself to the seductive charm of Dido. But Mercury, the divine messenger, is commissioned by Jove to warn Aeneas to leave Carthage immediately. Even towards the close of the epic Aeneas has to face the ire of Juno for she helps Turnus, his foe. Venus supports the Trojans, Juno the Italians. Juno is the patroness of Turnus and Vunus protects Aeneas. The conflict of Venus and Juno “represents on a celestial plane the conflict on earth and helps to make virgil’s meaning clearer.”3 The gods love Aeneas and they test him. He is chosen for a special task, so he has to pass through ordeals. His whole life is dictated by the gods. They tell him what to do and he abides by their wishes. Homer describes the Trojan war with detachment, but Virgil accepts the old beliefs, of the good being rewarded and the wicked being punished after death. Aeneas is an exemplar of duty and he serves gods faithfully.

In Gerusalemme Liberata Tasso introduces angels who are min­isters of help. His god answers prayers and sends Gabriel to Goffredo with orders to march against Jerusalem. When Goffredo sees his army perishing for lack of water he prays to God for rain and God answer’s his prayers. As in Virgil’s Aeneid temptation figures in Gerusalemme also. Armida tries to overpower Rinaldo with her seductive charm. But Tasso gives a happy ending to this scene by making Armida converted to Christianity. She is reformed and she makes a good wife to Rinaldo. Tasso clothes his heavenly figures with all the colour and brightness he can give them. Tasso’s angels reflect the imaginative vision of many Italian painters.

In the Mahabharata and Milton’s Paradise Lost God figures as a speaking character. Valmiki’s Ramayana presents God in the human form. Rama is an upholder of dharma, an ideal king and an avatar of Vishnu. But he does not reveal himself as God as Krishna does in the Mahabharatha. He is no teacher like Krishna, but shows others, by his own example how to live according to dharma and how to attain heavenly bliss. At the human level he shows himself as an embodiment of ideal human relationships. His own life in the human form serves as an example of perfection to be imitated and emulated by others. His ethical idealism and his kingly virtues make him unparalleled and exemplary.

But revelation as regards Rama’s godhead is given in Canto 1 and Cant VI of the Ramayana. The epic opens with Valmiki’s query to Narada, ‘who is, at present, the most accomplished, learned, powerful, noble-minded, truthful, firm in vows, of excellent moral character, and of grateful turn of mind.5 Narada refers to Rama as the one person who answers to that description. Later Brahma tells Valmiki: ‘celebrate the life of Rama in your verse. Relate the sacred story as you have heard it from Narada about pious and intelligent Rama, Lakshmana and Videhi.....So long as the mountains and the seas exist on earth, the sacred history of the Ramayana shall endure,’ When gods approach Vishnu to save them from the tyranny of Ravana, he agrees to become incarnate. So the story of Rama begins in heaven. Apart from this revelation of Rama’s divine origin in the first canto, the sixth canto also is full of references to Rama’s divinity. In Canto vi Ravana’s maternal uncle Malyavan advises Ravana not to fight with Rama for he considers Rama to be Vishnu incarnate in the human form. When Rama hesitates to accept Sita at the end of the war Indra tells him that he is the highest god and he wonders why Rama should distrust Sita as though he is a mortal being. Later Brahma tells Rama, ‘You hold the universe in you. Thou liest on the water of the universal Dissolution on the bed of the Ananta snake. You have bowed down Bali and made Indra the key of heaven. Janaki is Lakshmi personified and thou art Vishnu himself. You have assumed this human form for the destruction of Ravana. So Valmiki refers to the divinity of Rama only in an indirect manner. But there are ample suggestions to indicate Rama as the Supreme Purusha who becomes incarnate only to kill Ravana.

On the whole the picture we get of Rama in Valmiki’s Ramayana is of an ideal human being who is magnanimous in his nature, lofty in his ideals and above all a just ruler. That he is an avatar of Vishnu is mentioned only in the first and sixth cantos. Rama does not reveal himself as god, others mention it, that too mostly in two cantos and they are considered to be interpolations. But Valmiki himself may have followed this technique of mentioning Rama’s divinity through other characters, for the main narrative can present Rama only as a man. It is ordained that Ravana can be killed only by a man. To that extent there seems to be some limitation on Valmiki’s perception of Rama’s divinity.

So Valmiki’s Ramayana poses the problem whether Rama is a god, or he is a human being who attains his divinity through his individual efforts of upholding dharma and righteousness. The Son of God in Milton’s Paradise Lost equally puzzles us. Milton metions in Book iii that the Son of God is equal to God, and a hundred lines later he says that he is second to God. Presumably Milton thinks that the Son’s exaltation is not through his birthright but by his merit as the redeemer of mankind. Rama in the human form reveals to mankind the nobler path of life by his own example.

In the later versions of the Ramayana like the Adhyatma Ramayana Rama is not merely the Avatar of Vishnu, He is the Brahman of the Vedas. He is Nirguna Brahman ‘beyond attributes’. The human concept of Rama is over powered by the Brahman in him. Ramacharitamanas of Tulasi Das introduces a new element of bhakti. Rama is the Lord to be worshipped and even the mere mention of his name would bring salva­tion. The human Rama still figures but the Rama cult takes precedence over his human qualities. On the whole Rama is a suffering hero and like Jesus Christ he suffers for ennobling humanity through his example.

The Mahabharata is encyclopediac and it has influenced the religious, social, political and philosophical outlook of India from time immemorial. As Vyasa tells Brahma, his poem, the Mahabharata deals with past, present and future....it sums up vedas, and explains the philosophies’. Brahma blesses Vyaasa that his poem will be unrivalled. Ganesa, the elephant faced God, takes down the dictation. So like the Ramayana, the Mahabharata too has a sacred ground. Vyasa’s Mahabharatha is a compendium of ‘Dharma, Artha and Moksha’. ‘What is found in this epic may be elsewhere / what is not in this epic is nowhere else’. What is not found in the Mahabharata is not to be found in the land of the Bharatas.

Similarly Milton’s Paradise Lost is ‘unpremeditated verse’ and it is dictated by Urania, the holy Muse, who visits Milton’s slumbers nightly’. So Paradise Lost is inspirational poetry, and Milton considers himself to be a poet-prophet who has to ‘celebrate in glorious and lofty hymns the throne and equipage of God’s almightiness’. He is in the tradition of Hebrew prophets and he wants to tell ‘of things invisible to mortal sight’. In his epic Paradise Lost God is not merely the speaking character, his ways have to be justified to men and Milton chooses to ‘assert Eternal Providence’. His ‘adventurous song’ soars aloft with no ‘middle flight’ and it pursues ‘Things unattempted in prose or rhyme’. The two epics The Mahabharata and Paradise Lost can be considered to be smrithis, preachings of divine incarnations, saints or prophets. They are epics of revelation. Krishna in the Mahabharata reveals himself as the supreme God. On the battlefield Arjuna says, ‘Give me revelation. If you think me worthy, Krishna, give me revelation’. Krishna tells Arjuna, ‘My love shows you the supreme revelation. None has seen this before’. He tells Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita,

I am the essence of the waters,
The shining in the sun and the moon;
Om in all the Vedas

The word that is God,
It is I who resound in the ether
And am potent in man.

Krishna is the essence of all things, the all pervading spirit found everywhere. The epic reveals the personal and the impersonal godhead of Krishna.

In Paradise Lost too, Raphael reveals to Adam the omniscience of God.

O Adam, one Almighty is, from whom
All things proceed, and up to him return
If not depraved from good, created all
Much to perfection; one first matter all
Endued with various forms, various degrees
Of substance, and, in things that live, of life.
(BK V, 469-474)

Milton’s God is not only impersonal, but he is anthropomorphic also.

Krishna reveals to Arjuna the mysteries of life, emphasizing the need for man to establish right relationship with God. The tone of the Gita is dogmatic and it is midway between a philosophical system and a poetic inspiration. The Gita propounds that God realization is possible through anyone of the three approaches, Jnana, Bhakti or Karma. The Gita is ‘a Yoga sastra’ and the Jnani attains perfection through spiritual enlighten­ment. Krishna tells Arjuna,

He who knows the nature
of my task and my holy brith
Is not reborn. (The Gita, P.61).

This is the wisdom of the purest type. One can attain moksha through bhakti also. Or by doing one’s own duty, irrespective Of the reward, as an act of faith in God, one can attain bliss. The Mahabharata with its revelation of Krishna as the supreme God establishes the Krishna cult and the message of the Gita has become a part of the Indian philo­sophical thought content and it equally appeals to the common man also.

Revelation in Paradise Lost is more complicated for Milton boldly asserts that he will show the reasonableness of God’s ways and the essential justice involved in them. In bringing ‘heavenly matter to earthly level’ Milton tries to describe the indescribable. However Milton uses revelation as a narrative technique. What Milton means by revelation seems to be ‘a consolidated, coherent, encyclopediac view of human life:7 ln presenting God in Paradise Lost Milton relies on the theory of accommodation whereby God’s ways are accommodated to the level of human understanding. God sends Raphael to explain to Adam his duty to God and the possibility of a temptation from his foe Satan. Again in the last two books of Paradise Lost Michael, at the behest of God, reveals to Adam through visions the future of mankind. In book Xii Michael relates the events from Nimrod to the coming of Christ. Milton while narrating these events uses ‘the familiar puritan theme of history as revelation and revelation as human history.’ 8 Michael tells Adam that the Son in the human form will win victory over the devil and he will atone for ‘the sins of all mankind’ by being crucified. Michael reveals that the Son of God will come again.

When the world’s dissolution will be ripe,
With glory and power to judge both quick and dead

(Bk XII, 459-60)

Thereby suggesting the golden age when justice reigns supreme and the faithful will be rewarded. Through Michael Milton refers to a millennium,

New heavens, new earth, ages of endless date
Founded in righteousness, and peace and love,
To bring forth fruits, joy and eternal bliss.
(Bk. XII., 549-51)

The Mahabharata too gives a picture of transcendental glory, for Krishna tells Arjuna,

In every age I come

To deliver the holy,
To destroy the sin of the sinner,
To establish righteousness. (The Gita, p.60).

Through revelation Adam acquires ‘the sum/ of wisdom’ and he learns the lesson of obedience to God, ‘And live with fear the only God’, and on him ‘sole depend’. Adam possesses ‘a paradise within’ and he leaves Paradise with the comforting thought that God will be with him wherever he goes. The epic ends on a note of solemnity with ‘calm of mind all passion spent.’

All these three epics - the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and Paradise Lost look forward hopefully to a new world order founded in dharma, righteousness. Raamarajya of the Ramayana, the regenerated world of the Mahabharata and the millennium of Paradise Lost fill us with hope, while Krishna reveals himself and exhorts the world through his message, Rama shows that ‘suffering for Truth’s sake / Is fortitude to highest victory’. Paradise Lost like Samson Agonistes solemnly de­clares that ‘Just are the ways of God / And justifiable to men’ and that ‘All is best’ though weoften doubt what ‘the unsearchable dispose of Highest wisdom brings about’. These three epics insist on man’s unswerving loyalty to God and on the need for man to strive for something noble in life. They transcend the limitations of epic poetry and with their univer­sality of appeal become relevant and indispensable to man in his quest for a better world, divinely ordained.

REFERENCES

1 Dixon. Epic and Heroic poetry, P. 24.
2 Frye, Northrop. ‘The story of all things’ Paradise Lost Ed. Scott Elledge, p.412
3 Bowra, C.M. From virgil to Milton, p. 72
4 Ibid., p.149.
5 Valmiki Ramayana trans. Makhanlal sen, p.3. (All quotations from Ramayana are from this book)
6 The song of God: Bhagavad Gita, Trans. Swami Prabhavananda, Christopher Isherwood, p. 89.
7 Frye, Northrop. ‘The story of all things’ Paradise Lost Ed. Scott Elledge, p. 422.
8 Radzimwicz, Mary Ann. ‘Man as a probationer of immortality: Paradise Lost XI- XII ‘Approaches to Paradise Lost, Ed. C.A. Patrides, p. 49.

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