Essay name: Purana Bulletin
Author:
Affiliation: University of Kerala / Faculty of Oriental Studies
The "Purana Bulletin" is an academic journal published in India. The journal focuses on the study of Puranas, which are a genre of ancient Indian literature encompassing mythological stories, traditions, and philosophical teachings. They represent Hindu scriptures in Sanskrit and cover a wide range of subjects.
Purana, Volume 12, Part 1 (1970)
38 (of 240)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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32
啶啶班ぞ啶｀ぎ啷� - [pur膩峁嘺m - ] 笔鲍搁膧狈础
[Vol. XII, No. 1
(v) The highly poetical, sophisticated description in V.
version, by Tapati of the physical characteristics of her handsome
lover strikes one as a highly rhetorical piece rarely found in early
Sanskrit epic and Pur膩峁噄c literature. The passages in the Mb, slightly
similar to this passage in V., as quoted in Note 7 above, describe
The author of the
the physical characteristics of women.
particular passage in the V. version of the Tapati Samvarana
story has made, it appears, a bold departure in extending such
rhetorical description to the physical characteristics of men.
(vi) The consideration of the
above-mentioned points,
based on the comparative study of the versions of the Tapati-Sam-
varana story as they appear in the Mb and V, leads one to conclude
that the version of the story in the Mb may be older than that in
the V. The author of the version of the story in the V. must
have worked up and retold the story according to his romantic
temperament and that of his listeners (or readers), making it into
a high romance cast in unearthly and supernatural setting. The
meeting of Samvara峁嘺 and Tapati in the heavenly garden in the
of celestial damsels, the mystery of keeping their identity
company
unrevealed to the last, the elimination of the earthly calamitous
conditions befalling Samvara峁嘺's kingdom, the all powerful role
of Purohita Vasistha before whom the king pales into insignificance,
the description by Tapati of the physical characteristics of her
lover almost bordering on the superhuman-all these features of
the version of the story in the V. point to the above plausible
conclusion.
The most important point which appears common to Mb and
V versions and which seems to have been made use of by the
author of the V version is that the Prince Samvara峁嘺 was struck by
the dart of love 30.
30.: which appears in both the versions Mb. 1-160-
32 and V. 22-34.
