Sanskrit Gita
The famous Indian poet Tagore divided the poets in the world into two types: the first kind of poet’s happiness and pain are the never-ending resonance of human beings; And forever revered. According to this view, the poet Kalidasa, who is the “nine treasures of the palace”, can only belong to the former category, while the legendary author of the two epics (“Mahabharata” and “Ramayana”), Yicao The immortals and the immortals of Guangbo belong to the whole of India like the Ganges, and they deserve to wear the laurels of the second poet.
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Some scholars believe that only two peoples in the world (ancient India, ancient Greece) have successfully created a simple and beautiful rhythm, which can be varied in a long poem, so the audience can always experience a sense of freshness. Take, for example, the language in which Indian epics are spoken and sung. Both epics took hundreds of years to form and were written between the 4th century BC and the 4th century AD. As an emerging secular literature of speech and singing, although it is written in Sanskrit, it is much simpler than Vedic Sanskrit in terms of pronunciation and grammatical changes, and is also different from the emerging classical Sanskrit. It is a popular Sanskrit suitable for the public.
The Mahabharata was produced relatively early, including 18 chapters and a total of 100,000 verses, making it the longest epic in the world. As a treasure trove of Indian culture, poetry depicts a huge picture of India at that time by describing the war between the Kuru and the Pandu. The narrator of the Mahabharata boasted that all the knowledge about Dharma, benefit, desire and liberation is included in the epic, and the epic also has magical power: “Those who have heard this epic, / There was no better poem to rejoice in him, / As if a man had heard the song of a male cuckoo, / No longer would he like the hoarse voice of a raven. /… / This epic poem is the winning quote, / The king If he wants to win, / He should listen to it, / He will conquer the enemy and conquer the earth. / This is a sacred book of morality, / And the best guide in practical life, / … / The singer is infinite wisdom The vast immortal. / Whoever listens to this epic, / All sins stemming from actions, ideology / and words, / will disappear from him.” Between words, it is not difficult for us to understand the epic in the hearts of ancient Indians supremacy.
Judging from the contradictions and language differences before and after the epic, the Mahabharata cannot be entirely written by the immortal Guangbo. The plot itself explained the three storytellers: first, Immortal Guangbo told the “Mahabharata” to his disciples, and then at a snake sacrifice ceremony, with the teacher’s approval, he “recited” the story. Listening to the king of Zhenqun, Sao Di, the son of joy, heard this poem; the third time Sao Di told it to Shunaga and other cultivators. Obviously, what is used here is the “framed narrative structure” of big stories and small stories, which makes people feel that “Mahabharata” is almost straight from the beginning to the end, and it is told by different storytellers. The epic opens with a description of the immortal gathered in the wandering forest asking Sao Di to tell the story he heard from Fa Xi. Sao Di readily agreed, but he first told the story of the King Snake Festival in Zhenqun, and then he talked about the content of singing and singing. Therefore, the epic widely sung by monks in the world is a version after adding branches and leaves to the bottom of the show.
The epics that are passed down orally have various versions due to the special transmission route. First of all, the stories told orally are performed layer by layer. The original narrator Guangbo Xianren told Faxi the original version, and the two later narrators added their own stories. Second, interactions and questions and answers between the speaker and the audience take place with each narration, which also has an impact on the storyline. Third, epics were originally the pinnacle of Kshatriya singers, works of heroism and battles, and later became a tool for teaching the people under the influence of Brahmins. The most obvious tampering is the confrontation between the front and the back of the epic: the first half praised the Kuru clan, because it was composed by singers who depended on the king of the Kuru clan; when “the country changed hands”, the artists added partiality to the Pandu clan. ‘s carol. For these reasons, scholars have called the Mahabharata “the developing epic”.
Compared with the turbulent disillusionment of the Mahabharata, the Ramayana is full of ideal feelings and more poetic narrative. “Ramayana” has a sophisticated style of writing and successfully reproduces the noble spirit, the duties of kings and social ideals in ancient Indian society in elegant language.
When the Ramayana came into being is still unclear. From a very early time, ancient Indian singers and singers traveled around and sang legends about Rama. By the 3rd century BC, the folk material had undergone creative changes in the hands of Immortal Yingluo and developed into a perfect work. Legend has it that one day, Immortal Yicang saw a pair of happy curlews in the woods. Suddenly, the male was shot dead by the hunter with an arrow, and the female screamed in terror and grief. At this time, Immortal Yicang blurted out a few words of condemnation. Before the sound was over, he found that there was a perfect rhythm flowing in these few sentences. Immortal Yicang pondered this phenomenon repeatedly, and analyzed the mood at that time, and finally realized the mystery of poetry creation. This “interlude” tells us that oral poetry is a rhythmic expression, and people’s inner feelings are their souls; and the narrator, Yilong, is not only a poet, but also a poetry critic. At the end of “Interlude”, the great Indian god Brahma appeared and instructed Yicao to praise Rama’s performance with his newly created “Shulaka” verse, and at the same time assured that: “As long as there is this earth, the green hills will always flow. The legend of “Ramayana” has been passed down in the world forever.” The development of history to this day has confirmed the prophecy of Brahma: for thousands of years, the epic has been intertwined with the hearts of the Indian people.
After the compilation of the immortals, the story of the “Ramayana” is basically complete, but the final version of the epic appeared very late. In the 7th century AD, when Xuanzang traveled to India, the “Ramayana” only had 12,000 verses, while There are as many as 24,000 verses in the book in circulation today. The reason why this phenomenon occurs is mainly because of the “flexibility” of rappers. When they sing, they will lengthen the plot that the audience likes according to the specific situation: when they find that Sita’s pathetic self-confession can move the audience, Just add a few mournful lyrics; if the scene of war resonates with an audience of warriors, they will tactfully create batch after batch of heroes, and let them continue to fight; if the audience is learned Brahmins , they made a big fuss about the teachings, and used more ethical maxims to please the Brahmins. The epic form was not fixed until there was an authoritative written version. At this time, Rama’s story has long been known to every household, and reciting and listening to this epic has also become a religious merit, and people even believe that “heaven will open its doors to those who transcribe the epic.”
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Indians invented writing very early. Around the 8th century BC, Indian merchants brought the Semitic script from West Asia and created the Indian alphabet on this basis. But Indians don’t pay much attention to writing, and they still widely use oral transmission except in business and government affairs. This is probably related to the mentality of Brahmins monopolizing knowledge. Of course, India has a hot and humid climate, and its main writing materials (bark, bay leaves, etc.) are difficult to preserve for a long time, which is also an important reason. Therefore, before the 19th century, Indian classics were mainly preserved by word of mouth.
In the ancient Indian cultural tradition, the method of learning Sanskrit is to sit with the teacher and the apprentice, and teach orally. For Brahmins who specialize in priesthood, the ability to memorize and recite hymns accurately is the key to career success. The ancient Indians believed that the Vedic scriptures were “Apocalypse Huazhang”, and every verse and even every syllable in it was sacred and must be recited accurately without the slightest error, otherwise it would lead to disaster. Following this tradition, chanting heroic epics in later generations was also regarded as an act of entertaining the gods. Singers organize the genealogy of heroes (patriarchs, kings, etc.) into poems and recite them on various occasions. For example, in the horse sacrifice ceremony, the legend of the royal family is recited, and the content is repeated every 10 days, day and night: Brahmin praises the generosity of the officiating king during the day, and Kshatriya sings his achievements at night. . In addition, there were some customs of singing poetry in ancient India. For example, after funerals, relatives in mourning sat down in a shaded place outdoors and asked people to sing legends for them, so as to dispel their grief. According to a seventh-century poet, the custom still existed in his day, and was no longer limited to burials: after major losses, in order to avoid further misfortunes, the stoves were moved outdoors, In the house, a new kind of fire is ignited by drilling wood to make a fire; then, family members burn the fire and sit until late at night. At this time, singers are also invited to tell the stories of the ancients and legends with auspicious omens.
In ancient India, the singer was also called “Sudo”, which means “the king’s ruler”. The “Sudo” class, according to the “Code of Manu”, is the “son of a Kshatriya man and a Brahmin woman married”, and because it was born from a “reverse marriage”, it can only be ranked first among the six lowly minor castes. However, this is just a punitive measure for Brahmins to oppose their women marrying Kshatriyas. In fact, it is not uncommon for Brahmin women to marry Kshatriyas in all dynasties, and there are not a few “sudos” born. Due to the discrimination of Brahmins, they tended to Kshatriya in politics, and they often sang heroic songs for their business to win the appreciation of the royal family. There were no full-time historians in ancient India, only the “sudo” was responsible for reciting the genealogy of the emperors. They lived in the palace and were not only good at compiling and reciting hymns and rapping long stories, but also knowledgeable and proficient in various etiquette, so they were popular Respect the king.
Generally speaking, the heroes in traditional epics are first and foremost orators, and Sudo is no exception. As the “King of the King”, they have to go to the battlefield: The victory in the Mahabharata is the ruler of Chiguo. He is not only responsible for describing the scene on the battlefield for the blind Chiguo, but also before the war. The envoy sent by the Kulu tribe to the Pandu tribe; Sumandara in the Ramayana is the guardian of the King of Ten Cars, and has the reputation of “the chief minister”. According to research, the important position of the singer class in the court has its origins. It was recorded as early as in the “Hundred Ways of Brahman Book”: “Sudo is one of the king’s treasures. It is because of him that he (the king) ascended the throne. Sacred status.” Su Duo served as the king’s whip and chariot, which had two functions: first, he followed the left and right sides and witnessed the current affairs, so that he could witness the heroic deeds of Acura according to his own eyes. The duties of the historian (“Han Shu·Yiwenzhi”)) are similar to those of the historian; the second is to sing and sing the legends of the achievements of the previous kings, as teaching and entertainment, to relieve the boredom of the king, officers and soldiers, and inspire fighting spirit, which is similar to the ancient Chinese Meng responsibilities are similar.
For thousands of years, the two epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, have represented India’s long-standing national life, religious ethics and literary traditions, a synthesis of history, legends, codes, philosophy and carols. In today’s India, every festive festival, the troupe will perform epic fragments in temples, and some poets will even speak to the audience for more than 90 consecutive nights. So Tagore said: “Centuries have passed, but the source of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata has not dried up in this country of India. Every day, every family in every village, reads it aloud. The verses in it. Whether in the shops of the market or at the gates of the king’s court, they are honored by common thoughts and feelings.”
