BORI精校本工作笔记摘录
这些抄本都是晚出或由于某些原因未被选入，有很多，但我就挑了自己感兴趣的。
The Southern recension informs us that when the Paṇḍavas first arrived at the Court of Hāstinapura from the forest retreat, after the death of their father, Yudhiṣṭhira was exactly sixteen years old, Bhīma fifteen, Arjuna fourteen, the twins thirteen. We are further told exactly how long the Pāṇḍubrothers stayed at the Kaurava Court, in the Lac House (Jatugṛha), in Ekacakrā,at the Court of the Pāñcāla King, then again at the Kaurava Court, then in Indraprastha, and so on. Yudhiṣṭhira died at the ripe old age of 108, which is a mystic number.Arjuna was younger than Kṛṣṇa by three months, which was also exactly the difference between the ages of Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. And so on and so forth.Almost all these useful details are lacking in the Northern recension, and I doubt whether they can even be reconstructed from the meagre data of this recension on these points.
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(5) No. 59 : Sūrya persuades Kuntī to have sexual intercourse ( 21 lines ).
(6) No. 67: Details of the early life of the Pāṇḍavas in the Himalayan retreat (46 lines).
(7) No. 6869: Pāṇḍu's death and many funeral orations (together 123 lines).
(8)No. 78 (S‚ and by conflation K± Dai DnDa.4.u): Details of a battle between the Kurus and the Pāñcālas, and capture of Drupada (119 lines).
( 9 ) No. 79 : Anticipation of the accountof the birth of Draupadī and Dhṛṣṭa– dyumna; and account of the birth of Drupada (together 194 lines).
(10)No. 8789: Additions to the Hiḍimbaepisode (69 lines).
(11)No. 9193: Additions to the Bakavadhaepisode, including a detailed account of the fight between the two wellmatched giants, Baka and Bhīma (106 lines).
(12)No. 95: Drupada bemoans the loss of the Pāṇḍavas, and is consoled by his Purohita; decides, at the advice of thePurohita, to celebrate the Svayamvara of Kṛṣṇā‚ in the hope that the Paṇḍavas might turn up (74 lines).
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in the stanzas which refer to the duration of Arjuna's exile.
According to the Northern recension it is thirteen years; according to the Southern, only thirteen months
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(iii) passage No. 59 (of App. I) depicts the persuasion of the shy and reluctant Kuntī by Surya for intercourse, by alternate threats and promises, like a real Don Juan;
(iv) in passages No. 6869, the Southern recension has tried to develop a very pathetic scene indeed, depicting the deathof the father of the heroes, Pāṇḍu: an incident which must have been considered as deserving fuller and more sympathetic treatment than the perfunctory notice we find preserved in the Northern recension. At the sight of the corpse of her husband, Kuntī falls to the ground in a swoon, like a felled tree. Then the five brothers come up in a single file, and in the order of their ages, and recite their little mournful dirges: Yudhiṣṭhira gets 8 lines, Bhīma 7, Arjuna4, the twins (in chorus) only 3 lines together.1 Then follow longwindedfarewell orations by Kuntī‚ Mādrī and the rest of the company, which are followed by a touching scene describing Madrī mounting the funeral pyre;
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1 Analogous to it is a battle scenedescribed in an additional adhyāya in the Southern recension (App. I, No. 103).This stages a little war between the cousins, a miniature replica of the GreatWar to come.Here also Kurus plan the destruction of the Pāṇḍavas, who are residing in Kāmpilya as the guests of Drupada. A regular council of war isheld, in which Śakuni and Karṇa advocate hostilities, while the nameless son of Somadatta counsels peace and conciliation. The bellicose party has the upperhand in the council chamber. The Kuru army marches against the Pāṇḍavas with their allies, the Pāñcālas.
The Kaurava forces are, of course, easily repulsed. No great damage is done. The status quo is immediately restored:things go on just the same as before, as though no battle had ever taken place.There is also no other reference to this battle in the whole of the Mahābhārata. The present parvan does not offer much scope for the full development of this tendency. We shall probably meet with it again in the battlebooks ( 69 ).
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LX
PROLEGOMENA
The Bengali version is closely allied to the Vulgate, but is unquestionably superior to the latter in so far that it is happily free from alarge number of late accretions which encumber the Vulgate. Of such"omissions", exhibiting the superiority of the Bengali version, the following will serve as illustrations:
More than usual interest attaches to another omission in the Bengaliversion, which concerns a wellknown and popular scene describing the discomfiture of Karṇa at Draupadīs svayamvara, which is commonly believed to be one of the main reasons why he always entertained feelings of such deep and implacable hatred towards Kṛṣṇā (Draupadī), and lost thereafter no opportunity to hurt and humiliate her.
This passage deserves a detailed consideration. Ramesh Chandra Dutt‚who had to make a very careful selection of the incidents of the epic in compressing the story, has made this scene the centre of his poetic account of the marriage of Draupadī, and given a vivid rendering of the passage in his Epic of the Bharatas:"Uprose Karna‚ peerless archer, proudest of the archers he, And he went and strung the weapon, fixed the arrows gallantly, Stood like Surya in his splendour and like Agni in his flame,— Pandu's sons in terror whispered,Karna sure must hit the aim! But in proud and queenly accents Drupad's queenly daughter said: 'Monarch's daughter, born a Kshatra, Suta's son I will not wed.’Karna heard with crimsoned forehead, left the emprise almost done, Left the bowalready circled, silent gazed upon the Sun!"
The situation is, undoubtedly, full of dramatic possibilities. Just at the moment when the prize was going to be snatched away from the heroes ofthe epic by an upstart,
1 Cf. p. LIII‚ footnote 1, above. * See F.BelloniFilippi, "L'spisodio di Kadrū e di Vinatā nell' edizione criticadel Mahābhārata"
(Traduzioni di epica indiana),published in the Ascoli Memorial Volume, Siīloge Linguislica (Torino1930),