"Mahabharata" and "Ramayana" A serious role in the development of the religious doctrine of Hinduism belongs to the Indian epic works- poems "Mahabharata" and "Ramayana". What was originally formed and transmitted as local legends was eventually written down and

The two great epic poems, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, are the true encyclopedias of Indian life. Ramayana, like the Greek “Iliad” and “Odyssey” and in modern times the Finnish “Kalevala”, is composed of separate rhapsodies - fragmentary songs that were originally preserved orally, and then in connection, as a whole, are brought into some order and set out in writing.

It is impossible to determine the time to which its origin belongs: judging by the content, the Ramayana refers to that primitive era in the life of the people, when the supernatural and the ordinary, fictions and real incidents, myths and undoubted facts inseparably merge into one and are intertwined in the most bizarre arabesques. , When inner life a person develops, mainly under the influence of imagination, when his mind presents objects not as they are, but as they seem to him; in this period of childhood of thought, a person does not investigate what is happening in himself, but assumes, guesses, and takes these assumptions and guesses as undoubted truths, which he believes with sincere and ardent conviction. Unaccountably feeling that the same forces are constantly operating in all natural phenomena, primitive man assumes that between all beings there is a kindred, consanguineous, unanimous, inseparable connection, which is why stone, tree, beast, bird, earth, water, air, fire, stars, moon, a person can sympathize with each other, understand each other, talk to each other, even move from one form of being to another, so to speak, change faces and roles, undergo transformations at their own will, or at the will of some higher then strength. This is how it is in the Ramayana.

The dominant character of the poem is mythological-religious. It developed under the influence of the sacred Indian books, known as the Vedas, or revelations: These Vedas poured out from the mouth of the deity - Brahma; that means, beyond any time limits, beyond any chronological indications. The genealogy of the Indian kings dates back to three thousand years before the birth of Christ, therefore the appearance of the Vedas is even older; who can remember when they poured out from the mouth of Brahma? Some of the Vedas are in verse, some in prose. They include:

Hymns to various deities

Rules of morality

Compulsory religious rites are counted

Poetic was to be spoken aloud, or sung; prosaic - read in a whisper, indistinctly, to yourself.

Despite the extreme antiquity of the Vedas, their teaching strikes with an abstraction and speculation unusual in the pagan world. This is the essence of this teaching, generally known under the name of Brahmanism: there is an eternal, original, before all times and all things, the beginning, or being, incorporeal, without parts, alien to any passion, filling all spaces, penetrating all beings, supremely good , eminently wise; from it, like rays from the sun, all the deities, people and other creatures of nature pour out; it is invisible, and it can be contemplated only in the beings and phenomena of the world, as its material and temporal incarnations, which will return to it, plunge into it and merge with its essence, from which they poured out. This eternal father of all things loves his children infinitely; the highest pleasure of a person consists in contemplating him, in love for him, in mental worship of him, in love and mercy towards all needy and suffering living beings, as towards brothers. The concept of the unity of the supreme principle of the world constantly shone through in the mystical fog of the interpreters of the Vedas. The invented three deities - Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu, as his highest incarnations, were symbols of the phenomena of life: Brahma is the creator, Shiva is the destroyer, Vishnu is the restorer of the destroyed. Countless gods and goddesses appeared, good and evil, striking with their extraordinary beauty and extraordinary ugliness, with many symbolic attributes - in the form of birds, animals, reptiles, trees, flowers, which gave rise to the grossest idolatry, wild fakirism and barbaric sacrifices. The Vedas were considered so sacred that only Brahmins were allowed to read them, who were obliged to keep them in the deepest secret; a brahmin who dared to read them, or give them into the hands of a person of another caste, was excluded from the brahmin caste and ranked among the outcast pariah caste. To translate the Vedas into a foreign language was also considered the greatest sacrilege. The Vedas were the source of all Indian literature: epic poets borrowed from them the content for their writings, lawyers - for the development and confirmation of civil laws, grammars - the rules of the language and examples, compilers of lexicons - all the richness of words and their explanation, philosophers - the foundations for their systems. This gave all the works of Indian literature a mythical-religious character, in which tender, often idyllic-cute features are always brightly visible. best properties human nature - the sanctity of love and friendship, generosity, nobility, self-sacrifice, unshakable courage in enduring misfortunes, touching sympathy for grief, respect for the merits of another person and some, one might say, moral delicacy in social relations between people. All the inhabitants of ancient India were divided into four states, or four colors, which in Europe, following the Portuguese, are usually called castes. People of the first, highest color, or caste, were called Brahmins (Brahmins), because they came up with the idea to produce themselves from the deity - Bramha, as his children. They were not only priests who performed sacrifices, but teachers of the people, judges, ministers and advisers, who were always with the sovereigns; it was their right and duty to practice the sciences and arts and to take care of their dissemination; they alone could be addressed for healing from illness, because illness was considered a punishment that the gods sprinkled on people for their misdeeds and crimes. Brahmins were revered by earthly gods; therefore the face of a Brahmin was sacred; if anyone dared to hit a brahmin even with a stalk of grass, he would be cursed and condemned to eternal torment; there was nothing to atone for the insult inflicted on the Brahmin. Although the Brahmins obeyed civil laws, they possessed supernatural power: everything was fulfilled according to their one word. They could call on a person's head happiness with their blessing and all kinds of disasters, even death with their curse. The main duty of the Brahmins was to observe the exact preservation of religious ideas and sacred rites, constantly read, explain the Vedas and arrange sacrifices. They had to lead an impeccable life, observe the purity of morals, have no permanent home, no personal property, not collect wealth, not kill any living creature, not eat meat, except the meat of sacrificial animals. The second caste was made up of kshatriyas, that is, warriors, or protectors. Their purpose and duties are evident from the name itself.

The third caste included artisans of all kinds and farmers. Farming was preferred to all other occupations of the working class. The farmers did not enter military service, but had to pay only a certain tax to the Brahmins and sovereigns. The Sudras, who made up the rest of the mass of the people, belonged to the fourth caste. They were not prescribed any specific occupation: they could engage in all sorts of needlework, crafts, even trade. Of these, those who voluntarily, on their own initiative, became servants of the Brahmins, stood out and enjoyed special honor. Those belonging to the Sudra caste were not allowed to read or listen to the Vedas. The mixing of people of different castes through marriage was not prohibited by law, but those who entered into unequal marriages with persons lower castes were not respected. Pariahs constituted a special, outcast, excluded from society caste. When this caste was formed is unknown. Even the origin of the word pariah is unknown. It is believed that the gypsies are the descendants of Indian pariahs. Of all the castes, it was possible to achieve some degree of holiness by devoting oneself to the life of a hermit, exhausting oneself with hunger, subjecting oneself voluntarily to all kinds of tortures of the body, and plunging into reflection on the essence of Brahma. In the Vedas there are prayers for sending wisdom to man as a heavenly, holy gift. It was considered a law and a religious matter to preserve all ancient works in inviolable primitiveness, without changing a single word, not a single letter. It was a charitable act to collect libraries and protect manuscripts; often temples were at the same time libraries. The shrine of religion merged with the shrine of thought and poetry.

The Ramayana is considered the oldest Indian poem. According to connoisseurs of Sanskrit literature, it ranks first among the poetic works of India. The main poetic theme is very simple: Rama, represented by one of the incarnations of Vishnu in the form of a man, is looking for his wife - Sita, who was kidnapped by the lord of demons - Rakshasas Ravana and carried off to Ceylon.

From this simple plot, the poet developed an extensive and diverse picture of majestic, luxurious, brilliant views of mighty tropical nature, lands, cities, inhabitants, their customs, sacrifices, religious rites, battles of gods, people, birds, monkeys. Adventures are so unexpected, so fantastically extraordinary, that they amaze the wildest, most bizarre imagination. But these strange adventures involuntarily arouse sympathy by the fact that they express the universal features of the inner, spiritual life - love, friendship, enmity, sincerity, cunning, determination, hesitation, doubts, gullibility and suspicion, deliberation and recklessness, joys and sorrows; in a word, a diverse world of qualities and states of mind and heart. The Ramayana offered to readers is an extract from a huge poem: in the original it consists of twenty-four thousand couplets (slokas). In the extract, attention was paid to conveying as accurately as possible the character of the characters and the pictures of the localities.

In this appendix, we will consider the mythology in the epic. Myth and epic are two different structures: the first is a form of consciousness, the second is a story that tells about gods and heroes, that is, a story that reveals the images and symbols of mythological consciousness and its existence in the world around. As a rule, among the peoples of antiquity, mythology could not do without epic. On the examples of the epic, we will consider some images born in the Ancient East.

It was in the East that the most famous theme in myths was the unification of disparate states by one hero. Of course, these myths arose due to the political situation - early feudal fragmentation, but not only because of this. The protagonist unites not the states of earthly rulers, but the kingdoms of the world: the kingdom of the underworld, earthly and heavenly, which are separated for some reason. Perhaps the fragmentation of states was presented to people as the structure of the world, because the state structure was perceived as a continuation of the cosmos, its structure. But the probability that the world was originally fragmented is greater, since not only in the East there are heroes who unite these three kingdoms.

The main theme of Eastern myths is the unification of kingdoms and the removal of enmity of any kind. For this, the protagonist is ready to go into prison, retire to the forests, etc. The most famous epic in the East are the stories of the Mahabharata and Ramayana.

The mythology of India is one of the richest and most extensive mythologies, including stories about the creation of the world, stories about gods and heroes, a powerful religious and philosophical code of laws about space, life, behavior and much more. In fact, it is not only narratives, but also the "book of life", which guided in all cases. It was believed that there is nothing in life that would not be described in the Mahabharata. So great was its significance.

The main code of laws in India was the Vedas. The Vedas consist of several books. The first book of the Rig Veda is a collection of hymns, prayers, sacrificial formulas, which had developed by 600 BC. e., it consisted of 1028 hymns (Brahmanism). The Rigveda, in turn, consists of three books: the Samaveda (veda of melodies), the Yajurveda (veda of sacrifices) and the Atharvaveda (veda of incantations). "Rig Veda" is a set of hymns, which was considered a divine revelation and therefore was transmitted by priests. It forms the basis of all Vedic (Veda - to know - to know; Veda - a witch - a knowing woman) literature, since these are texts of a cosmogonic nature that explain the ritual, its origin and meaning. Samhitas were written from it - collections, they are adjoined by brahmins - prose legends, this also includes Aranyakas and Upanishads - philosophical treatises on nature, gods and man. Samhitas, Brahmins, Aranyakas and Upanishads together form the sacred canon of Brahma (the supreme god). Later, two epics "Ramayana" were created almost simultaneously - about the god Vishnu, incarnated in King Rama; and "Mahabharata" - about the struggle of gods and demons, embodied in two genera (Pandavas and Kauravas).

Two mythological epics "Mahabharata" and "Ramayana" can be considered as two independent sets that tell about gods and heroes, heroes and their magical assistants (animals), whose images are often intertwined with one another and enter one another. They clearly define the involvement of gods, heroes and magical animals, which confirms the interconnections of the whole world.

The main language of influence of these mythological epics is not the word (as, for example, among the Scandinavians), but the action, the essence of which lies in the name. It was believed that if you know the real name of God, then you can enter into a mystical relationship with him in order to get something you want. Therefore, in Indian mythology a large number of different names of one god, which hid the true name, and, thereby, saved ordinary people from direct contact with a god or demon.

The magical reunion of the three worlds (underground, earthly and heavenly), which arises through overcoming and fighting the forces of evil that oppose life, and the reunification of the whole world - is the basis of the idea of ​​"Mahabharata" and "Ramayana".

In Indian mythology, not only the magical cosmos is deified, but also the despotism of the tribal community of ancestors, the power of the state, order, which is thought of as a continuation of the divine world order. The ancient gods of eternal nature (cosmos) appear in the guise of the first builders and patrons of the state. The description of battles with demons, which abound in epics, is nothing more than an attempt to define one's freedom and get rid of some overwhelming social factors.

“Man's path to his freedom in the Ancient East turns out not to be a search for a new being, but a renunciation of any definite being. At the heights of Eastern wisdom, freedom looks like a total denial of the outside world, from which they try to hide, dissolving in the eternal stream of life or finding peace within themselves, where there is neither fear nor hope ”(A. A. Radugin).

Searches, return to the original state of "before-being" - was the motivating reason for all battles and any actions. Perhaps this was due to the fact that a person in search of his freedom did not find it anywhere: neither in the surrounding nature, nor in the state (continuation of nature). This is a distinguishing feature of Indian mythology from any other, where, nevertheless, a person was considered a certain more necessary beginning in a person than in the East, and was perceived as universal wealth. Such, for example, is the situation in Greek mythology. Therefore, there the gods are more like people than unearthly creatures with unearthly (other cosmic) qualities.

Summary of the Mahabharata.

The Mahabharata is a great epic that took shape at the turn of the 2nd and 1st millennium BC. e. and was known to the 5th century. n. e. as an independent code, describes the battles of heroes and gods. It consists of 19 books. The plot of the Mahabharata begins when India begins. This is reflected in the very title of the epic, which is translated as "The Tale of the Great Battle of the Bharatas": in Indian languages, India is referred to as the "Land of Bharata". Passed down from generation to generation, the Mahabharata acquired more and more new stories. It contains heroic tales, and myths, and legends, and parables, and stories about love, and philosophical treatises, and much more.

"Mahabharata" consists of 19 books, the main legends of which are: "The Tale of Shakuntala", "The Tale of Rama", "The Tale of Matsya", "The Tale of King Shivi", "The Tale of Nala", "The Tale of Savitri" and philosophical poem Bhagavad Gita. The story is told on behalf of the legendary sage Vyasa.

The plot of the Mahabharata is built on the struggle of two clans. Two groups of heroes opposing each other, two branches of the family tree - the descendants of Bharata (Pandu and Kuru) Pandava and Kaurava, enter into a long struggle for dominance over Hastinapura (Delhi). The friend and helper of the Pandavas is their maternal cousin Krishna (the incarnated god Vishnu). It was believed that the Pandavas were born gods, and the Kauravas are the incarnations of demons.

In Delhi, Dushyanta ruled. One day, while hunting, he met the daughter of the nymph Shakuntala in the forest in a hermit's hut and offered her his heart and kingdom. She agreed, but immediately took the word from Dushyanta that when her son was born, he would be the ruler. He agreed and lived in the hut for a while, then servants came for him, since the country, left without a ruler, could not prosper. Dushyanta left, promising to return.

Time passed, the ruler did not return. Shakuntala gave birth to a son. When the son was 6 years old, his strength became equal to the strength of the great hero. With her son, Shakuntala went to Dushyanta, who recognized her and her son, and immediately got married. The son was given the name Bharata.

Shantanu was the king of the Bharata family. One day, in the Ganges River, he saw a beautiful girl who was bathing there. Having fallen in love with her, he asked her to become his wife. She agreed to be his wife only on the condition that he would never ask her anything and let her do what she wanted. And Shantanu agreed. When their son was born, she threw him into the waters of the sacred river Ganges. The ruler mourned him, but did not say a word to the queen. So the queen acted with the other 6 born sons. When the 8th was to be born, Shantanu demanded an explanation and began to ask the queen to leave her last son to him. To all his words, the queen did not answer, sighed and disappeared. The ruler was saddened by the loss of his beloved wife.

When many years had passed, somehow Shantanu, sitting on the banks of the Ganges, saw a beautiful young man, whom he mistook for a god, because a radiance emanated from him. Shantanu was delighted with him and sadly remembered his dead sons and his missing wife. And then the disappeared queen appeared next to the young man. And she revealed the secret to Shantan: she said that she was the goddess of the river Ganges, and the sons whom she threw into the waters of the sacred river are alive, because those who end their lives in the waters of the Ganges live in the abode of the gods. Seven shining youths appeared before Shantanu - they were all gods. The eighth son, the heir, the goddess Ganga endowed with divine power and left with her father. He was given the name Bhishma and declared heir.

Shantanu, having only one son, was afraid both for his life and for the throne, so he decided to marry a second time. Having found the girl, Shantanu, wooing her father, heard from his father the condition: the son of his daughter should become the ruler. Shantanu became sad because the throne was promised to Bhishma. But the son, seeing the sadness of his father, took a vow of celibacy, publicly renounced the throne and betrothed this girl to his father. A son was born from this marriage. When he grew up Bhishma found a wife for him. When the son of Kuru was born to the young ruler, Bhishma undertook to educate him. He taught him all the sciences, taught him how to govern the state, and on the appointed day Kuru ascended the throne.

Kuru ruled for many years and Bhishma always came to the rescue. A blind son was born to the Kuru and he was given the name Dhritarashtra ("protection of the kingdom"). After some time, Kuru had another son - Pandu. When the time came, Pandu's youngest son ascended the throne. He married and had 5 sons - they began to be called Pandavas by the name of their father. The blind Dhritarashtra had 100 sons - they began to be called Kauravas, after the name of their grandfather. Both of them were brought up by Bhishma.

The eldest of the Kauravas Duryodhana ("evil warrior") hated the Pandavas because the eldest of them would ascend the throne in time, and he was not the first son of the primordial father. He decided to get rid of 5 brothers so that the throne went to him. For this purpose, Duryodhana wanted all his brothers to have good warrior abilities. Blind Dhritarashtra, understanding the intentions of his eldest son, tried to lead him away from the path of cruel thoughts, but it was all in vain. Duryodhana befriended the son of the sun Kara, who quarreled with Arjuna, the eldest of the Pandavas. Having skillfully set up Kara against all the Pandavas, Duryodhana asked Kara to train his brothers in the art of war in order to destroy the Pandavas.

Parallel to the story of the brothers, the story of the birth of Krishna, the incarnation of the god Vishnu (guardian god), is told. In the city of Mathura, the queen's son Kansa was born, in which an evil demon was embodied. When Kansa grew up, he threw his father into the dungeon and seized the throne. Executions were carried out from morning to evening. Kansa had a sister Devaka, when she became the bride of a noble warrior, then at the wedding feast Kansa was predicted to die from her 8th son. Upon learning of this, Kansa rushed at his sister with a knife, but her husband stood up for her, promising Kansa to give him all her children. All the sons that were born to Devaki were given to Kansa and he killed them, only he allowed him to leave his daughter. Finally, Devaki's husband managed to pass the 8th born son to the shepherd's wife. This child began to grow up far from the capital. His name was Krishna. When Kansa found out about this, he ordered to kill all the boys of Krishna's age. Sensing danger, Kansa summoned all the evil demons and ordered them to find Krishna. The demons eventually discovered Krishna, but he killed all the demons. When Krishna grew up, he killed Kansu and returned the throne to his uncle, he himself became king in a neighboring city.

At one competition of grooms, Krishna and the Pandavas met and entered into a friendly alliance. Of all the Pandavas, Arjuna became the closest friend of Krishna and married his sister Subhadra. Thus the Pandavas and Kauravas had powerful assistants.

Duryodhana, by his seniority, becomes the ruler of the city and expels the Pandavas, since Arjuna plays dice with Shakuni Duryodhana's representative and loses, and the loser had to leave the capital for 12 years.

The Pandavas settle in the forest. Wise men come to them and talk about Great Love Nala and Damayanti, about the strength and courage of Hanuman, about the flood, about the frog princess, about Rama and Sita (there are many legends, traditions and philosophical treatises that occupy a large place in the Mahabharata).

When the end of the exile approached, the Pandavas decided to fight the Kauravas in order to regain their kingdom. Indra (the god of thunder) decides to help them by taking the earrings from Karna, the son of the sun, in which his life is stored. In the form of a brahmin, Indra came to Karna and asked for his earrings (the brahmin had to be given what he asks, not to give - a mortal sin and a curse, because the brahmins were considered holy people), and Karna asked Indra for a spear in exchange for his earrings , which will kill one person whom Karna desires. Indra gives him this spear.

The Kauravas and Pandavas were preparing for battle and were expecting help from their mighty patrons - the Kauravas from Karna, and the Pandavas from Krishna. With this, Arjuna went to Krishna, but found there his cunning brother Duryodhana, who had come to Krishna before him with the same request. And Krishna offered Duryodhana to choose help for the battle: Krishna himself or his army. Duryodhana chose Krishna's army, but Arjuna wanted only Krishna himself. And Krishna agreed. Duryodhana also lured the Pandava uncle's army to him and asked old Bhishma to lead them. Bhishma led the Kauravas.

The battle has begun. When the slain Bhishma fell from the chariot in the name of the world, the battle stopped, everyone crowded around the bed, who sacrificed himself in the name of the world, great-grandfather. But this sacrifice was useless. - Karna was led by the Kauravas and the battle continued. At the duel, Arjuna kills Karna. A terrible battle begins. All the commanders perish, Duryodhana himself perishes, two troops perish.

After this terrible battle, only the Pandavas remain alive. And the blind Dhritarashtra blesses the Pandavas for the kingdom. Arjuna, as the elder brother, becomes the ruler, and when the time came, Indra took him alive to heaven in the kingdom of the gods.

This concludes the story of the Mahabharata.

Summary of the Ramayana.

The story told to the Pandavas in the forest by the sages about Rama and Sita existed as a separate poem. This poem only in later times began to be included in the Mahabharata. It has often been likened to the poems of Homer in terms of the scale of thought and the depth of the narrative associated with one warrior hero. It is attributed to the sage Valmiki, who lived around the 3rd millennium BC. e. A large number of different versions of the Ramayana have been found in all languages ​​of India. In the form in which it is known, the Ramayana consists of 7 books. The main version of the Ramayana is written in Sanskrit in blank verse, designed for musical performance.

At the beginning of the Ramayana there is a legend about the origin of the verse. Poetry people from the east gave a completely different meaning than the northerners. If for the northerners it is a sweet honey that fills life, associated with divine being, then in the east poetry was born from a mournful bird's cry (this can be compared with the Greek singer Orpheus, who turned into a swan from sadness).

Sage Valmiki was walking along the river bank and saw two small sandpipers calling to each other in the grass. Suddenly, an evil hunter pierced one with an arrow. The orphaned bird cried plaintively, and Valmiki, seized with grief and anger, cursed the hunter. And his words formed themselves into a stanza. With this verse, the god Brahma commanded to sing the exploits of Rama.

Valmiki learns from Saint Narada that the wisest king on earth is Rama from the Ikshvaku family, who is revered as a god. And learns the history of himself and his country. This story is told in seven books.

The first book "Childhood" tells that there was such a ruler Manu (the progenitor of Rama) - the ruler of a large people who built the capital along the banks of the holy river Ganges. The son of Manu Ikshvaku began to be considered the founder of the "solar" dynasty, for such wisdom of government that the capital of the country, Aidohya, was an earthly paradise filled with earthly and heavenly blessings.

During this golden age on earth in heaven, the god Brahma (the supreme creator god) to fight Ravana (the “roaring” ten-headed and twenty-armed lord of the Rakshasa demons, the embodiment of evil in the universe), who can only be killed by a human hand, asked the god Vishnu to incarnate in the form of a man. He agrees and incarnates in the form of 4 sons of Ikshvaku in a blessed land. Rama was the most powerful incarnation of Vishnu, while others were his assistants.

When Rama was 6 years old, he was taken to his abode by a royal ascetic in order to protect him from the threat of rakshasas (bloodthirsty demons who eat raw meat, eternal enemies of celestials and heroes), whom Ravana sent in search of them to kill Rama. The sage tells Rama about his ancestors, as well as many philosophical and instructive stories about the existence of good and evil in the world, immortality. The gods and Asuras (demons, opponents of the gods), when they still had no enmity among themselves, decided to get the nectar of immortality in the milky ocean. They took the world serpent Vasuki and tied it to the rock with one end, and with the other they began to stir up the ocean (churn). The snake was hard and vomited poison. The gods turned to Vishnu for help so that the poison of the world serpent would not destroy the three worlds, and Vishnu helped. But for this he was paid tribute from the ocean of churning for the 1st thousand years, and Mahaveda (Shiva) drank poison and therefore he has a blue neck. Asuras and gods churned, stirred, lowering the snake deeper and deeper into the ocean, wanting to lift the rock, but could not. The gods again turned to Vishnu for help, and he turned into a giant tortoise and lifted the rock so that the serpent was stretched between the gods and asuras. The gods and asuras pulled the snake for a thousand years and then the healer of the gods Dhanvantari rose from the bottom of the ocean, followed by the heavenly maidens, followed by the daughter of the Ocean Varuni (goddess of wine), followed by Indra's horse (thunderer, ruler of the heavenly garden on earth), followed by a divine stone Kaushtubha followed by the heavenly drink of immortality amrita. And from that time on, the gods and Rakshasas began a war for him and are still at enmity. But at the beginning of the war, the god Brahma saw this enmity and, turning into a maiden, stole the drink.

In parallel with the story of Rama's upbringing, the story of Sita's upbringing is told. To one king, the destroyer god Shiva presented the bow of the world, which no one could lift except the king. Once this king found a child of extraordinary beauty in a field in a furrow, he named her Sita and made her his adopted daughter (it is understood that Sita was born a goddess). When she grew up, the suitors were ordered to draw the bow of Shiva, so that the strongest would get her as his wife. Rama, who was sent by the sage teacher to fetch Sita, was also there. He pulled the bow so hard that it broke. Soon the wedding took place, when the brothers of Rama came to the wedding, they saw Sita's nieces and fell in love with them and immediately played a wedding with them.

The second book, called "Aidohya", tells how Rama fell victim to deceit and leaves his hometown, beloved father and brothers. From this point on, the purpose of the story is to show all the virtues of Rama and enthrone him. After the wedding, the four brothers with their wives went to their capital, Idohya. The tragedy between the brothers broke out when one of the wives learned from the hunchbacked mother of one of the brothers that Rama was born from a different wife, unlike the other three brothers. One of the wives, so that the throne went to her husband, tried to insist that the king kill Rama altogether. But at the last moment he took pity and expelled Rama from the country. The charioteer takes Rama and Sita to the forest. He himself returns and tells that they allegedly died from wild animals. Rama's brother, whose mother started intrigues, had a dream about his beloved Rama and goes in search of him. He finds him and settles in a hut with Rama and his wife Sita. When the brothers learn of the death of their father, they are saddened and indulge in grief.

The third book, called "Forest", tells how Rama, Sita and brother endure many intrigues of rakshasas. They begin with the fact that Ravana's sister comes to Rama's hut. Seeing Rama, she burned with passion for him and decides to become his wife, no matter what. For this, sister Ravana threw a veil over Sita, which plunged her into a dead sleep. Upon learning of this, Rama cut off the ears and nose of Ravan's sister. Sister Ravana, in grief, ran to her younger brother Khar for help. He gathered a huge army and went to Rama, but he defeated him. Then sister Ravana goes to her older brother Ravan himself. Ravana sends one of his most cunning servants to Rama to destroy him. He turns into a beautiful deer and comes to Rama's hut at a time when he himself was not at home in order to seduce Sita with his beauty. But Rama, having seen through the insidious plan of the Rakshasa, kills him, Sita, having heard a terrible cry, thinks that it is Rama who is being killed, sends his brother to help him. As soon as Sita is left alone, Ravana immediately comes to her and tells her about his love. Ravana, realizing that Sita loves Rama, and will not agree to become his wife, despite persuasion and demonstrations of power and wealth, kidnaps Sita. Returning, Rama and his brother do not find Sita and are deeply saddened, understanding all the insidiousness of Ravan. Both of them quickly pack up and go in search of Sita.

In the fourth book, called "Kishkindha" (book of songs), nature and beauty, longing and love are sung. The loneliness of one soul without another is the main leitmotif of this book. This book is considered the most beautiful in the entire Ramayana. Its plot is simple: Rama and his brother find a monastery where they live for some time, waiting for help and news about Sita.

The fifth book, “Beautiful,” tells how Hanuman (translated as “the one with a broken jaw”; Hanuman, mistaking the sun for a fruit as a child, jumped into the sky after him, and Indra shot an arrow as a punishment and broke his jaw ) - the brave monkey king (or adviser to the monkey king), the son of the god Wind, learns about the misfortune of Rama and decides to help him. Hanuman goes in search of Sita while Rama is in the hidden abode and gathers the forces of his friends for the main attack. Hanuman enters the city of Ravana, which shines with its wealth. In a precious grove, Hanuman finds Sita in the company of Rakshasi (demonic women). He also sees, hiding in a tree, how Ravana comes and again achieves the love of Sita, threatening her with death for her disobedience. When Ravana leaves, Hanuman appears before Sita and tells that Rama is standing near the walls of the city with his large army. Hanuman, after causing serious damage to the army of Ravana, goes to Rama. Rama and Hanuman have a plan on how to destroy the city of Ravana - the stronghold of the forces of evil. Hanuman lets himself be captured, being in front of Ravana, he mocks him so that he decides to burn him immediately, but as soon as the Rakshasas set fire to Hanuman's tail, he immediately begins to jump around all the houses. After a while, the whole city begins to blaze.

The sixth book, called "The Battle", tells about the battle between good and evil - the troops of Rama and the troops of Ravana. Ravana attracts all the forces of evil, and Rama - all the forces of good. A terrible battle begins at night. It lasts for many days. And in this battle, many soldiers of Rama and Ravana's soldiers die. Finally, Ravana's son Indradik (Indra's antipode) invents a trick and kills Rama and his brothers. Vishnu, saw this and sent his eagle Garuda to help (Suparna is a golden-winged eagle, the lord of birds, carries Vishnu on himself), who healed them. During the battle, fights of the strongest take place, and Rama himself, and his friend Hanuman, and his 3 brothers - all find worthy opponents among the warriors of Ravana. Finally, Rama begins to win. He put the army of Ravana to flight, the monkeys set fire to the city again, but the battle continues. As soon as Rama reached Ravana's palace, Indra sends his chariot to Rama and the great duel between Rama and Ravana begins. Rama, after for a long time, kills Ravana. Sita returns to Rama.

In the seventh book, the feat of Rama is sung, as well as how Rama ascends the throne. The whole book is dedicated to the wise management of Rama and the happy love of Rama and Sita.

At the end of the story of Indian epics, one should list several major gods and forces in Indian beliefs, the pantheon of which is given at the end of the Ramayana.

“Brahma is the creator god, heading the triad (trimurti), which, in addition to him, includes Vishnu (the guardian god) and Shiva (the destroyer god).

Indra is a thunderer who has a garden on earth, similar in beauty to heaven.

Agni is the god of fire, the mediator between people and gods.

Aditi ("boundless") - the goddess of the sky, the mother of the gods.

Airavata is an elephant that emerged from the ocean of milk, the guardian of the entire East.

Amaravata (Vitapavati) is the abode of the immortals, where Indra rules. It is inhabited by gods, heroes, sages, dancers and musicians.

Amrita is the drink of immortality from the milky ocean.

Anjana is the elephant, the guardian of the West.

Anila (Vayu) is the god of the wind.

Antaka (Yama) - the god of Death, the ruler of the underworld.

Asura - demons, opponents of the gods.

Ashvins ("horsemen") - twins, deities of morning and evening, dawn and dusk, sons of the Sun, patrons of medicine.

Vamana is the elephant, the guardian of the South.

Varuna - the creator of heaven and earth, later the lord of the waters.

Varuni is the daughter, the goddess of the wind.

Vasus - 8 demigods, servants of Indra.

Vidyadharas (“carriers of magical knowledge”) are mountain and forest spirits, servants of the gods.

Virupaksha is the elephant, the patron of the East.

Vritva, the demon who sends drought, always fights with Indra. When Indra wins, it rains.

Gandharvas are demigods, celestial musicians.

Garuda (Suparna) - the golden-winged eagle, the lord of birds, carries Vishnu.

Danavas - giant demons, beautiful in appearance, are at enmity with the gods.

Danu is the mother of the giant gods.

Dhanvatari is a physician-god from the ocean of milk.

Yatudhana is the general name for evil spirits.

Kadru is the mother of snakes.

Kama is the god of love.

Kartinea (Skanda) is the god of war.

Krishna is the earthly incarnation of Vishnu (Narayana - "walking on the waters").

Kubera is the god of wealth, the forces of evil.

Lakshmi is the goddess of happiness, good luck and beauty from the milky ocean, the wife of Vishnu.

Ravana ("roaring") - the ten-headed and twenty-armed ruler of the Rakshasas, the universal embodiment of evil.

Rakshasas are bloodthirsty demons who eat raw meat, eternal enemies of celestials and heroes.

Surya - god of the sun

Himapandura is an elephant, the patron of the North.

Shesha is a thousand-headed serpent holding the earth. Before the creation of the world, Vishnu rested (sleep) on it in the ocean of milk (this is very similar to the Slavic snake Yusha or Yasha, on which, according to the beliefs of the Slavs, the earth rests in the ocean).

The main idea of ​​the Ramayana is that Rama unites the kingdom of the gods, the kingdom of people and the kingdom of animals to fight the kingdom of evil. Rama himself is the incarnation of God, his gods endowed him with magical gifts, helped him in battles, their incarnations participated in the great battle, and Rama's first assistant was the king of monkeys - all this suggests that the world (cosmos) reunited to fight evil.

The religious and cultural life of all Hindustan, as well as most of the rest of Asia, was deeply influenced by the two great epic poems of Hinduism - the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Even without touching upon the question of their purely literary merits, which meet the highest criteria, these works should be classified among the most significant monuments of world poetry.

The Mahabharata is basically a work older than the Ramayana, its core has come down to us from that distant era, lost in the darkness of centuries, which followed the time of the creation of the hymns of the Rigveda, the oldest literary monument of India. Some of the names of the rulers, holy sages and priests mentioned in the Mahabharata are also found in the sources of the late Vedic era, and it is likely that the plot of the poem was formed on the basis of legends associated with some great battle that took place around 900 BC .

But over the centuries, the narrative has expanded so much, so enriched with new characters and events, that its historical roots can no longer be recognized. There is reason to think that it was in this way that the divine hero Krishna, who plays such an important role in the Mahabharata known to us, entered the poem - he was not present in those military traditions from which the poem developed. Various Sanskrit texts indicate that, in a form not too different from the one now known, the poem was widely circulated in northern India one or two centuries before the beginning of our era, or perhaps even around 400 BC.

The plot of the Mahabharata is extremely complex. Like the tales of the Greeks about Trojan War, who gave life to the Iliad, as a mythological and legendary cycle of the ancient Germans, crystallized into the "Song of the Nibelungs", the Indian epic poem tells about the cruel strife of heroes that turned into a war of extermination: through the machinations of their cousins ​​- the insidious Kauravas - the five sons of King Pandu are deprived kingdoms of their ancestors, but return it to themselves after a fierce battle in which all their enemies and almost all friends perish.

In the narrative sections of the poem, echoes of the heroic age are heard everywhere, purely military valor is glorified in them - courage, loyalty, truthfulness. Both heroes and villains in the poem never turn down a challenge to fight, whether it be a battlefield, a contest of skill, or a game of chance; few of the main characters can be accused of cowardice. And the whole atmosphere of the main story of the poem is the atmosphere of a society that has just left the tribal state, and personal devotion to the leader and fellow tribesmen still plays a very important role in his life.

But the Mahabharata as we know it contains more than just a poetic account of the legendary war. Its text is full of many different insert episodes, clearly appearing in more late era, after the main plot of the poem had developed. The most voluminous of these inserts is Shanti Parva, the twelfth (out of eighteen) part, or book, of the epic, in which the slow death of the wounded Bhishma, the oldest leader of the Kauravas, serves as a pretext for lengthy didactic discourses on the science of government, ethics and religion. .

Another inserted episode is connected with the fatal passion of Yudhishthira, the eldest of the hero brothers, who loved, but did not know how to play dice, which forced the Pandava brothers to go into exile; this makes it possible to introduce a lengthy story about King Nala, an even more “ancient” dice lover who lost his wife and kingdom due to his addiction and returned them only after going through many trials. The legend of Nala, recounted in elegant, light verse, often serves as an introduction to Sanskrit literature for students of Sanskrit. Its style and content seem to be at least as ancient as the main content of the poem; This legend probably dates back to the pre-Buddhist era of the existence of small kingdoms with strong remnants of tribal relations.

The most important intercalary episode of the Mahabharata is undoubtedly the Bhagavad Gita, a vast religious poem, the most authoritative sacred text of modern Hinduism and perhaps the best-known work of Sanskrit literature outside India, translated into many languages; The Bhagavad Gita has been read by millions who know nothing else about the epic poem of which it is a part. The pretext for including her in the Mahabharata was the experience of Arjuna, the third of the Pandava brothers, just before the start of the great battle. At the thought of a battle with friends and blood brothers, he is seized by bitter doubts, but Krishna, the mentor of Arjuna, strengthens his determination with lengthy discourses on religious duty (they form the content of the Bhagavad Gita, which is also probably a fusion of verses from different sources); here Krishna appears before Arjuna as one of the incarnations of the god Vishnu.

Available in the Mahabharata big number and smaller episodes, for example, the beautiful and widely known tale of the devoted wife Savitri, who saved her husband from the claws of the god of death, the tale of Rama (something like a concise presentation of another, great epic poem of India), the tale of Shakuntala - in the version significantly different from the plot of the famous Kalidasa drama.

All these numerous episodes, narrative and didactic, were included in the text of the Mahabharata by various poets for five centuries separating the two great eras in the history of India - the era of the Mauryan and Gupta empires (from about 200 BC to 300 AD). But already around 500 AD, the epic existed approximately in the form in which we know it now.

The final date of the formation of the "Mahabharata" can be established by enumerating the tribes and peoples found in the text of the poem. It mentions, for example, the Huns-Ephthalits (White Huns), hardly known to the Indians before 400 AD, when they settled in Bactria. At the same time, the Mahabharata says nothing about other peoples, such as the Gurjars, who first appeared on historical stage in the VI century.

And yet, even after the canonization of the poem, its lists were subject to corrections and additions (though not very significant), and therefore there are three main textual traditions of the poem. At present, after the advent of the magnificent edition of the Mahabharata undertaken by the Bhandarkara Institute of Oriental Studies in Pune, on which many scholars have worked for over forty years, we have a firmly established text of the poem, as it took shape towards the end of the Gupta period.
The vast size of the Mahabharata makes it something more than just a narrative epic, although it seems possible to extract the “narrative elements” from the text of the poem, thus presenting it only as a legend about heroes. With nearly 100,000 stanzas of at least 32 syllables each, this largest poem in the world can truly be called an encyclopedia of early Hinduism.

There is literally no aspect of religious, political or social life India of that era, which would not be mentioned in the Ma-habharata, which considers it mainly from the point of view of the orthodox
sebaceous Brahmanism. The poem contains a huge amount of didactic material from which the dharmashastras (legal treatises) and the puranas (collections of myths, legends and descriptions of religious customs created since the beginning of the Gupta rule) arose. Thus, although the historicity of the poem cannot be trusted, it is still of great interest to historians.

The excessive abundance of the edifying element in the Mahabharata, which significantly increased the volume of the poem, affected its popularity. Nevertheless, the main content of the Mahabharata is well known. ordinary people India, and writers and poets of many generations have repeatedly used episodes of the poem to create their own poetic, dramatic and prose works both in Sanskrit and modern languages India.

Abridged versions of the Mahabharata with omitted interstitial episodes exist in most languages ​​of India and Southeast Asia. The story of the five hero brothers, largely adapted to local tastes and traditions, is still popular in wayang (Indonesian shadow theatre). Only the most educated people in India read the entire Mahabharata. In the form that has come down to us, it cannot become a "popular classic". But in India it has long served as a treasury of plots and themes for writers of many generations, and in this sense its great importance remains to this day.

The second of the great epic poems of India, the Ramayana, differs from the Mahabharata both in its content and in its character.

This poem tells about the righteous prince Rama, the son of
Dasaratha, king of Ayodhya, who was forced into exile by the intrigues of his enemies. Together with his wife, the beautiful Sita, and his faithful younger brother, Lakshmana, Rama takes refuge in the forests of Central and South India. Many troubles and hardships fall to the share of wanderers, and the most terrible of them is the abduction of Sita by Ravana, the lord of demons and the king of the island of Lanka (Ceylon).

In the end, with the help of the monkey army, the brothers free Sita, Rama regains his kingdom, but this story does not have a completely happy ending: in order to calm the subjects, Rama refuses Sita - according to the general opinion, she lost her purity after visiting another man's house, although and kept in prison chastity and fidelity to her husband.

"Ramayana" is a legend about the wanderings and adventures of an almost supernatural hero, it is full of all kinds of miracles, its language is refined and noble. If you look for European parallels to the Ramayana, then it will not be the Iliad or even the Aeneid, but rather Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival or Furious
vyy Roland "Ariosto. The action of miracles and supernatural forces is most powerful in the first and last parts of the legend, where Rama acts as the hypostasis of the supreme god Vishnu, who took on a human form to save the world from intrigues evil forces. That is why Rama is still revered in India as a deity, and the Ramayana is considered a sacred book.

There are many dramatic and pathos-filled episodes in this legend, marked by deep psychologism. It awakens in a person the desire to be courageous, devoted, faithful, glorifies the feeling of forgiveness and human friendship. In the Ramayana there are no long inserted episodes, in style and content it is more uniform than the Mahabharata, and its volume is much smaller - a fourth of the entire Mahabharata. The composition of the poem is more perfect, and many of its comparisons and metaphors bring to mind the exquisite classics of Sanskrit poetry, such as the works of Kalidasa.

The narrative in the Ramayana is interspersed with peculiar digressions, including beautiful paintings of Indian nature in different seasons. (In the later Sanskrit poems, the kavyas, such digressions became obligatory.) For example, the account of Rama's exile contains many beautiful descriptions of nature. Here is what he says about the rainy season:

“Look how beautiful the forests have now become: green from the long-noisy rains, they are full of colors of the plumage of dancing peacocks. The clouds roaring with thunder are exhausted under the burden of overflowing waters and rest on the tops of the mountains, and beside them, in a slender chain, jubilant, cranes rush like lotus petals carried away by the wind. The warmed earth is dressed with flowers and herbs, like a beauty wrapped in a multi-colored veil ... "

The creation of the Mahabharata epic was facilitated by the efforts of a number of storytellers who succeeded each other. And although it is attributed to one author - the sage Vyasa, although its language is generally correct and uniform, there is something anonymous in the poem, characteristic of folklore literature. "Ramayana" is also considered the creation of one author - the sage Valmiki, who appears in the first and seventh songs of the poem as a contemporary of the hero,
the patron of the conceived Sita, when her husband expels her.

However, it is quite clear that the Ramayana, despite the composition not as complex as in the Mahabharata, is the creation of several authors. Style first and latest songs it differs significantly from the style of the five central ones that make up a single whole, and the parts that complement them are not at all necessary. In these five songs (apart from a few very obvious insertions) Rama appears as a mortal hero, while in the first and latest songs he is a deified hero, the incarnation of the great god Vishnu.

There are many other pieces of evidence that clearly show that the final edition of the Ramayana was produced by at least two or three authors. However, the most an important part the narrative belongs to the genius of one man, a true poet, much more refined and sensitive than the nameless compilers of the Mahabharata.

As already mentioned, the Mahabharata contains a summary of the plot of the Ramayana. Therefore, it may seem that it already existed at a time when the process of compiling the Mahabharata was just being completed. Yet the Ramayana
perhaps it was formed later than the Mahabharata; its central part arose, probably not later than the beginning of our era. The capital of the Kuru royal family, Hastinapur, around which the action of the Mahabharata unfolds, was located in the western part of the Ganges basin, 80 kilometers north of modern Delhi *. Ayodhya, the capital of Rama's kingdom, lies in eastern Uttar Pradesh, and the western part of the subcontinent plays almost no role in the narrative of the Ramayana.

There are almost no mentions of the Deccan and the Dravidian south of India in the Mahabharata (except for the enumeration of localities and peoples, which, quite obviously, arose already in the course of
centuries-old polishing of the epic). At the same time, in the Ramayana, these regions, as well as Ceylon, play very essential role, although they are characterized as unexplored and wild places, the abode of demons and monkeys who speak and act like people. The court of King Dasaratha in the Ramayana is the court of a typical Indian ruler of the classical era, and not a tribal leader, as in the Mahabharata, where the king is only the first among equal and often recalcitrant tribesmen. Despite the fact that, according to Indian tradition, Rama is many thousands of years older than the heroes of the Mahabharata, the Ramayana reflects a higher level of development of Indian culture.

An unusual, but little expressive version of the legend about Rama has been preserved in the literature of one of the Buddhist sects (Theravadins). This suggests the actual existence, several centuries before the birth of the Buddha, of a certain ruler named Dasaratha, whose righteous son Rama was first expelled, but then regained his rightful kingdom. However, the most dramatic part of the story - the abduction of Ravana Sita and her deliverance from bondage - is absent in the Buddhist version. This convinces that the Ramayana, like other heroic tales of antiquity and the Middle Ages, is an alloy of heterogeneous material collected from many sources, and that initially it did not contain some of the most interesting episodes of the mature epic at all.

"Ramayana" and "Mahabharata" are only legends, and not true history, not even a reflection of the historical process of the conquest of the Deccan by the Aryans. Scholars have spent a lot of effort to unravel the tangled tangle of the Nibelungenlied or the Lay of Roland, proving that there is not much historically reliable in them. Why should Indian epic poems be historically more reliable than their European counterparts? Mahabharata and Ramayana are much more than just historical narratives: these are the greatest works of world literature, for about two millennia serving as a source of inspiration for many millions of people.

The influence of the Ramayana on the spiritual life of Hindu India was greater than that of the Mahabharata. It has been translated or more often loosely translated into almost all the languages ​​of India and most of the languages ​​of Southeast Asia, which adapted the story of Rama to the characteristics of the local culture and made it part of local tradition. Many generations of illiterate peasants listened to the Ramayana again and again, and they were not only carried away by this exciting and touching tale, but also learned from its heroes love, patience, obedience, courage and truthfulness.

Rama has long been the ideal of the Indian man, and Sita the ideal of the Indian woman. Rama always obeys and respects his parents,
he is full of love for Sita, seeks to protect her from all misfortunes, he is faithful and devoted to his friends and relatives, he humbly honors the gods, priests and sages, he is merciful and kind to his subjects, he is fair and indulgent towards enemies. Sita's loyalty, her devotion to her husband and his family are boundless, but she also has high valor, she is ready to sacrifice even her life to protect her honor.

The story of Rama has been a part of cultural heritage Buddhist countries - Burma, Thailand, Cambodia. Muslims - Indonesians and Malays, who became acquainted with the "Ramayana" long before converting to Islam, still admire this ancient Indian poem. They only slightly adapted it to the requirements of their religion and differences cultural traditions population of the archipelago of Southeast Asia. However, the Muslim tradition in India itself and in Pakistan completely rejects these ancient tales, although during the reign of the Mughals both epic poems were translated into Persian.

Such a long and lasting popularity of the two epic poems is undoubtedly due to the fact that already at a very early stage of their existence they were adapted to the needs of Hinduism of the Vishnuite persuasion. , in a bodily, mortal form, to save the world, and at the end of the “Iron Age” now being experienced, he will incarnate for the tenth time to revive the “Golden Age”. Of these ten incarnations of Vishnu, Rama and Krishna are the most revered: the first is the hero of the Ramayana, the second is one of the main characters of the Mahabharata.

So the epic poems of India became sacred books - a kind of new testament of Hinduism (in this comparison, the older Vedic literature acts as the old testament). Only men could study the Vedas upper castes, especially the Brahmins, and the epic poems were in the public domain - they were listened to, read, memorized even by women, children and the untouchables. Therefore, their influence on the religious life of India for a long time was much stronger than the influence of the Vedas and Upanishads.

Followers of the Krishna cult also have other classical texts at their disposal, such as the Harivansha and the Bhagavata Purana. And for the fans supreme deity in the image of Rama, the Ramayana in its numerous translations and arrangements became a real bible.

Ramayana by Tulsi Das, written in Hindi, was the only religious work that deeply impressed the young Mahatma Gandhi, who until last days In his lifetime, he called God by the name of Rama. Another great source
Gandhi's inspiration was the Bhagavad Gita - one of the parts of the Mahabharata.

It is quite possible that some; representatives of the new generations of Dians already feel the inapplicability of many of the moral precepts of these poems in modern conditions * it is also quite likely that they dream of religious princes embodied in these poems. But whatever the future of the Mahabharata and Ramayana as sources of religious inspiration one thing is certain: they penetrated so deeply into the very heart of the Diy culture, their artistic merits are so high, there can be no question of any oblivion.

For a foreigner seeking to understand the culture of Hindu India, the core values ​​and ideas of Hinduism, no the best allowance than the Mahabharata. and Ramayana. Of course, if we start from modern Western literary tastes, a smart and careful reduction of poems can enhance their artistic value. Unfortunately, little has been done so far to acquaint foreign readers with these poems. And although complete translations exist in English of some other languages, none of them conveys to the reader of the 20th century the mighty breath of the Mahabharat, the elegance of the dialogues and the beauty of the descriptions of the nature of the Ramayana. New, high-quality, temporary abridged translations of these epic poems are needed, only in this case it will be possible to at least to some extent convey the grandeur and beauty of these works to the broad masses of readers in those countries where they have never been known.

Beginning with the classical era of Sanskrit drama - sixteen centuries already - and to this day, poets, playwrights, sculptors and film directors constantly turn to the literary monuments of antiquity, the artistic charm of which feeds their creative inspiration to an ever-increasing extent.

It is not surprising, therefore, that the very first Indian film, Raja Harishchandra, was made in 1913 by Dhandiraj Gobind Phalke. was created based on the mythological legend, sung throughout the country.

The legend tells about King Harishchandra, who was famous for his nobility and truthfulness. Once Vishwamitra, a wise brahmin known from the epic literature of India, demanded from Harishchandra a sacrificial gift brought to the brahmins, and the king offered Vishwamitra to take whatever he wanted: “gold, son, wife, himself, life, kingdom and happiness” . Brahman took away all his possessions from the king, leaving him only a severe birch bark robe to cover his nakedness, his wife and son. The king experiences untold suffering and hardship, sacrifices his son and is ready to sacrifice his wife, but then the gods appear and invite him to follow them to heaven.

The film was a huge success. No matter how much interest foreign films had looked before, the audience was delighted to see on the screen a familiar, traditional plot, staged in their homeland and played by Indian actors.

The impact of the film was truly overwhelming. When Krishna appeared on the screen in one of Phalke's subsequent films, the men and women in the hall fell on their faces. This spontaneous impulse was not a naive act of people who took the stage incarnation for a true god - worship was paid to the symbol, and not to the actor who portrayed him.

For the first ten years of its existence, Indian cinema was built almost entirely on the material of mythical tales from the Mahabharata and Ramayana. Indian directors very soon realized that the popularity
B. D. GARGA - Indian film critic and historian, author of numerous articles on cinema and director of several documentaries about Indian cinematography.
of these two great poems is unfading and that they are an inexhaustible source of dramatic plots that can be adapted to the tastes of any audience.

During the heyday of the multi-part film, when Polina's Dangerous Adventures helped Hollywood make millions, Indian directors, like many others, paid tribute to this direction, but with their own special manner. In the epic poems, especially in the Ramayana, they discovered a storehouse of dynamic plots - the main element of a serial film.

One of the first such films, filmed in India and shown in several series, is The Banishment of Rama (1918). No matter how breathtaking the shots in which Miss Pearl White dangled from an airplane or jumped out of a burning building in the most seductive poses, this heroine could not stand comparison with the monkey god Hanuman, who could float in the air or lift a mountain with one little finger. Danger lay in wait for Rama and his beautiful wife Sita behind every tree in the forests where they wandered in their exile. And what could be more exciting for the viewer than the duel between Rama and Ravana, the lord of demons? In this battle, Rama cuts off all ten heads of Ravana one by one, and each time a new one grows in place of the cut head.
The Mahabharata is not only the older of the two poems; it is large and contains a greater number of traditions; stories about Nala and Damayanti, about Shakuntala (immortalized by Kalidasa in his drama of the same name), about Savitri and, of course, charming poetic dialogues between Arjuna and Krishna, which make up a separate book - "Bhagavad Gita".

All these tales lend themselves easily to film adaptation. The most popular of them is, perhaps, the legend of Nala and Damayanti - a story about a beautiful girl, for whose favor the gods competed with her beloved - a mere mortal - and were defeated. This ancient legend- evidence of the humanistic content of traditional culture: gods endowed with purely human weaknesses; wives celebrated for their beauty and wisdom; fearless men emerging victorious from the fight with the gods.

The potential cinematic possibilities of this legend are quite obvious, and the first attempt to film it was made by Madan Tieters in Calcutta as early as 1919. The film was directed by Eugenio de Liguoro. Since then, the legend of Nala and Damayanti has been filmed at least twenty times, but has not lost its popularity at all.

With the advent of sound cinema, interest in scripts based on epic poems has increased even more. It is significant that the mythological film "King of Ayod-hya" is considered the best among the early sound films. Somewhat later, in 1934, the film "Sita" was released, directed by Devaki Bose and to this day is perhaps the best cinematic embodiment of the "Ramayana".

In revealing his plan, Devaki Bose used artistic technique characteristic of Indian drama. Ancient Sanskrit dramaturgical works usually began with a traditional prologue, in which the lead actor or narrator (sutradhara) recounted the content or commented on certain points of the play. Bose begins his film with this kind of commentary, illustrating it with frescoes depicting episodes in the life of Rama and Sita.

During the Second World War, the need for entertainment films increased enormously, and commercial companies as a result took the line of least resistance. Indian films This period also reveals clear signs of decline and decay. It is significant, however, that the best paintings of this period were "Ram Rajya" ("The Reign of Rama") and "Shakuntala"; the first is based on the Ramayana, the second - on the Mahabharata.

The climax of the film "Ram Rajya" is the episode in which Rama, convinced that Sita, having become a prisoner of Ravana, remained faithful to him, nevertheless expels her after hearing a rude remark that cast a shadow on her honor. W. Bhatt, director of the film, recalls the audience's reaction to this episode of the film when he showed it in New York. “Many have asked me why the noble Rama yielded to the desire of the people, although he was sure that Sita was innocent. I replied that this seemed to be the difference between the democratic kings of the West and the kings of the East: Edward VIII left the people for his wife; Rama renounced his wife for the sake of his people."

Russian translations and studies of the Mahabharata and Ramayana

Europe first became acquainted with the ancient Indian epic in 1785, when the English merchant and scholar Charles Wilkins translated into native language one of the excerpts from the Mahabharata is the famous Bhagavad Gita. Three years later (1788) a translation of Wilkins's book appeared in Russia, made by A. A. Petrov and printed in the printing house of the famous educator - democrat N. I. Novikov. This translation - "Baguat-Geta or Conversations of Krishna with Arjun" - has long been a bibliographic rarity, and although it was not made from the original, it still retains its significance as evidence of the interest that the educated Russian society to the treasures of distant Indian culture.

In the first third of the 19th century, new excerpts from the Mahabharata and Ramayana, translated from European languages, as well as small information and reviews of works on Sanskrit literature published in various countries.

In 1835, with the close participation of V. G. Belinsky, the first translation directly from Sanskrit of one of the songs of the legend about Nala appeared in the journal Teleskop, owned by P. Ya. Petrov, professor at the Sanskrit Department of Moscow University. Subsequently, he translated several more episodes of the Mahabharata (The Tale of the Fish, The Abduction of Draupadi, The Tale of Savi-tri); all these publications are marked by an excellent knowledge of the original language, literary taste and extensive scientific knowledge of the translator.

Simultaneously with P. Ya. Petrov, another Russian Sanskritologist K. A. Kossovich, who published in the journal “ Russian word(1860) “Two public lectures on the Sanskrit epic”, which marked the beginning of Russian original critical studies on the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Despite the fact that most of the "Lectures" - in accordance with the needs of the public - K. A. Kossovich devoted to the presentation of the content of Indian poems, nevertheless, he makes a number of interesting scientific observations in them, in particular, about the connection of the Indian epic with the Greek.

After the works of P. Ya. Petrov and K. A. Kossovich, translations from the Mahabharata and Ramayana from European languages ​​lost their former significance.
nie, although they still continued to appear sporadically: the second book

"Ramayana" in the translation of Y. A. Romensky, "Bhagavad Gita" - A. P. Kaznacheeva, exposition of "Mahabharata"

G. Smirnova. It is necessary to note the poetic translation (in hexameters) from the German “Nal and Damayanti” by V. A. Zhukovsky (the first edition was published in 1844 and has been reprinted many times since then). The skill of the poet, his ability to penetrate into the spirit and features of an alien culture and poetry gave the translation a high artistic value. Welcoming the appearance of the translation by V. A. Zhukovsky,
G. Belinsky wrote that "Russian literature made an important acquisition in him." (IN late XIX century, based on the translation of Zhukovsky, the composer A. S. Arensky created the opera "Nal and Damayanti".)

If the list of pre-revolutionary Russian translations from the Mahabharata and Ramayana is quite extensive, then, unfortunately, there were not so many fundamental scientific works on the Sanskrit epic. Russian Indology represented by its most prominent representatives - I.P. Minaev,

F. Oldenburg and F. I. Shcherbatsky - she paid the main attention to the philosophy and literature of Buddhism, and turned to epic monuments relatively rarely.

Worthy of mention, however, is I. P. Minaev’s Outline of the Most Important Monuments of Sanskrit Literature (1880), in which a lot of space is given to the characteristics of the Mahabharata and Ramayana and several excerpts from poems are attached; an article by Academician F. E. Korsh “The experience of rhythmic explanation of the ancient Indian epic-didactic meter “shloka”, which has not lost its scientific significance even today; an article by S. F. Oldenburg “On the Question of the “Ma-habharata” in Buddhist Literature” (1896), “Indian Literature” (1919), etc.

The revival of interest in the problems of the Indian epic in Soviet Oriental studies is largely due to the works and scientific activities of Academician A.P. Barannikov. From the Hindi language, he completely translated the version of the Ramayana by the poet Tulsi Das - "The Sea of ​​Rama's Feats". In the course of work on the translation, A.P. Barannikov published a number of articles in which he studied the poetics of the Indian epic, the relationship between the poems of Tulsi Das and Valmiki, and some other issues of fundamental importance for the history of epic creativity in India.

On the initiative of A.P. Barannikov, in 1939, Soviet scientists began a complete academic translation of the Mahabharata into Russian. Two
P. A. Greaney, er

Institute of World Literature of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR
the first of the eighteen books of this translation, made by the Leningrad Sanskritologist V. I. Kalyanov, have already been published (1950 and 1962), the third will soon be published. The translation is made from the latest critical edition of the text of the epic, prepared in the city of Pune, differs a high degree scientific accuracy and excellent commentary.

In parallel with the academic publication of the Mahabharata, since 1955, editions of the translation of the Mahabharata, owned by Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Turkmen SSR B. L. Smirnov, began to be published in Ashgabat. In a relatively short period of time (1955-1963), seven such issues were published, covering about 25,000 couplets, or approximately a fourth of the entire colossal volume of the poem.

B. L. Smirnov skillfully chose excerpts for his translation, including both the main philosophical texts of the epic (“Bhagavad Gita”, “Anugita”, “Mok-shadharma”, etc.), and narrative sections characteristic of it (“The Legend of Rama ”, “Walking along the springs”, “Highlander”), and universally recognized masterpieces of world poetry (“The Book of Wives”, “The Tale of Nala”, “The Tale of Savitri”). B. L. Smirnov’s introductory articles to translations deserve high praise, in which he treats a number of important and controversial issues of modern Indology, such as the philosophical meaning of the Mahabharata, its ethical ideas, historical background, figurative means etc.

Needs broad circles readers who want to get acquainted with the ancient Indian epic can be satisfied with the literary expositions in Russian of the Mahabharata by G. F. Ilyin (1950), E. N. Temkin and V. G. Erman (1963) and the Ramayana by V. G. Erman and E. N. Temkin (1965). This is a rather detailed paraphrase of both poems; the authors to a large extent managed to convey the stylistic features and artistic originality of the Sanskrit original.

The modern state of the study of the ancient Indian epic acquaints the Russian reader with a small but informative book by I. D. Serebryakov "Ancient Indian Literature".

Institute of World Literature of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Gorky and the Institute of the Peoples of Asia of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in connection with the forthcoming publication of the ten-volume "History world literature» undertook a number of case studies; some of them have already started. Undoubtedly, the Soviet reader will still learn a lot and discover a lot for himself in the two great Indian epics.
Russian translations and studies of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana