YAROSLAV VASSILKOV
\u00a0yavass011@gmail.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE NALOP\u0100KHY\u0100NA<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u201cTale of Nala\u201d (MBh 3,50\u201376), well known to all Indologists, in some aspects still remains an enigma. How can we explain, for example, the contradiction between the archaic worldview of the story and a comparatively late date of Vidarbha and Ni\u1e63adha being drawn into the realm of the Sanskritic culture? Even more important is the difference in treatment of the basic epic theme \u201cseparation and reunion of lovers\u201d. In the Sanskrit heroic epics, the wife of the hero is abducted, or at least threatened by an attempt at abduction. The hero searches for her, rescues her, and punishes the offender. But in the \u201cTale of Nala\u201d the roles are reversed: the hero disappears, while the heroine suffers and undertakes the search for him. What accounts for this reversal, and from what source might the Sanskrit heroic epic have received a tale exhibiting a sequence characteristic of lyrical poetry? Up to the last centuries BCE both Vidarbhas and Ni\u1e63adhas were viewed by the Sanskrit sources among other dak\u1e63in\u0101pathav\u0101sina\u1e25<\/em>, inhabitants of the Deccan, as non-\u0100ryas, or people of mixed origin. Situation was changed when Vidarbha became a part of the S\u0101tav\u0101hana empire (2nd<\/sup> c. BCE \u2013 3rd<\/sup> c. CE), the rulers of which promoted the cultural exchange between the Indo-Aryan culture of the North and local pre-Aryan cultural traditions. The mixture of cultures resulted in the emergence of a new Indo-Aryan language, Mah\u0101r\u0101\u1e63\u1e6dr\u012b Prakrit, and the appearance of lyrical poetry in this language, represented by the anthology Sattasa\u012b<\/em>, attributed to the king H\u0101la S\u0101tav\u0101hana. The first samples of lyrical poetry in Sanskrit emerged under obvious influence of the Deccan traditions of poetry. In Ni\u1e63adha, the land of forests and high hills, the process of \u201cSanskritization\u201d proceeded slower; it was only in the late 5th<\/sup> century CE that the former tribal chiefdom turned into a strong kingdom ruled by the Nala dynasty. In the beginning of the 6th<\/sup> century CE, the Nalas conquered neighboring Vidarbha, which was at that time a great center of learning in Prakrit and Sanskrit. The comparison of the poetics in Nalop\u0101khy\u0101na with imagery and motifs in the Sattasa\u012b <\/em>and even in lyrical poetry of the Tamils leads us to the conclusion that the Sanskrit \u201cTale of Nala\u201d borrowed its basic poetic conventions from the ancient tradition of Decan Dravidian lyrical poetry, probably, through the medium of poetry in Mah\u0101r\u0101\u1e63\u1e6dr\u012b Prakrit. Oral or written composition in Sanskrit of the Nala-Damayant\u012b story could have as its main aim the legitimation of Deccan dynasties and, may be, in particular, the legitimation of the Nalas\u2019 power as masters of Vidarbha in the 6th<\/sup> century CE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" YAROSLAV VASSILKOV\u00a0yavass011@gmail.com CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE NALOP\u0100KHY\u0100NA The \u201cTale of Nala\u201d (MBh 3,50\u201376), well known to all Indologists, in some aspects still remains an enigma. How can we explain, for example, the contradiction between the archaic worldview of the story and a comparatively late date of Vidarbha and Ni\u1e63adha being drawn into the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2338","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dicsep.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dicsep.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dicsep.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dicsep.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dicsep.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2338"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dicsep.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2393,"href":"https:\/\/dicsep.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2338\/revisions\/2393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dicsep.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}