harṣasthānasahasrāṇi bhayasthānaśatāni ca
Hundreds and Thousands of Occasions
for Joy and Fear :
A Study of Stock Phrases in the Indian Great Epic Mahābhārata
T
AKAHASHIKenji
1. Introduction
The Mahābhārata (MBh) makes an extensive use of stock phraseology. A stock phrase is a group of words which is regularly employed under the same metrical conditions (Parry 1930: 80). This paper examines a stock phrase X-sahasr – Y-śat – ca which is frequently used in the epic due to its utility and flexibility. I will classify its usages in the MBh and analyze parallels in the Rāmāyaṇa (RA).
2.
sahásra- . . . śatá- Hundred(s) and Thousand(s) in the Rgveda
The expressions in which thousand(s) (sahásra-) and hundred(s) (śatá-) are juxtaposed are found as early as in the Rgveda (RV). For example, RV 4.32.18ab says, sahásrā te śatā
vayáṃ gávām ā cyāvayāmasi Let us get hundreds and thousands of your cows driven here
(Jamison-Brereton 2014: 609). According to Miyakawa (2003: 200–203), there are 10 ex-amples of the expression sahásra- . . . śatá- in the RV. Because it is used under various met-rical conditions, it is not a stock phrase used under a specific metmet-rical constraint.
3. X-
sahasr – Y-śat – ca in the MBh
This stock phrase consists of two pādas: Four random syllables are employed in the open-ing of each pāda (X and Y), and the words sahasra- and śata- are declined in such a way that their penultimate syllables are heavy and their last syllables are light (e.g., sahasrāṇi,
aśvamedhasahasrasya vājapeyaśatasya ca /
yogasya kalayā tāta na tulyaṃ vidyate phalam // MBh 12.310.9
The reward of thousand Aśvamedha rituals and hundred Vājapeya rituals is not a match for [even] one sixteenth (kalā) of that of Yoga, my dear.
-sahasrasya in pāda a and -śatasya ca in pāda b conform to the metrical constraints of the
cadence of odd pādas ( – – x) and that of even pādas ( – x) respectively. If one uses this formula, one can easily compose a verse in the śloka meter by filling out the openings where the metrical constraint is comparatively weak. In total, there are 39 examples of this formula in the MBh (9 in the 1st Book, 4 in the 3rd, 1 in the 4th, 3 in the 6th, 4 in the 7th, 1 in the 9th, 2 in the 11th, 11 in the 12th, 2 in the 13th, 2 in the 18th).
The examples of this expression can be classified into three categories according to the words used in X and Y: (1) numerals are used in X and Y; (2) an identical word or group of words appears both in X and Y; (3) different words appear in X and Y.
3.1. Numerals in X and Y
ekādaśasahasrāṇi ślokānāṃ ṣaṭśatāni ca /
catuḥṣaṣṭis tathā ślokāḥ parvaitat parikīrtitam // MBh 1.2.129
There are eleven thousand, six hundred, and sixty-four couplets. [Thus] is asserted this [third] Book.
There are 12 usages in which numerals appear in X and Y (8 in the 1st Book, 1 in the 6th, 1 in the 7th, 1 in the 9th, and 1 in the 13th). Except for MBh 1.2.22ab, the remaining 7 usages in the 1st Book give the number of couplets in the following books (see MBh 1.2.129 above).
3.2. An Identical Word or Group of Words in X and Y
daśa varṣasahasrāṇi daśa varṣaśatāni ca / MBh 3.12.11ab = 3.147.38ab, 6.8.10cd, 13.82.28cd.
Ten thousand years and ten hundred years.
In this example, the repetition of daśa varṣa- in the openings of the pādas a and b is redun-dant. There are only 6 examples of this type in the MBh (2 in the 3rd Book, 1 in the 6th, 2 in the 12th, and 1 in the 13th).
3.3. Different Words in X and Y
tāni nāgasahasrāṇi bhūmipālaśatāni ca /
tasya bāṇapathaṃ prāpya nābhyavartanta sarvaśaḥ // MBh 6.51.20
When thousands of the elephants and hundreds of the kings entered the range of his (Arjuna s) arrows, they were not able to advance any further.
There are 21 examples in the MBh (1 in the 1st Book, 2 in the 3rd, 1 in the 4th, 1 in the 6th, 3 in the 7th, 2 in the 11th, 9 in the 12th, 2 in the 18th). The numbers hundreds and thousands sometimes cause a problem in their interpretation.
mātāpitṛsahasrāṇi putradāraśatāni ca /
saṃsāreṣv anubhūtāni yānti yāsyanti cāpare // MBh 18.5.47
This verse can be translated as One experiences thousands of mothers and fathers, and hundreds of sons and wives in the course of transmigration. They (mothers and so on) pass away, and others (future mothers and so on) will also pass away. To experience thousands of mothers and fathers means to be born to a family thousands of times, and to experience hundreds of sons and wives means to take a wife and to give birth to children hundreds of times. Taken literally, this verse can denote that one gets married only once in ten lives. However, considering the formulaic character of the expression X-sahasr – Y-śat –
ca, we can infer that this verse is intended to say simply that one is born and gets married
many times. Therefore, I suggest that pādas ab be translated as hundreds and thousands of mothers and fathers, as well as hundreds and thousands of sons and wives. There is a sim-ilar problem in the immediately following verse:
harṣasthānasahasrāṇi bhayasthānaśatāni ca /
divase divase mūḍham āviśanti na paṇḍitam // MBh 18.5.48
This verse can be literally translated as Thousands of occasions1) for joy and hundreds of occasions for fear come to the stupid day after day, not to the wise. In this case, it can ex-press that the stupid experiences joy ten times more often than fear, and that he can live a comparatively happy life. However, this verse is intended to explain that the stupid experi-ences much joy and fear but the wise does not. Therefore, pādas ab can be rather translated as hundreds and thousands of occasions for joy and fear.
Taking into consideration the formulaic character of this expression, other examples of the third type of X-sahasr – Y-śat – ca can be also translated as hundreds and thou-sands of X and Y.2)
4. X
-sahasr – Y-śat – ca in the RA
Fol-lowing Brockington s (1984: 329–346) stratification of the RA into five compositional stages,3) its distribution can be summarized as follows: 1 example of the first type (numer-als in X and Y) in stage 1 (the 6th Book); 3 examples of the second type (an identical group of words in X and Y) in stage 3 (1 in the 1st Book and 2 in the 7th); 3 examples of the third type (different words in X and Y) in stage 1 (1 in the 4th Book and 2 in the 6th).
Brockington (1985) classifies stereotyped expressions in the MBh and the RA into four groups: (1) those occurring frequently in both epics and thus probably belonging to the common tradition inherited by their authors; (2) those occurring in the MBh but not in the RA or only in its later parts; (3) those peculiar to the RA and absent from the MBh or found only in late passages; (4) those occurring only in later parts of both epics. He consid-ers that the two epics were originally independent of each other, though sharing a com-mon background, and came together in the process of their growth to their present state (Brockington 1985: 80).
The first type of the formula is employed both in the older and later parts of the MBh, but only once in the older parts of the RA. We can argue that the first type is peculiar to the MBh and close to group (2) in Brockington s scheme.4) The second type can be also as-signed to group (2) because it occurs both in the older and later parts of the MBh, but only in the later parts of the RA. As for the third type, it is difficult to draw a definite conclusion from scanty attestations in the RA, but the fact that it occurs in the older parts of both the MBh and the RA can suggest that it belongs to group (1).
5. Conclusion
The stereotyped expression X-sahasr – Y-śat – ca, which is frequently used in the MBh, fits into the cadences of both odd and even pādas, and at the same time allows for a wide range of flexibility: one can use different grammatical genders, numbers, and cases for sahasra- and śata-, and one can choose random four syllables for the pāda openings where metrical constraints are comparatively weak. To the best of my knowledge, the stud-ies of stock phrases in Sanskrit epics were confined to fixed words or groups of words that occupy a single cadence, pāda, line, or sometimes a couplet. The present study suggests that epic stock phrases are more flexible than assumed so far, and calls for further attention to this phenomenon.
I thank Prof. em. Michio Yano (Kyoto Sangyō University), Dr. Andrey Klebanov (Kyoto University), and Mr. Ryūtarō Takezaki (The University of Tokyo) for offering valuable comments for this paper.
Notes
1) I followed Fitzgerald (2004: 34) s interpretation of sthāna- as occasion in a parallel passage in MBh 11.2.13.
2) I do not mean that X and Y are grammatically related to both sahasra- and śata-. I employ the Eng-lish idiom hundreds and thousands merely to indicate that the current formula does not intend to dif-ferentiate between the numbers of X and Y.
3) The five stages are: (1) the 2nd–6th Books except for insertions; (2) insertions to the 2nd–6th Books; (3) the 1st and 7th Books; (4) starred passages or Appendix I with good manuscript support; (5) starred passages or Appendix I with poor manuscript support.
4) Although Brockington (1985) defines group (2) as occurring in the MBh but not in the RA or only in later parts, he assigns to it such cases where the concerned formula is found once or a few times in the older parts of the RA as well. As Brockington s stratification does not examine the status of individu-al verses, but takes sargas or groups of sargas as an anindividu-alyticindividu-al unit, it is possible that individuindividu-al verses within the older parts belong to later layers of composition.
Abbreviations
RA The Vālmīki-Rāmāyaṇa: Critically Edited for the First Time. Ed. G. H. Bhatta et al. 7 vols. Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1960–1975.
Bibliography
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Jamison, Stephanie W., and Joel Peter Brereton. 2014. The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of
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Miyakawa, Hisashi. 2003. Die altindische Grundzahlwörter im Rigveda. Dettelbach: Verlag J. H. Röll. Parry, Milman. 1930. Studies in the Epic Technique of Oral Verse-Making. I Homer and Homeric
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(This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 15J07295.)
Key words stock phrases, the Mahābhārata, śloka
