At the outset of the Mahābhārata Vyāsa outlines its literary qualities that befit an epic. At the end of the epic, he composes an epilogue of sorts titled Bhāratasāvitrī, where he solemnly records the poet’s helplessness:
ऊर्ध्वबाहुर्विरौम्येष न च कश्चिच्छृणोति मे।
धर्मादर्थश्च कामश्च स किमर्थं न सेव्यते॥ (१८.५.४९)
Narrating this story to Sañjīvaka, Damanaka said: ‘Thus a wise man remains steadfast when danger approaches. Now, this is what you must do. When Piṅgalaka rises and lifts up his tail, plough your horns up his belly and rend it!’, and went straight to Karaṭaka. Sañjīvaka walked up to the lion, which slowly got up and walked forward with its tail raised up. Right then the bull sprang forward, thrusting forth its horns. The lion too landed its strong paw with sharp claws upon the bull.
There lived a royal servant called Śūryavarmā. Once, when he came home, found that his wife was in the company of his friend. He withheld his anger thinking – What is the use of killing this animal, the disloyal friend? What will I get out of punishing this pāpī? I will acquire pāpa by killing them!
Speaking to them, he said “Don’t ever get seen by me! If I spot you again, I will kill you both!”
The two disappeared. He married another lady and lived happily ever after.
Unmattaka is redirected to give the bowl to someone worthy. While this brings in the lofty principle of charity which says to give anything only to a worthy person, from the perspective of Unmattaka what would be worthiness? Unmattaka then immediately decides that Satyasoma is the one worthy, but also calls Satyasoma as mahābrāhmaṇa which idiomatically means a vile fallen brāhmaṇa! Satyasoma again seeing the bowl literally thinks that the epithet ‘kapālin’ has come back and he is indeed worthy of that.
In the next verse Vyāsa describes a defining trait of great poets. He intends this as a lodestar of sorts of his work:
इतिहासप्रदीपेन मोहावरणघातिना।
लोकगर्भगृहं कृत्स्नं यथावत् संप्रकाशितम्॥ (१.९६.१०३, Kumbhakonam edition)
The great lamp of itihāsa dispels darkness in the form of stupor, ignorance, delusion. It illuminates the inner core of the world and shows it as it is.
2. Next Gomukha started narrating the story of Kumudikā:-
अवारणीयं रिपुभिर्-वारणीयं करं नुमः |
हेरम्बस्य ससिन्दूरम्-असिन्दूरम्-अघच्छिदं ||
avāraṇīyaṃ ripubhir-vāraṇīyaṃ karaṃ numaḥ |
herambasya sasindūram-asindūram-aghacchidaṃ ||
Let us pray to the trunk of elephant-faced Gaṇeśa, which his enemies find unopposable!
It is red lustred due to the sindūra and destroys all pāpas.
While ‘kapālin’ is taken in literal sense before the word Pāṇigrahaṇa which literally just means holding hands is turned to the other meaning, taking one’s hand in marriage derived by lakṣaṇa is utilised while Satyasoma accuses Nāgasena in public when he first helps Devasomā to get up. There is also a suggestion that Satyasoma still couldn’t trust Devasomā completely since she has already betrayed Babhrukalpa before. Also notice that Nāgasena is being tested in the two things which are forbidden for him and he betrays his failure in both those things.
In these verses Vyāsa has succinctly described the central focus of his poem and the nature of its characters. This is the way of great poets: they present the essence of the story upfront and then go on to narrate how it evolves. Lesser poets present the story in bits and pieces, intending to keep the readers hooked till the end. They sometimes stretch this technique to extreme limits, thus stripping the story of suggestive value and rendering it less enjoyable. A work bereft of poetic suggestion does not invite readers to revisit it.
As Nala was wandering through the forest wearing the cloth torn in half, he saw a forest fire. He heard a voice calling out for help from within it – “O Noble soul! The forest fire is consuming me – I might die in the fire! Please rescue me from here!” When he looked in the direction of the cry, he saw a snake curled around, fallen there. He picked it up and carried it on his shoulder. As he was walking, the snake said – “count ten footsteps from here and drop me at a spot”. Nala started counting – “ekaṃ dve trīṇi catvāri …..