Abstract:

Several prominent pentadic structures have been identified within the Mahābhārata (for instance, the set of five Kaurava marshals), and it has been argued elsewhere that such sets express an early Indo-European pentadic ideology. So does the main plot of the epic show the same pattern? Arguably, the following five journeys, made by one or more Pāṇḍavas, constitute a single set of comparable elements: the initial exile of the brothers; Arjuna’s visit to the four quarters of India; the major Pāṇḍava exile (for twelve-plus-one years); Arjuna’s journey accompanying the aśvamedha horse; and (less straightforwardly) the Pāṇḍavas final journey to the Himalayas and Heaven. The other journeys made by the Pāṇḍavas can be excluded for various reasons: thus, Arjuna’s journey to heaven and the simultaneous pilgrimage led by Yudhiṣṭhira belong to a subordinate level of analysis since they are encapsulated within the twelve-year exile. If the fifth journey is taken together with the descent of the Pāṇḍavas’ divine genitors from Heaven and the subsequent descent from the Himalayas of the Pāṇḍava children, then the set of five journeys does manifest the ideology of the early Indo-European speakers, albeit not quite in the standard hierarchical order.

Author: Nicholas Justin Allen