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10 MYTH: METHODOLOGY AND INTERPRETATIONS Ms. Kanika Gupta Inarthistory mythshave usually been studied to identify images. Allacrossthe Indian subcontinent ‘one comes across depictions of various scenes from mythology. Identifying a sculpture usually involves beingable to decipher its iconography or the particular myth depicted. This however is justthe starting point ofthe study ofthe mythas wellas hesculptural depiction and itmay beseenthatifanew methodology {sapplied,itcan enrich our existing ideas and understanding of notjust the depiction but also the socio political milieuin which the myth grew. Levi-Strauss—Structuralism and myth ___Levi-Strausinhis Structural Anthropology uses structuralism to study myths, his opinionthe individual elements ofa myth are not important; itisthe way they are connected or linked together that isimportant, He studies these links to formulate a process through which he analysis a myth, LLevi-Strauss observes that myth, “.. should be placed in the gamut of linguistic expressionsatthe ‘end opposite to that of poetry, in spite of the claims which have been made to prove the contrary. Poetry isa kind of speech which cannot be translated except at the cost of serious distortions: whereas the ‘mythical value ofthe myth is preserved even through the worst translations. Whatever our ignorance of the language and the culture of the people where it originated, amythis still feltas a myth by any reader anywhere in the world Itssubstance does ntlieinitsstyle, its original music orits syntax, butin the story ‘which ttells Mythis language, functioning onan especially high level where meaning succeeds practically at“taking off” from the linguistic ground on which itkeeps on rolling.” He goes onto ay, “Ifthere sa meaning tobe found in mythology, teannot reside inthe {isolated clements wich enter inte the composition ofamyth, butonly in the way those elements are combined." Inhis opinion meaning does not reside in the individual elements ofa myth butin the way these elements are put together. He takes the example of Oedipus myth and analysis it. -Thesamemethodology may be used incase ofthe myth of Ganesha. Inthe many myths associated with Ganesha along with their variations patterns can be traced. 190 Folklore Studies in the Current Globalization The first myth to be considered is that ofthe birth of Ganesha. Once when Shiva has gone out ‘of Kailashamountain, Parvati wishes o bathe. However she fears that someone might come and see her. “Thus she creates a small image from the mud ofher body and puts life init. The child thus born is told tokeep guard on the door. After some time when Shiva arrivesand tries to enter the door tomeet Parvati heisstopped from doing so by the child. Atthis Shiva gets extremely angry and cuts the head offthe child's body. Parvatiis shocked to see this and demands the life ofthe child back. Realising what he had done Shiva gets the head of an clephant and attaches ito the body of the child thus bringing life into him again ‘The child therefore comes to be called Ganesha. ‘The myth can be broken into the following links - Parvatimakesherehild fromthe mud/dirtonher bod’ Shiva kills the child by beheading him, Shiva kills an elephant to take its head, ‘Shivaputs the elephant hhead on the body of the child thus bringing his lifeback. ‘The second column may be referred to as—control overthe act of killing; one is able to kill (animal orhuman); death isnot mysterious. ‘The third column shows that the society from which this myth comes has overpowered animals. ‘The first column in this case has a feature which can be described as— the mysterious power of If these observations are followed, it means that the myth depicts a society which though has overpowered animals like elephants but is yet to deal with the mysteries: of origin of life or giving life. Yaska’s Nirukta ‘Another methodology was proposed by Yaska, who wrotean ancient Indian texton etymology called Nirukta, The date of Yaska yet remains debatable; however, he may be placed in the bracket of 200 BCE—200 CE. Yaska suggests three ways of interpreting a myth. Firstly amythmay be understood literally ormay be taken atits face value. Secondly it may be understood historically. For example, Indra the Vedic god may have been atribal hero who was extremely popular and eventually came to be deified. Thispossibility has been called aithasika’, which means mythsmay have traces ofhistoryinthem. Thirty, ‘amythmaybe understood metaphorically. This way of interpreting has been called ‘Nairukta’. For example, therivalry between Indra and Vrtra (son of Twashta) may be understood ata metaphorical level. Indra isseenas the one who brings rain and a vajra is his epithet. The root ‘vru’ of Vrtra means “to cover or ‘to conceal”; in this case Vrtra may be understood as representing rain borne clouds. Therrivalry between Indra and Vrtra can thus be understood to represent thunder striking the clouds to bring rain. In literature itis seen that Indra defeats Vrtra, The entire myth in this case can be interpreted as anatural phenomenon’, ‘Sun god is usually seen with two special guards. Metaphorically seen these guards can be seen _asrepresenting a basic concept of kundalini yoga. In kundalin practise the three main channels ofenergy E a Myth: Methodology and Interpretations 191 (oflife)in the body are considered tobe ida, pingala and sushumnanadi, Sun being the su ‘energy Biving force may have been symbolised in sculptures (Konark temple) ssthcnprenoenay The oldest of myths of the so called, heavenly father-mother earth’ as found in Vedic literature ean be seen as anatural phenomenon of rain germinating the earth and makingit fertile, Here again the ‘Nainukta approach of Yaska has been used, To take this further, according to Norman Brown, Indra's parents may have been Earth and Sky*. This only goes to say that lightening was the child of clouds and Earth coming together which makes perfect sense inthe whole metaphorand rather completes it Balarama, in mostof the myths has been represented as astrong, arrogant young fellow who is extremely fond of drinking. Once he is heavily drunk and wishes to bathe butis unable to walk up to river ‘Yamuna. So he orders the river Goddess to change her course and come towards him. When Yamuna refuses, the myth describes that Balarama dragged Yamuna with her hairand forcibly made her change her course. Undoubtedly, Balarama must have been the god ofa patriarchal society where display of such “masculinity’was looked up to, Butalso, this may have traces of ahistorical event where theriver Yamuna ‘changed its course and the myth was created to explain the phenomenon. This interpretation corresponds tothe aitihasika methodology of Yaska, Rivers do change their course and sometimes there is no trace ofsuch changes left. This may well have been the case with river Yamuna. Vedic literature refers to an incident where Indra fights Goddess Usha, defeats her and chases her ‘away till the end of horizon, He in fact overpowers her physically and rapes her. Usha seems tohave been significant Goddess whose importance declines withthe coming of patriarchy and thus Indra takes over. Thus the myth was created to establish Indra as the stronger and overpowering God. Seen with the aitihasika approach, the myth again may representa historical event where in an actual war Indra defeated the lady head of a community and took over them. tis a well-known that the ancient cults of yakshas, yakshis and nagas were subjugated and amalgamated with the new more powerful religious order time and again, Be it Buddhism, Jainism or Brahamanical cults, this can be seen in sculptural depictions in abundance‘. Thus in many cases Garuda defeating snakes or Vaishnavite deities subjugating snake gods can easily be seen metaphorically as representing actual history. Kosambi’s Myth and Reali DDKosambiinterpres variousmyths and attempts o search fr social eality in them’, Discussing the myth of Urvashi and Pururava in Rig Veda, he interprets itasa transition phase between matriarchy and patriarchy. His approach isto look atthe mode of food production. His approach can be understood with his concluding remarks in his remarkable essay ‘Urvashi and Pururavas” which say- i il fe \ddesses of the later “The Urvashis faded away, butthey are responsible nevertheless forthe go ‘pantheon that are married peacefully to the major gods. Their living representatives developed what became with the rise of a trading society and cash economy before the Mauryan period — commercialized oe ‘Thushis focus clearly remains the economy of the society and the eventual shift of authority and powerwith changing economic factors. ‘Peter Muns and the Study of Myth Peter Munz*; vi famyth « another methodology for understanding myths. He studies variations ofa % andaccordingtohimamythmay notjustnecessariy develop overtime, itmay also have variations

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