अश्वत्थामा हतो नरो वा कुञ्जरो वा

[Arvind_Kolhatkar]

Dear Group,

Can someone point out the source from which this vary famous saying
has emerged. The story is from Dronaparva of Mahabharata but this
wording is not in it. However, all Indian languages seem to share it,
meaning thereby that it indeed has an old all-India source, which can
thus be only an old Sanskrit work. My query is whether that work can
be identified.

This appears to be a piece of prose as it does not fit into any
prosodic meter. This is again quite unusual for an old work.

Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, January 07, 2012.

[ajit Gargeshwari]

Day 15 of Kurukshetra War

Drona, as the Kuru commander is killing vast numbers of Pandava troops, Krishna advises Yudhisthira to adopt a plan to kill Drona.. As it is known that as long as Drona has raised his weapons he is invincible to all other warriors. So they plan to make Drona fall into grief so that he will drop his weapons at least temporarily, and to achieve this It was devised that it would be a lie about Aswathama the son of Drona.

Yudishtra's adherence to dharma does not allow him to say this. Krishna justifies this lie to Yudhisthira as necessary to the victory of morality in the war. As Yudhisthira continues to hesitate, his brother Bhima kills a known elephant in the Kuru legions called Aswathama and celebrates shouting "Aswathama is dead! Aswathama is dead!".

Shocked when the news reaches him, Drona seeks out Yudhisthira to ascertain the news, knowing that the son of Dharma would never speak a lie. Yudhisthira tells him that Ashwathama is dead, but mutters "the elephant...." ( Aswathama Hatha.(Aswathama is dead).. Kunjaraha (elephant))in an inaudible voice to prevent telling a whole lie.
Now convinced, Drona lays down his arms and sits in meditation. It is actually said in the epic that Drona's soul has already left his body through his mediation, but Dhristadyumna takes this opportunity, swings onto Drona's chariot, and chops off his head.

2012/1/8 Arvind_Kolhatkar <kolhat...@gmail.com>

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[Hnbhat B.R.]

2012/1/8 Arvind_Kolhatkar <kolhat...@gmail.com>

The episode is recollected in Parva 12.27 

satyaṃ mā marśayan vipro mayi tat paripṛṣṭavān // (15.3)
kuñjaraṃ cāntaraṃ kṛtvā mithyopacaritaṃ mayā / (16.1)
subhṛśaṃ rājyalubdhena pāpena gurughātinā // (16.2)
satyakañcukam āsthāya mayokto gurur āhave / (17.1)
aśvatthāmā hata iti kuñjare vinipātite / (17.2)
kānnu lokān gamiṣyāmi kṛtvā tat karma dāruṇam // (17.3)

 

The above story maight have been retold in different Idian languages with different wordings of what has been said by Yudhishthira. I had heard in Kannada, differently "अश्वत्थामा हतः कुञ्जरः" and the story goes that immediately after हतः, Srikrishna blew his conch so that Drona didn't hear the rest and taking the wordings of Yudhishthira to be the true fact immediately after hearing the first two, he kept down his bow. And Dhrishtadyumna cut off his head immediately.

In 7th Parva, before Yudhishthira, Bhima himself had said and he didn't believe and he at last asks Yudhishthira as he had confidence in him that he won't lie. But he said it "avyakta" 

http://kjc-fs-cluster.kjc.uni-heidelberg.de/dcs/index.php?contents=texte

You can refer to the sequence in the above link.

--
Dr. Hari Narayana Bhat B.R. M.A., Ph.D.,
Research Scholar,

Ecole française d'Extrême-OrientCentre de Pondichéry

16 & 19, Rue Dumas

Pondichéry - 605 001

[Hnbhat B.R.]

Here is the original episode:

atyavān hi nṛloke 'smin bhavān khyāto janādhipa // (104.3)
tasya tad vacanaṃ śrutvā kṛṣṇavākyapracoditaḥ / (105.1)
bhāvitvācca mahārāja vaktuṃ samupacakrame // (105.2)
tam atathyabhaye magno jaye sakto yudhiṣṭhiraḥ / (106.1)
avyaktam abravīd rājan hataḥ kuñjara ityuta // (106.2)
tasya pūrvaṃ rathaḥ pṛthvyāścaturaṅgula uttaraḥ / (107.1)
babhūvaivaṃ tu tenokte tasya vāhāspṛśanmahīm // (107.2)
yudhiṣṭhirāt tu tad vākyaṃ śrutvā droṇo mahārathaḥ / (108.1)
putravyasanasaṃtapto nirāśo jīvite 'bhavat // (108.2)
āgaskṛtam ivātmānaṃ pāṇḍavānāṃ mahātmanām / (109.1)
ṛṣivākyaṃ ca manvānaḥ śrutvā ca nihataṃ sutam // (109.2)

of making Yudhishthira to tell a half-lie. on being asked by Drona. He said hataH first and then kunjara. at the instigation of Krishna.

[Arvind_Kolhatkar]

I think that after reading these two replies my question still
survives.

We all know the story as told in the Dronaparva Adhyaaya 166. The
relevant verse, as I could see i , and as pointed out by Dr Bhat is

तमतथ्यभये मग्नो जये सक्तो युधिष्ठिर:।
अव्यक्तमब्रवीद्राजन् हतः कुञ्जर इत्युत॥ ७.१६५.१०६.

However, it is obvious all over India this story is generally told as
'अश्वत्थामा हतो नरो वा कुञ्जरो वा'. (If you enter this phrase in
Google you will get dozens of responses from all over India explaning
it, thus proving that the phrase is known in this exact form all over
India. If that is so, the question I ask is, what is the source
thereof. i.e. of these exact words, not of the story.

(Venisamhar, in Act 3, has the same story presented thus:

अश्वत्थामा हत इति पृथासूनुना स्पष्टमुक्त्वा
स्वैरं शेषे गज इति किल व्याहृतं सत्यवाचा।
तच्छ्रुत्वासौ दयिततनयः प्रत्त्ययात्तस्य राज्ञः
शस्त्राण्याजौ नयनसलिलं चापि तुल्यं मुमोच॥)

Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, January 08, 2012.

[ajit Gargeshwari]

Stories from Ramayana and mahbaratha acts asources meterial for various Kvyas and Natakas. For instance, Shakuntala of Kalidasa Urubhanga of Bhasa and so on

The copper-plate inscription of the Maharaja Sharvanatha (533–534 CE) from Khoh (in Madhya Pradesh) escribes the Mahabharata as a "collection of 100,000 verses" (shatasahasri samhita).

If one picks up various stories woven in the Mahabaratha and try to trace its origin it will amount to trace the history of the epic itself which has been done by several scholars over the past 100 years or more. All these reaserches are mere conjectures and conclusive evidence may be difficult to arrive at.

Sources of many legends from Indian epics such as ramayana and Mahabaraths has been traced to early Brahmanas and Samitas but when exactly a particular legend was incorporated within the Mahabartha epic may not be easy to arrive. It will always be a conjecture and never a conclusive evidence.

what is the sourcethereof. i.e. of these exact words, not of the story.

Mahabartaha as we all know exists in various recessions such as south India Kashmir, Bengal and so on with Major and minor variations to the upkathas of mahabararath its lenghth in terms of number of verses and etc.

So if one has to answer you question precisely , may never be possible and a probable conjecture depending upon a point of view can be possibly arrived at.

Regards
Ajit Gargeshwari

2012/1/8 Arvind_Kolhatkar <kolhat...@gmail.com>

[Shreevatsa R]

2012/1/8 Arvind_Kolhatkar <kolhat...@gmail.com>

However, it is obvious all over India this story is generally told as
'अश्वत्थामा हतो नरो वा कुञ्जरो वा'.  (If you enter this phrase in
Google you will get dozens of responses from all over India explaning
it, thus proving that the phrase is known in this exact form all over
India.  If that is so, the question I ask is, what is the source
thereof. i.e. of these exact words, not of the story.

In my (very limited) experience, each of the dozen or so times that I have heard the story from different sources, it has always been "अश्वत्थामा हतः कुञ्जरः" as Dr. Bhat mentioned (but I'm also in Karnataka). This is the first time I've seen "अश्वत्थामा हतो नरो वा कुञ्जरो वा".

For what it's worth, searching Google for "अश्वत्थामा हतः" and "अश्वत्थामा हतो" indeed shows some patterns. Google has dozens of results for "अश्वत्थामा हतः इति नरोवा कुंजरोवा" but this is easily explained by the fact that someone entered those words in a Wikipedia article, and the possibility that others have been copying that phrase from Wikipedia. (Search in Google for the term 

["अश्वत्थामा हतः" -cryptic] to filter out Wikipedia mirrors.)

As an aside, those results point to Kshemendra's Dashavatara-charitam (महाकविश्रीक्षेमेन्द्रप्रणीतम् दशावतारचरित्रम्), recently mentioned on this group. In the eight chapter which is on Krishna (कृष्णावतारोऽष्टमः), Kshemendra writes:

अश्वत्थामा हतः सङ्ख्ये स्पष्टमुक्त्वेति धर्मजः ।

हस्तीत्यसत्यचकितः पश्चात्स्वैरमभाषत ॥७३४॥

श्रुतपुत्रवधस्याथ त्यक्तशस्त्रधृतेर्गुरोः ।

उत्क्रान्तधाम्नः खड्गेन धृष्टद्युम्नः शिरोऽहरत ॥७३५॥

So this version also doesn't contain the phrase in the form mentioned.

[Shreevatsa R]

Among the results is this book:

http://books.google.co.in/books?id=MzliWzYz34wC&pg=PT105&lpg=PT105&dq=%22अश्वत्थामा+हतो%22

a Hindi commentary on Banabhatta's Harsha-charita, which in the commentary mentions

"अश्वत्थामा हतो ब्रह्मन् । नरो वा कुञ्जरोऽथवा"

This is in proper metre, so it's possible that some poem containing this was the source... or it's possible that someone took the prose text and converted it into metrical prose!

2012/1/8 Shreevatsa R <shree...@gmail.com>

[Subrahmanian R]

The two replies do not directly answer Sri Kolkatkar's query [nor this letter of mine].

However, in the mahabharata version that I have seen [from the 'sacred texts' in the net and the translation by Kisari Mohan Ganguli - the verses in the context are slightly different:

 

115 tad atathya bhaye magno jaye sakto yudhiṣṭhiraḥ
    aśvatthāmānam āhedaṃ hataḥ kuñjara ity uta
    bhīmena girivarṣmāṇaṃ mālavasyendra varmaṇaḥ
116 upasṛtya tadā droṇam uccair idam abhāṣata
    yasyārthe śastram ādhatse yam avekṣya ca jīvasi
    putras te dayito nityaṃ śo 'śvatthāmā nipātitaḥ

 

Afflicted with the fear of a lie, solicitous at the same time of victory, Yudhishthira, beholding a mighty elephant, huge as a hill and called Aswatthaman, belonging to the Malava chief, Indravarman, slain on the field by Bhima, approached Drona and answered him, saying, 'He for whom thou wieldest weapons, he, looking upon whom thou livest that ever dear son of thine, viz., Aswatthaman, hath been slain, Deprived of life he lieth on the bare ground like a young lion.' Aware fully of the evil consequences of falsehood, the king spoke those words unto that best of Brahmans, indistinctly adding elephant (after Aswatthaman)

And, according to the versions/ verbal traditions familiar to our circles, the statement was 'Aswatthama atha kunjara: hata:' - atha kunjara: in an undertone.

 

With reverence to scholars

R Subrahmanian

 

 

2012/1/8 Arvind_Kolhatkar <kolhat...@gmail.com>