batch.motif.hindu-mahabharata-dutt-gutenberg-l6804-l6889
---
record_id: batch.motif.hindu-mahabharata-dutt-gutenberg-l6804-l6889
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
passage_locator:
label: BOOK XII / ASWA-MEDHA / CONCLUSION / TRANSLATOR'S EPILOGUE; lines 6804-6889
start: '6804'
end: '6889'
translation: Maha-bharata
notes: Generated from OpenAI Batch run motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority;
human review required.
canonical_text:
quote: ''
summary: The translator's epilogue describes the Maha-bharata as one of ancient
India's two great epics, compares it to the Iliad because it concerns a great
war, compares the Ramayana to the Odyssey because it concerns a banished hero's
wandering adventures, and outlines the Maha-bharata's development from bardic
war legends into a vast, accretive epic containing moral, legal, religious, legendary,
and Krishna-devotional material.
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: 'The epilogue states that ancient India, like ancient Greece, has two great
epics: the Maha-bharata and the Ramayana.'
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: The Maha-bharata is described as relating to a great war in which warlike
races of Northern India took part, and is compared to the Iliad.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:3
text: The Ramayana is described as concerning the adventures of a hero banished
from his country and wandering for long years in the wildernesses of Southern
India, and is compared to the Odyssey.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:4
text: The great war of the Maha-bharata is said to be believed to have been fought
in the thirteenth or fourteenth century before Christ.
category: setting
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:5
text: For generations after the war, its main incidents are said to have been sung
by bards and minstrels in the courts of Northern India.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:6
text: The war is described as becoming the centre of a cycle of legends, songs,
and poems in ancient India.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:7
text: The accumulated legends and poetry are described as having been cast into
narrative form to make the Epic of the Great Bharata nation.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:8
text: The epilogue says the real facts of the war had been obscured by age and that
legendary heroes became the principal actors.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:9
text: A moral purpose, described as the triumph of virtue and subjugation of vice,
is said to have been woven into the epic.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:10
text: The epic is described as growing over centuries through additions by poets,
interpolations by distant nations, and doctrinal insertions by preachers.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:11
text: Legal and moral codes, rules about castes and life stages, and a large body
of tales, traditions, legends, and myths are said to have been incorporated into
the epic.
category: object
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:12
text: The epilogue states that Krishna-worship later became the prevailing religion
of India and that Krishna-cult is the epic's dominant religious idea in its present
shape.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:13
text: 'An attempt to prevent further expansion is described: prefatory verses listed
the contents and stated the number of couplets in each book.'
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:14
text: The epilogue says the Calcutta printed edition contains over ninety thousand
couplets, excluding the Supplement about the Race of Hari.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:15
text: The translator explains that the poem's great length and heterogeneous contents
have prevented it from being presented to European readers in a readable complete
verse form.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: Maha-bharata
description: The first of ancient India's two great epics, described as concerning
a great war and as the subject of the preceding pages.
role_refs:
- role:1
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: Ramayana
description: The second of ancient India's two great epics, described as concerning
the adventures of its banished wandering hero.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: Banished hero of the Ramayana
description: A hero banished from his country who wanders for long years in the
wildernesses of Southern India.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: Bards and minstrels
description: Performers who are said to have sung the main incidents of the war
in the courts of Northern India for generations and centuries.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: Legendary heroes
description: Principal actors in the epic after the real facts of the war had been
obscured by age.
role_refs:
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: Krishna-worship / Krishna-cult
description: A later prevailing religious current described as giving the present
epic its dominant religious idea.
role_refs:
- role:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
roles:
- id: role:1
label: war epic
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: The Maha-bharata is described as relating to a great war involving warlike
races of Northern India.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: role:2
label: adventure epic
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: The Ramayana is described as relating mainly to adventures of its hero.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: role:3
label: banished wandering hero
assigned_to:
- fig:3
basis: The Ramayana's hero is described as banished and wandering for long years
in southern wildernesses.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: role:4
label: oral transmitters of war incidents
assigned_to:
- fig:4
basis: Bards and minstrels are said to have sung the main incidents of the war in
courts.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: role:5
label: accretive epic compilation
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: The epic is described as growing over centuries through additions, interpolations,
codes, tales, traditions, legends, myths, and religious material.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- id: role:6
label: principal legendary actors
assigned_to:
- fig:5
basis: The epilogue says legendary heroes became the principal actors after age
obscured the real facts of the war.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: role:7
label: dominant later religious idea
assigned_to:
- fig:6
basis: Krishna-cult is described as the dominating religious idea of the epic in
its present shape.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
symbols: []
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Comparison of Indian and Greek epics
summary: The epilogue identifies the Maha-bharata and Ramayana as ancient India's
two great epics and compares them respectively to the Iliad and Odyssey.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
symbol_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: scene:2
label: War memory becomes epic legend cycle
summary: The war's incidents are said to have been sung by bards, to have formed
a cycle of legends, songs, and poems, and to have been shaped into the Epic of
the Great Bharata nation.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:4
- fig:5
symbol_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: scene:3
label: Accretive expansion of the epic
summary: The epilogue describes the epic growing through additions, interpolations,
religious sanctioning, legal and moral material, caste and life-stage rules, tales,
traditions, legends, myths, and later Krishna devotional influence.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:6
symbol_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- id: scene:4
label: Attempts to limit and explain the vast text
summary: The epilogue describes an attempted metrical limit on the epic, later expansion
beyond that limit, and the difficulty of presenting the very large and heterogeneous
work to European readers.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
symbol_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: Banished hero wandering in wilderness
taxonomy_refs:
- departure
basis: The Ramayana is summarized as the adventures of a hero banished from his
country and wandering for long years in wildernesses.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage gives only a brief comparative summary of the Ramayana; it
does not narrate the hero's adventures in detail.
- id: motif:2
label: Great war as center of a legendary epic cycle
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The Maha-bharata war is described as becoming the centre of a cycle of legends,
songs, and poems, later cast into narrative epic form.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
confidence: high
cautions: This is presented as literary-historical commentary rather than as a narrated
mythic episode.
- id: motif:3
label: Moralized conflict of virtue and vice
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The epilogue states that a high moral purpose, the triumph of virtue and
subjugation of vice, was woven into the fabric of the epic.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage states the moral pattern abstractly and does not identify
a specific episode where it is enacted.
- id: motif:4
label: Epic as shelter for many tales, traditions, legends, and myths
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
basis: The epilogue describes legal, moral, social, legendary, mythic, and religious
material being incorporated into the expanding epic over centuries.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
confidence: medium
cautions: The taxonomy reference is broad; the passage concerns textual accumulation
and didactic incorporation more than a single mythic plot motif.
comparison_claims:
- id: claim:1
claim: The Maha-bharata is compared to the Iliad because both are presented here
as great epics centered on a major war.
claim_level: same_function
target: Iliad / ancient Greek epic tradition
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: high
limitations: The passage supports a broad literary-function comparison only; it
does not compare specific episodes, deities, heroes, or historical contact.
- id: claim:2
claim: The Ramayana is compared to the Odyssey because both are presented here as
adventure epics involving a hero's long wandering.
claim_level: same_function
target: Odyssey / ancient Greek epic tradition
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: high
limitations: The passage supports only the translator's general analogy; it does
not provide detailed motif-by-motif comparison.
- id: claim:3
claim: The war at the center of the Maha-bharata is compared to Charlemagne and
Arthur as a historical or legendary nucleus around which later legends accumulated.
claim_level: same_function
target: Charlemagne and Arthur legend cycles in medieval Europe
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: high
limitations: The comparison is about the formation of legend cycles around central
figures or events, not about shared origin or direct influence.
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: lines 6804-6814
quote_or_summary: 'Ancient India is said to have two great epics: the Maha-bharata,
concerning a great northern war and comparable to the Iliad, and the Ramayana,
concerning a banished hero''s long wilderness wanderings and comparable to the
Odyssey.'
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from supplied passage.
- id: ev:2
type: summary
locator: lines 6816-6829
quote_or_summary: The war is believed to belong to the thirteenth or fourteenth
century BCE; its incidents were sung by bards and minstrels, became a cycle of
legends, songs, and poems, were shaped into the Great Bharata epic, and were moralized
as virtue overcoming vice.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from supplied passage.
- id: ev:3
type: summary
locator: lines 6831-6845
quote_or_summary: The epic is described as growing over centuries through additions
by poets, interpolations by distant nations, doctrinal insertions by preachers,
legal and moral codes, caste and life-stage rules, and many tales, traditions,
legends, and myths.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from supplied passage.
- id: ev:4
type: summary
locator: lines 6846-6853
quote_or_summary: As Krishna-worship became prevailing after the decay of Buddhism,
the epic took on that religious complexion; Krishna-cult is described as its dominant
religious idea in the present form, after roughly a thousand years of growth.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from supplied passage.
- id: ev:5
type: summary
locator: lines 6855-6865
quote_or_summary: After the epic had nearly reached its present proportions, prefatory
verses listed contents and couplet counts, giving about eighty-five thousand couplets;
later additions exceeded that limit, and the Calcutta edition contains over ninety
thousand couplets excluding the Supplement about the Race of Hari.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from supplied passage.
- id: ev:6
type: summary
locator: lines 6867-6889
quote_or_summary: The translator says the epic's enormous size and heterogeneous
contents make complete readable English verse translation impractical, while noting
prior renderings of selected portions and a complete English prose translation
useful for reference.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from supplied passage.
confidence:
extraction: high
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: high
notes: The passage is translator commentary rather than a mythic episode. Literal
literary-historical and comparative claims are clear; motif candidates are more
cautious because most are abstract summaries rather than narrated scenes.
reviewer_status:
status: needs_review
reviewer: ''
reviewed_at: ''
notes: Machine-generated draft from OpenAI Batch; not human-reviewed.
extracted_by: openai_batch:gpt-5.5
extracted_at: '2026-04-28'
notes: |-
No concrete taxonomy symbols from the supplied symbol list are present in the passage as mythic objects; symbols array left empty.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:hindu-mahabharata-dutt-gutenberg__l6804-l6889
passage_sha256=020f5c702ff045c8629055e7a1ed99d7c0939d6db8e769aa06d85fd7baf1209f