batch.motif.hindu-mahabharata-dutt-gutenberg-l6891-l6967
---
record_id: batch.motif.hindu-mahabharata-dutt-gutenberg-l6891-l6967
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
passage_locator:
label: BOOK XII / ASWA-MEDHA / CONCLUSION / TRANSLATOR'S EPILOGUE; lines 6891-6967
start: '6891'
end: '6967'
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 explains that the old Epic has been expanded by episodic
material but that its leading incidents and characters remain discernible. He
describes a plan to recover and present the main story by translating selected
original passages and linking them with notes, while condensing the war books
more severely because of their prolixity. He states that the work presents an
Epic of ninety thousand Sanskrit couplets in about two thousand English couplets.
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: The passage states that the old Epic has been altered by unlimited expansion,
while the leading incidents and characters remain discernible.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: The translator compares the recoverable core of the Epic to immortal marble
figures recovered from ancient ruins and displayed in modern European museums.
category: other
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:3
text: The translator says he has long wished to exhume the buried Epic from episodical
matter and restore it to the modern world.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:4
text: The translator says the leading narrative forms about one-fourth of the work.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:5
text: The translator's method is to translate selected original passages about main
incidents and link them with short connecting notes.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:6
text: The translator states that, in the presented passages, the poet speaks to
the reader rather than the translator.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:7
text: The translator says the three books describing the actual war require condensation
rather than only selected translation.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:8
text: The war is described as a series of eighteen battles fought on eighteen consecutive
days.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:9
text: The translator says the Epic of ninety thousand Sanskrit couplets is presented
in about two thousand English couplets.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: translator-narrator
description: The first-person speaker who explains the translation plan and its
limits.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:4
- ev:6
- ev:8
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: the poet
description: The source poet whose narration the translator seeks to preserve in
selected passages.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: modern reader / English reader
description: The intended audience for the condensed English presentation of the
Epic.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:4
- ev:5
roles:
- id: role:1
label: translator and selector
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: The speaker describes selecting passages, linking them with notes, translating
them, and condensing the war books.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:6
- id: role:2
label: original narrative voice
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: The translator states that the presented passages allow the poet, not the
translator, to speak to the reader.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: role:3
label: intended recipient
assigned_to:
- fig:3
basis: The plan is designed to present the Epic to the modern or English reader
in acceptable form and limits.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: buried Epic
literal_form: An image of the real Epic embedded under episodical matter and needing
to be exhumed.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- id: sym:2
label: recovered marble figures
literal_form: Immortal marble figures recovered from ruins of an ancient world and
placed in modern European museums.
associated_figures: []
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: sym:3
label: eighteen battles in eighteen days
literal_form: The number eighteen applied to the war's battles and consecutive days.
associated_figures: []
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: sym:4
label: ninety thousand to two thousand couplets
literal_form: A scale contrast between ninety thousand Sanskrit couplets and about
two thousand English couplets.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Diagnosis of the expanded Epic
summary: The translator describes the old Epic as expanded by foreign or episodical
matter while retaining discernible leading incidents and characters.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- id: scene:2
label: Plan for selected translation
summary: The translator explains that selected original passages about main incidents
can be translated in full and connected by short notes to present the main story.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
symbol_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- id: scene:3
label: Exception for the war books
summary: The translator explains that the war books required severe condensation
because the war events were lengthy, repetitive, and had to be narrated day by
day.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
symbol_refs:
- sym:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- ev:7
- id: scene:4
label: Final scale of the work
summary: The translator concludes by stating the scheme presents a very large Sanskrit
Epic in a much shorter English couplet form.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
symbol_refs:
- sym:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: recovery of a buried ancient work
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The passage repeatedly frames the translator's project as exhuming a buried
Epic from an overlying mass of episodical matter and restoring it to the modern
world.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
confidence: medium
cautions: This is an editorial and metaphorical pattern in the translator's epilogue,
not a mythic narrative event within the Epic.
- id: motif:2
label: preservation through selective transmission
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The translator describes preserving the main story by selecting original
passages, translating them, and linking them with notes so that the poet's voice
remains present.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
confidence: medium
cautions: This is a textual-transmission pattern rather than a traditional mythological
motif.
- id: motif:3
label: structured eighteen-day war
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The passage identifies the war as eighteen battles fought on eighteen consecutive
days and explains the need to recount each day's work.
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
confidence: low
cautions: The passage gives only editorial description of the war's structure, not
the mythic details of the battles themselves.
comparison_claims: []
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: quote
locator: 6891-6899
quote_or_summary: The old Epic has been expanded, but its leading incidents and
characters remain discernible, like marble figures recovered from ruins of an
ancient world.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short excerpt summarized.
- id: ev:2
type: quote
locator: 6899-6904
quote_or_summary: The translator says he wished to "exhume this buried Epic" from
episodical matter and restore it to the modern world.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short quotation used.
- id: ev:3
type: summary
locator: 6904-6911
quote_or_summary: The leading narrative is said to form about one-fourth of the
work, but a complete translation of even that portion would be too long and prolix.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:4
type: summary
locator: 6915-6928
quote_or_summary: The translator proposes translating main-incident passages into
English verse and linking them with short notes to present the entire story within
acceptable limits.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:5
type: quote
locator: 6928-6937
quote_or_summary: The advantage is that "it is the poet who speaks" to the reader,
not the translator, through portions narrating the main incidents.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short quotation used.
- id: ev:6
type: summary
locator: 6939-6952
quote_or_summary: The translator says most books translate selected passages, but
the three war books required departure from this method and condensation.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:7
type: quote
locator: 6953-6957
quote_or_summary: The war is described as "eighteen battles, fought on eighteen
consecutive days," requiring an account of each day's work.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short quotation used.
- id: ev:8
type: quote
locator: 6964-6967
quote_or_summary: The scheme presents "an Epic of ninety thousand Sanscrit couplets
in about two thousand English couplets."
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short quotation used.
confidence:
extraction: high
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: high
notes: The passage is a translator's epilogue about method and textual recovery,
not a mythic episode. Literal editorial features are clear; motif candidates are
limited to textual and structural patterns.
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 comparison claims were added because the passage itself does not support comparison with an external motif family, pattern, or nearby corpus tradition beyond its own editorial imagery.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:hindu-mahabharata-dutt-gutenberg__l6891-l6967
passage_sha256=ddd5b8a2cffbd5d40d5283c116f2bd4c54c90dbd7eab1e4cb7ad84b755f8f8e7