Rethinking India's Oral and Classical Epics: Draupadi among Rajputs, Muslims, and Dalits. By ALF HILTEBEITEL. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1999. xiv. 560 pp. $60.00 (cloth); $29.00 (paper).

From the starting point of his interest in Draupadi and her cult in the Tamil region of southern India, Alf Hiltebeitel here undertakes the task of linking India's regional martial oral epics into one megastory, interlinked in complex ways that are perhaps more alike one another than they are like the written and authored Mahabharata and Ramayana (which Hiltebeitel sees as composed and written, not originally oral and then written). The result is a dense, difficult, and erudite examination of comparative incarnations, marriages, battles, caste status, accompanying rituals, and kingship, among others.

The argument is divided into fourteen chapters. Following a brief introduction, the reader is led through a detailed critique of previous models of India's oral epics, mostly drawn from Oral Epics of India (S. Blackburn, J. Flueckiger, P. Claus, S. Wadley, eds., University of California Press, 1989), with the aim of redefining the category of martial epics. Here Hiltebeitel also introduces the argument that the motivations of goddesses and heroines are central to the development of regional martial oral epics: this moves the goddess to a central role, especially the goddess's connections to the land. Connections are drawn to other religious movements that developed in the period of these epics, the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries, including bhakti, the Sants, the Naths, and Satpanth Ismailis. The dichotomy between the Sanskrit and regional epics is also set up: "in its own way, each of the Sanskrit epics is a totalizing (and, one might add, "colonizing") text, and each reinforces the same totality from different angles and with similar metaphoric transparencies. . . . In contrast, regional oral epics test the transparencies and `reality-effects' of these prior harmonizations" (p. 46).

Chapter 3 examines the south Indian oral epics of the Elder Brothers and Palnadu, while chapters 4, 5, and 6 focus on the north Indian oral epics Alha and Pabuji. Chapters 7-9 take a different comparative route, looking at the Krsnamsa from the Bhavisya Purina, a textual version of the oral Alha. Chapter 10 provides an historical transition, bringing in Rajput, but particularly Isma'ili traditions. Chapters 11 and 12 return us to southern India, with the ballad of Raja Desing in both oral and written form, while chapters 13 and 14 conclude by reexamining the themes of kingship and the heroine who commits sat. One goal is to demonstrate the common Rajput underpinnings to these stories, and their connections to more classic Kshatriyas. Another is to mark the issues of land, status, the goddess, and the ritual Dasara that appear again and again in these epic traditions, thus forcing us to acknowledge their interconnectedness.

The book has characteristics of nineteenth-century comparative mythological studies, with the author dipping into written and oral epics, historical accounts, songs, ritual descriptions, and modern scholarship as it seemed appropriate. The range of material covered is immense and at times compelling. At other times, the attempt to find parallels seems either forced or trivial. For example, most of the oral epics discussed are about little kingdoms that eventually fell prey to bigger ones, and often about kings who were either lower caste or had low caste helpmates. Both of these seem unremarkable findings and are as likely to emerge from regional social structures as they are from some common epic core linked to an oral Mahabharata. Likewise, many oral traditions claim to be the fifth veda: a claim for commonality on this basis seems superficial at best. Nevertheless, what is admirably illustrated is the intertextuality of Indian written, oral and ritual traditions. Clearly, there is a store of symbols and themes that is drawn upon again and again, whether by a Hindu folk singer or an Isma'il poet: these complicated interweavings of myth, story, and history are detailed and compared, providing fodder for future ruminations on India's epic and oral traditions.

This is not a book for the novice: it demands some knowledge of India's classical epics, and familiarity with the oral epics discussed would be advantageous. Even then, the detail is sometimes overwhelming. Some chapters read more easily than others-- for example, chapter 1 on Rajputs and Afghans is immensely easier than chapters 2 or 3 on the Elder Brothers, Palnadu, and Pabujt. While clearly a book for dedicated readers who seek detailed comparative understandings of epic traditions, the many insights and the range of materials covered should frequently provoke further comparisons and yet more questions.

SUSAN S. WADLEY

Syracuse University