The story of Oedipus and Puran Bhagat which are located at two different locales, represents two world views, and yet has striking similarities which baffle human wisdom
Dr. Jernail Singh Anand
Introduction
It may look strange but it is a fact that similar stories around found in the folk lore of different countries which are not even geographically connected. We can find parallels in Troy and Mahabharata. Even Illiad and Ramayana can be compared at many levels. So far as stories of love are concerned, even the story of Oedipus has a parallel in Punjabi folk lore, Puran Bhagat. Although situated far away, one wonders how emotionalities are shared across the borders. This article is dedicated to the story of Oedipus and Puran Bhagat which are located at two different locales, represents two world views, and yet has striking similarities which baffle human wisdom.
Oedipus Rex
We all know the tragic story of Oedipus who was forced by a malignant fate to kill his father, marry his own mother, and then, have children from her. This is the greatest tragedy in world literature, which shocks the readers. And one starts wondering how it could happen. But it did happen. When fate want to punish a person, how can he escape their ire?
Oedipus, the king, finds his kingdom in the throes of a severe draught and visits the Oracle at Delphi, to know the reason. The Oracle tells him that something very seriously wrong has been committed. And, Oedipus sets out to find out who has committed this foul act. Finally, he discovers himself as the architect of the evil fate that his country is facing.
As the story goes, when Oedipus was born, his father was told by oracles that he will kill his father and marry his mother. The father King Laius was horrified. He ordered that this boy be killed. But, fate is resistless. The child was saved by a quirk of fate, and grew up in the neighboring country Corinth. When he grew up, and found that he is fated to kill his father and marry his mother, he had no idea the king and the queen were his adopted parents. Thinking them his real parents, he runs away towards his own kingdom, Thebes. On the cross roads, he meets an old man, with whom he has an encounter in which the old man is killed. It was King Laius, his own father. When Oedipus goes to the city, the Sphinx puts him three questions, which he replies satisfactorily with his mother wit. And as the door of the city opens, he is anointed the King, and marries the Queen whose husband has died recently. Things seem just normal, but they are manipulated by the evil fate. The oracle’s prophecy has come true. Oedipus has killed his own father, and married his own mother. Absolutely unmindful of what he has done. Soon, he begets children also, who are his half- brothers and half-sisters.
Oedipus might have done some evil, for which, he had to suffer the tragic destiny. But these things remain a mystery
There is no tragedy so long as Oedipus does not come to know how tragedy has struck him. It was his own passion for truth to know ‘who is the architect of the evil fate that had struck his country in the form of draught and plague’. He wanted to punish him. And finally, when the whole story is out, Jocasta, his wife-mother, kills herself, and he too, blinds himself feeling that he could not see his own sons and daughters whom he had begot on the body of his own mother.
Too tragic for a man to bear all this. Why was Oedipus punished by fate? He was a gentleman, and genuinely in search of the person who had caused grief to his people. The story leaves gaps for readers to understand what wrong he had committed that he deserved to be punished with a sinister revenge by fate.
This story in which a man is forced by circumstances to take recourse to an action whose ramifications he does not know, and is dragged into a conspiracy by evil fate, has a parallel in Indian folklore. In Punjab, we come across the story of Puran Bhagat who stands nearly in the same situation. I want to put Oedipus in the Indian context. How things might have gone, had it been an Indian story.
When Puran was born, the oracles told his father, King Salwan, that he had a pernicious fate. So, they advised the king to keep him in an underground cell for 12 years and never visit him. After 12 years, when Puran emerges from the cell, he is a handsome young boy. The King tells him to visit his mothers. He goes to Luna, his step mother, who is young and beautiful, and his own mother, Ichhran.
Luna, who has married an old king, is bewitched by the youth of Puran, and she starts alluring him. But, Puran who considers her his mother, defies her advances. Luna gets enraged, tears her clothes, and tells the King that Puran has attempted to rape her. The King orders that Puran be killed and thrown into a well. The order is carried out.
Gorakh Nath, the guru of Jogis, was passing by, when he hears the faint cries coming from a well. They save the young man, give him his complete form, and Puran becomes a part of their Order.
Once Puran goes to a city for alms. The queen Sundran falls in love with him. She comes to Guru Gorakh Nath and feeds all the Jogis with great love and affection. Gorakh Nath asks her to ask for any boon. She asks for Puran. Gorakh Nath grants her Puran. In the royal palace, Puran feels suffocated. Prof. Puran Singh, a great Punjabi poet, in his long poetic drama, ‘Puran Nath Jogi’, describes how Puran convinces Sundran to leave him:
Puran says to Sundra:
You start loving birds which are flying in the skies,
And then you try to love them by putting them into traps,
Tell me Sundran what type of love is it?
Sundran offers to do what he likes. She sets him free.
After sometime, Puran comes to Sialkot, his own city, which is suffering from a draught.
As soon as Puran arrives, the draught is gone and there is greenery in the province. Icchran, his own mother, comes to meet him. Her breast bursts with milk. She regains her eyesight. King Salwan and his wife Luna also come to get the boon of a son. Puran gives her a rice which meant she will have kids. Puran tells the king that he already had a son. Luna then accepts her crime. Puran tells the King he is his son whom he had got killed.
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The King asks Puran to stay with him and rule the kingdom. But Puran says he is a renunciate. He leaves them, after blessing them with a son.
There are some obvious parallels in these two stories which emanate from two different lands, and represent entirely different ethos.
In both the cases, the oracles give nearly the same prophecy about the new born babies. Both Oedipus and Puran are sent to be killed. But both are saved by providence.
From here, the Indian and the western ethos diverge into contrasting situations.
The western world, which is prone to sex and violence, makes Oedipus kill his father, and marry his own mother. Such a sensibility is alien to Indian ethos. Puran refuses the advances of his step mother, Luna, and, is therefore, ordered to be killed by his own father whereas in the Greek classic, it is Oedipus who kills his father.
In comparison to Oedipus, Puran rises above his fate, and he emerges as a true hero, who can give a new orientation to suffering and even tragedy
Oedipus has a tragic outcome, but Puran has the outcome of an Indian classic, which is imbued with internal beauty of character. Puran’s character impresses, whereas Oedipus suffers as a man. It is only undeserved suffering that makes him great, and this suffering is inflicted by fate.
But Indian hero is a man of high character. He gives a new turn to tragedy. Indian spiritualism is capable of running over individual tragedies and remake them into great stories of perseverance and fortitude.
After Queen Luna plays foul, there is draught in the state. Such a draught is also found in Oedipus’s kingdom. Sexual foul play is not in the intrinsic blood stream of oriental philosophy. So, Puran restrains from any relationship with Luna.
Undeserved suffering in western concept is cathartic, and we feel for the hero because he has been incriminated by an evil intentioned fate. In Indian context, the hero stands up to temptations, twice in his life, and shows, tragedy is meant for the people who do not carry higher convictions. Oedipus is great because of his suffering, though Sophocles does not make it clear why fate was after him which finally traps him. I have serious issues with the idea of fate also. In my opinion, fate is intrinsic to man. It is not anything superimposed by any gods. Men get what they deserve. And this deserving is based on their own ‘karma’. It is possible in his earlier incarnations, Oedipus might have done some evil, for which, he had to suffer the tragic destiny. But these things remain a mystery. And we have to simply accept that Oedipus was hounded by an evil fate although the story of his suffering remains inconclusive and unconvincing. In comparison to Oedipus, Puran rises above his fate, and he emerges as a true hero, who can give a new orientation to suffering and even tragedy.
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REFERENCES
*Prof. Puran Singh’s long poem: Puran Nath Jogi
*Shiv Batalvi, Loona, pub by Lok Sahit Prakashan.
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Dr. Jernail Singh Anand, President of the International Academy of Ethics, is author of 170 books in English poetry, fiction, non-fiction, philosophy and spirituality. He was recently awarded Seneca Award by the Academy of Philosophical Arts and Sciences Bari. [Italy -19/10/2024]. He also won Charter of Morava, the great Award by Serbian Writers Association, Belgrade and his name was engraved on the Poets’ Rock in Serbia. He was awarded Doctor of Philosophy [Honoris Causa] by the University of Engg and Management, Jaipur. Recently, he organized an International Conference on Culture, Values and Ethics at Pune. His most phenomenal books are Lustus: The Prince of Darkness [first epic of the Mahkaal Trilogy]. And Philosophia de Anand, a work of philosophy which has under one roof, ten of his philosophical works. [Email: anandjs55@yahoo.com
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