QUERY: BHIMA

[Max.Nihom at oeaw.ac.at]

>Hello to everybody
>
>it seems that in the javanese Mahabharata, there is a story about Bhima 
>searching for his own self; during the search, he goes to the ground of 
>the ocean, where he finds himself - only in a reduced (smaller) form of his 
>"normal" self.
>
>Does anybody know, whether this story also occurs in the Sanskrit (or any 
>other Indian) Mahabharata - and if so -- where?
>
>Thanks.  ULRIKE
>
>

I may be in error, but this story is not, I think, in the Javanese 
Mahabharata, but is the frame story of the Navaruci (ed. and tranl. by 
Prijohoetomo, Nawaruci: Inleiding, Middel-Javaansche prozatekst, vertaling, 
Groningen, 1934). [see also, Jan Gonda, "Some Notes on the Relation between 
Syntactic and Metrical Units in a Javanese Kidung, BKI 114 (1958), 
pp.98-116]. A metrical version is Poerbatjaraka, Dewa-Ruci, in Djawa 20 
(1940), pp.5-55.

The language of both of these versions is hardly Old, but rather Middle 
Javanese, something which itself would militate against the story  being of 
Indian origin. 


Max Nihom
Vienna