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| To the 275th anniversary of the edition of the Mongolian version of the "Geser" epic. A booklet. |
The Mongolian story, legend or tale of Geser is a literary creation, it is not a work of oral peoples’ activity, as it was with the Buryat epic of Geser. Having the written sources it would seem easy to ascertain the time of creation of the tale of Geser for each literary work exists in its own epoch and history. Most probably the Mongolian tale of Geser was once published by an anonymous author as there is no reference to the name of the author in all the variants of the Mongolian version of “Geser”. Mentioned most rarely are the publishers’ names.
Reflected in the Mongolian narrative or tale of Geser are the features of the historical epoch of the period of the internecine wars in the XVII-XVIII centuries. This is one of the most hard periods in the history of Mongols. This is the time of the feudal break up, the frequent civil discord and dissension. This is the time of the rise and elevation of the Manchurian feudal lords, their expansion in Mongolia. The political events taking place in Mongolia disrupted the economy and ties among the tribes, some part of the population was compelled to move to the territory of the present Buryatia, particularly to western Buryatia where formed were the independent khongodor and other kins of the mongol-oirat origin.
They settled in Circum-Angaria, many of them preserving their age-old toponymical and kinship names. Those were the tribes that brought the story of Geser which preserved the ancient original that was not subject to the Buddhist influence.
The story of Geser written in the old Mongolian script followed its own road of development. In the Mongolian variants of Geser written in the old-Mongolian, the so-called vertical script, the traditional formula are preserved as the features of the style inherent in the heroic epic even in the conditions of the written literary editing. We regard the Mongolian “Geser” as a well-developed art of narration with the well-established techniques of an epical style and as the result of the collective activity. The Mongolian “Geser” gives us a dramatic example of the many-centuried example of the many-centuried development of an oral epic.
In 1939 academician Ya. I. Schmidt was the first to publish the Mongolian version of “Geser” in German. Ya. I. Schmidt took it as a literary monument of the Mongolian people but he connected its origin with Tibet. The reason for making such a conclusion were some toponymical names in this monument.
In the second half of the XIX century the study of the Geseriade was carried out with the aim of establishing its character as a people’s monument. The opinions of the researchers concerning it’s the origin of the Mongolian Geseriade differed owing to the limited number of the sources: some researchers took it to be of the Mongolian origin whereas the others took it to be of Tibetan descent. It was on the basis of Schmidt’s translation of “Geser” to German that V. Schott completed his study. He gave the contents of the work and made a commentary to it, he then made a brief comparison of “Geser” with the Finnish “Kaltextevala”. V. Schott objects against the opinion of the Tibetan origin of the “Geser” story.
Much attention was given to the Mongolian written tale of Geser by G. N. Potanin. He wrote down the poems of Geser in Russian with the help of translators therefore they are in essence the retellings that are of no artistic value. Many scholars gave their opinion of G.N. Potanin’s research techniques therefore there is no necessity of dwelling on them in detail here.
Academician B. Ya. Vladimirtsov thinks the Mongolian tale of Geser to be the translation from Tibetan. In 1936 S. A. Kozin published the Russian translation of the first seven chapters of the Peking edition of the Mongolian version of “Geser”.
In 1979 in the city of Khukhe Khoto the scholar Van Ei Noven in the work entitled “The description of Geser-khan’s life” made a comparative study of the peculiarities of the Mongolian, Tibetan and Buryat versions of the Geseriade. The Mongolian scholar Dambizhalsan published the two works: “The interrelations of the Mongolian and Tibetan “Geser” and “The peculiarities of the Mongolian “Geser”.
One should pay special attention to the work published by an expert in the Mongolian studies Ulzy entitled “The Mongolian-Tibetan ties” in which completed is the comparative analysis of the Mongolian and Tibetan versions attracting at the same time the Buryat version of “Geser” by Manshud Imegenov. The author analyses in detail the versions and comes to the coclusion that the Mongolian “Geser” was borrowed from the Tibetan one. There are the following versions of the Mongolian “Geser”: Nomchi Khatun’s, Zhamtsarano’s, Zaya’s tales or stories.
An expert in Mongolian studies Zhigultu published “Geser” in one volume consisting of 12 chapters; Zou Chimitdorji published “Geser khan-u tuguji” in 2 volumes, 16 chapters; Dominik Schroder published the Mongolian version of the tale of Geser in a German journal. The Mongolian versions of “Geser” in comparison with the Tibetan versions are of a peculiar artistic composition, abundant in the various pictorial means; they differ from the Tibetan version not only by their plot peculiarities but by ideological characteristics too.
The Mongolian versions contain an impressive and abundant material for the psychological characteristics of the heros although there are some ideological novelties in terms of religious additions introduced in the narration in the process of their written formatting in the monasteries. The main idea in the Mongolian versions finds its expression in the traditional epical themes glorifying the hero as the defender of the foundations of the kin.
In the opinion of some of the researchers the most ancient Mongolian version was formed on the basis of an oral Tibetan (Amdo) version of the “Geser” story over five hundred years ago, in other words, at the time according to R.-A. Stein when in north-east Tibet completed was the final crystallization of the epopee. Its plot if we take into account the Mongolian book version looks as follows:
When in the state of Ling where there was no king there came the time of trouble to restore the harmonious order the celestial lord (mong. Khormusta – Indra of the north-Buddhist pantheon) sends to the earth his middle (or the youngest) son. He gets reborn on the Earth as an ugly snotty child with the name of Djuru or Djoru (Buryat: Zura, Zurkhyi; Tibetan: Djoru, Choru) in a family of one of the Lin princes who was on exile. His uncle on the father’s part Tsoton (Choton; Buryat: Soton, Zutan; Tibetan: Krotun, Thotun) pursues him.
When a child the boy displays magic abilities, defeats the various demons, wins in the contest for marrying the beauty Rogmo-goa (Buryat: Urmai-gokhon; Tibetan: Brugmo, Drugmo) and the Lin throne. Then he gets from the sky his magic horse, retains his true look and the name of Geser. Besides in the Mongolian versions he is permanently called as the Master of the ten cardinal directions or the ten countries” (i.e. of the Universe).
Among Geser’s heroic deeds in his childhood one could mention his travel to China where with the help of the magic things acquired on the sky he gets the Chinese princess as wife, the daughter of the Chinese emperor Gume-khan.
The first Geser’s deed is as it is often shown the destruction of the demon of the North, the twelve-headed giant- ogre-mangus in the Mongolian tradition. The monster’s wife helps the hero; in some other versions including the Mongolian ones she appears to be Geser’s wife who was formerly abducted by the demon. After the victory the woman gives the hero the “oblivion potion” , as a result he stays in the North.
Meanwhile Tsoton woos Rogmo-goa in vain. Due to his betrayal the hordes of the northern tribe of the sharaigols (Tib.: khors) who attacked Ling kill Geser’s troops and take his wife as prisoner. Having freed himself of the obsession with the help of the skies Geser makes haste for his motherland.
In the look of a scabby boy Geser penetrates in the enemies’ camp, does away in a magic way with the sharaigol king and having submitted his state comes back to Ling. In the concluding chapters it is said of Geser’s punishing Rogmo-goa when she was captured by the sharaigol khans and of his saving his mother from the hell as well as of the returning of the hero to the sky after the completion of his earthly mission.
In the Mongolian tradition Geser as an epical hero getting the earth free of the monsters, the son of the deity, the envoy of the sky, the one who restores the harmonious order in the world, opposes the chaos, the demonic and chthonic forces and this mythological line is preserved no matter whatever plot and genre context he should find himself in.
The demonological pathos penetrates through the whole work but in some episodes the theme of purification of the earth from monsters is treated as the struggle with the demonic rulers of the real and mythical states. In the “additional” chapters it acquires a new essence: the destruction of the enemies of the Buddhist religion on the will of the celestial deities.
Besides Geser himself turns out to be the ruler of an ideal Buddhist state, almost a worldwide monarch, the only Buddha Sakyamuni’s son. But the initial meaning (the hero – the son of the celestial deity, protecting the world from the monsters and establishing a harmonious world order) remains the same.
The central subject part of the Mongolian version in general corresponds to the Tibetan Geseriade. This correspondence covers however and not fully at that only five out of twelve chapters of the Mongolian book versions. Besides included in the epos were the Mongolian folklore images, motives and whole narrations not at connected with the Tibetan prototypes as well as the local versions of some “migratory subject” or “migrant theme” that upon the whole make up two thirds of the whole work.
This is the history of marrying an amazon and witch Adju-mergen (Achu-mergen, Alu mergen; Buryat. Alma-mergen ): meeting her when hunting, single combat and marriage. This is the story of the struggle with a monstrous black and motley tiger, that most likely goes back to the description of one the hero’s deeds when he was still a child, that is the killing of a gigantic dog sent to him by demon of the North.
This story borrowed from the Chinese or Tibetan short-stories telling of a witch’s attempt to turn the hero into an ass (in some Buryat variants into a horse) that gets unrolled in the narration of a demon of Tibet who took the form of a saint lama and chanted or bewitched Geser, with the most important part in the subsequent tales being given to Adju-Mergen.
This is the history of the victory over the demonic sovereign Andulma (Buryat.: Gal Dulme, Gal Nurman) and the episode of the raising from the dead of the bogatyrs that were killed during the sharaigol war. By the beginning of the XVII century the whole of this story had already existed in a manuscript form.
Of the Mongolian origin are also the later and more spacious manuscript chapters of the campaigns against the various demonic sovereigns (Nacin-khan, Gumbu-khan, the khan of the demons-rakshases) supplementing the “main” narrative , to say nothing of the numerous minor episodes and motives.
In Mongolia, Tibet and Buryat-Mongolia there are a lot of versions of “Geser”. The majority of them are known in the scientific circles only by their names. Ts. Damdinsuren made an attempt at compiling a general review of the most typical versions existing in the Mongolian, Buryat-Mongolian and Tibetan languages. Included in the characteristics are the brief accounts of the manuscripts or editions, the social motive of the versions as well as the historical and geographical data. Besides, given is a brief content of the versions so far unknown in the scientific circles.
