The epic hero’s journey to the Buddhist hell

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the embedded narrative about the epic hero’s visit to Buddhist hell in the structure of an archaic epic text. The purpose of the study is to show the influence of Buddhism on the content of the epic text, as well as to identify elements of ancient beliefs in the structure of the epic tale. The material of the study was the epic text “The Best of Men, Three-Year-Old Mekele”, recorded in 1879 in Western Mongolia. To achieve this goal, an interdisciplinary approach was used including the methods of religious studies, epic studies and textual analysis. The structure of the epic text includes a plot about the hero’s visit to Buddhist hell for the sake of freeing all living beings from the torments of hell. The reason for the epic hero’s departure to the other world is the absence of a son – an heir and continuer of the family. The hero descends into the world of the dead, receives instructions from the Lord of Hell himself, and empties all the departments of hell. The space of the archaic epic text organically combines layers of ancient beliefs and Buddhism from different periods. The presence of such elements in the text of the epic tale indicates different stages of development of ancient epic texts, the degree of transformation of the archaic core of the epic, conditioned by the laws of the cultural uniqueness of the ethnic group. The motif of the hero of the epic seeing the Buddhist hell is a late inclusion of the Buddhist plot in the structure of the archaic epic.