Śūrpāraka et dakṣiṇa-Śūrpākara : A propos de l’exploit géographique de Paraśurāma, du Konkan au Kérala

Vielle, Christophe [UCL]

(eng) The creation of a new piece of land for Rāma Jāmadagnya on the Western coast of India, in the Śūrpāraka area, was first told in the MBh (12,49.56-59, cf. 3,83.4, 86.9 and 118.8-10 and Bk 7, App. I no. 8 ll. 864-865). In that case, the coastal land concerned was clearly the Konkan region, as it is confirmed by the allusions in the Raghuvaṃśa (canto 4, critical edition with Vallabhadeva’s commentary, contra the order of the stanzas in the vulgate edition). However, from the eleventh century onwards textual testimonies are found which declare that the whole Western coast of India is the land of Paraśurāma (Prapañcahṛdaya), whereas the Syānandūra Purāṇa Samuccaya, a sthala-purāṇa of the shrine of Tiruvanantapuram composed in 1167-68 AD, describes one tīrtha where Bhārgava Rāma would have done penance, and which is located just beside (another) Śūrpākara-tīrtha. Around 1300 AD, the Jaiminīyasaṃhitā of the Brahmāṇḍapurāṇa, probably composed at the court of the Kerala king Ravivarman Kulaśekhara (±1266-67-1317 AD), is in fact the first work to tell in length the exploit of Paraśurāma, with the raising of the land from the South, near (dakṣiṇa) Śūrpākara, up to Gokarṇa. And following it, one can find in the 14th century the first kāvya allusions related to this epic rendering (Śukasaṃdeśa of Lakṣmīdāsa); all the other Sanskrit or vernacular (Malayāḷam) references to the story of the raising of Kerala by Paraśurāma are later, being often directly inspired by the Brahmāṇḍapurāṇa version (e.g. Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭatiri’s Nārāyaṇīya 36,11). It can be also suspected that the noteworthy slight change in the order of the stanzas appearing at the same time in the Southern recension of the Raghuvaṃśa, canto 4, was intentionally made for allowing Kālidāsa’s allusion to fit perfectly well with the newly consecrated Kerala version. The critical analysis of all these sources in a historical perspective allows to observe the progressive purāṇic regionalization of the itihāsa tradition.