Abstract
Bhīṣma is one of the most important narrators in the Mahābhārata, and is generally deemed a reliable one, especially in Śāntiparvan and Anuśāsanaparvan, where he is endowed with a boon of divine vision by Kṛṣṇa (12.52.14-21). On other occasions, he relies on his numerous sources, including ṛṣis and spies (e.g. 5.189.18; 5.193.58), and on his own memory.
The proposed paper will examine the linguistic and narratological means by which Bhīṣma's reliability is established in Śāntiparvan and Anuśāsanaparvan, in opposition to his two previous upākhyānas in Udyogaparvan (Ambopākhyāna) and Bhīṣmaparvan (Viśvopākhyāna). The paper will mainly focus on the special position of Ambopākhyāna (5.170-193), where Bhīṣma narrates partly the events he witnessed himself, partly portions previously narrated to him by more or less reliable sources, and partly incidents with no named sources at all.
While most of the narrators in the Mahābhārata are detached from the events narrated and use the third person, Bhīṣma as the narrator of Ambopākhyāna never fails to draw the reader's (or listeners, i.e. Duryodhana's) attention to the fact that the narrator and the protagonist of the story is himself, especially by constantly using the first person and relating other characters and their thoughts to him.
The paper will also show that the reliability of Bhīṣma as a narrator varies in accordance with the change of genre not only between the parvans and upākhyānas, but also in the course of Ambopākhyāna itself, and that the closer the text comes to the point where Śikhaṇḍinī changes her gender with the yakṣa Sthūnakarṇa, the more mythological and even fairytale-like the narrative becomes, and the less Bhīṣma's reliability as the narrator is established.