Formulaic Epithets

Like many other oral performers, Ramayanis make use of epithets and stock phrases that they have memorized or create spontaneously by analogy to similar memorized phrases. Such formulaic phrases appear to be useful to the extemporaneous orator, since they allow him time to think ahead and develop his next sequence of ideas; for this reason, they are sometimes characterized as "stall formulas."^[41] In understanding

their value to the traditional performer, however, we should not overlook the appeal that such phrases hold for his listeners. The katha -goer derives an evident satisfaction from the baroque accumulation of grandiose titles and the ease with which they are reeled off by the performer. The fixity of such expressions and the fact that they may have been heard hundreds of times before do not detract from their appeal. The use of stock epithets is a feature that the Katha tradition shares with the epic tradition on which it is grounded (which the epics, in turn, presumably borrowed from an earlier bardic performance tradition).^[42] The formal expectations of Katha audiences and their deep sensitivity to the epic tradition allow them to savor the appropriateness of formulaic epithets rather than to view them as tired clichés.

When Ramnarayan Shukla quotes from his teacher, Vijayanand Tripathi, he does not simply identify him by name but uses an elaborate formula including the guru's title (padvi ) and several other honorific terms: "Revered divine teacher, 'royal swan of the Manas Lake,' his eminence Pandit Vijayanand-ji Tripathi-ji always used to say. . . ." The same performer's frequent epithet for the author of the Manas is similarly elaborate: "Crown jewel of devotees, ornament of the lineage of poets, his eminence Goswami Tulsidas-ji." Equally glorious titles can be generated for all the major characters in the epic; even though the most elaborate ones may not be used constantly, they are always available to the performer to embellish his discourse while providing him with a few seconds in which to frame his next thought.