Very beautiful and poetic legend Ural Batyr"

17.04.2019

Ural-batyr
Bashkir fairy tale short summary

The plot of the epic Ural Batyr
The plot basis of this epic is a description of the heroic struggle of the Ural Batyr for the well-being of other people. The main character's opponents are invaders from other lands, who are helped by evil otherworldly forces. The characters in the story are ordinary inhabitants of the earth who defend their right to happiness.
The plot includes mythical creatures– heavenly king Samrau and the spirits of nature. Each part of the epic describes the life of one of the three heroes, who are the children and grandchildren of the old man Yanbirde. The first part of the epic tells about the old man himself and his wife Yanbika.
By the evil will of fate, they are forced to live in deserted areas. Elderly married couple hunts wild animals, as this is the only way to get food for himself. In a woman’s declining years, the heavenly king gives her two sons, Ural and Shulgen.
Old man Yanbirde told his children about the existence evil force Ulema, which destroys all life on earth. At the time of the conversation, a swan swam up to the people and said that there was an immortal spring of life on the planet, Yanshishma. The guys, impressed by the stories of their father and the swan, decide to find a life-giving spring, and thereby destroy Ulem.
However, during their journey, Shulgen goes over to the side of evil and in every possible way prevents his brother, Ural batyr, carry out his mission. Evil mythical creatures come to the aid of Shulgen and attack the Ural Batyr, but the courageous young man manages to defeat them.
According to Bashkir legends, from the bodies of killed enemies, the Ural Batyr created mountains (Ural Mountains). At the end of the second part, the Ural batyr dies, but leaves behind worthy heirs of his children, who, like their father, become as courageous and brave.
The third part of the epic is the legend of the settlement Bashkir people Ural land. The children of the Ural Batyr were able to continue their father’s work and found a source of prosperity, which allowed them to live happily on fertile lands at the foot of the mountains erected by their parent.
Sorry, it was a bit long...

The epic "Ural Batyr" occupies the most important place in Bashkir folklore heritage and mythology. Despite large number Bashkir folk works, this particular epic is of great interest. Perhaps people are attracted by the sacredness of the ancient work, the plot that is atypical for Bashkir folklore, and the problems that are raised in it. In this work I would like to reveal the mythological content of the epic.

Myth is a fantastic description of reality, often claiming to explain the entire universe and form a mythological picture of the world. So, in the mythical “Ural-Batyr”, the conventional starting point - the beginning of the universe is described as follows: “In ancient times, a long time ago” after the global flood, “one place was formed, / Sea water surrounded / This place on four sides. / From time immemorial / A family couple lived there: An old man named Yanbirde / With Yanbiko, his old woman.” This is how the beginning of life is shown. Yanbirde (from Bashk. “given life”) and Yanbika “did not know what diseases were, Death was unknown to them,” “They tamed and kept / Arslan the Lion to carry them around.” The plot of the epic “Ural Batyr” about the first man and woman is a classic example of the myth of the global flood, when all the people died and only two were saved.

Myth is a product of primitive thinking, when man did not separate himself from nature. Echoes of primitive thinking are manifested in the fact that the first people of the epic ate only the heart and head of certain animals, drank their blood (believing that their strength would pass to them), and treated animals as equals.

Yanbirde and Yanbik had two sons: the eldest - Shulgen, the youngest - Ural. In the story, two brothers go in search of Death in order to wipe it off the face of the earth. They intend to look for the Living Spring (Yanshishma), which can “kill Death” by immortalizing a person. The brothers' paths diverge: Shulgen, according to the epic, goes “to the left,” to a country where “there is no misfortune,” and the Urals goes “to the right, where there is crying and grief.” On this path, the Ural overcomes many obstacles, defeats the bull of King Katil, destroys the snake kingdom of Kahkahi, frees the daughters of Samrau, and fights dragons. Soon Ural Batyr finds the Living Spring, he sprinkles water on the surrounding nature, after which peace triumphs on earth, and the hero himself dies.

Space in myth is clearly organized. The upper world – Space – is a model of the ideal organization of society. It is headed by Samrau, he has 2 wives: Koyash and Ai (Moon); their daughters are Khomai (Daughter of the Sun) and Aikhylyu (Moon Beauty). Their husbands would be Ural and Shulgen, and from these marriages their children, the Bashkirs, came. The latter (i.e. people) live in the middle world. And in the lower world there live all sorts of monsters.

The surrounding world, external to man, is conceptualized in myth. In the epic we find common archetypal motifs: heaven - the underworld, earth - the underworld, seven dragons in the sky - Big Dipper; A living spring is a symbol of eternal life; Homai's choice of groom for himself (test); divine marriage of Ural and Homai; talking and conscious animals - personification human qualities(bull, lion, dog, etc.); deer hunting is an allegory denoting sexual intercourse; World Flood; ocean - chaos; numbers as archetypes of order (seven is the number of planetary gods); blood in shells as symbols of bad spirit, hot-tempered anger and sensual addictions; marriage of the Urals, when childhood irresponsibility when entering society goes away. Fundamental antinomies are also identified: Death–life, happiness–misfortune. All this links together the world of consciousness and the world of the unconscious. Primitive thought, which gives rise to myth, is inseparable from the emotional (motor) sphere. This is where the anthropomorphization of nature, animism, comes from.

“Ural Batyr” is a heroic epic, similar to a fairy tale, telling about the life and exploits of a hero, his formation. The motifs of the epic are similar to works of world mythology: the fight of Mithra against the terrible bull in Indo-Iranian mythology; the god Thor fights monsters generated by the evil Loki, in particular the cosmic serpent Jormungandr. There is no historicization in the myth about the Urals, no political specifics. Ural is a god-like creature, has kinship with the gods of both the upper and lower worlds. Just like Hercules - he is a cultural hero who destroys monsters left over from the chaos of primary times. As in any heroic epic, it shows the process of formation of a hero: “The sons grew up day after day, / They grew stronger both in body and in mind” is a typical motif heroic epic. Their parents “Drinking blood, eating the head or heart / Strictly forbade them.” But Shulgen, the elder brother, drank the blood and disobeyed his father. It is after this that Shulgen appears before us as a negative hero-antagonist in relation to the Urals - a bright and kind hero. Ural did not drink blood, did not disobey his father. In Shulgen’s act we see not only a violation of the father’s prohibition, but also something more - a violation of the generic prohibition (taboo) as a norm social community, in Bashkir “yola”. Violation of the tabu-yol contradicts the ideas of the community and, according to the people, contradicts a normal stable existence.

The theme of custom - Nomos - a long-established order established by nature, regulating life and determining the fate of a person, has a special meaning in the mythological consciousness of the people. Nomos is a sacred law, the violation of which will lead to misfortune and death. Drinking blood and eating the head and heart by parents was explained by the fact that “From ancient times, that custom came down / And remained with them forever.” Violation of taboos contradicts Nomos and becomes the beginning of the spread of Chaos - a destructive force. And the refuge of Shulgen, who violated the taboo, will be the world of Chaos - the world of monsters, divas and all evil spirits - the lower world. If Shulgen is a violator of the natural order, then the Urals, the defender of Nomos, appears as a bright hero, followed by the people. It is by fighting monsters, divas - with the forces of Chaos, that he comes to understand the essence of existence and the universe. He literally takes over Chaos. Fearing the Urals, monsters and divas are hiding in the lake, the hero drinks the water, but he is not able to “digest” or destroy them, and evil breaks through him from the inside and comes out to freedom. Last words Ural warns people against the embodiment of evil - evil spirits, says that only “Good” can resist evil - Chaos.

The epic shows man's desire to touch the mystery of the universe, to know the world and himself. Myth expresses the core of the universe, the unknowability of the world. In the Bashkir epic we see that the basis of being (the universe) is Good.

The older brother’s argument in favor of tasting blood is interesting: “That Death is not stronger than people... / Your father repeated to you ... / We ourselves are Death for any creature.” As we see, Schulgen’s guide to action becomes the principle known to antiquity, the author of which is Protagoras: “man is the measure of all things.” Shulgen appears in the epic as a doubting individual, in that he can question the generally known truth. And according to the concept of the epic and mythological (traditional) thinking, this is evil. We can say that this shows some similarities between the heroes Shulgen and Prometheus from Aeschylus’ tragedy “Prometheus Bound”. Both heroes violate the tribal prohibition: one of them drinks blood, the other takes meat from a sacrificial bull. And both are punished by Father Yanbirde and Zeus Almighty. They are presented as rebels; it is not for nothing that in the works of many writers the image of Prometheus becomes a symbol of freedom and independence. Aeschylus, as a representative of the period of collapse of the communal-tribal system in a highly interpreted ancient myth, shows of this hero How new identity an era with individual aspirations, openly opposing the will of earthly man to the heavenly will of the gods. And for the conservative-minded Hesiod, Prometheus wears negative character and portrayed in a negative sense.

The description of the model of the world in the epic “Ural Batyr” occurs as a story about the origin of various things, and the events of the past become “necessary elements of this description, the “bricks” of the mythological structure.” As Meletinsky E.M. notes. The cosmization of chaos, the ordering of earthly life is the main focus of myths in general. This can also be seen in “Ural Batyr” (the creation of the world, the fight against chaos).

Following Nomos does not negate the conscious perception of the world. The ancient epic, showing that human life is inextricably linked with nature and natural cycles, reflected only the beginnings of consciousness in people, which manifests itself in the fact that a person begins to seek and understand freedom, believes in own strength. Now he stops blindly trusting the interventions of otherworldly forces and natural elements, i.e. there is a tendency to perceive oneself separately from nature. But in the society that is described in the epic - a tribal and traditional society, such behavior of its members is unacceptable, such individuals are forced to leave the community of people and live as outcasts, their life is shown as unhappy in the epic (the life of Shulgen). Understanding one’s own individuality, moving away from blindly following instincts and reflexes, self-restraint - thus indirectly showing the beginning of the formation of consciousness in a person in the epic.

“Let your name be man,” exclaims the main character. Instead of drinking the Living Water himself, bringing benefit to himself, the Urals irrigate the world around us, nature, giving it eternal life. Wanting to initially kill “Death”, wanting to live forever, i.e. indulging his own selfish desires, and then abandoning this, the Ural leaves himself, he, as Yu.M. Borodai would put it, comes to “the death of himself as an egocentric being.” He “kills” not only “himself,” but also that mythical “Death” that is spoken of in the epic. And this path in the epic, chosen by the Urals, is the right one, this is the path of “Good” to which a person should strive. Let us remember the old man who, in pursuit of his own selfish desires, once drank the Water of Living: now he is “doomed to an eternal and painful life.” He did not find happiness, he could not defeat “Death”, because without giving up himself, he did not choose the path of “Good”. After all, physical immortality is not a good thing, but the source of immortality is “Good”: “Let GOOD become only in your name, / Do not give way to Evil forever!” According to the epic, a mortal man, without violating Nomos, must strive to do Good, which will immortalize him. Death, which was presented as a certain being, is only a natural process of renewal of the world.

A person who does not understand this, whose motor skills and behavior are controlled not by consciousness, but by instinct, “Death” awaits. Overcoming nature (as overcoming a certain dead end of humanity), self-restraint - the acquisition of consciousness by a person, awareness of behavior, a new super-biological quality of a person, the manifestation of which is the refusal to kill and rivalry. Ural had the opportunity to kill Shulgen for his crimes, but he was merciful and did not do this. Refusal to kill, as a manifestation of the rudiments of consciousness, also began to be identified with renunciation of sexual relations within the community ( negative consequences These actions were reflected in the fact that Zarkum almost died when he tried to swallow a deer - a hidden manifestation of sexual instinct). The core of these actions is taboo. The above-described human transformation is one of the components of the content of the epic as a myth.

We, in the words of A.F. Losev, we can conclude about the “middle position of the epic”, that the Bashkir folk epic lies between primitive savagery and civilization. Main character The Urals symbolizes all clan (tribal - collective) forces, it is a kind of ideal of the people, a symbol of freedom. This work is a reflection of the worldview of the people. The epic describes the life of one or another human collective, which subordinates absolutely every personal life with its laws; the individual realizes himself only within the framework of this collective. Therefore, the loss of a hero - the death of Ural Batyr - is a loss of public good, death against the backdrop of the struggle of the cosmos with chaos. But his death (and resurrection) is necessary for rebirth and the infinity of life.

References:

Borodai Yu.M. Erotica. Death. Taboo. Tragedy human consciousness. M.: Gnosis, Russian Phenomenological Society, 1996. – 416 p.
Gallyamov S.A. Bashkordian philosophy. Volume 3. – Ufa: Kitap, 2005. – 344 p.
Losev A.F. Homer (Ser. Life wonderful people). – M.: Young Guard, 2006. – 400 p.
Meletinsky E.M. From myth to literature. – M.: RSUH, 2001. – 168 p.
Meletinsky. E.M. Poetics of Myth. – M.: Nauka, 2000. – 407 p.
Ural batyr. Bashkir folk epic. Ufa: Bashkir Book Publishing House, 1977. – 518 p.

Yanbirde - “Giver of the Soul” the first man and his wife Yanbike (“Soul”) lived alone in the land eternal summer, were engaged in hunting lions, their faithful companion was a falcon. Fate gave them two sons - the younger Ural and the elder Shulgen. Since childhood, Shulgen was prone to violating his father's prohibitions and disobedience.

Once the old man told the boys about Death - Ulem, which kills all living things and brings suffering. Caught in their snare while hunting White Swan- daughter of Samrau and the Sun. She told them about the Living Spring - Yanshishma. Yanbird gave lions to his grown-up sons and ordered them to go to the Living Spring, the water from which gives immortality. Ural immediately decided to defeat Death and cut off its head, thereby saving people from grief.

On the way they parted: Shulgen went to the region of Samrau, and the Urals had to go to the country of Padishah Katil, who annually sacrifices his people to their ancestors. The Urals decided to defeat death in this region and fought with the king’s bull. The bull's hooves cracked, its horns bent, its fang fell out of its mouth, and from then on its clan obeyed man. Katil fled in fear, and Ural married his daughter, a beauty with sparkling eyes.

On his journey, Shulgen met Zarkum, the son of the serpentine padishah. Zarkum easily gained his trust and was able to instill enmity towards his own brother in his heart. On the side of the elder brother, various mythical creatures fight with the Urals, but they were all defeated by the mighty hero. From the bodies of the creatures defeated by the Ural Batyr, the Ural Mountains arose.

In the second part, Ural Batyr dies, but leaves behind equally strong and honest descendants. It was they who found the Spring and settled the lands of the Urals near the mountains themselves. Idel's son split the mountain in two with his father's sword, and a spring ran out of it. This is how the Idel River was formed. Later, the sons Yaik, Nugush and Khakmar created three more rivers with their swords, each of which still bears their names.

The Bashkir epic “Ural Batyr” is rightfully considered a treasure folk art, containing information about the beliefs of ancient people.

Picture or drawing of Ural Batyr

Other retellings for the reader's diary

Summary of Bunin Kostsy
The narration is told from the point of view of the narrator, who is traveling along one of the major Russian roads. Moving between birch forests and wide steppes, he listens with pleasure to the songs of people with braids coming from afar
Summary of Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451
The most famous work Ray Bradbury's (1920 - 2012) Fahrenheit 451 is a movement listed as pessimistic future ideas under the "dystopian" subcategory.
Summary This Side of Paradise Fitzgerald
Thanks to this novel, Fitzgerald begins great career and gets famous. Here begins the exploration of his main theme - the relationship between rich and poor and the impact of money on human destiny.
Summary of Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream
Comedy "Dream in summer night"was written by W. Shakespeare in 1590. The play consists of five acts. He wrote this work in honor of the wedding of a famous aristocrat.
Summary The night after Tendryakov's release

These steppe expanses and forests framing the steep slopes of the Ural Mountains have recently changed their ancient appearance. Oil rigs steel business card republics where more than 15 million tons of oil are currently produced per year. Oil is a symbol of Bashkir treasure. At modern ways production, oil no longer allows it to gush out of the ground so openly. But once upon a time, “black gold” itself came to the surface and in ancient Bashkir legends oil was called “the oil of the earth.”

Many thousands of years ago, this “oil of the earth” was formed from the spilled magical blood of a hero whose name was Ural-batyr. But he gave his people more than just the opportunity to enjoy oil wealth. Thanks to the Urals, a whole beautiful world with all its mountains, meadows, rivers and underground treasures. But the main legacy of the epic hero is the rules of life for descendants, the secret of happiness for all people. What made Ural Batyr famous, that even the mountains bear his name? And what do we know now about this national hero?

In 1910, teacher and collector folk tales Mukhametsha Burangulov went on an expedition to the Itkul volost of the Orenburg province. Today this is the Baymaksky district of Bashkortostan. His attention was attracted by the ancient tales of the Sesen poets, filled with the spirit of the mystical past and revealing the secrets of the creation of the world.

The Bashkirs have always had great respect for the sesen. These poets not only composed, but also memorized, performed, and passed on ancient tales from generation to generation. And the saesengs accompanied their performances with the abrupt sounds of ancient musical instrument dumbaras. In addition, it was believed that ancient tunes also had a healing effect on listeners, which, of course, only added to the general respect of the saesengs.

The tales of the sesen impressed Burangulov so much that he thanked the poets by giving them his horse. He had to walk home, but what did that mean compared to the newfound treasure? It was not only about unique ethnographic material, but also about mysterious information, which took Burangulov more than 10 years to process. At the beginning of the 20s, a written version of the epic about the batyr first appeared, i.e. about the hero Ural and his glorious exploits.

In ancient, ancient times, there lived an old man and an old woman. And they had two sons. The eldest's name was Shulgen and the youngest's was Ural. When they grew up, the father saddled two lions and sent his sons to wander. He asked them to find living water, which would give immortality to man and nature, and destroy death itself. And the brothers left their father's house. Their journey was long. Along the way, dangers and temptations awaited the brothers. Shulgen could not stand all the tests, he betrayed good and went over to the side of evil. Shulgen became the main enemy of his younger brother and one of the main warriors dark forces. But the Urals remained faithful to the behests of their father.

Day and night, year after year, Ural Batyr performed his feats. He defeated the bloodthirsty king Katila, the king of the snakes Kahkahu and finally found living water. He fought with the evil divas and their leader Azraka and finally met his brother in battle. And all this so that people are happy, so that grief and death leave the earth forever.

It would seem that almost every nation has similar epics. But Ural Batyr clearly stands out from his fellow heroes. And the fact that his path is a search for absolute good and the fact that in today's Bashkiria the epic about his exploits is more than just a fairy tale.

In one of the battles, Ural killed the main evil diva Azraka. He cut off his head with a diamond sword and when the diva fell, it seemed that the whole world shook. His huge, terrible body cut the expanse of water in two. In that place a mountain rose. Big Yamantau is the very mountain that, according to legend, arose from the dead body of Azraki. This is the highest point in Southern Bashkortostan. The name Big Yamantau means Big Bad or Evil Mountain. It has always enjoyed a bad reputation among the local population. It is believed that something strange is constantly happening in her area. The horses never returned from there. Previously, many ferocious bears lived there, and even now no one dares to predict the weather on the slopes of the mountain, and they even say that by climbing Yamantau you can bring trouble upon yourself.

When the Urals fought with Shulgen, he, in order to avoid complete defeat, along with his servants, evil divas and other evil spirits, dived into the local bottomless lake. Then Ural Batyr decided to drink all the water from the lake filled with snakes and demons. Ural drank water for a long time, but even he was unable to cope with this task. Moreover, along with the water, the Urals swallowed evil divas. They tore his noble heart from the inside.

According to legend, the batyr had and living water and she could heal him and even give him immortality. But he didn’t keep a single drop for himself when he sprinkled it on nature and said that except for her, no one should live forever. So he revived the land depleted by evil, but he himself fell in the last battle with the enemies of humanity. But why didn’t legend make its hero immortal? Why did the Urals have to perish in the minds of the people?

The life and work of the Urals was continued by his descendants. The children tried to make people's lives even better. The warriors went on long journeys to look for the source of happiness. With their diamond swords they cut through the mountains and where they passed, large rivers formed.

The ancestors of the Bashkirs settled on the banks of four rivers. Later, the rivers were named after the children of Ural Batyr and his nephew: Sakmar, Yaik (Ural), Nugush, Idel (Agidel). This is how the world in which the Bashkirs still live appeared. And all this thanks to the heroic exploits of Ural Batyr.

But the epic itself and the image of the hero have posed many mysteries to researchers, around which there are heated debates. Here is just one of them: when exactly did the first stories about exploits appear? legendary hero?

One of the legends of the epic says that Shulgen, who went over to the side of evil, arranged global flood to destroy humanity. The Urals entered into battle with the evil divas subordinate to Shulgen. While he was fighting, people were fleeing the water by climbing high mountains.

And water covered the whole earth
The land disappeared under it forever
People made boats for themselves
Didn't die, didn't drown in the water
To the mountain rising from the waters
The saved people were chosen.

Isn't it a very familiar story? Of course, this is very similar to the biblical legend of Noah and his ark. And therefore, some researchers believe that the epic Ural Batyr and the Bible arose from a single source. They find parallels in the Bashkir epic with ancient Sumerian myths and claim that these myths are almost the same age. So, let's try to establish when the legends about the most glorious Ural Batyr arose.

Every resident of Ufa knows one of famous buildings made of glass and concrete. This is one of the most modern hippodromes. On weekends, serious sports passions reign here, but now we are not interested in the breeds of horses and the results of races or bets, but in the name of the racetrack. It's called Akbuzat. And this is not at all accidental.

Akbuzat is the winged horse of Ural Batyr and his faithful friend. According to legend, Akbuzat himself had to agree to leave with the batyr, and Ural had to prove his right to be a rider on a wonderful horse. When our hero got tired, his faithful horse carried him out of the battle. When the batyr gained strength, Akbuzat again rushed into battle with a whirlwind. He did not burn in fire and did not drown in water and blinded everyone with his beauty.

According to legend, all the horses that live on earth today are descendants of Akbuzat. They remember the order of the faithful horse Ural Batyr to always and at all times serve people faithfully and truly. But the life of the legendary horse itself was not easy. The evil brother of the Urals, Shulgen, managed to steal Akbuzat from the hero and hid him at the bottom of the same underground lake where he himself was hiding.

It would seem that this is completely fairy tale story. Well, what can be realistic in a story about a horse being imprisoned under water for many years? Of course, these are all legends and traditions, but...

At the end of the 50s of the last century, the Shulgen-tash cave presented scientists with a real sensation. From it appears the first version of the origin of the Ural Batyr.

Later, historian Vyacheslav Kotov, with the help modern technology explored images in the famous cave that were not visible to the naked eye. He noticed that the focus of primitive artists was the horse. The researcher saw in this the trinity of the universe: the top horse in the picture with a trapezoid on its back is a winged horse - a symbol of the sky and the sun. In another composition, the hero and his horse are seen fighting the dark forces of the underworld.

Another interesting detail is that Ural Batyr and other heroes of the epic travel, from time to time, on a flying lion. This, of course, is also a mythical image, but where did the ancestors of the Bashkirs, who lived in the Volga region and Southern Urals, could they know about lions even if they don’t fly?

In Bashkir folklore there are two proverbs directly related to the lion. They sound something like this: “If you sit astride a lion, then let your whip be a saber” and “If a lion goes hunting, then he will not return without prey.” But proverbs are not created on empty space.

Research by paleontologists indirectly proves that prehistoric cave lions, which were much larger than their current descendants, could be found not only in Africa, but also in Europe, the Urals and even Siberia. In addition, they could jump further and higher than modern lions. Maybe that’s why ancient people encountered these formidable creatures and came up with the myth of flying lions.

In the archives of Ufimsky scientific center The RAS houses the oldest copy of the epic manuscript. On Bashkir language It was also printed in Latin script about 100 years ago. But how exactly this written text came about is probably the biggest mystery of this whole story. The appearance of the written version of Ural Batyr is a real detective story.

By official version Ural Batyr was written down in 1910 by Mukhametsha Burangulov, but no one has ever seen its original handwritten recording. It is believed that she got lost during the searches of Burangulov. At Soviet power he was arrested several times as an enemy of the people.

Skeptics object - the records were not lost anywhere because they simply did not exist. And Mukhametsha Burangulov was the real author of the Ural Batyr. So did he really just make up all the stories about the glorious exploits of the batyr and the image of the main character in general, and all his stories are just a stylization of the ancient Bashkir epic, which the ancestors of the Bashkirs simply did not have.

Journalist and public figure Karim Yaushev suggested that the Ural Batyr epic cannot be considered authentic folk work, but is literary composition writer Burangulov. Or he reworked together all the scattered tales of the southeastern Bashkirs. But why should Burangulov write a poem about the Ural Batyr? Perhaps it was a matter of personal creative ambitions, or perhaps political reasons. One version is that he did this on instructions from the Soviet leadership of Bashkiria, which sought to create new story Bashkir people. True, he later suffered for this same reason - he was declared a nationalist.

Ural Batyr was first published in the Bashkir language in 1968. And in Russian even later – seven years later. Since then, many editions and translations of the epic have been published, but disputes about it do not stop. In general, Ural Batyr is the only one epic heroes around which the spears break with such ferocity with which, probably, the hero himself fought with his enemies.

So did the Ural Batyr exist? There is little specific human information in the legends about him, and there are no ancient images of him. But perhaps his appearance is not so important, because the legend gives the Urals all positive qualities, making his image and life path an example to follow. That is why the presentation of the entire epic from beginning to end was considered by the Bashkirs to be the most important part of the rite of passage. adult life.

Here is an example of respect for other people's lives and nobility even towards defeated enemies. One day, the evil and bloodthirsty king Katilla sent a gigantic bull against the Urals. But that was not the case. No matter how the bull puffed and tried, no matter how he struggled, he didn’t try to free himself, he couldn’t find the strength, he sank knee-deep into the ground. But having defeated the bull, Ural Batyr took pity on him and left him alive. Since then, the bulls have crooked horns and hooves cracked into two halves and have not grown. front tooth. All this is the legacy of the lost battle of the distant ancestor Ural Batyr.

Of course, the circumstances of the fight with the bull and the size of the batyr’s horned opponent in the legends are truly mythological in nature. However, this is probably the most realistic of all the exploits of the Ural Batyr. Since ancient times, the strongest men from different nations measured strength with bulls and information about such battles is found not only in myths, but also in Roman historical chronicles. Perhaps a certain brave fighter was one of the prototypes of the heroic Urals, or this myth about fighting a giant bull came to the Bashkirs from other peoples. So, a third version of the origin of our hero appears.

The famous historian Tatishchev cites in his book that the northern Scythians had Uranus as their first sovereign. This suggests that there really was some kind of the most ancient state whose ruler was Uranus or, as we say today, Ural-Batyr. His deification took place, as a result of which he became one of the gods, first here in the Urals and then was transferred to Ancient Greece and as a result became the initial ancient Greek god.

However, perhaps this is too bold a version. It is not shared even by the majority of those scientists who believe that the legend of the Ural Batyr is a genuine epic of the Bashkir people. The prevailing opinion is that the glorious batyr is a purely mythical figure. This also distinguishes him from his colleagues from other legends, say, from the Russian hero Ilya Muromets. Although the Ural Batyr surpassed many in the number and scale of his feats famous heroes, because in fact he created the whole world.

When Ural died, having accomplished his last feat, people were overcome with grief. But then they decided to preserve his memory forever. The people buried Ural at the highest point with great respect. Each of the people brought a handful of earth to his grave. This is how a huge mountain grew. Over time, she shone like the sun - the body of the Urals turned into gold and gems, and blood into the oil of the earth - oil. Well, the mountains began to be called in his honor - the Urals.

For many centuries, in any school in the world, during geography lessons, children have learned that the border between Europe and Asia runs along the huge Ural ridge. So the name ancient hero becomes known to billions of inhabitants of our planet. These mighty peaks are an eternal monument to the exploits of the Ural Batyr, who forever gave the Bashkir land and people incredible beauty of nature, inexhaustible wealth of mineral resources and great history.

The epic "Ural-Batyr" is one of the most important literary monuments Bashkortostan. The legend was recorded by folklorist Mukhametsha Burangulov in 1910 from the words of folk storytellers, during an ethnographic expedition to remote areas of Bashkortostan. “Ural Batyr” has absorbed a wide range of ancient views, rooted in the depths of the primitive communal system, but despite this are still relevant. The legend is based on eternal story about the struggle between good and evil, about self-sacrifice and heroism for the sake of a higher, good goal. However, debates about the truth of the original source of this work are still raging among ethnography specialists. Among the scientific community there is a fairly popular version that Burangulov himself composed the epic and presented it as a kind of example of ancient legends...

The concept of the epic "Ural-Batyr"

These steppe expanses and forests framing the steep slopes of the Ural Mountains have recently changed their ancient appearance. Oil derricks have become the hallmark of the republic, where more than 15 million tons of oil are now produced per year. Oil is a symbol of Bashkir treasure. With modern extraction methods, oil no longer allows oil to gush out of the ground so openly. But once upon a time, “black gold” itself came to the surface and in ancient Bashkir legends oil was called “the oil of the earth.” Many thousands of years ago, this “oil of the earth” was formed from the spilled magical blood of a hero whose name was Ural-batyr. But he gave his people more than just the opportunity to enjoy oil wealth. Thanks to the Urals, a whole beautiful world arose with all its mountains, meadows, rivers and underground treasures. But the main legacy of the epic hero is the rules of life for descendants, the secret of happiness for all people. What made Ural Batyr famous, that even the mountains bear his name? And what do we know now about this national hero?

In 1910, the teacher and collector of folk tales Mukhametsha Burangulov went on an expedition to the Itkul volost of the Orenburg province. Today this is the Baymaksky district of Bashkortostan. His attention was attracted by the ancient tales of the Sesen poets, filled with the spirit of the mystical past and revealing the secrets of the creation of the world.
The Bashkirs have always had great respect for the sesen. These poets not only composed, but also memorized, performed, and passed on ancient tales from generation to generation. And the sesens accompanied their performances with the abrupt sounds of the ancient musical instrument dumbara. In addition, it was believed that ancient tunes also had a healing effect on listeners, which, of course, only added to the general respect of the saesengs. The tales of the sesen impressed Burangulov so much that he thanked the poets by giving them his horse. He had to walk home, but what did that mean compared to the newfound treasure? It was not only about unique ethnographic material, but also about mysterious information, which took Burangulov more than 10 years to process. At the beginning of the 20s, a written version of the epic about the batyr first appeared, i.e. about the hero Ural and his glorious exploits.

In ancient, ancient times, there lived an old man and an old woman. And they had two sons. The eldest's name was Shulgen and the youngest's was Ural. When they grew up, the father saddled two lions and sent his sons to wander. He asked them to find living water, which would give immortality to man and nature, and destroy death itself. And the brothers left their father's house. Their journey was long. Along the way, dangers and temptations awaited the brothers. Shulgen could not stand all the tests, he betrayed good and went over to the side of evil. Shulgen became the main enemy of his younger brother and one of the main warriors of the dark forces. But the Urals remained faithful to the behests of their father.

In these places the Urals performed their last, most heroic feat. Entrance to the mysterious dark cave Shulgan-Tash. There are two underground lakes here - a round lake with stagnant water (aka Dead) and a blue lake (it is considered alive). It is fed by a river whose waters flow deep underground. This river is also called Shulgen. Why do the reserve, the caves, and the river still keep the name of the elder brother Ural? When the Ural fought with Shulgen, he, in order to avoid complete defeat, along with his servants, evil divas and other evil spirits, dived into the local bottomless lake. Then Ural Batyr decided to drink all the water from the lake filled with snakes and demons. Ural drank water for a long time, but even he was unable to cope with this task. Moreover, along with the water, the Urals swallowed evil divas. They tore his noble heart from the inside.

According to legend, the batyr also had living water and it could heal him and even give him immortality. But he didn’t keep a single drop for himself when he sprinkled it on nature and said that except for her, no one should live forever. So he revived the land depleted by evil, but he himself fell in the last battle with the enemies of humanity. But why didn’t legend make its hero immortal? Why did the Urals have to perish in the minds of the people?
The life and work of the Urals was continued by his descendants. The children tried to make people's lives even better. The warriors went on long journeys to look for the source of happiness. With their diamond swords they cut through the mountains and where they passed, large rivers formed.

One of the legends of the epic says that Shulgen, who went over to the side of evil, caused a global flood to destroy humanity. The Urals entered into battle with the evil divas subordinate to Shulgen. While he was fighting, people were fleeing the water by climbing high mountains.

Akbuzat

Every resident of Ufa knows one of the famous structures made of glass and concrete. This is one of the most modern hippodromes. On weekends, serious sporting passions reign here, but now we are not interested in the breeds of horses and the results of races or bets, but in the name of the hippodrome. It's called Akbuzat. And this is not at all accidental.

It would seem that this is a completely fairy-tale story. Well, what can be realistic in a story about a horse being imprisoned under water for many years? Of course, these are all legends and traditions, but...
At the end of the 50s of the last century, the Shulgen-tash cave presented scientists with a real sensation. From it appears the first version of the origin of the Ural Batyr.
Later, historian Vyacheslav Kotov, using modern technology, examined images in the famous cave that were not visible to the naked eye. He noticed that the focus of primitive artists was the horse. The researcher saw in this the trinity of the universe: the top horse in the picture with a trapezoid on its back is a winged horse - a symbol of the sky and the sun. In another composition, the hero and his horse are seen fighting the dark forces of the underworld.

Another interesting detail is that Ural Batyr and other heroes of the epic travel, from time to time, on a flying lion. This, of course, is also a mythical image, but how could the ancestors of the Bashkirs, who lived in the Volga region and Southern Urals, know about lions, even if they weren’t flying?

In the epic we may hear echoes of a very distant reality. According to this version, legends about the exploits of the Ural Batyr could have appeared in the Upper Paleolithic era, but there is another version no less sensational. The archives of the Ufa Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences contain the oldest copy of the epic manuscript. It was printed in the Bashkir language in Latin script about 100 years ago. But how exactly this written text came about is probably the biggest mystery of this whole story. The appearance of the written version of Ural Batyr is a real detective story.

Doubts about authenticity

According to the official version, Ural Batyr was recorded in 1910 by Mukhametsha Burangulov, but no one has ever seen its original handwritten recording. It is believed that she got lost during the searches of Burangulov. Under Soviet rule, he was arrested several times as an enemy of the people and a nationalist, for which Burangulov was even arrested for 7 months.

Skeptics object - the records were not lost anywhere because they simply did not exist. And Mukhametsha Burangulov was the real author of the Ural Batyr. So, did he really just make up all the stories about the glorious exploits of the batyr and the image of the main character in general, and all his stories are just a stylization of the ancient Bashkir epic, which the ancestors of the Bashkirs simply did not have.

Journalist and public figure Karim Yaushev suggested that the Ural Batyr epic cannot be considered a truly folk work, but is a literary work of the writer Burangulov. Or he reworked together all the scattered tales of the southeastern Bashkirs. But why should Burangulov write a poem about the Ural Batyr? Perhaps it was a matter of personal creative ambitions, or perhaps political reasons. One version is that he did this on the instructions of the Soviet leadership of Bashkiria, which sought to create a new history of the Bashkir people. True, he later suffered for this same reason - he was declared a nationalist.
Ural Batyr was first published in the Bashkir language in 1968. And in Russian even later – seven years later. Since then, many editions and translations of the epic have been published, but disputes about it do not stop. In general, Ural Batyr is the only epic hero around whom spears break with such ferocity as, probably, the hero himself fought with his enemies.

So did the Ural Batyr exist? There is little specific human information in the legends about him, and there are no ancient images of him. But perhaps his appearance is not so important, because the legend endows the Urals with all the positive qualities, making his image and life path an example to follow. That is why the presentation of the entire epic from beginning to end was considered by the Bashkirs to be the most important part of the rite of passage into adulthood.

Here is an example of respect for other people's lives and nobility even towards defeated enemies. One day, the evil and bloodthirsty king Katilla sent a gigantic bull against the Urals. But that was not the case. No matter how the bull puffed and tried, no matter how he struggled, he didn’t try to free himself, he couldn’t find the strength, he sank knee-deep into the ground. But having defeated the bull, Ural Batyr took pity on him and left him alive. Since then, the bulls have crooked horns and hooves cracked in two halves and their front teeth do not grow. All this is the legacy of the lost battle of the distant ancestor Ural Batyr.

Of course, the circumstances of the fight with the bull and the size of the batyr’s horned opponent in the legends are truly mythological in nature. However, this is probably the most realistic of all the exploits of the Ural Batyr. Since ancient times, the strongest men from different nations measured their strength with bulls, and information about such battles is found not only in myths, but also in Roman historical chronicles. Perhaps a certain brave fighter was one of the prototypes of the heroic Urals, or this myth about fighting a giant bull came to the Bashkirs from other peoples. So, a third version of the origin of our hero appears.

The famous historian Tatishchev cites in his book that the northern Scythians had Uranus as their first sovereign. This suggests that there really was some ancient state whose ruler was Uranus, or as we say today Ural-Batyr. His deification took place, as a result of which he became one of the gods, first here in the Urals and then was transferred to Ancient Greece and as a result became the initial ancient Greek god.

However, perhaps this is too bold a version. It is not shared even by the majority of those scientists who believe that the legend of the Ural Batyr is a genuine epic of the Bashkir people. The prevailing opinion is that the glorious batyr is a purely mythical figure. This also distinguishes him from his colleagues from other legends, say, from the Russian hero Ilya Muromets. Although in terms of the number and scale of his exploits, Ural Batyr surpassed many famous heroes, because in fact he created an entire world.

When Ural died, having accomplished his last feat, people were overcome with grief. But then they decided to preserve his memory forever. The people buried Ural at the highest point with great respect. Each of the people brought a handful of earth to his grave. This is how a huge mountain grew. Over time, it shone like the sun - the body of the Urals turned into gold and precious stones, and the blood into the oil of the earth - oil. Well, the mountains began to be called in his honor - the Urals.

For many centuries, in any school in the world, during geography lessons, children have learned that the border between Europe and Asia runs along the huge Ural ridge. This is how the name of the ancient hero becomes known to billions of inhabitants of our planet. These mighty peaks are an eternal monument to the exploits of the Ural Batyr, who forever gave the Bashkir land and people incredible beauty of nature, inexhaustible wealth of mineral resources and great history.