Historical legends of war with Ablai-taishi in the Mazan-batyr folklore cycle

Abstract

The article deals in the historical legends about Mazan-batyr, a popular hero of the Kalmyk folklore, in which he thwarts hostile khan - the rival of the Kalmyk ruler. Although less popular than other types of narratives about that hero, the corresponding texts have been still regularly recorded from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day. It appears that by now enough material has been accumulated for an analytical study of such a layer in oral tradition. The main plot of those legends seems to be loosely based on the events of 1671-1672, during when the Khoshut taishi Ablai (Ovla tәәsh) invaded the Kalmyk nomad territories, but was defeated by Ayuka Khan. While there is no evidence that the historical Mazan participated in those events, the folklore accounts often make him one of the central figures in the conflict, usually as the leader of Kalmyk forces who defeats the forces of Ablai, and in a single combat champions over Taishi himself and captures him. This particular discrepancy, as well as the number of other features, is generally viewed as a result of the influence of the oral epic poetry on the legendary narratives. Another interesting feature of the plots is a relatively high degree of historical accuracy, as far as the historical accuracy in folklore studies goes. The most part of the characters in these legends can be correlated with the various figures of Kalmyk history, also a number of the events described in them are confirmed by different written sources, and the tactical techniques used by Mazan-batyr have direct analogues in the traditional warfare of the Mongol people.