Historical periods of Manas epic development

The proposed article is devoted to the relevant problem of the epic stage development. The question of the stages or phases of development of the Manas epic was solved by many scholars from different points of view. Until now, the debating point in Manas studies remains the question of the time when Manas epic appeared and its epic historicism. From the point of view of the author, the methodology of the historical study of Manas epic is not fully developed yet. Attempts are still being made to direct matching of some motifs of the epic to known facts and events of national history. But as V. Ya. Propp indicated, the epic did not reflect the single events of national history, but expressed the age-old ideals of the people, belonging not to one century, but to entire eras, to which certain themes and motifs of the epic can be attributed. Based on the experience of previous researchers, the author attempts to offer a theoretical concept about the period of origin and the main historical stages of development of the Kyrgyz heroic epic of Manas.

The main method of research was the historical-typological analysis of the Kyrgyz folk tradition, the interpretation of which allows us to more confidently present the chronology of the stages of the formation of such a monumental and polystadial epic, which is Manas. In connection with the progressive development of the Kyrgyz history, the old poetic tradition was constantly updated. The historical study of the Manas epic is performed by the author in close connection with the problems of the ethnogenesis of the Kyrgyz people in the context of its history, material and spiritual culture.

As a result of the study, the author comes to the conclusion that in its development the Manas epic went through the following stages: the stage associated with the emergence of nomadic cattle breeding as a new way of life, the development of which led to fundamental changes in the economic and social life of the ancestors of the Kyrgyz and led to the emergence of the epic (the beginning of the 1st millennium BC – VI century AD). The second stage of development of the Manas epic is associated with the period of the formation of the early feudal state of the Kyrgyz on the Yenisei (VI-XIII centuries). The beginning of the next stage of development of the epic of Manas was followed by events related to the movement of the majority of Kyrgyz tribes from Siberia to Central Asia, caused by the Mongol invasion (XIII-XVI centuries). The final stage of the formation of Manas epic and its transfer into the national epic took place in the era of the Oirat-Dzungarian invasion (XVII-XVIII centuries).

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