“Manas” is a product of the period of hero worship. However, it leaves behind the traces of nature worhip and ancestor worship as well. The epic concentrates on how heroes hold sway over the world and create the history. However, the heroes would not make it without the help of the soul of their ancestors or the support
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of the Great Nature. The epic took shape before Kyrgyz people were converted to Islam. As a result, the influence of Islam on the characters’ ideas can be easily found in the centrepiece of the Kyrgyz people’s folk literature. The mix of religious faiths, ideologies, social customs and living habits stemming from different eras, religions, societies and regions is quite obvious in the epic. The epic is considered to be a living fossil through which contemporary people can get a comprehensive and in-depth knowledge of ancient society and ancient national wars. It contains a transition from the slave society to the feudal society, the close combination of tribal system and state institution, as well as the developmental trajectory ranging from nature worship to ancestor worship to hero worship.
The death of Qiktey who left behind no offsprings put an end to the epic “Manas.” However, their heroic deeds already struck a responsive chord in the talented Manaschis from generation to generation who succeeded in creating an influential variation of the epic. Entitiled “Ancestors of Manas,” the epic’s variation has evolved into a widely-acclaimed legend which contains more than 20,000 lines and has been transmitted orally by three or four generations.
In addition, many full-length poems are also derived from the epic “Manas,” involving “Hero Baghix,” “Toltoy,” “Kiz Saykal,” “Joloy Khan,” “Agibai,” and so on. Part of the characters and plots in these full-length poems that also display epic grandeur are closely-related to the plot-line of the epic “Manas.” For example, both “Hero Baghix” and “Toltoy” depict how three generations of Manas got entangled with the feeling of gratitude or resentment relating to three generations of Family Baghix. The talent and learning of those Manaschis has stood the readers from
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later generations in good stead merely because more literary derivatives came into being likewise and finally turned into delicate pieces of folk literature.
Presenting an intimate narrative of the heroic deeds of eight generations in a single family, the epic “Manas” is supposed to hold a unique position in the civilization history of the whole world. The Kyrgyz people are indeed a nationality good at creating the great national epic.
6) “Manas” and Manaschis