ivan andriJanić External Vocatives in the Nalopākhyāna Abstract This paper explores the use and function of the vocatives used by Bṛhadava to address Yudhiṣṭhira and their possible role in ftting the story into the Mahābhārata. These vocatives, outside of the main Nala story, are a direct formal link to the main plot. Verses in which vocatives appear can be distributed broadly into two groups. The frst, somewhat larger group consists of external vocatives that appear in formulaic verses used either to introduce or conclude various narra- tive units, such as chapters, direct speech, or fow of thought. The second group consists of vocatives that appear in the narrative parts themselves. As they are an integral part of the story, these are exam- ined closely. Special attention is paid to stanzas with vocatives that R.M. Smith identifes as interpolations, which contain repetitions of words and phrases from the surrounding text (a phenomenon Ježić refers to as duplication repetitions). In later manuscripts, many words are replaced with external vocatives, indicating that a number of voc- atives that appear as part of narration may be of such origin. The dis- tribution and function of external vocatives and some late features of the story indicate the hypothesis that the story was incorporated into the Mahābhārata in its developed form, but that it was subsequently reworked and further adapted.