Indian Epigraphy c13.26

c13.26

The few stanzas ascribed to Vyāsa or his Mahābhārata in the earlier records were later quoted often along with various additional verses which were assigned to Vyāsa or any of the other sources referred to above.² The introduction of Bṛhaspati as the author of the verses is easily explained by the fact that the Mahābhārata puts some of the stanzas in Bṛhaspati's advice to Indra³ and that they are also found in the Bṛhaspatisaṃhitā. This double authorship ascribed to some of the stanzas gradually led to further confusion. It seems that the word 'sage' as the author of the stanzas, which was originally intended for Vyāsa or Bṛhaspati or both of them, was later confused with a sage in general and therefore sometimes used in the plural. This may have also been due to the fact that some of the verses are found in works ascribed to various sages. Similarly, the expression Dharmaśāstra, originally intended for the Mahābhārata or the Purāṇas or a work of Bṛhaspati, was later confused with the Mānava-Dharmaśāstra and, as a result, the sage Manu was confused with the author of the stanzas in question. It is not impossible that the earlier inscriptions influenced the later compilations of the Purāṇas and Dharmaśāstras which themselves influenced the imprecatory section of the medieval inscriptions.¹