Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c6.55

c6.55

Historical tradition in the Vedic literature has one great merit over that in the epics and Purāṇas, namely, that that literature has been very carefully preserved and what it contains now is what it contained when it was composed, so that its statements are statements of that time. Hence there is a strong presumption that its statements being ancient are nearer accuracy than statements in the epics and Purāṇas which were not so scrupulously preserved. But the presumption is seriously weakened by three well-known facts, (1) that literature deals with religious matters and is not of historical purpose nor does it deal with history (p. 2); (2) the brahmans, its authors, lacked the historical sense; and (3) they lived in secluded hermitages, and so lacked clear knowledge. The first two of these facts have been discussed above, and the third will be noticed more fully in chapter V, but one illustration of it may be mentioned here. The brahmanical story of Śunaḥśepa ² speaks of the most famous city Ayodhyā as a village (grāma)! ³