Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c8.12

c8.12

⁴ So Yāska uses *aitihāsika* for those who interpreted the Veda with reference to traditional history (*Vedic Index* i, 122. Cf. opening verses in chap. I). It shows that *itihāsa* as traditional history was well understood, and therefore that *itihāsas* must have been commonly current. *Itihāsas* according to Sāyaṇa are cosmological myths or accounts, such as ‘In the beginning this universe was nothing but water’, &c.; so SBE xliv, p. 98: but this is very doubtful, because (1) *itihāsa* is, I believe, very rarely found applied to such accounts, (2) the definition of *itihāsa* and the references to it in the Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra (which will be noticed in chap. IV) distinctly negative it, and (3) so also does Yāska’s use of the word *aitihāsika*.