The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c20.9

v1.c20.9

Yet before giving the proof of this in detail, it will be well to consider briefly the chronology of the works to be reviewed in relation to the general character and history of the states in which they arose. The legal literature which begins with the Sūtras and is represented in the epics does not really end at all, as works of this nature continue to be written down to modern times, chiefly by eminent jurists who comment on older works. But, after eliminating the modern jurists and confining ourselves to the law-books which may be called classic, we still find that the terminus falls well into the middle of the first millennium of our era; and as the beginning of this literature in Sūtra style reaches back at least as far as this before the beginning of our era, the whole period is rather more than a thousand years, about the middle of which must be set the time to which the epic poems are to be assigned as works already known and perhaps nearly completed.