The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c22.14

v1.c22.14

In the hymns of the Rigveda we find stories in verse which appear to need the complement of explanatory prose, and as the epic also has examples of this mingling of verse and prose in the telling of a story, it is possible that we may have the right to presuppose a sort of epic narrative even in the time of the Rigveda. Yet this presumptive epic of the Rigveda is so entirely a matter of theory, and not undisputed theory, that it may be left out of consideration when discussing the historical epic, as the presumptive drama of the Rigveda may be ignored in discussing the origin of Hindu historical drama.