The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c22.2

v1.c22.2

THE Sūtra literature does not lack connexion with the epics, to which we now turn. In the Gṛihya Sūtra of Çāṅkhāyana, for example, occur the names of Sumantu, Jaimini, Vaiçampāyana, and Paila, who are teachers of the great epic Mahābhārata; and the list of revered teachers, and no less revered species of literature, mentioned in the Sūtra of Āçvalāyana includes the Bhārata and Mahābhārata, while the Çāmbhavya Sūtra also mentions the Mahābhārata (it omits Bhārata, perhaps as included in the greater name). Although the words are assumed by modern scholars to be interpolated, the reason given, ‘because otherwise it would make the Sūtra too late¹,’ has never been very cogent, since the end of the Sūtras and beginning of the epics probably belong to about the same time. As an indefinite allusion not to a special epic poem but to the kind of poetry are also to be noticed such early references as that of Āçvalāyana (III, 3, 1) to Gāthās, hero-lauds, tales, and ancient legends.