The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c22.4

v1.c22.4

Epic poetry is divided by the Hindus themselves into two genera, one called ‘tales and legends’ (Itihāsa and Purāṇa) and the other called ‘art-poem’ or simply ‘poem’ (Kāvya, the production of a Kavi or finished poet); but the compilation named Mahābhārata is both Itihāsa-Purāṇa, its original designation, and then Kāvya, though it is not recognised as a Kāvya till the introductory verses exalt it as such. In its origin it was undoubtedly a popular story of the glorified historical character which attaches to tribal lays even to-day. The second epic, the Rāmāyaṇa, has always stood as the type and origin of the refined one-author poem, and whatever may have been the date of its germ as a story, as an art-product it is later than the Mahābhārata.