Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c22.17

c22.17

That it was an old traditional *gāthā* is also clearly demonstrated by the fact that the same verse is quoted, sometimes with slight modifications (not affecting the reference to Gayā), again in the *Anuśāsanika-parvan*³ and in the *Rāmāyaṇa*⁴ as well as in numerous *Purāṇas*⁵ and *Dharmaśāstra* works⁶. In many of these works, the verse is introduced as a *gāthā* sung by the Pitṛs or Ṛṣis. There cannot be any doubt that this *gāthā* was composed many centuries before the Pāla age and probably even before the rise of the Guptas in the fourth century A.D.