A History of Sanskrit Literature c19.s1.9

c19.s1.9

Obscure also is the question of the form of the work. The Kashmirian version suggests that what Guṇāḍhya produced was a work in Çlokas, but that may be quite misleading, and on the other hand we have the express statement of Daṇḍin that a Kathā to which type he refers the *Bṛhatkathā* was written in prose. Verses may have been interwoven as in the case of the *Jātakamālā*, but this must remain a mere hypothesis, and there is no other evidence to invalidate the impression given by Daṇḍin. A prose citation by Hemacandra may conceivably be from the *Bṛhatkathā*, but it would be quite idle to assert that it was; it may have come from a later recension or from some other source.