A History of Sanskrit Literature c13.24

c13.24

The literary evidence of Sanskrit authors from about 600 to 1100 a.d. supplies us with a considerable amount of information as to the state of the great epic during those five centuries. An examination of the works of Bāṇa, and of his predecessor Subandhu, shows that these authors, who belong to the beginning of the seventh century, not only studied and made use of legends from every one of the eighteen books of the *Mahābhārata* for the poetical embellishment of their works, but were even acquainted with the *Harivaṁça*. We also know that in Bāṇa's time the *Bhagavadgītā* was included in the great epic. The same writer mentions that the *Mahābhārata* was recited in the temple of Mahākāla at Ujjain. That such recitation was already a widespread practice at that time is corroborated by an inscription of about 600 a.d. from the remote Indian colony of Kamboja, which states that copies of the *Mahābhārata*, as well as of the *Rāmāyaṇa* and of an unnamed Purāṇa, were presented to a temple there, and that the donor had made arrangements to ensure their daily recitation in perpetuity. This evidence shows that the *Mahābhārata* cannot have been a mere heroic poem, but must have borne the character of a Smṛiti work of long-established authority. Even at the present day both public and private recitations of the Epics and Purāṇas are common in India, and are always instituted for the edification and religious instruction of worshippers in temples or of members of the family. As a rule, the Sanskrit texts are not only declaimed, but also explained in the vernacular tongue for the benefit both of women, and of such males as belong to classes unacquainted with the learned language of the Brahmans.