A History of Sanskrit Literature c13.25

c13.25

We next come to the eminent Mīmāṃsā philosopher KUMĀRILA, who has been proved to have flourished in the first half of the eighth century A.D. In the small portion of his great commentary, entitled *Tantra-vārttika*, which has been examined, no fewer than ten of the eighteen books of the *Mahābhārata* are named, quoted, or referred to. It is clear that the epic as known to him not only included the first book (*ādiparvan*), but that that book in his time closely resembled the form of its text which we possess. It even appears to have contained the first section, called *anukramaṇikā* or "Survey of contents," and the second, entitled *parva-saṃgraha* or "Synopsis of sections." Kumārila also knew Books XII. and XIII., which have frequently been pronounced to be of late origin, as well as XIX. It is evident from his treatment of the epic that he regarded it as a work of sacred tradition and of great antiquity, intended from the beginning for the instruction of all the four castes. To him it is not an account of the great war between the Kauravas and Pāṇḍus; the descriptions of battles were only used for the purpose of rousing the martial instincts of the warrior caste.