A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c6.131

c6.131

According to the commentator we have first, 12 Ṛishis, who, as Ṛishis, are to be invoked, when the Brahmanical thread is suspended round the neck (nivîta). These are indeed the Ṛishis of the Rig-veda: first the Śatarchins, the common title of the poets of the first Maṇḍala; then Gṛitsamada (2d Maṇḍala), Viśvâmitra (3d M.), Vâmadeva (4th M.), Atri (5th M.), Bharadvâja (6th M.), Vasisṭha (7th M.); then follow the poets of the Pra- Bhârata, and according to some MSS. even the name of the Mahâbhârata, is mentioned, this may be considered as the earliest trace, not merely of single epic poems, but of a collection of them. The age of Âśvalâyana, which will be approximately fixed afterwards, would, therefore, if we can rely on our MSS., furnish a limit below which the first attempt at a collection of a Bhârata or Mahâbhârata ought not to be placed. But there is no hope that we shall ever succeed by critical researches in restoring the Bhârata to that primitive form and shape in which it may have existed before or at the time of Âśvalâyana. Much has indeed been done by Professor Lassen, who, in his Indian Antiquities, has pointed out characteristic marks by which the modern parts of the Mahâbhârata can be distinguished from the more ancient; and we may soon expect to see his principles still farther carried out in a translation of the whole Mahâbhârata, which, with the help of all the Sanskrit commentaries, has been most carefully prepared by one of the most learned and laborious scholars of Germany. If it were possible to sift out from the huge mass of Indian epic poetry, as we now possess it in the Mahâbhârata and Râmâyaṇa, those old stories and songs