A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c6.147

c6.147

The same remark applies to the Râmâyaṇa. In this second epic also, we see that the latest editors were shocked by the anomalies of the popular traditions, and endeavoured to impart a more Brahmanic polish to the materials handed down to them from an earlier age. Thus king Daśaratha kills the son of a Brahman, which would be a crime so horrible in the eyes of the Brahmans, that scarcely any penance could expiate it.¹ This is the reason why the young Brahman is represented as the son of a Śûdrâ woman, and tells the king so himself, in order to relieve him from the fear of having killed the son of a Brahman. The singular relation, too, between Râma and Paraśu-Râma, was probably remodelled by the influence of the Brahmans, who could not bear the idea of their great hero, the destroyer of all the Kshatriyas, being in turn vanquished by Râma, who was himself a Kshatriya.