A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c6.95

c6.95

Let us begin by the negative process, and endeavour to separate and reject those works which do not belong to the genuine Vedic cycle. If we examine the two epic poems of India, the Râmâyaṇa and Mahâbhârata, we shall find it impossible to use them as authorities for the Vedic age, because we are not yet able to decide critically which parts of these poems are ancient, and which are modern and post-Buddhistic, or at least retouched by the hands of late compilers and editors. There are certainly very ancient traditions and really Vedic legends in both of these poems. Some of their heroes are taken from the same epic cycle in which the Vedic poetry moves. These, however, only form subjects for episodes in the two poems, while their principal heroes are essentially different in their character and manners. In fact, though there are remains of the Vedic age to be found in the epic poems, like the stories of Urvaśî and Purûravas, of Śakuntala and Dushmanta, of Uddâlaka, Śunaḥśepha, Janaka Vaideha, and particularly of the Vedic Ṛishis, like Vasisṭha, Viśvâmitra, Yâjnavalkya, Dîrghatamas, Kakshîvat, Kavasha, and many others, yet this would only prove that the traditions of the Vedic age were still in the mouth of the people at the time when the epic poetry of the Hindus was first composed, or that they were not yet forgotten in after times, when the Brahmans began to collect all the remains of epic songs into one large body, called the Mahâbhârata. If we compare the same legends as exhibited in the hymns and Brâhmaṇas of the Veda, and as related in the Mahâbhârata, Râmâyaṇa, or the Purâṇas, the Vedic version of them will mostly be found to be more simple, more primitive, and more intelligible than those of the epic and paurâṇic poems. This is not meant as a denial, that real epic poetry, that is to say, a mass of popular songs, celebrating the power and exploits of gods and heroes, existed at a very early period in India, as well as among the other Aryan nations; but it shows, that, if yet existing, it is not in the Mahâbhârata and Râmâyaṇa we have to look for these old songs, but rather in the Veda itself. In the collection of the Vedic hymns, there are some which may be called epic, and may be compared with the short hymns ascribed to Homer. In the Brâhmaṇas passages occur, in prose and verse, celebrating the actions of old kings.