The History of Indian Literature c8.352

c8.352

the Aitareya-Bráhmaṇa also) two, three, four, five, and even six verses are quoted, and always in the same metre, in *ślokas*, certainly favours the former view. Only one exception occurs where the first and fourth verses are *ślokas*, but the second *trishṭubh*, the third not being quoted at all; it is, however, according to the commentary, understood by implication, so that this instance tells, perhaps, with a very special force in favour of the view in question. The analogy of the *gáthás* or *ślokas* of non-historic purport quoted elsewhere cannot be brought forward in support either of the one view or of the other, for the very same uncertainty exists respecting them. Moreover, these verses repeatedly contain very old Vedic forms.[^asterisk] Again, their expressions of eulogy are for the most part very hyperbolical, and they might therefore perhaps be looked upon as the utterance of a still fresh feeling of gratitude; so that we should have to consider their origin as in part contemporary with the princes they extol: otherwise this circumstance does not readily admit of explanation.dagger A passage in the thirteenth *káṇḍa* itself directly favours this view (see *I. St.*, i. 187). Among the kings here named the following deserve special mention: Bharata, son of Duḥshanta and the Apsaras Śakuntalá, and descendant of Sudvumna—Śatáníka[^ddagger] Sátrájita, king of the Bharatas, and enemy of Dhṛitaráshṭra, king of the Káśis—Purukutsa[^section] Aikshváka—Para Áṭṇára Hairaṇyanábha Kausalya—but above all, Janamejaya Párikshita, with the Párikshitíyas (his three brothers), Bhímasena, Ugrasena, and Śrutasena, who by means of the horse sacrifice were absolved from "all guilt, all *brahmahatyá*." The time when these last four lived cannot be considered as very distant from that of the *káṇḍa* itself, since their sacrificial priest Indrota Daivápa Śaunaka (whom the Mahá-Bhárata, xii. 5595, also specifies as such) is once mentioned in it apparently as coming forward in opposi-