The History of Indian Literature c8.473.2

c8.473.2

This enumeration (here occurring for the first time) of the different Vedáñgas is of itself sufficient to show that at that time the whole material of the Vedas had been systematically digested, and that out of it a new literature had arisen, which no longer belongs to the Vedic, but to the following period. We may further conclude from the mention of the Tretá in the course of the work that the Yuga-system also had already attained its final form. On the other hand, we here find the words *kálí* (the dark one) and *karálí* (the terrible one) still reckoned among the seven tongues of fire, whereas in the time of the dramatic poet Bhavabhúti (eighth century A.D.) they are names of Durgá—the wife of Śiva, developed out of Agni (and Rudra)—who under these names was the object of a bloody sacrificial worship. Since evidently a considerable time is required for the transition from the former meaning to the latter, the Muṇḍakop.