The History of Indian Literature c9.46.4

c9.46.4

The whole plan of the Rámáyaṇa favours the assumption that we have here to do with the work, the poetical creation, of one man. Considering the extent of the work, which now numbers some 24,000 *ślokas*, this is saying a great deal; and before epic poetry could have attained to such a degree of perfection, it must already have passed through many phases of development.† Still, it is by no means implied that the poem was of these dimensions from the first: here, too, many parts are certainly later additions; for example, all those portions in which Ráma is represented as an incarnation of Vishṇu, all the episodes in the first book, the whole of the seventh book, &c. The poem was originally handed down orally, and was not fixed in writing until afterwards, precisely like the Mahá-Bhárata. But here we encounter the further peculiar circumstance—which has not yet been shown to apply, in the same way at all events, to the latter work—namely, that the text has come down to us in several distinct recensions, which, while they agree for the most part as to contents, yet either follow a different arrangement, or else vary throughout, and often materially, in the expression. This is hardly to be explained save on the theory that this fixing of the text in writing took place independently in different localities. We possess a complete edition of the text by G.