A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s2.256

v1.c8.s2.256

literary interest, as well as a religious interest in the collection, did not scruple to include in it also profane poems, which by language and metre, had proved themselves to be equally ancient and venerable as those sacrificial chants. Only through being included in a "book"—that is, a school-text intended for memorization—could they be saved from oblivion. Certainly there was much also which they considered too profane to be included in the Ṛgveda-Saṃhitā. Of this a certain amount has been saved through the fact that it was later included in another collection—the Atharvaveda-Saṃhitā.