A History of Indian Literature v1.c9.s8.63

v1.c9.s8.63

There is appended yet another long canto which, in most extravagant fashion, tells of the merit of reading the Mahābhārata and the reward of heaven which awaits the reader, and further prescribes the presents which one should give to the readers (vācaka) after the close of every parvan, and finally ends with a song in praise of the Mahābhārata as the most sacred and most exalted of all “text-books” (śāstra).⁴ Above all, however, it is boasted that the work serves for the glorification of Viṣṇu, for: “In the Veda, in the Rāmāyaṇa and in the sacred Bhārata, O bravest of Bharata’s descendants, everywhere, at the beginning, at the end, and in the middle *Hari* is glorified.”⁵