A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t2.180

v2.c19.s3.t2.180

The majority of Jātakas, in fact, belong to that type of literary work which consists of a mixture of prose and verse, a type which is such a favourite in Indian literature. It was ever a favourite method in ancient India to enliven narrative prose by verses, and to introduce or to garb narrative verses by explanatory prose passages. The teller of fairy-tales would insert into his story such fairy-tale verses as those familiar to us from our own fairy-tales. The writer of fables would give the moral or the point of the fable in one or two verses. The ballad poets and the singers, who recited their songs in alternating stanzas to correspond to the speeches of the dialogue, must often have prefaced them by a prose introduction, sometimes inserting explanations in prose, if occasion required it.[^1)