Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c5.s2.60

c5.s2.60

¹ The Gāthās are quoted in a fairly large number in the Brāhmaṇas and the Vedic literature generally, and they are referred to in the earliest portions of the Ṛgveda itself (I. 190, I, etc.). For the most part, these Gāthās contain historical matter singing about the mighty deeds of great heroes in still older times, as we see from the Gāthās quoted above chanting the great achievements of the eponymous hero Bharata. The Aitareya Brāhmaṇa (VII. 18) makes a distinction between the Ṛks and the Gāthās, saying that the former refer to the Gods and the latter to men. It is no wonder that with the Aryan Indians who placed spiritual concerns far above the temporal from the very earliest times, the literature dealing with the deeds of mere men fell into comparative neglect and was not preserved with the same care as was bestowed upon the Ṛks, though occasional verses were preserved in memory and transmitted orally.