The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c13.s1.6

c13.s1.6

6. The *Mahābhārata*. This great epic has been functioning as the fifth *Veda* or the *Veda* of the people since it acquired its more or less present form in Gupta times. From the seventh to the thirteenth century it may be taken to have maintained its influence and, like the *Purāṇas*, to have been growing all the time in bulk. If the *Purāṇas* are Encyclopædias, the *Mahābhārata* is the Encyclopædia of Encyclopædias. Naturally therefore in order to come into contact with the Hindu command over the realities of life as comprehended in *kāma*, *dharma*, *artha*, *nīti*, *vārttā* and *śilpa* one does not have to go out of the milieu of the *Mahābhārata*. While dealing with the humanism and secularism of Hindu India from Harṣa to Hemādri we can always safely trust ourselves to the contents of the *Mahābhārata*.