The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c7.s3.2

c7.s3.2

The political stories of the *Purāṇas*, the *Mahābhārata* and the *Rāmāyaṇa* have, among other things, the exploits of the pioneers of the period from c 2500 to 600 B.C. as their themes. The tradition of the Vedic *aśwamedha* (horse-killing) sacrifice was preserved in the *Mahābhārata* as elsewhere; and in the political ideas associated with this sacrifice the *Nīti*, *Artha*, and *Dharma* literature served but to carry forward the messages of the *Yajurveda*-*Mahābhārata* complex.⁶