Studies in Cola History and Administration c6.19.4

c6.19.4

The truth is that we now know so little of the technical conditions which governed the propagation and preservation of literature and literary tradition in the distant past that it is unprofitable to hazard surmises against which may be pitted other surmises not less plausible. But this we do know: that in some manner that seems to us such a marvel, the ancients commanded the means of handing down from generation to generation, orally or otherwise, a considerable literature with exceptional accuracy. The history of the Vedic Samhitas with their *anukramanis* and of the early Buddhist Pali literature is sufficient proof of this. In the course of generations differences in readings cropped up, and particular schools and redactions of works died out for one reason and another; but these changes did not affect the substantial accuracy of what was actually preserved and handed down. It seems therefore only proper to accept the colophons to the poems which have reached us through the same channels as the poems themselves as of equal authenticity with the poems to which they are attached, unless, indeed, it is proved on substantial grounds that the colophons were the inventions of a much later age, the correct tradition having died out long before.