[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [Vedic Index of Names and Subjects](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912) › v1.c3.s2.43 # Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s2.43 Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s2.43 - **Language:** English ### [v1.c3.s2.43](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s2.43) The relation of Itihāsa to Ākhyāna is also uncertain. Sieg¹⁸ considers that the words Itihāsa and Purāṇa referred to the great body of mythology, legendary history, and cosmogonic legend available to the Vedic poets, and roughly classed as a fifth Veda, though not definitely and finally fixed. Thus, Anvākhyānas, Anuvyākhyānas, and Vyākhyānas could arise, and separate Ākhyānas could still exist outside the cycle, while an Ākhyāna could also be a part of the Itihāsa-purāṇa. He also suggests that the word Ākhyāna has special reference to the form of the narrative. Oldenberg,¹⁹ following Windisch,²⁰ and followed by Geldner,²¹ Sieg, and others, has found in the Ākhyāna form a mixture of prose and verse, alternating as the narrative was concerned with the mere accessory parts of the tale, or with the chief points, at which the poetic form was naturally produced to correspond with the stress of the emotion. This theory has been severely criticized by Hertel²² and von Schroeder.²³ These scholars, in accordance with older suggestions of Max Müller²⁴ and Lévi,²⁵ see in the so-called Ākhyāna hymns of the Rigveda, in which Oldenberg finds actual specimens of the supposed literary genus, though the prose has been lost, actual remains of ritual dramas. Elsewhere²⁶ it has been suggested that the hymns in question are merely literary dialogues. - [Previous: v1.c3.s2.42](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s2.42) - [Next: v1.c3.s2.44](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s2.44) - [Up: v1.c3.s2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s2) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s2.43](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s2.43) · Pramāṇa