Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c17.4

c17.4

We may recall in this connection the references to the story of the two Epics in our earlier literature. Pāṇini, as has been already indicated, mentions the word. Mahābhārata [vi, 2, 38] and the formation Yudhishṭhira [viii, 3, 95]. He also mentions Vāsudeva and Arjuna as heads of sects [iv, 3, 98]. But, as Hopkins points out, "Pāṇini's evidence is negative, mentioning characters but not the poem by name." By the time of Patañjali, however, the Mahābhārata, as a poem, must have existed, considering his references to some of its typical characters like Vasudeva and Vāladeva, Nākula, Sāhadeva, and Bhaimasenya who are mentioned as descendants of Vṛishṇi and Kuru families [see the references given before]. Another early reference to the story of the two Epics is in the *Kauṭilīya* which mentions how the two kings, Rāvaṇa and Duryodhana, came to grief for their sins. the former in not restoring another man's wife (*paradārānaprayachchhan*) out of conceit and the latter another man's legal share of the kingdom [i, 6].