10
already become the vernaculars.   If the first redaction of the
;     y	epic poems had not been considerably earlier, we could not
jl i   j : I	have expected the language to be unalloyed by the influence
| |   ijjj	of the vernacular tongues.
1	1	;      ,j     \
j ,	' i! j                     4- Dion Chrysostomos, a Greek writer of the first century
,,   i |	::/ j	records the existence in his time of Indian epic poetry, indi-'
i. j :	_::; j	eating their resemblance to the   Homeric poems  and their
j   ! ,	i ||!	currency in India long before the fourth century B. C.
;         I   j ';       , •'.•'  [
\      1  Mi'!	.   Epic poetry, then, which forms the starting point of the
i' ; |j j	classical Sanskrit literature, falls into two classes, the •&***,-
I      _;   :|M	puranas and the Ravyas.	^nasa
• j     jl il'	. .	section L
sf  . j   ;;||	.	'        '         "	;
•1 I Hill	^The ^Mahabharata  represents   the   Itihasa   group    It
: I     _f   |4j	weaves   into it   epic and  didactic   matter, divided into i*
i| r	books called parvam, with the Harivamsa as a supplement
j     |  i||j               The extant recension may   be regarded under a three-fold	i
I     j  ;ji               aspect-as a work relating events of an historic character as a	t
,|     i |.              record of mythological and legendary lore, as the   source	I
|      I !j)_f               whence specially the military caste was to obtain its instruc-	|
tion in all matters concerning their welfare in this and their	I
bliss m future life.   In one sense this work is the source of	f
all the Puranas and as a document for antiquity, unrivalled	I
for religious statesmanship.	\\
Prof. Mac Donell discovers three distinct stages in the-	$
augmentation of the text:—	H
(i) The disconnected battle-songs, originally current as-immemorial folklore, were worked up into a connected epic plot with the history of the Kuru race '