J    I

22
have all found a part " in the weaving of this mighty web and woof of magic drapery evolved by Valmiki." For a picture of Hindu life of the tenth century, writes Dutt, when the Kosalas and the Videhas had by long residence in the Gangetic valley become law-abiding and priest-ridden, learned and polished, enervated and dutiful, we would refer our readers to the Ramayana« The classical excellence and perspecuity of its style, ithe exquisite suggestions of poetic tenderness, the graphic delineations of heroic history, the deepest acquaintance with Nature's grandest scenes and the observed proportion of paragraphic classification—all this gains for Valmiki the presidential chair in the pantheon of the world's poetic geniuses*
section III. The Epics Compared.
* • I, As to subject matter.—The Mahabharata is the oldest representative of the Itihasa group, whereas the Ransayana is but a Kavya—the first of the kind.
2. Both of these have a main leading story whereon many other narratives are engrafted. But in the Mahabharata the main narrative plays a minor part, simply serving to inter* weave a vast collection of unconnected myths and precepts, while in the Ramayana the minor episodes never eclipse the importance of the dominant story. The solid character is never broken and the principal subject never impeded by didactic discourses or sententious maxims.
j. The epics belong to different periods and different dis* tricts* N<& wlf was a large part of the Mahabharata composed later tbam tte Jtattajraaa but they belong respectively to the " West and Ea$t of Hindustan.