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more than one child for the benefit of his relative, but so far as his belief went there.
(b) Bhishma, making mention of the marriage notions-of his time when chosing the daughters of Banares to wife to his brother, differs from Manu. He says uMen of military caste exalt and practise the self-choice mode and the law-giver calls the choicest of all wives, her, who has been carried off by force."
Tn.the Mahabharata, therefore, a state of society is depicted, that is anterior to the Code of Manu and an investigation of those portions would show that this society differs from the society mirrored by the ancient Code not only in regard to positive law but in customs and morality.
Further testimonies as to the age of the Mahabharata :—
1. Panini teaches us the accent of Maha in Mahabharata and that the termination Aka must be applied to Vasudeva and Arjuna to form derivatives. There is a subtlety, which however shows that the epic characters had come to be regarded as demi-gods. But it is not unlikely that Panini was led to* put them together because they were always associated together in the minds of the people as they are in this epic. la a third Sutra we have Yudhistira.
2. In Patanjali's work, we have the names of Bhima, Sahadeva and Nakula, mentioned as descendants of Kuru. In another place, where Patanjali comments on Panini III, ii, 122. " Dharmena sma Kuravo Yudhyante " it appears, that the war was considered as having taken place at a very .remote time. , |