J29
Written in the same metre. The ideas are fanciful and , but the style is not so amusing as Kalidasa's.
CHAPTER VIII. SANSKRIT PROSE.
* tie earliest passages in prose that have successfully survi-ed cc the ship-wreck of Sanskrit literature" are to be sought >r *** the Samhita of the Slack Yajus. Unlike the Samhita of ie ^Rik which is purely a lyrical collection of hymns, the aittlrlya Samhita contains prose portions in it, which formed ie only Brahmanas in the Katha and Maitrayaniya Schools, Samhita, the sacrificial formulae were accompanied by explanations and by descriptions of ceremonials per-thereto. These explanations were elucidations of the icrifieial enigmas and embodied the speculations of generations • Priests. These dicta theologica were'imparted by oral edition, preserved as well as supplemented by the course of sars in different families or parishads. The more numerous lese \?vorks became, the tnore unsystematic their contents re,w* Harmony was needed to bring ' the.m to order. To lis end, compilations of the different opinions .were uniformly •ranged under different headings and such -digests were in ter tlraes called th^Srakmams. These were in most cases sgulair commentaries in proseop the vedichyromp, explanatory ^d ,arwlytfcal. This practice of adopting a prose-$tyle for ofulstiq explanation^ and traditional narratives introduced it$ fctii^ Vedic period descended to the Purapie period. The fthablaarata and the Puranas contain prose portions in them, hidht at le^st in the former appears to.be directly descended 9race to the Kaurava princos. The plan of the poem was undoubtedly* suggested by the Meghaduta, But it is no bare imitation of Kalidasa's work, odg*.i describes the history of Rama. The Kwalayti&v&>-ckayilam is a prakrit poetn. The Psas*fti>r*toa&aK is a collection ofiticism, the poem may be found wanting^that, too, not only at the end of, but within metrical lines. Theart an4 im^naacts, describing the* f