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[Footnote 5: Schroeder, p. 453, compares the mutual relation of the Mah[=a]bh[=a]rata and R[=a]m[=a]yana to that of the Nibelungenlied and the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach. Jacobi, in his 'R[=a]m[=a]yana, has lately claimed a considerable antiquity for the foundation legends of the R[=a]m[=a]yana, but he does not disprove the late completed form.]
[Footnote 6: i. 78. 10; see Bühler's Introduction.]
[Footnote 7: Jacobi seeks to put the completed nucleus at the time of the Christian era, but it must have been quite a large nucleus in view of the allusions to it in precedent literature. Holtztmann puts the completion at about 1000 A.D.; but in 700 A.D., it was complete, and most scholars will agree with Bühler that the present Mah[=a]-Bh[=a]rata was completed by the sixth or seventh century. In 533 A.D. it contained 100,000 distichs, that is, it was about the size it is now.]
[Footnote 8: By the time the drama began the epic was become a religious storehouse, and the actual epic story represented not a fifth of the whole work, so that, with its simple language, it must have seemed, as a literary production, very wearisome to the minds that delighted in the artificial compounds and romantic episodes of the drama and lyric. But even to-day it is recited at great fêtes, and listened to with rapt attention, as the rhapsodes with more or less dramatic power recite its holy verses.]
[Footnote 9: The later law-books say expressly that women and slaves have a right to use mantra, mantr[ra]dhik[=a]ri[n.Jas. But the later legal Smritis are no more than disguised sectarian Pur[ra]nas.]
[Footnote 10: Compare the visit of the old Muni on the prince in iii. 262. 8. He is paramakopana, 'extremely irritable'; calls for food only to reject it; growls at the service, etc. Everything must be done 'quickly' for him. "I am
| SR No. | 007634 |
| Book Title | Handbook of History of Religions |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Edward Washburn |
| Publisher | Sanmati Tirth Prakashan Pune |
| Publication Year | |
| Total Pages | 678 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 2 MB |