________________
LITERATURE
181
of. Far rather are these Suttas to be looked upon as the early beginnings out of which, in certain circumstances, a Buddha Epic could eventually arise.
“We can mark with special ease how an Epic arises, and of what process an Epic, as a particular form of literature, is the consummation. Some years ago I drew attention to the historical points we have here to take into consideration in a lecture to the Congress of philologians at Gera on the Irish legends and the question of Ossian.' There I laid the chief stress on the old-Irish legends, but compared also the legends in ancient India. The latter subject was independently dealt with by Oldenberg in his well-known articles on the Ākhyāna hymns where the subject referred to the relations of the Epic to previous literary forms) is dealt with in detail and thoroughly explained Professor Geldner then considered the same subject, partly from new points of view, inasmuch as he followed them out also in the case of the Avesta, in his article in the Vedische Studien's Sow we find also in the Buddhist literature, ils Oldenberg was the first to point out, this epic narrative in mixed prose and verse. . . . The persons who act, the place where they act, and the action itself form the constituent elements of the narrative. But the latter only springs into life when the persons acting are also represented as speaking. Now the speecl:es are frequently what it is least possible to keep historically accurate, where, therefore, the fancy of the narrator and the art of the poet come most into play: Conversation (speech and rejoinder) is the first part of the narrative to be put into perse, and that especially at the crucial points of the story. Here the beginnings of
Reine Celtique; 5. 75. Z. D. J. G., vols. 37 and 39.
31. 254, foll.
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
