Page:A history of Sanskrit literature (1900), Macdonell, Arthur Anthony.djvu/318

 the name of ādi-kāvya, or "first artificial poem," from its author's successors. This work was then learnt by professional rhapsodists (kuçīlava) and recited by them in public as they wandered about the country.

The original part of the Rāmāyaṇa appears to have been completed at a time when the epic kernel of the Mahābhārata had not as yet assumed definite shape. For while the heroes of the latter are not mentioned in the Rāmāyaṇa, the story of Rāma is often referred to in the longer epic. Again, in a passage of Book VII. of the Mahābhārata, which cannot be regarded as a later addition, two lines are quoted as Vālmīki's that occur unaltered in Book VI. of the Rāmāyaṇa. The poem of Vālmīki must, therefore, have been generally known as an old work before the Mahābhārata assumed a coherent form. In Book III. (cantos 277-291) of the latter epic, moreover, there is a Rāmopākhyāna or "Episode of Rāma," which seems to be based on the Rāmāyaṇa, as it contains several verses agreeing more or less with Vālmīki's lines, and its author presupposes on the part of his audience a knowledge of the Rāmāyaṇa as represented by the Bombay recension.

A further question of importance in determining the age of the Rāmāyaṇa is its relation to Buddhistic literature. Now, the story of Rāma is found in a somewhat altered form in one of the Pāli Birth-Stories, the Daçaratha Jātaka. As this version confines itself to the first part of Rāma's adventures, his sojourn in the forest, it might at first sight seem to be the older of the two. There is, however, at least an indication that the second part of the story, the expedition to Lankā, was also known to the author of the Jātaka; for while Vālmīki's poem concludes with the reunion of Rāma and Sītā, the