THE FINAL RECENSION OF THE MAHABHARATA
We may take it then, for the sake of the argument, that the final recension of the Mahabharata was the literary magnum opus of the reign of Chandra Gupta II of Magadha, known as Vikramaditya of Ujjain (A.D. 375 to 413), and the source of his great fame in letters. We may also take it from the evidences seen there that he deliberately organised its promulgation by missions in the Dravida-desh, or country of the Madras. But, if all this be true, what may we suppose to have been the means employed by him for the execution of so vast an undertaking? .Undoubtedly the work of compilation must have been carried out in Benares by a council of scholars under the control of one supreme directing genius. If Professor Satis Chandra Vidyabhushan be correct (as I should imagine that he is) in his suggestion that the name of Devanagari, as applied to one particular form of Prakrit script, means of Devanagar or Benares,[1] the question then arises, Was the promulgation of the Mahabharata the occasion on which it gained its widespread fame and application?189
- ↑ See Indian World, November, 1906.
