THE RÁMÁYAN OF VÁLMÍKI, VOL. III - Gujarat Knowledge Centre

5^8 ADDITIONAL NOTES.
open to serious question. It is of course impossible to
fix with any degree of certainty the relative chronology
of the several sages, who are said to have been visited
by Rama ; but still it seems tolerably clear that some
belonged to an age far anterior to that in which the
KdmSyana was composed, iand probably to an age ante-
rior to that in which Rama existed as a real and living
personage ; whilst, at least, one sage is to be found who
could only have existed in the age during which the
R&m^yana was produced in its present form. The
main proofs of these inferences are as follows. An interval
of many centuries seems to have elapsed between the
composition of the Rig-Veda and that of the R^mdyana
a conclusion which has long been proved by the evi-
dence of language, and is generally accepted by San-
skrit scholars. But three of the sages, said to have been
contemporary with R&ma, namely, VisvSmitra, Atri
and Agastya, are frequently mentioned in the hymns of
the Rig-Veda ; whilst VSlmiki, the sage dwelling at
Chitra-kuta, is said to have been himself the composer
of the Rdmayana. Again, the sage Atri, whom Rdma
visited immediately after his departure from Chitra-
kuta, appears in the genealogical list preserved in the
Mahd Bharata, as the progenitor of the Moon, and con-
sequently as the first ancestor of the Lunar race : whilst
his grandson Buddlia [Budba] is said to have married
lid, tlie daughter of Ikhsvaku who was himself the
remote ancestor of the Solar race of AyodhyS, from
whom Rdma was removed by many generations. These
conclusions are not perl)aps based upon absolute proof,
because they are drawn from untrustwortliy authori-
ties ; but still tlie chronological difficulties have been
fully apprehended by the Pundits, and an attempt has
been made to reconcile all contradictions by represent-