THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

180 The Harmony of Virtuefew reasons for my belief. I shall try to show that besides otherinternal evidence on which I do not propose just now to enter,there are certain traits of poetical style, personality and thoughtwhich belong to the original work and are possessed by no otherwriter. I shall also try to show that these traits may be usedas a safe guide through the huge morass of verse. In passing Ishall have occasion to make clear certain claims the epic thusdisengaged will possess to the highest literary, historical and practicalvalue.It is certainly not creditable to European scholarship that afterso many decades of Sanskrit research, the problem of the Mahabharatawhich should really be the pivot for all the rest hasremained practically untouched. For it is no exaggeration to saythat European scholarship has shed no light whatever on theMahabharata beyond the bare fact that it is the work of morethan one hand. All else it has advanced, and fortunately it hasadvanced little, has been rash, arbitrary or prejudiced; theories,theories and always theories without any honestly industriousconsideration of the problem. The earliest method adopted wasto argue from European analogies, a method pregnant of errorand delusion. If we consider the hypothesis of a rude balladepicdoctored by “those Brahmins” — anyone who is curiouson the matter may study with both profit and amusement Fraser'sHistory of Indian Literature — we shall perceive how thismethod has been worked. A fancy was started in Germany...asa moral certainty.But it is not from European scholars that we must expect asolution of the Mahabharata problem. They have no qualificationsfor the task except a power of indefatigable research andcollocation; and in dealing with the Mahabharata even this powerseems to have deserted them. It is from Hindu scholarshiprenovated and instructed by contact with European that the attemptmust come. Indian scholars have shown a power of detachmentand disinterestedness and a willingness to give up cherishednotions under pressure of evidence which are not commonin Europe. They are not, as a rule, prone to the Teutonicsin of forming a theory in accordance with their prejudices andthen finding facts or manufacturing inferences to support it.