Epic Sanskrit is so called because it is represented principally in the two epics, Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇā. Also of the late Vedic period is the grammarian Pāṇini (not later than early fourth century bc), author of the Aṣṭādhyāyī who distinguishes between the language of sacred texts (chandas) and a more usual language of communication (bhāṣā from bhāṣ ‘speak’), tantamount to Classical Sanskrit. Brāhmaṇas and early sūtra works can properly be called late Vedic. Early Vedic texts are pre-Buddhistic – the composition of the Rigveda is plausibly dated in the mid-second millennium bc – although their exact chronology is difficult to establish. ![]() Associated with these are groupings of explicatory and speculative works (called brāhmaṇas, āraṇyakas, upaniṣads) as well as texts concerning the performance of rites (kalpa- or śrauta-sūtras), treatises on phonetics, grammar proper, etymological explanations of particular words, metrics and astrology. Sanskrit (saṁskr̥ta- ‘adorned, purified’) refers to several varieties of Old Indo-Aryan, whose most archaic forms are found in Vedic texts: the Rigveda (R̥gveda), Yajurveda, Sāmaveda, Atharvaveda, with various branches.
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