sdom of the priest expended? Apart from the epic, the
best intellects of the day were occupied in researches, codifying
laws, and solving, in rather dogmatic fashion, philosophical
(theological) problems. The epic presents pictures of scenes which
seem to be a reflection from an earlier day. But one sees often that
the wisdom is commonplace, or even silly. In dialectics a sophistical
subtlety is shown; in codifying moral rules, a tedious triteness; in
amoebic passes of wit there are astounding exhibitions, in which the
good scholiast sees treasures of wisdom, where a modern is obliged to
take them in their literal dulness. Thus in III. 132. 18, a boy of
twelve or ten (133. 16), who is divinely precocious, defeats the wise
men in disputation at a sacrifice, and in the following section (134.
7 ff.) silences a disputant who is regarded as one of the cleverest
priests. The conversation is recorded in full. In what does it
consist? The opponent mentions a number of things which are one; the
boy replies with a verse that gives pairs of things; the other
mentions triads; the child cites groups of fours, etc., until the
opponent, having cited only one half-verse of thirteens, can remember
no more and stops, on which the child completes the verse, and is
declared winner. The conundrums which precede must have been
considered very witty, for they are repeated elsewhere: What is that
wheel which has twelve parts and three hundred and sixty spokes, etc.?
Year. What does not close its eye when asleep, what does not move when
it is born, what has no heart, what increases by moving? These
questions form one-half verse. The next half-verse gives the answers
in order: fish, egg, stone, river. This wisdom in the form of puzzles
and answers, _brahmodya_, is very old, and goes back to the Vedic
period. Another good case in the epic is the demon Yaksha and the
captured king, who is not freed till he answers certain questions
correctly.[79] But although a certain amount of theologic lore may be
gleaned from these questions, yet is it of greater interest to see how
the priests discussed when left quietly to their own devices. And a
very natural description of such a scene is extant. The priests
"having some leisure"[80] or vacation from their labors in the king's
house, sit down to argue, and the poet calls their discussion
_vita[n.][d.][=a], i.e_., tricky sophistical argumentation, the
description bearing out the justness of the phrase: "One