Yet they contain passages inserted at a much later epoch, probably, indeed, as long after as the war which ended in the expulsion of the Buddhists from India.[82] Mr.Talboys Wheeler considers the war of Rama and the Monkeys against Ravana to refer to this conflict, and so makes the Ramayana later than the Mahabharata.

The majority of writers, however, differ from him on this point.

The writers of the Mahabharata were evidently Brahmans, educated under the laws of Manu.[83] But it is very difficult to fix the date of either poem with any approach to accuracy.

Lassen has proved that the greater part of the Mahabharata was written before the political establishment of Buddhism.[84] These epics were originally transmitted by oral tradition.
They must have been brought to their present forms by Brahmans, for their doctrine is that of this priesthood.

Now if such poems had been composed after the time of Asoka, when Buddhism became a state religion in India, it must have been often referred to.