But we may go further, and show that the _Gītā_ is in its teaching, in general, parallel with the third stage of the _Mahābhārata_ and with _Manu_. For while the usual philosophic standpoint in the Song is Sānkhya-Yoga, there are frequent lapses to the Vedānta; and there is an evident effort here and there to combine all three.[54] This is precisely the position of _Manu_ and the Epic, as we have seen. Note that in the _Gītā_ the Yoga philosophy is already old, so old that it has fallen into decay, and requires to be resuscitated.[55] The Sānkhya is not a loose group of ideas, but a formed system, as appears from the phrases _Sānkhya-Kritānta_[56] and _Guna-sankhyāna_.[57] Kapila, its author, is so far in the past that he is canonized as the chief of the _Siddhas_.[58] There are many minor points which the _Gītā_ holds in common with the _Mahābhārata_, and which are not found earlier. The latter half of the tenth chapter is full of Epic mythology. There Skanda is the great warrior-god,[59] as in the _Mahābhārata_,[60] there too we find the horse Uccaihsravas,[61] the elephant Airāvata,[62] the snake Vāsuki,[63] the fish Makara.[64] _Nirvāna_ is used in the _Gītā_[65] for ‘highest bliss,’ ‘Brahmic bliss,’ precisely as in the Epic.[66] In the _Mahābhārata_ Bhīshma, after receiving his mortal wound, has to wait for the _Uttarāyana_ (the northward journey of the sun), _i. e._, he has to wait until the sun passes the southern solstice, before he can die in safety.[67] In the _Gītā_ we find a similar idea: only those devotees who die during the _Uttarāyana_ go to Brahman; those who die during the _Dakshināvana_ return to earth.[68] This dogma is not found in the early Upanishads nor yet in the Sūtras.[69] A study of the language of the _Gītā_[70] leads to the same conclusion. A portion of its vocabulary is the same as that of the first group of Upanishads; a larger portion coincides with our second group; a still larger coincides with the diction of the Atharvan group; and finally, much that is found in no Upanishad is characteristic of the Epic. We need not attempt to fix the date[71] of the poem, for that is not only impossible as yet, but is quite unnecessary for our purpose. What we wish to do is to show that the religious literature of India displays a long, regular, evolutionary process, that the _Gītā_ belongs to the same period as the third stage of the _Mahābhārata_, and is itself clearly the result of all the preceding development. * * * * * Can we then accept the declaration of the poem itself, that it was uttered by Krishna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra?—That necessarily depends upon the history and the chronology. At what point then in the historical development of the literature which we have been studying does the famous battle stand?—According to all scholars the great war and the compilation of the _Vedas_ both belong to the same period.[72]