Both of the frame stories of the Mahdbhdrata, gaunaka's and Janamejaya's, are set in sattras, extended ritual actions. The ritual setting is appropriate for thematic and pragmatic reasons, but it also reveals the source for the epic's most characteristic narrative technique-the embedding of stories. Embedding and the use of frame stories in the Mahabhdrata depend on a model of hierarchy and sequence that reflects the structure of Vedic rituals. In the epic this structure is created by the passages that link episodes, which make use of highly formulaic language. In the ritual and the ritual literature embedding constitutes a crucial organizational principle that manifests itself in hierarchical, symmetrical, and episodic structures. Sattras represent the most elaborate products of ritual embedding. Sattras that are the models for the sattras of Janamejaya and gaunaka are described in ?rauta texts, and the descriptions prefigure the epic versions of the rite. Thus the epic and the ritual rely on and fulfill each other. It appears that the Mahdbhdrata has drawn its embedding, framing model from the Vedic ritual.