The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c15.s1.3

v1.c15.s1.3

Described in its simplest terms, the earliest history of India is the story of the struggle between two widely different types of civilisation, an unequal contest between metal and stone. All the records for many centuries belong to the higher type. They are exclusively Indo-Āryan. They have been preserved in literary languages developed from the predominant spoken languages under the influence of the different phases of religion which mark stages in the advance of Indo-Āryan culture from the North-West. The language of the Rigveda, the oldest form of Vedic Sanskrit, belongs to the country of the Seven Rivers. The language of the Brāhmaṇas and of the later Vedic literature in the country of the Upper Jumna and Ganges (Brahmarshideça) is transitional. It shades almost imperceptibly into Classical Sanskrit, which is the literary representation of the accepted form of educated speech of the time and region. As fixed by the rules of the grammarians it became the standard language of Brāhman culture in every part of India; and it is still the ordinary medium of communication between learned men, as was Latin in the Middle Ages of Europe.