[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924) › c29.105 # The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c29.105 The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c29.105 - **Language:** English ### [c29.105](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c29.105) Brahmanical Hinduism was the religion of the pundits, whose sacred language was Sanskrit, a highly artificial literary modification of a vernacular speech of the Panjāb. As the influence of the pundits upon prince and peasant waxed greater in matters of religion and social observance, the use of their special vehicle of expression became more widely diffused, and gradually superseded the vernacular in all documents of a formal or official character. In the third century B. C. Asoka had been content to address his commands to his people in language easy to be understood by the vulgar; but, in the middle of the second century after Christ, the satrap Rudradāman felt that his achievements could be adequately commemorated only in elaborate Sanskrit. It is impossible to go more deeply into the subject in these pages, and it must suffice to observe that the revival of the Brahmanical religion was accompanied by the diffusion and extension of Sanskrit, the sacred language of the Brahmans.¹ - [Previous: c29.104](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c29.104) - [Next: c29.106](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c29.106) - [Up: c29](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c29) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c29.105](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c29.105) · Pramāṇa