Wilson Philological Lectures on Sanskrit and the Derived Languages c6.7

c6.7

India may justly claim to be the original home of scientific philology. In one of the most ancient Sanskrit books, the Saṃhitâ of the Black Yajurveda, there are distinct indications of the dawn of linguistic study.¹ The Brâhmaṇas of the Vedas, which rank next to the Saṃhitâs, and even the Taittirîya Saṃhitâ itself, the composition of which differs in no particular from its Brâhmaṇa, are full of etymological explanations of words, though often they are fanciful.² One Âchârya followed another, and they all carefully observed the facts of their language, and laid down the laws they could discover. They studied and compared the significations and forms of words, observed what was common to them, separated the constant element from that which was variable, noticed the several changes that words undergo in different circumstances, and by such a process of philological analysis completed a system of grammar and etymology. In the Nirukta, Yâska, whose exact date we do not know, but who must have flourished several centuries before Christ, lays down correct principles of the derivation of words. The last of the grammarian Âchâryas were Pâṇini, Kâtyâyana, and Patañjali. The Prâkṛit dialects which sprang from Sanskrit were next made the subject of observation and analysis. The laws of phonetic change or decay in accordance with which Sanskrit words become Prâkṛit were discovered and laid down. The Sanskrit and non-Sanskrit elements in those languages were distinguished from each other. This branch of philology also was worked up by a number of men, though the writings of one or two only have come down to us.