Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

History of Classical Sanskrit Literature c5: Introduction

History of Classical Sanskrit Literature c5

Language
English

Introduction

c5.1

ॐ

अग्निमीळे पुरोहितं यज्ञस्य देवमृत्विजं होतारं रत्नधातमम् ।
अग्निः पूर्वेभिरृषिभिरीड्यो नूतनैरुत सदेवाँ एह वक्षति ॥

c5.2

1. **The sacred literature of India,** inferior to none in variety or extent, is superior to many in nobility of thought, in sanctity of spirit and in generality of comprehension. In beauty or prolixity, it can vie with any other literature ancient and modern. Despite the various impediments to the steady development of the language, despite the successive disturbances, internal and external, which India had to encounter ever since the dawn of history, she has successfully held up to the world her archaic literary map, which meagre outline itself favourably compares with the literature of any other nation of the globe. The beginnings of her civilization are yet in obscurity. Relatively to any other language of the ancient world, the antiquity of Sanskrit has an unquestioned priority. "Yet such is the marvellous continuity" says Max Muller "between the past and the present of India, that in spite of repeated social convulsions, religious reforms and foreign invasions, sanskrit may be said to be still the only language that is spoken over the whole extent of the vast country.¹ So says M. Winternitz: "Sanskrit is not a 'dead' language even to day. There are still at the present day a number of Sanskrit periodicals in India, and topics of the day are discussed in Sanskrit pamphlets. Also, the Mahabharata is still today read aloud publicity, To this very day poetry is still composed and works written in Sanskrit, and it is the language in which Indian scholars converse upon scientific questions. Sanskrit at the least plays the same part in India still, as Latin in the Middle Ages in Europe, or as Hebrew with the Jews."²

c5.3

¹ *India*, 78-9.

c5.4

² History of *Indian Literature*, I, 45,

c5.5

"No country except India and no language except the Sanskrit can boast of a possession so ancient or venerable. No nation except the Hindus can stand before the world with such a sacred heirloom in its possession, unapproachable in grandeur and infinitely above all in glory. The Vedas stand alone in their solitary splendour, serving as a beacon of divine light for the onward march of humanity."¹

c5.6

¹ *Hindu superiority*. 180.

c5.7

The sciences of Comparative Pathology and Mythology owe their origin to what has been termed the "Discovery of Sanskrit." "To the Sanskrit, the antiquity and extent of its literary documents, the transparency of its grammatical structure, the comparatively primitive state of ancient system and thorough grammatical treatment it has early received at the hands of native scholars, must ever secure the foremost place in the comparative study of Indo-Aryan researches."

c5.8

2\. A. WEBER in his Indian Literature thus summed up his reasons for asserting the antiquity of the Vedic Literature :

c5.9

In the more ancient parts of the Rigveda-Samhita, we find the Indian race settled on the north-western borders of India, in the Punjab, and even beyond the Panjab, on the Kubha, or *Kwpna*, in Kabul. The gradual spread of the race from these seats towards the east, beyond the Sarasvati and over Hindustan as far as the Ganges, can be traced in the later portions of the Vedic writings almost step by step. The writings of the following period, that of the epic, consist of accounts of the internal conflicts among the conquerors of Hindustan themselves, as, for instance, the Mahabharata; or of the further spread of Brahmanism towards the south, as, for instance, the Ramayana. If we connect with this the first fairly accurate information about India which we have from a Greek source, viz., from Megasthenes, it becomes clear that at the time of this writer the Brahmanising of Hindustan was already completed, while at the time of the Periplus (see Lassen, I. AK., ii. 150, n.; I. St.. ii. 192) the very southernmost point of the Dekhan had already become a seat of the worship of the wife of Siva. What a series of years, of centuries, must necessarily have elapsed before this boundless tract of country, inhabited by wild and vigorous tribes, could have been brought over to Brahmanism. And while the claims of the written records of Indian literature to a high antiquity—its beginnings may perhaps be traced back even to the time when the Indo-Aryans still dwelt together with the Persa-Aryans—are thus indisputably proved by external, geographical testimony, the internal evidence in the same direction, which may be gathered from their contents, is no less conclusive. In the songs of Rik, the robust spirit of the people gives expression to the feeling of its relation to nature, with a spontaneous freshness and simplicity; the powers of

c5.10

nature are worshipped as superior beings, and their kindly aid besought within their several spheres. Beginning with this nature-worship, which everywhere recognises only the individual phenomena of nature, and these in the first instance superhuman, we trace in Indian literature the progress of the Hindu people through almost all the phases of religious development through which the human mind generally has passed. The individual phenomena of nature, which at first impress the imagination as being superhuman, are gradually classified within their different spheres; and a certain unity is discovered among them. Thus we arrive at a number of divine beings, each exercising supreme sway within its particular province, whose influence is in course of time further extended to the corresponding events of human life, while at the same time they are endowed with human attributes and organs. The number—already considerable—of these natural deities, these regents of the powers of nature, is further increased by the addition of abstractions, taken from ethical relations; and to these as to the other deities divine powers, personal existence and activity are ascribed. Into this multitude of divine figures, the spirit of inquiry seeks at a later stage to introduce order, by classifying and co-ordinating them according to their principal bearings. The principle followed in this distribution is, like the conception of the deities themselves, entirely borrowed from the contemplation of nature. We have the gods who act in the heavens, in the air, upon the earth; and of these the sun, the wind, and fire are recognized as the main representatives and rulers respectively. These three gradually obtain precedence over all the other gods, who are only looked upon as their creatures and servants. Strengthened by these classifications, speculation presses on and seeks to establish the relative position of these three deities, and to arrive at unity for the supreme Being. This is accomplished either speculatively, by actually assuming such a supreme and purely absolute. Being, viz., "Brahman" (neut), to whom these three in their turn stand in the relation of creatures, of creatures, of servants only; or arbitrarily, according as one or other of the three is worshipped as the supreme god. The sun-god seems in the first instance to have been promoted to this honour? the Perso-Aryans at all events retained this standpoint, of course extending it still further; and in the older parts of the Brahmanas also—to which rather than to the Samhitas the Avesta is related in respect of age and contents—we find the sun-god here and there exalted far above the other deities (*prasavita devanam*). We also find ample traces of this in the forms of worship, which so often preserve relics of antiquity. Nay, as "Brahman" (masc), he has in theory retained this position, down even to the latest times, although in a very colourless manner. His colleagues, the air and fire gods, in consequence of their much more direct and sensible influence, by degrees obtained complete possession of the supreme power, though constantly in conflict with each other. Their worship has passed through a long series of different phases, and it is evidently the same which Megasthenes found in Hindustan, and which at the time of the Periplus had penetrated, though in a form already very corrupt, as far as the southernmost point of the Dekhan."

c5.11

3. The Gods created Devavāṇī :

c5.12

देवीं वाचमजनयन्त देवास्तां विश्वरूपाः पशवो वदन्ति ।
सा नो मंद्रेषमूर्जं दुहाना धेनुर्वागस्मानुपसुष्टुतैतु ॥ *Rg.* VIII. 100-11.

c5.13

इन्द्रावरुणा यदृषिभ्यो मनीषां वाचो मतिं श्रुतमदत्तमग्रे ।
यानि स्थानान्यसृजन्त धीरा यज्ञं तन्वानास्तपसाम्यपश्यम् ॥ *Rg.* VIII. 59-6.

c5.14

Patañjali says in his Mahābhāṣya :

c5.15

चत्वारि शृङ्गा त्रयो अस्य पादा द्वे शीर्षे सप्त हस्तासो अस्य ।
त्रिधा बद्धो वृषभो रोरवीति महो देवो मर्त्याँ आविवेश ॥"
ऋग्वेद ४।५८।३

c5.16

अत्र व्याकरणमहाभाष्यभावको गोनर्दीयो गोणिकातनयो नानादर्शननिष्णातॊ भगवान् पतञ्जलिः प्राह—"चत्वारि शृङ्गाणि चत्वारि पदजातानि नामाख्यातोपसर्गनिपाताश्च । त्रयो अस्य पादाः । त्रयः कालाः भूतभविष्यद्वर्तमानाः । द्वे शीर्षे । द्वौ शब्दात्मानौ, नित्यः कार्य्यश्च । सप्त हस्तासो अस्य । सप्त विभक्तयः । त्रिधा बद्धः । त्रिषु स्थानेषु बद्धः । उरसि कण्ठे शिरसीति । वृषभो वर्षणात् रोरवीति शब्दं करोति । कुत एतत् । रौतिः शब्दकर्मा । महो देवो मर्त्याँ आविवेशेति । महान् देवः शब्दो मर्त्याँ मरणधर्माणो मनुष्याः तानाविवेश । महता देवेन नः साम्यं यथा स्यादित्यध्येयं व्याकरणम् ।" (इति महाभाष्ये पस्पशायाम्) ।

c5.17

Vidyāraṇya adopts Paṭañjali's views in his Introduction to his commentary on Ṛg Veda and there in speaking of the importance of the study of Grammar, he says :

c5.18

व्याकरणमपि प्रकृतिप्रत्ययाद्युपदेशेन पदस्वरूपतदर्थनिश्चयायोपयुज्यते । तथाचैन्द्रवायवग्रहब्राह्मणे । समाम्नायते वाग्वै पराच्यव्याकृतावदत्ते देवा इंद्रमब्रुवन्निमां नो वाचं व्याकुर्विति । सोऽब्रवीद्वरं वृणै मह्यं चैवैष वायवे च सह गृह्याता इति तस्मादैन्द्रवायवः सह गृह्येते । तामिंद्रे मध्यतोऽवक्रम्य व्याकरोत् । तस्मादियं व्याकृता वागुद्यते । तै सं ६ ४ ७ ३१ इति । अग्निमीळे पुरोहितमित्यादिवाक् पूर्वस्मिन् काले पराची समुद्रादिध्वनिवदेकात्मिका सती अव्याकृता प्रकृतिः प्रत्ययः पदं वाक्यमित्यादिविभागकारिग्रंथरहितासीत् । तदानीं देवैः

c5.19

प्रार्थितं इंद्र एकस्मिन्नेव पात्रे वायोः स्वस्य च सोमरसग्रहणरूपेण वरेण तुष्टस्तामखंड-वाचं मध्ये विच्छिद्य प्रकृतिप्रत्ययादिविभागं सर्वत्राकरोत् । तस्मादियं वागिदानीमपि पाणि-न्यादिमहर्षिभिव्र्याकृता सर्वैः पठ्यत इत्यर्थः ।

c5.20

उतत्वः पश्यन्न ददर्श वाचमुतत्वः शृण्वन्नशृणोत्येनां । उतोत्वस्मै तन्वं विससे जायेव पत्य उशती सुवासाः । ऋग्वे १० । ७१ । ४ । अपि खल्वेकः पश्यन्नपि न पश्यति । अपि खल्वेकः शृण्वन्नपि न शृणोत्येनां । अविद्वांसमाहार्थं । तस्मै अन्यस्मै तन्वं विसस्रे । तनुं विवृणुते । जायेव पत्य उशती सुवासाः यथा जाया पत्ये कामयमाना सुवासाः स्वमात्मानं विवृणुत एवं वाग्वाग्विदे स्वमात्मानं विवृणुते । वाङ्नो विवृणुयादित्यध्येयं व्याकरणम् । सक्तुमिव तितउना पुनंतो यत्र धीरा मनसा वाचमक्रत । अत्रासखायः सख्यानि जानते भद्रैषां लक्ष्मीर्निहिताधिवाचि । ऋग्वे १० । ७१ । २ । सक्तुः सचतेर्दुधो वा भवति । कसतेर्वा स्याद्विपरीतस्य विकसितो भवति । तितउ परिपवनं भवति ततवद्वा तुन्नवद्वा । धीरा ध्यानवंतो मनसा प्रज्ञानेन वाचमक्रत । वाचमकृषत । अत्रा सखायः सख्यानि जानते ! अत्र सखायः सख्यानि संजानते सायुज्यानि जानते । क एष दुर्गो मार्ग एकगम्यः । वाग्विषयः । के पुनस्ते । वैयाकरणाः । कुत एतत् । भद्रैषां लक्ष्मीर्निहिताधिवाचि । एषां वाचि भद्रालक्ष्मीर्निहिता भवति । लक्ष्मीर्लक्षणाद्भासनात्परिवृढाभवति । सारस्वतीं । याज्ञिकाः पठति । आहिताग्निरपशब्दं प्रयुंजानः प्रायश्चित्तीयां सारस्वतीमिष्टिं निर्वपेदिति । प्रायश्चित्तीया मा भूमेत्यध्येयं व्याकरणम् ।

c5.21

Dvijendranath Guha collects some other references :

c5.22

तत्रैव भगवान् यास्कः—‘‘चत्वारि शृङ्गेति वेदा वा एत उक्ताः । त्रयो अस्य पादा इति सवनानि त्रीणि । द्वे शीर्षे प्रायणीयोदयनीये । सप्त हस्तासः सप्त छन्दांसि । त्रिधा बद्धस्त्रेधा बद्धो मन्त्रब्राह्मणकल्पैः । वृषभो रोरवीति रोरवणमस्य सवनक्रमेण ऋग्भिर्यजुर्भिः सामभिर्यदेनमृग्भिः शंसन्ति यजुभिर्यजन्ति सामभिः स्तुवन्ति । महो देव इत्येष हि महान् देवो यद्यज्ञो मर्त्याँ आविवेशेत्येष हि मनुष्यानावेशति यजनाय’’। (इति नैरुक्ते परिशिष्टे—१३।२।७) ।

c5.23

यद्वा—

c5.24

चत्वारि वाक्परिमिता पदानि तानि विदुर्ब्राह्मणा ये मनीषिणः ।
गुहा त्रीणि निहिता नेङ्गयन्ति तुरीयं वाचो मनुष्या वदन्ति ॥
ऋग्वेदे १।१६४।४५, अथर्ववेदेऽपि ९।२५।२७/२६।१

c5.25

अत्रापि च यास्काचार्यपादाः—‘‘चत्वारि वाचः परिमितानि पादानि तानि विदुर्ब्राह्मणा ये मेधाविनो गुहायां त्रीणि निहितानि नार्थं वेदयन्ते । गुहा गृहेतेस्तुरीयं त्वरतेः । कतमानि तानि चत्वारि पदान्योङ्कारो महाव्याहृतयश्चेत्यार्षम् । नामाख्याते चोपसर्गनिपाताश्चेति वैयाकरणाः । मन्त्रः कल्पो ब्राह्मणं चतुर्थी व्यावहारिकीति याज्ञिकाः । ऋचो यजूंषि सामानि चतुर्थी व्यावहारिकीति नैरुक्ताः । सर्पाणां वाग्वयसां क्षुद्रस्य सरीसृपस्य चतुर्थी व्यावहारिकीत्येके । पशुषु तूणवेषु मृगेष्वात्मनि चेत्यात्मप्रवादाः । अथापि ब्राह्मणं भवति, सा वै वाक् सृष्टा चतुर्धा

c5.26

व्यम्वदेष्वेव लोकेषु त्रीणि पशुषु तुरीयम् । या पृथिव्यां साऽग्नौ, सा रथन्तरे यान्तरिक्षे, सा वायौ सा वामदेव्ये । या दिवि साऽदित्ये, या बृहति सा स्तनयित्नौ । अथ पशुषु ततो या वागव्यरिच्यत तां ब्राह्मणेष्बदधुस्तस्माद् ब्राह्मणा उभयीं वाचं वदन्ति या च देवानां या च मनुष्याणामिति ।” (इति नैरुक्ते परिशिष्टे—१३।१।६) । अथैषाक्षरस्य स्तुतिः तावत् ऋग्वेदे १।१६४।३६, अथर्ववेदे ६।२८।८, तैत्तिरीय आरण्यके १०।१३, पुनः ऋग्वेदे १०।७१।८, नैरुक्ते परिशिष्टे च १३।१।१०-१३ वर्तते । (अत्रत्यदुर्गाचार्यव्याख्यानमपि द्रष्टव्यम्) ।

c5.27

भूयश्च नैरुक्ते उपोद्घातप्रकरणे पदचतुष्टयोद्देशे उक्तम्— “तद्यान्येतानि चत्वारि पदजातानि नामाख्याते चोपसर्गनिपाताश्च तानीमानि भवन्ति” । अनन्तरं सप्तचत्वारिंशदक्षराण्युद्भूतानीति श्रूयते । यथा— “‘सर्वे स्वरा इन्द्रस्यात्मानः । सर्वे ऊष्माणः प्रजापतेरात्मानः । सर्वे स्पर्शा मृत्योरात्मानः ।” (सामवेदीयछान्दोग्योपनिषद्, २।२२।३) । अत्र स्वराणाम् इन्द्रः एव कर्त्ता (अर्थात् सर्वे अकारादयश्चतुर्दश स्वरा देवराजेन इन्द्रेण उद्भाविताः) । शषसहाः—प्रजापतिना चन्द्रेण च । कादयो मपर्यन्तानि समुदायक्षराणि महादेवेन च वर्णितानि (ककारादयः स्पर्शवर्णा यरलवाश्च) ! अत्रैव शाङ्करभाष्यम्—“‘सर्वे स्वरा अकारादयः इन्द्रस्य बलकर्मणः प्राणस्याऽऽत्मानो देहावयवस्थानीयाः । सर्व ऊष्माणः शषसहादयः प्रजापतेर्विराजः कश्यपस्यैवाऽऽत्मानः । सर्वे स्पर्शाः कादयो व्यञ्जनानि मृत्योरात्मानः ।

c5.28

\* \* \* \* \*

c5.29

इन्द्रादयो वेदे देवताः प्रख्याताः । तेषाम् आवासात् (त्रिदशालयात् देवनगराद्वा) सप्तचत्वारिंशदक्षराण्याविर्भूतानि । तन्निमित्तमेव “देवनागरः वर्णः” इति कथ्यते, तदन्विता भाषा “देवभाषा” इति व्यपदिश्यते । तथाहि— “एते वै देवाः प्रत्यक्षं यद् ब्राह्मणाः ।” ऋक्संहितायामपि नेम ऋषिः (८।१००।११)— “देवीं वाचमजनयन्त देवास्तां विश्वरूपाः पशवो वदन्ति ।”

c5.30

अत्र सायणभाष्यम्—“‘एषा माध्यमिका वाक् सर्वप्राण्यन्तर्गता धर्माभिवादिनी भवतीति विभूतिमुपदर्शयति यां देवीं द्योतमानां माध्यमिकां वाचं देवा माध्यमिका अजनयन्त जनयन्ति तां वाचं विश्वरूपाः सर्वरूपाः व्यक्तवाचः अव्यक्तवाचश्च पशवो वदन्ति तत्पूर्वकत्वात् वाक्यप्रवृत्तेः

c5.31

\* \* \* \* \*

c5.32

दीर्घतमा औचथ्यः पुनरेव—“मन्त्रयन्ते दिवो अमुष्य पृष्ठे विश्वविदं वाचमविश्वमिन्वाम्” (ऋग्वेद १।१६४।१०) । सायणभाष्यम् तत्रैव—

c5.33

“‘\* \* \* \* \*

c5.34

दिवः पृष्ठे द्युलोकस्योपरि अन्तरिक्षे मन्त्रयन्ते गुप्तं परस्परं भाषन्ते देवाः किं विश्वविदं विश्ववेदनसमर्थां विश्वैर्वेन्दनीयां वा अविश्वमिन्वाम् असर्वव्यापिनीं वाचे गर्जितलक्षणास्

c5.35

¹ *JSSP*, XVIII.

c5.36

अमुष्य आदित्यस्य संबन्धिनीं मन्त्रयन्ते इत्यर्थः ।” तस्मिन् काले भाषा अव्याकृता अभूत् । यथा—“वाग् वै पराची अव्याकृता अवदत् ।” देवसृष्टा साषा “देवभाषा” सर्वजनमान्या सर्वविदिता च । ततश्च, चतुर्मुखस्य आदेशात् इन्द्र-चन्द्र-महेशाः “व्याकरणं” नाम शब्दशास्त्रं विरचयाम्बभूवुः ।

c5.37

तत्रमाहेश व्याकरणविषये किंवदन्तीः—

c5.38

“यान्युज्जहार माहेशाद् व्यासो व्याकरणार्णवात् ।
किन्तानि पदरत्नानि सन्ति पाणिनिगोष्पदे ।” इति ।

c5.39

पक्षान्तरे यमस्य शब्दशास्त्रं न विद्यते इत्येव प्रसिद्धिः । तथाहि पाणिनीयशिक्षाग्रन्थे, (३)—“त्रिषष्टिश्चतुःषष्टिर्वा वर्णाः शम्भुमते स्थिताः” अत एव अत्र जगति त्रेतायुगस्य इन्द्र-चन्द्र-महेशाः आदितोऽक्षरोत्पादनकर्त्तार एवेति सम्यग् बोध्यम् ॥

c5.40

4. *Saṃskṛta*, or as now written, Sanskrit, is the language of the Gods, *Gīrvāṇavāṇī*. In this language stand the ancient scriptures of Vedic and Purāṇic religion. The Vedic literature is the most ancient record of any people of the world and forms the source of the earliest history of the Indo-Aryan race, nay, mankind as a whole.

c5.41

“The Veda has two-fold interest : it belongs to the history of the world and to the history of India. In the history of the world, the Veda fills a gap which no literary work in any other languages could fill. It carries us back to times of which we have no records anywhere, and gives us the very words of a generation of men, of whom otherwise we could form but the vaguest estimate by means of conjectures and inferences. As long as man continues to take an interest in the history of his race, and as long as we collect in libraries and museums the relics of former ages, the first place in that long row of books which contains the records of the Aryan branch of mankind, will belong for ever to the *Rig-veda*. The world of the Veda is a world by itself ; and its relation to all the rest of Sanskrit literature is such, that the Veda ought not to receive, but to throw light over the whole historical development of the Indian mind.”

c5.42

The literature of the Vedas is termed Śruti, meaning what has been heard, that is, what is not the work of man.

c5.43

5. Vedas are eternal (*nitya*), beginningless (*anādi*) and not made by man (*apauruṣeya*); (2) they were destroyed in the deluge at the end of the last *Kalpa*, and (3) that at the beginning of the present *Kalpa*

c5.44

commencing with the *Kṛta-yuga* of this present Mahāyuga, the Ṛishis,¹ through *tapas*, re-produced in substance if not in form the ante-diluvian Vēdas which they carried in their memory by the favour of God.] [This is another expression of the historical view of modern scholars, like Mr. Tilak. They state that the Vedic or Āryan religion can be proved to be interglacial, but its ultimate origin is still lost in geological antiquity, that the Āryan religion and culture were destroyed during the last glacial period that invaded the Arctic Āryan home, and that the Vedic hymns were sung in post-glacial times by poets, who had inherited the knowledge or contents therein of an unbroken tradition from their ante-diluvian fore-fathers.]

c5.45

¹ Bṛhaddevaṭa enumerates woman-seers of the hymns.

c5.46

On the commencement of Vedic era, opinions are at the opposite poles. Tradition takes it to a remote age of millions of years on the computation of *yugas*.]

c5.47

[In his *Arctic Home in the Vedas*, B. G. Tilak divides the whole period from the commencement of the Postglacial era, corresponding to the beginning of our Krita Yuga of the present Mahayuga to the birth of Buddha in five parts :—

c5.48

[“I. 10,000-8,000 B.C.—The destruction of the original Arctic home by the last Ice Age and the commencement of the post-glacial period.”

c5.49

II. 8,000-5,000 B.C.—The age of the migration from the original home.] The survivors of the Aryan race roamed over the northern parts of Europe and Asia in search of lands suitable for new settlements. [The Vernol Equinox was then in the constellation of Punarvasu, and as the Aditti is the presiding deity of Punarvasu, according to the terminology adopted by me in Orion, this may therefore, be called the Aditi or the Pre-Orion Period.]

c5.50

III. 5,000-3,000 B. C.—The Orion Period, when the Vernal Equinox was in Orion. Many Vedic Hymns can be traced to the

c5.51

गोधा घोषा विश्वपारा पालेपाम्मातृकर्पिका ।
ब्रह्मजाया जुहूर्नाम अगस्त्यस्य स्वसा दितिः ।
इन्द्राणी चेन्द्रमाता च सरमा रोमशोर्वशी ।
लोपामुद्रा च नद्यश्च यमी नारी च शाश्वती ।
श्रीर्लाक्षा सार्पराज्ञी वाक् श्रद्धा मेधा च दक्षिणा ।
रात्री सूर्या च सावित्री ब्रह्मवादिन्य ईरिताः ॥

c5.52

early part of this period and the bards of the race seem to have not yet forgotten the real import or significance of the traditions of the Arctic Home inherited by them. It was at this time that the first attempts to reform the calendar and the sacrificial system appear to have been systematically made.

c5.53

IV. 3,060-1,400 B.C.—The Kṛittikā Period, when the Vernal Equinox was in the Pleiddes. The Aitarēya Samhita and the Brahmaṇas, which begin the series of Nakshatras with the Kṛittikas are evidently the productions of this period. The compilation of the hymns into Samhitas also appears to be a work of the early part of this period. The traditions about the Original Arctic home had grown dim by this time and very often misunderstood, making the Vēdic hymns more unintelligible. The sacrificial system and the numerous details thereof found in the Brahmaṇas seem to have been developed during this time. It was at the end of this period that the Vēdānga Jyōtisha was originally composed or at any rate the position of the equinoxes mentioned therein observed and ascertained.

c5.54

V. 1,400-500 B. C.—The Pre-Buddhistic Period, when the Sūtras and the Philosophical system made their appearance."

c5.55

6. "The atmosphere of England and Germany seems decidedly unpropitious to the recognition of this great Indian antiquity so stubbornly opposed to the Mosaic revelation and its Chronology dearly and piously cherished by these Western Orientalists. Strongly permeated with the Chronology of the Bible which places the creation of the Earth itself about 4,004 B.C., European scholars cannot place the great separation of the Original Āryan races themselves earlier than 2,000 B.C., and the first historical entry of the Hindu Āryas into the continent of India before 1,500 B.C." Arthur A. Macdonell, may be said to summarise the opinions of these Western Orientalists, when he says:—

c5.56

"History is the one weak spot in Indian literature. It is, in fact, non-existent. The total lack of the historical sense is so characteristic, that the whole course of Sanskrit literature is darkened by the shadow of the defect, suffering as it does from the entire absence of exact chronology....Two causes seem to have combined to bring about this remarkable result. In the first place, early India wrote no *history*, because it never made any. The ancient Indians never went through a struggle for life, like Greeks in the Persian and the Romans in the Punic wars, such as would have welded their tribes into a nation, and developed political greatness. Secondly, the Brāhmans, whose task it

c5.57

would naturally have been to record great deeds, had early embraced the doctrine that all action and existence are a positive evil, and could threfore have felt but little inclination to chronicle historical events. Such being the case, definite dates do not begin to appear in Indian literary history till about 500 A.D. The chronology of the Vēdic period is altogether conjectural, being based entirely on internal evidence. Three main literary strata can be clearly distinguished in it by differences in language and style, as well as in religious and social views. For the development of each of these strata a reasonable length of time must be allowed ; but all we can here hope to do is to approximate to the truth by centuries. The lower limit of the second Vēdic stratum cannot however be fixed later than 500 B.C., because its latest doctrines are presupposed by Buddhism, and the date of the death of Buddha has been with a high degree of probability calculated, from the recorded dates of the various Buddhist councils, to be 480 B.C. With regard to the commencement of the Vēdic Age, there seems to have been a decided tendency amongst Sanskrit scholars to place it too high. 2,000 B.C. is commonly represented as its starting point. Supposing this to be correct, the truly vast period of 1,500 years is required to account for a development of language and thought hardly greater than that between Homeric and the Attic age of Greece. Professor Max Muller's earlier estimate of 1,200 B.C., forty years ago, appears to be much nearer the mark. A lapse of three centuries, say from 1,300-1,000 B.C., would amply account for the difference between what is oldest and newest in Vēdic hymn poetry. Considering that the affinity of the oldest from of the Avestan language with the dialect of the Vēdas is already so great that, by mere application of phonetic laws, whole Avestan stanzas may be translated word for word into Vēdic, so as to produce verses correct not only in form but in poetic spirit; considering further, that if we know the Avestan language, at as early a stage as we know the Vēdic, the former would necessarily be almost identical with the latter, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the Indian branch must have separated from the Irānian only a very short time before the beginnings of Vēdic literature, and can therefore have hardly entered the North-West of India even as early as early as 1,500 B.C. All previous estimates of the antiquity of the Vēdic period have been outdone by the recent theory of Professor Jacobi of Bonn, who supposes that period goes back to at least 4,000 B.C. This theory is based on astronomical calculations connected with a change in the beginning of the seasons, which Professor Jacobi thinks has taken place since the time of the *Rigveda*. The whole estimate is, however, invalidated by the assumption of a doubtful, and even improbable, meaning in a Vedic word, which forms the very starting point of the theory."

c5.58

7. "The history of the Sanskrit literature divides itself into two great ages, Vaidika and Laukika—Sacred and Profane,—Scriptural and Classical. The Mahabharata War is the dividing line between the two: The Vedic Age may again be divided into several distinct periods, each of which for length of years may well compare with that of the entire history of many an ancient nation, 1. Chanḍas Period, 2. Samhiṭa Period, 3. Brahmaṇa Period, 4. Āraṇyaka Period and 5. Upaniṣad Period. Each of these periods has a distinct literature of its own, vast in its extent, and varied in its civilisation, each giving rise to the subsequent period under the operation of great social, political and religious causes; and the philosophical historian of human civilisation need not be a Hindu to think that the Ancient Āryas of India, have preserved the fullest, the clearest and the truest materials for his work."

c5.59

8. "There are four Vedas, Rik (ऋक्), Yajur (यजुस्), Sāma (साम) and Atharvana (अथर्वण) and each Veḍa has Samhitā (manṭra) Brāhmaṇa, Sūṭra and Upaniṣad. The first three Veḍas are called together as *Trayī* and they are called in Brahmanas also by the name ricas, Samani and Yajūmṣi, or Bhahvṛcas, Chanḍogas and Adhvaryus, The Sutras apply the term chanḍas to the Samhitas. Pāṇini uses the terms chanḍas and Bhāṣa to distinguish Vedic and non-Vedic literature. Yajurveḍa has two Samhiṭas called Śukla and Kṛṣṇa; or Vajasaneya and Ṭaiṭṭirīya."

c5.60

"The Samhita of the Ṛk is purely a lyrical collection, forming the immediate source of the other three. The next two are made up of verses and ritual formulæ, meant to be recited at sacrifices. The Atharva Samhita resembles the Rik in that it forms a store of songs, devoted to sacrifices mostly in connection with incantations and magical charms."

c5.61

9. The Brahmanic period comprehends "the first establishment of the three-fold ceremonial, the composition of the individual Brahmanas and the formation of the Charanas. They connect the sacrificial songs and formulas with the sacrificial rite by pointing out on the one hand their direct relation, and on the other their symbolical connection with each other. Their general nature is marked by masterly grandiloquence, and antiquarian sincerity. Though in the words of Prof.

c5.62

Eggeling, these works deserve to be studied as a physician studies the twaddle of idiots or the raving of mad men, they lack not striking thoughts, bold expression and logical reasoning. The Brahmanas of the Rik generally refer to the duties of the Hotr; of the Saman, to those of Udgatr; of the Yajus, to the actual performance of the sacrifice. They are valuable to us as the earliest records of Sanskrit prose.”

c5.63

10. “The Sūtra literature forms a connecting link between the Vedic and the classical Sanskrit. ‘Sutra’ means a ‘string’ and compatibly with this sense, all works of this style are nothing but one uninterrupted chain of short sentences linked together in a most concise form.

c5.64

Sutras represented a scientific expression of the tradition and discussion recounted in Brāhmaṇas. They systematised the source of the rituals and so far as Kalpasūtras or Śrautasūtras go, they relate strictly to śruti or the Vedas. To these sūtras have been added Gṛhyasūtras or those that regulate domestic rites. They are partly based on śrutis and partly on smṛtis (unrevealed literature). Sūtras have been the consequence of a national need for concise guide-books for ceremonial, and represented a ‘codification of case-law’ in the sphere of sacrifices and ceremonials.¹

c5.65

¹ It might be seen that the usefulness of this species of composition was so much appreciated that in every branch of learning sūtras came to be composed and indeed are said to be the most ancient form of the sciences.

c5.66

11. Upaniṣads² are expressions of philosophical concepts. They embody the beginnings and progrers of esoteric ideas, which had to a large extent been mentioned in Āraṇyakas, writings supplementary to Brāhmaṇas.

c5.67

² The authority of compositions like Upanishads has come to be respected to such an extent that in later times, several of that name were brought into being very often sectarian in their tenor. We have ‘108 Upanishads’ and if not more on various topics, for instance, Garbhopaniṣad on embryology and Manmathopaniṣad on erotics.

c5.68

12. A. Weber sums up the direct data attesting the posteriority of the Classical Period thus:—

c5.69

(i) Its opening phases everywhere presuppose the Vedic period as entirely closed; its oldest portions are regularly based on the Vedic literature; the relations of life have now all arrived at a stage of development of which in the first period we can only trace the germs and the beginning.

c5.70

The distinction between the periods is also by changes in language and subject-matter.

c5.71

*First, as regards language*:—

c5.72

1. The special characteristics in the second period are so significant, that it appropriately furnishes the name for the period, whereas the Vedic period receives its designation from the works composing it.

c5.73

2. Among the various dialects of the different Indo-Aryan tribes, a greater unity had been established after their emigration into India, as the natural result of their interminging in their new home. The grammatical study of the Vedas fixed the frame of the language so that the generally recognised *Bhasha* had arisen. The estrangement of the civic language from that of the mass accelerated by the assimilation of the aboriginal races resulted in the formation of the popular dialects, the prakrits—proceeding from the original *Bhasha* by the assimilation of consonants and by the curtailment or loss of termination.

c5.74

3. The phonetic condition of Sanskrit remains almost exactly the same as that of the earliest Vedic. In the matter of grammatical forms, the language shows itself almost stationary. Hardly any new formations or inflexions make their appearance yet. The most notable of these grammatical changes were the disappearance of the subjunctive mood and the reduction of a dozen infinitives to a single one. In declension the change consisted chiefly in the dropping of a number of synonymous forms.

c5.75

4. The vocabulary of the language has undergone the greatest modifications. It has been extended by derivation and composition according to recognised types. Numerous words though old seem to be new, because they happen by accident not to occur in the Vedic literature. Many new words have come in through continental borrowings from a lower stratum of language, while already existing words have undergone great changes of meaning.

c5.76

*Secondly, as regards the subject-matter*:—

c5.77

1. The Vedic literature handles its various subjects only in their details and almost solely in their relation to sacrifice, whereas the classical discusses them in their general relations.

c5.78

2. In the former a simple and compact prose had gradually been developed, but in the latter this form is abandoned and a rhythmic one adopted in its stead, which was employed exclusively even for strictly scientific exposition.

c5.79

"That difference of metre should form a broad line of demarcation between the periods of literature is not at all without analogy in the literary history of other nations, particularly in other times. If once a new form of metre begins to grow popular by the influence of a poet who succeeds in collecting a school of other poets around him, this new mode of utterance is very apt to supersede the other more ancient forms altogether. People become accustomed to the new rhythm sometimes to such a degree, that they lost entirely the taste for their old poetry on account of its obsolete measure. No poet, therefore, who writes for the people, would think of employing those old fashioned metres; and we find that early popular poems have had to be transfused into modern verse in order to make them generally readable once more.

c5.80

Now it seems that the regular and continuous Anushtubh sloka is a metre unknown during the Vedic age, and every work written in it may at once be put down as post-Vedic. It is no valid objection that this epic sloka occurs also in Vedic hymns, that Anushtubh verses are frequently quoted in the Brahmanas, and that in some of the Sutras the Anushtubh-sloka occurs intermixed with Trishtubhs, and is used for the purpose of recapitulating what had been explained before in prose. For it is only the *uniform* employment of that metre which constitutes the characteristic mark of a new period of literature.¹

c5.81

¹ Muir's *Critical History*, III, c. i.

c5.82

**13.** "The languages of the world have been divided into three families, the Aryan or Indo-European, the Semitic and the Turanian. The first comprises the Indian branch, consisting of Sanskrit, Pali and the Prakrits, and the modern vernaculars of Northern India and Ceylon; the Iranic branch consisting of Zend, the sacred language of the Parsis, the Pehlevi and the other cognate dialects; the Hellenic or the Greek branch, comprising the languages of Ancient Greece and its modern representatives; the Italic branch, consisting of the Latin and cognate ancient languages of Italy and the dialects derived from Latin, the Italian, the French and the old Provencal, the Spanish, the Portugese, and the Wallachian; the Keltic or the language of those Kelts or Gauls that so often figure in Romam History, and distinguished into two varieties, the Kymric, now spoken in Wales and in the Province of Brittany in France, and the Gaelic, spoken in the Isle of Man, the Highlands of Scotland, and Ireland; the Lithunian and Slavonic, comprising the languages of Lithunia, Russia, Bulgaria, and of the Slavonic races generally; and the Teutonic branch, consisting of the Scandinavian group, i. e., the languages of Sweden, Norway, Iceland, and Denmark, of the High German *i.e.* the old and the present language of Germany, and of the Low German, which comprised the old Anglo- Saxon and the other languages spoken on the coasts of Germany, the modern representatives of which are the English, and the dialects spoken in Holland, Friesland, and the North of Germany. The second family comprises the Hebrew, the Arabic, the Chaldee, the Syriac, the Carthaginian, and the cognate and derived languages; and the third, the Turkish and the languages of the Mongolian tribes. To this last family the dialects spoken in Southern India are also to be inferred. The Zend approaches Sanskrit the most, but the affinities of this latter with Greek and Latin are also very striking, and such as to convince even a determined sceptic. Sanskrit has preserved a greater number of ancient forms than any of these languages, hence it is indispensable for purposes of comparative philology.”

c5.83

14. “India may justly claim to be the original home of scientific philology. In one of the most ancient Sanskrit books, the Samhita of of the Black Yajurveda, there are distinct indications of the dawn of linguistic study.¹ The Brahmaṇas of the Vedas which rank next to the Samhitas, and even the Taittiriya Samhita itself, the composition of which differs in no particular from its Brahmana, are all full of etymological explanations of words, though often they are fanciful.² One Acharya 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, Yaska, 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.

c5.84

¹ वाग्वै पराच्यव्याकृतावदत्ते देवा इन्द्रमब्रुवन्निमां नो वाचं व्याकुर्विति सोऽब्रवीद्वरं वृणै मह्यं चैवैष वायवे च सह गृह्याता इति तस्मादैन्द्रवायवः सह गृह्यते तामिन्द्रो मध्यतोऽवक्रम्य व्याकरोत्तस्मादियं व्याकृता वागुच्यते. Speech was once inarticulate and undistinguished (into its parts). Then the gods said to Indra, 'Distinguish our speech into parts.' He said, 'I will ask a gift of you, let Soma be poured into one cup for me and Vayu together.' Hence Soma is poured into one cup for Indra and Vayu together. Then Indra going into its midst distinguished it. Hence distinct speech is now spoken. Tait. Smh., VI, 4, 7.

c5.85

² The Ait. Brahm. gives the etymology of प्रेष (III. 9), of मानुष (III. 23), of जाया (VII. 13); the Tait. Samh., of रुद्र (I. 5,1), of वृत्र (II. 4,12 and II. 5, 2 the Tait. Brahm. of अश्व (I. 1,5), o नक्षत्र (II. 7,18), &c. &c.

c5.86

The last of the grammarian Acharyas were Paṇini, Katyayana, and Patañjali. The Prakṛit 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 became Prakṛit 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.

c5.87

In this condition Sanskrit philology passed into the hands of Europeans. The discovery of Sanskrit and the Indian grammatical system at the close of the last century led to a total revolution in the philological ideas of Europeans. But several circumstances had about this time prepared Europe for independent thought in philology, and Sanskrit supplied the principles upon which it should be conducted, and determined the current in which it should run. The languages of Europe, ancient and modern, were compared with Sanskrit and with each other. This led to comparative philology and the classification of languages, and a comparison of the words and forms in the different languages led scholars into the secrets of the growth of human speech, and the science of language was added to the test of existing branches of knowledge."¹

c5.88

¹ R. G. Bhandarkar, *Lectures on Development of Language of Sanskrit*, Bombay.

c5.89

It has been said by eminent writers that at one time sanskrit was the one language spoken all over the world. "Sanskrit is the mother of Greek, Latin and German languages and it has no other relation to them," that "sanskrit is the original source of all the European languages of the present days," and that "in point of fact the Zind is derived from the sanskrit."²

c5.90

² *Hindu Superiority*, 172-8; A. Dubois' *Bible in India*; MaxMuller's *Science of Language*, I. 225-6 note; Dvijendranath Guha's, *Devabhasha*, JSSP, XVIII. 150.

c5.91

15. Tradition traces the beginnings of the sanskrit language to the fourteen aphorisms or Māheśvara sūṭras. They are अ इ उ ण् onwards to ळ् ल्. These sounds, vowel and consonant, emanated from the sound of Śiva's damaru (drum) at the time of his dance. To these letters and sounds is attached a mystic significance and Nanḍikeśvara has explained their import with all solemnity. As the Kārikas of Nanḍikeśvara are rare, they are printed here.³

c5.92

³ They are printed with the commentary of Upamanyu, in the Nirnayosagara Edn. of *Mahabhasya*, p. 132.

c5.93

ॐ
श्रीकृष्णाय नमः ॥

c5.94

1. नृत्तावसाने नटराजराजो ननाद ढक्कां नवपंचवारं ।
उद्धर्तुकामः सनकादिसिद्धानेताद्वमर्शे शिवसूत्रजालम् ॥

c5.95

2. अत्र सर्वत्र सूत्रेषु अंत्यवर्णं चतुर्दशं ।
धात्वर्थं समुपादिष्टं पाणिन्यादीष्टसिद्धये ॥

c5.96

। अ इ उ ण् ।

c5.97

3. अकारो ब्रह्मरूपः स्यान्निर्गुणः सर्ववस्तुषु ।
चित्कलां सममाश्रित्य जगद्रूप उणेश्वरः ॥

c5.98

4. अकारस्सर्ववर्णाग्र्यः प्रकाशः परमेश्वरः ।
आद्यमंत्येन संयोगादहमित्येव जायते ॥

c5.99

5. सर्वे परात्मकं पूर्वं ज्ञप्तिमात्रमिदं जगत् ।
शक्तेर्बभूव पश्यंती मध्यमा वाक् ततः स्मृता ॥

c5.100

6. वक्त्रे विशुद्धचक्राख्ये वैखरी सा मता ततः ।
सृष्ट्याविर्भावमासाद्य मध्यमा वाक् समा मता ॥

c5.101

7. अकारं सन्निधीकृत्य जगतां कारणत्वतः ।
इकारः सर्ववर्णानां शक्तित्वात्कारणं गतम् ॥

c5.102

8. जगत्स्रष्टुमभूदिच्छा यदाह्यासीत्तदाभवत् ।
कामबीजमिति प्राहुर्मुुनयो वेदपाठगाः ॥

c5.103

9. अकारो ज्ञप्तिमात्रं स्यादिकारश्चित्कला मता ।
उकारो विष्णुरित्याहुर्व्यापकत्वान्महेश्वरः ॥

c5.104

। ऋ लृ क् ।

c5.105

10. ऋलृक् सर्वेश्वरो मायां मनोवृत्तिमदर्शयत् ।
तामेव वृत्तिमाश्रित्य जगद्रूपमजीजनत् ॥

c5.106

11. वृत्तिवृत्तिमतोस्तत्रभेदावेशो न विद्यते ।
चंद्रचंद्रिकयोः यद्वद्यथावागर्थयोरपि ॥

c5.107

12. स्वेच्छया स्वस्य चिच्छक्तौ विश्वमुन्मीलयत्यसौ ।
वर्णानां मध्यमं क्लीबम्मूलवर्णद्वयं विदुः ॥

c5.108

। ए ओ ङ् ।

c5.109

13. एओङ् मायेश्वरात्मैक्यविज्ञानं सर्ववस्तुषु ।
साक्षित्वात्सर्वभूतानां स एक इति निश्चितम् ॥

c5.110

। ऐ औ च् ।

c5.111

14. ऐओच् ब्रह्मस्वरूपः सन् जगत्सर्वंंतर्गतं ततः । इच्छया विस्तरं कर्तुमाविरासीन्महामुनिः ॥

c5.112

। ह य व र ट् ।

c5.113

15. भूतपंचकमेतस्माद्धयवरण महेश्वरात् । व्योमवाय्वंबुबह्नयाख्यभूतान्यासीत् स एव हि ॥
16. हकारो व्योमसंज्ञं च यकारो वायुरुच्यते । रकाराद्वह्नितोयं तु वकारादिति सैव वाक् ॥

c5.114

। ल ण् ।

c5.115

17. आधारभूतं भूतानामन्नादीनां च कारणम् । अन्नाद्रेतस्ततो जीवकारणत्वाल्लणीरितं ॥

c5.116

। ञ म ङ ण न म् ।

c5.117

18. शब्दस्पर्शा रूपरसगंधाश्च ञमङणनम् । व्योमादीनां गुणा ह्येते जानीयात्सर्ववस्तुषु ॥

c5.118

। झ भ ञ् ।

c5.119

19. वाक्पाणी च झभजासीद्रूपंचिदात्मनः । सर्वजंतुषु विज्ञेयं स्थावरादौ न विद्यते । वर्गाणां तुर्यवर्णा ये कर्मेंद्रियह्वया हि ते ॥

c5.120

। घ ढ ध ष् ।

c5.121

20. घढधष् सर्वभूतानां पादपायू उपस्थकः । कर्मेंद्रियगुणा ह्येते जाता हि परमार्थतः ॥

c5.122

। ज ब ग ड द श् ।

c5.123

21. श्रोत्रत्वंग् नयनघ्राणिजह्वाेंद्रियपंचकं । सर्वेषामपि जंतूनामीरीतं जबगडदश् ॥

c5.124

। ख फ छ ठ थ च ट त व् ।

c5.125

22. प्राणादिपंचकं चैव मनोबुद्धिरहंकृतिः । बभूव कारणत्वेन खफछठथ चटतव् ॥
23. वर्गद्वितीयवर्णोत्थः प्राणाद्याः पंचवायवः । मध्यवर्गत्रयाज्जाता अंतःकरणवृत्तयः ॥

c5.126

। क प य् ।
24. प्रकृतिं पुरुषं चैव सर्वेषामेव सम्मतम् ।
संभूतमिति विज्ञेयं कपय्स्यादिति निश्चितम् ॥
। श ष स र् ।
25. सत्त्वं रजस्तम इति गुणानां त्रितयं पुरा ।
समाश्रित्य महादेवः शषसर् क्रीडति प्रभुः ॥
26. शकाराद्राजसोद्भूतिः षकारात्तामसोद्भवः ।
सकारात्सत्त्वसंभूतिरिति त्रिगुणसंभवः ॥
। ह ल् ।
27. तत्त्वातीतः परः साक्षी सर्वानुग्रहविग्रहः ।
अहमात्मापरो हल् स्यामिति शंभुस्तिरोधधे ॥

c5.127

इति नंदिकेश्वरकृता काशिका समाप्ता ॥

c5.128

16. [" The literature of Sanskrit presents, as ordinarily considered, two varieties of the language; but a third may also, as I shall presently endeavour to show, be clearly distinguished. [Of these the most ancient is that found in the hymns of the Ṛigveda Samhitā. These were composed at different times and by different Ṛishis, and were transmitted from father to son in certain families. Thus the third of the ten collections, which make up the Samhitā bears the name of Viśvāmitra, and the hymns contained in it were composed by the great patriarch and his descendants. The seventh is ascribed to Vasishṭha and his family. The composition of these hymns therefore extended over a long period, the language is not the same throughout, and while sometimes they present a variety so close to the later Sanskrit that there is little difficulty in understanding them, the style of others is so antiquated that they defy all efforts at interpretation, and their sense was not understood even by the Ṛishis who flourished in the very next literary period, that of the Brāhmaṇas. Still for our purposes we may neglect these differences and consider the Vedic variety of Sanskrit as one."]

c5.129

17. [The history of Sanskrit affords considerable scope for a study of the growth of language. It presents distinct varieties of speech which are linked together exactly as Modern English is with the Anglo-Saxon. *The most ancient form* is that composing the text of the Rig Veda Samhita. Consisting of ten books, it was the work of different *rishis*, preserved by oral tradition in their families. Despite the minute distinctions in the language of the Rik Samhita, we may for all practical purposes treat the Vedic variety of Sanskrit as a compact dialect. Prominently, this dialect presents some peculiarities of form and usage, which may thus be summed up :

c5.130

(i) The nominative pulural of noun ending in अ is असस् as well as अस् *as* देवासः or देवाः, the instrumental being देवेभिः or देवैः,

c5.131

(ii) The nominative and the vocative dual and plural of nouns in अ not rarely end in आ *as* येनेमा विश्वा च्यवना कृतानि.

c5.132

(iii) The instrumental singular of feminine nouns in इ is occasionally formed by lengthening the vowel *as* धीती and मती.

c5.133

(iv) The locative singular termination is often elided *as* परमे व्योमन्.

c5.134

(v) The accusative of nouns in उ are formed by ordinary rules of euphonic combination *as* तन्वम् or तनुवम् ; and the instrumental by affixing आ or या or इया *as* उर्विया or साधुया.

c5.135

(vi) The dative of the personal pronouns ends in ए *as* युष्मे or अस्मे.

c5.136

(vii) The parasmaipada first person plural termination is मसि *as* त्वमस्माकन्ववस्मसि, and of the third person plural is रे or रते *as* दुह्रे or दुह्रते.

c5.137

(viii) The त of the ātmanepada termination is often dropped *as* दक्षिणतश्शेये ; and instead of ध्व there is ध्वात्, *as* वारयध्वात्.

c5.138

(ix) In the place of the imperative second person plural, there are त, तन, थन and तात् *as* शृणोत, पचतन, यतिष्ठन and कृणुतात्.

c5.139

(x) Eight different forms of the mood लेट्, signifying condition, are everywhere abundant *as* प्रण आयूंषि तारिषत्.

c5.140

(xi) Roots are not restricted to particular conjugations and at the caprice of the Rishi the same comes to more than one class.

c5.141

(xii) The infinitive suffixes are से, ध्ये, अध्यै, तवे and तवै *as* वक्षे, असे, पृणध्यै, सतवे and मादयतवै ; the accusatives of some nouns are treated as infinitives governed by शक्, *as* विभागं नाशक्त; the terminations तोस् and कस् occur when combined with ईश्वर *as* विचारितोः or विलिखः ; the potential participles are denoted by the suffixes तवै, ऐ, एण्य and त्व *as* म्लेच्छितवै, अवगाहे, दिदृक्षेण्य and कृत्वम्; the indeclinable past ends in त्वाय *as* गत्वाय; some forms as पक्त्वी are also met with.

c5.142

(xiii) A variety of verbal derivatives as दर्शत (*handsome*), जीवस् (*life*) and जनुस् (*product*) are frequent.

c5.143

(xiv) A large number of words which have become obsolete or lost their significance in later Sanskrit are everywhere abundant *as* परिपन्थि, वप्तृ and अमीवा.

c5.144

These peculiarities have been noted as the most frequent and the most salient, but many others are mentioned by Pāṇini. The Vedic dialect is the first record of the Sanskrit tongue, from which by processes of phonetic decay and natural elision the later language has been perfected.

c5.145

Here is a specimen of Vedic Sanskrit:—

c5.146

१. यच्चिद्धि ते विशो यथा प्र देव वरुण व्रतम् । मिनीमसि द्यविद्यवि ॥
२. मा नो वधाय हत्नवे जिहीळानस्य रीरधः । मा हृणानस्य मन्यवे ॥
५. कदा क्षत्रश्रियं नरमा वरुणं करामहे । मृळीकायोरुचक्षसम् ॥
७. वेदा यो वीनां पदमन्तरिक्षेण पतताम् । वेद नावः समुद्रियः ॥
१०. नि षसाद धृतव्रतो वरुणः पस्त्यास्वा । साम्राज्याय सुक्रतुः ॥
११. अतो विश्वान्यद्भुता चिकित्वाँ अभि पश्यति । कृतानि या च कृत्वो ॥
१२. स नो विश्वाहा सुक्रतुरादित्यः सुपथा करत् । प्र ण आयूंषि तारिषत् ॥
१९. इमं मे वरुण श्रुधी हवमद्या च मृळय । त्वामवस्युरा चके ॥

c5.147

"These eight verses contain 72 different *padas* or grammatical forms, not counting the prepositions as separate *padas*. Of these, 19 have become altogether obsolete in classical Sanskrit, and 12 have changed their significations."

c5.148

**18.** The Brahmanas of the Ṛk and the Yajus present the *second stage* in the development. Many of the peculiar words have become obsolete, and the declensions have mostly approached the classical grammar. The roots have no indiscriminate conjugation. The subjunctive is almost gone out of use. The indeclinable past and the gerundial infinitive end in त्वा and तुम्; verbal forms of all moods and tenses are seen in abundance. Still there are the touches of the vedic relationship and archaisms are not rare:—

c5.149

(i) Some feminine nouns have common forms for the dative and the genitive, *as* पृथिव्यै राजास्याः ;

c5.150

(ii) The न of the third person is often dropped as before, *as* सवतो वी प्रसवानाम् ;

c5.151

(iii) Some of the aorist forms do not follow the rules of Pāṇini, *as* अझत वा अस्य दन्ताः ;

c5.152

(iv) Some atiquated words occur *as* अनीक (*a shaft*), निष्ठाव (*referce*) भगवास् (*prosperous*).

c5.153

The Aitereya Brāhmaṇa quotes some *gāṭhas* which are obviously more archaic than the rest of the work. Notwithstanding these irregularities, the Brāhmaṇas are "the best representatives extant of the verbal portion of that language of which Panini writes the grammar, though he did not mean these when he spoke of the *bhasha*." The gradual and perhaps rapid progress in the symmetry and simplicity of the language had still to be accelerated by the work of later authors and their writings furnish an ample illustration of the next stage of linguistic development.

c5.154

19. Yaska's Nirukta forms the intermediate link between the Vedic and the non-Vedic literature. It is not devoid of archaic expression, for we meet with such phrases as ‘उपदेशाय ग्लायन्तः’ (*unable to teach*) and शिशिक्ष राज्येन’ (*invested with sovereignty*). But we have no clue to the dawn of a change of style from simplicity to complexity. To the same period in the history of Sanskrit belongs Panini. His *Aṣṭādhyāyī* is based on the grammar of the *bhāṣa*. No language has survived to us that literally represents Pāṇini's standard of dialect. Perhaps the later Brāhmaṇas are the only best representatives. At any rate there is no portion of the existing Sanskrit literature that accurately represents Pāṇini's Sanskrit, as regards the verbs and the nominal derivatives. Probably his grammar had for its basis the vernacular language of his day. Yāska and Pāṇini stand to us the authorities on record of that form of the language which immediately followed the purely Vedic stage.

c5.155

20. Times had advanced, and with it the language. Pāṇini's *bhāṣa* could no longer stand stationary. The operation of the concurrent causes of linguistic progress had by the days of Katyayana and Patanjali modified Pāṇini's denotation and introduced new changes in the grammar of the language or in the scope of the aphorisms. *Kātyayana's Vārṭikas* and *Patanjali's Mahābhāṣya* are devoted to the proper interpretation of the *sūtras* and to the apt introduction of the missing links. If to Kātyāyana's eyes 10,000 inaccuracies are discernible in Pāṇini, the only explanation must be that to Pāṇini they were not inaccuracies, but by Kātyāyana's time the language had progressed and necessitated a fresh appendix or erratum in Pāṇini's grammatical treatise. The period of intervention must have been sufficiently long to allow old grammatical forms to become obsolete and even incorrect and words and their meanings to become antiquated and even ununderstandable.

First 155 of 683 passages. Read on

Linked texts (37)