Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

A History of Sanskrit Literature c20: Appendix on Technical Literature

A History of Sanskrit Literature c20

Language
English

Contents

Appendix on Technical Literature

Law

c20.s1.1.1

ON Sanskrit legal literature in general, consult the very valuable work of Jolly, *Recht und Sitte*, in Bühler's *Encyclopædia*, 1896 (complete bibliography). There are several secondary Dharma Sūtras of the post-Vedic period. The most important of these is the *Vaishṇava Dharma Çāstra* or *Vishṇu Smṛiti* (closely connected with the *Kāṭhaka Gṛihya Sūtra*), not earlier than 200 A.D. in its final redaction (ed. by Jolly, Calcutta, 1881, trans. by him in the *Sacred Books of the East*, Oxford, 1880). The regular post-Vedic lawbooks are metrical (mostly in *çlokas*). They are much wider in scope than the Dharma Sūtras, which are limited to matters connected with religion. The most important and earliest of the metrical Smṛitis is the *Mānava Dharma Çāstra*, or *Code of Manu*, not improbably based on a *Mānava Dharma Sūtra*. It is closely connected with the *Mahābhārata*, of which three books alone (iii., xii., xvi.) contain as many as 260 of its 2684 *çlokas*. It probably assumed its present shape not much later than 200 A.D. It was ed. by Jolly, London, 1887; trans. by Bühler, with valuable introd., in the *Sacred Books*, Oxford, 1886; also trans. by Burnell (ed. by Hopkins), London, 1884; text ed., with seven comm., by Mandlik, Bombay, 1886; text, with Kullūka's comm., Bombay, 1888, better than Nirn. Sāg. Pr., ed. 1887. Next comes the *Yājñavalkya Dharma Çāstra*, which is much more concise (1009 *çlokas*). It was probably based on a Dharma Sūtra of the *White* *Yajurveda*;

c20.s1.1.2

its third section resembles the *Pāraskara Gṛihya Sūtra*, but it is unmistakably connected with the *Mānava Gṛihya Sūtra* of the *Black Yajurveda*. Its approximate date seems to be about 350 A.D. Its author probably belonged to Mithilā, capital of Videha (Tirhut). *Yājñavalkya*, ed. and trans. by Stenzler, Berlin, 1849; with comm. *Mitāksharā*, 3rd ed., Bombay, 1892. The *Nārada Smṛiti* is the first to limit *dharma* to law in the strict sense. It contains more than 12,000 *çlokas*, and appears to have been founded chiefly on *Manu*. Bāṇa mentions a *Nāradīya Dharma Çāstra*, and Nārada was annotated by one of the earliest legal commentators in the eighth century. His date is probably about 500 A.D. *Nārada*, ed. by Jolly, Calcutta, 1885, trans. by him in *Sacred Books*, vol. xxxiii. 1889. A late lawbook is the *Parāçara Smṛiti* (anterior to 1300 A.D.), ed. in Bombay Sansk. Series, 1893; trans. *Bibl. Ind.*, 1887. The second stage of post-Vedic legal literature is formed by the commentaries. The oldest one preserved is that of Medhātithi on *Manu*; he dates from about 900 A.D. The most famous comm. on *Manu* is that of Kullūka-bhaṭṭa, composed at Benares in the fifteenth century, but it is nothing more than a plagiarism of Govindarāja, a commentator of the twelfth century. The most celebrated comm. on *Yājñavalkya* is the *Mitāksharā* of Vijnāneçvara, composed about 1100 A.D.

c20.s1.1.3

It early attained to the position of a standard work, not only in the Dekhan, but even in Benares and a great part of Northern India. In the present century it acquired the greatest importance in the practice of the Anglo-Indian law-courts through Colebrooke’s translation of the section which it contains on the law of inheritance. From about 1000 A.D. onwards, an innumerable multitude of legal compendia, called *Dharma-nibandhas*, was produced in India. The most imposing of them is the voluminous work in five parts entitled *Chaturvarga-chintāmaṇi*, composed by Hemādri about 1300 A.D. It hardly treats of law at all, but is a perfect mine of interesting quotations from the Smṛitis and the Purāṇas; it has been edited in the *Bibl. Ind.* The *Dharmaratna* of Jīmūtavāhana (probably fifteenth century) may here be mentioned, because part of it is the famous treatise on the law of inheritance entitled *Dāyabhāga*, which is the chief work of the Bengal School on the subject, and was translated by Colebrooke. It should be noted that the Indian Smṛitis are not on the same footing as the lawbooks of other nations, but are works of private individuals; they were also written by Brahmans for Brahmans, whose caste pretensions they consequently exaggerate. It is therefore important to check their statements by outside evidence.

History

c20.s2.1

No work of a directly historical character is met with in Sanskrit literature till after the Muhammadan conquest. This is the *Rājataraṅgiṇī*, or "River of Kings," a chronicle of the kings of Kashmir, begun by its author, Kalhaṇa, in 1148 A.D. It contains nearly 8000 *çlokas*. The early part of the work is legendary in character. The poet does not become historical till he approaches his own times. This work (ed. M. A. Stein, Bombay, 1892; trans. by Y. C. Datta, Calc., 1898) is of considerable value for the archæology and chronology of Kashmir.

Grammar

c20.s3.1

On the native grammatical literature see especially Wackernagel, *Altindische Grammatik*, vol. i. p. lix. *sqq.* The oldest grammar preserved is that of Pāṇini, who, however, mentions no fewer than sixty-four predecessors. He belonged to the extreme north-west of India, and probably flourished about 300 b.c. His work consists of nearly 4000 sūtras divided into eight chapters; text with German trans., ed. by Böhtlingk, Leipsic, 1887. Pāṇini had before him a list of irregularly formed words, which survives, in a somewhat modified form, as the *Uṇādi Sūtra* (ed. by Aufrecht, with Ujjvaladatta's comm., Bonn, 1859). There are also two appendixes to which Pāṇini refers: one is the *Dhātupāṭha*, "List of Verbal Roots," containing some 2000 roots, of which only about 800 have been found in Sanskrit literature, and from which about fifty Vedic verbs are omitted; the second is the *Gaṇapāṭha*, or "List of Word-Groups," to which certain rules apply. These *gaṇas* were metrically arranged in the *Gaṇaratna-mahodadhi*, composed by Vardhamāna in 1140 a.d. (ed. by Eggeling, London, 1879). Among the earliest attempts to explain Pāṇini was the formulation of rules of interpretation or *paribhāshās*; a collection of these was made in the last century by Nāgojībhaṭṭa in his *Paribhāshenduçekhara* (ed. by Kielhorn, Bombay Sansk. Ser., 1868 and 1871). Next we have the *Vārttikas* or "Notes" of Kātyāyana (probably third century b.c.) on 1245 of Pāṇini's rules, and, somewhat later, numerous grammatical *Kārikās* or comments in metrical form: all this critical work was collected by Patanjali in his *Mahābhāshya* or "Great Commentary," with supplementary comments of his own (ed. Kielhorn, 3 vols., Bombay). He deals with 1713 rules of Pāṇini. He probably lived in the later half of the second century b.c., and in any case not later than the beginning of our era. The *Mahābhāshya* was commented on in the seventh century by Bhartṛihari in his *Vākyapadīya* (ed. in Benares Sansk. Ser.), which is concerned with the philosophy of grammar, and by Kaiyaṭa (probably thirteenth century). About 650 a.d. was composed the first complete comm. on Pāṇini, the *Kāçikā Vṛitti* or "Benares Commentary," by Jayāditya and Vāmana (2nd ed. Benares, 1898). In the fifteenth century Rāmachandra, in his *Prakriyā-kaumudī*, or "Moonlight of Method," endeavoured to make Pāṇini's grammar easier by a more practical arrangement of its matter. Bhaṭṭoji's *Siddhānta-kaumudī* (seventeenth century) has a similar aim (ed. Nirṇaya Sāgara Press, Bombay, 1894); an abridgment of this work, the *Laghu-kaumudī*, by Varadarāja (ed. Ballantyne, with English trans., 4th ed., Benares, 1891), is commonly used as an introduction to the native system of grammar. Among non-Pāṇinean grammarians may be mentioned Chandra (about 600 a.d.), the pseudo-Çākaṭāyana (later than the *Kāçikā*), and, the most important, Hemachandra (12th cent.), author of a Prākrit grammar (ed. and trans. by Pischel, two vols., Halle, 1877–80), and of the *Uṇādigaṇa Sūtra* (ed. Kirste, Vienna, 1895). The *Kātantra* of Çarvavarman (ed. Eggeling, *Bibl. Ind.*) seems to have been the most influential of the later grammars. Vararuchi's *Prākṛita-prakāça* is a Prākrit grammar (ed. by Cowell, 2nd ed., 1868). The *Mugdhabodha* (13th cent.) of Vopadeva is the Sanskrit grammar chiefly used in Bengal. The *Phiṭ Sūtra* (later than Patañjali) gives rules for the accentuation of nouns (ed. Kielhorn, 1866); Hemachandra's *Lingānuçāsana* is a treatise on gender (ed. Franke, Göttingen, 1886). Among European grammars that of Whitney was the first to attempt a historical treatment of the Vedic and Sanskrit language. The first grammar treating Sanskrit from the comparative point of view is the excellent work of Wackernagel, of which, however, only the first part (phonology) has yet appeared. The present writer's abridgment (London, 1886) of Max Müller's Sanskrit Grammar is a practical work for the use of beginners of Classical Sanskrit.

Lexicography

c20.s4.1

Zachariæ in *Die indischen Wörterbücher* (in Bühler's *Encyclopædia*, 1897) deals with the subject as a whole (complete bibliography). The Sanskrit dictionaries or *koças* are collections of rare words or significations for the use of poets. They are all versified; alphabetical order is entirely absent in the synonymous and only incipient in the homonymous class. The *Amarakoça* (ed. with Maheçvara's comm., Bombay), occupies the same dominant position in lexicography as Pāṇini in grammar, not improbably composed about 500 A.D. A supplement to it is the *Trikāṇḍa-çesha* by Purushottamadeva (perhaps as late as 1300 A.D.). Çāçvata's *Anekārtha-samuchchaya* (ed. Zachariæ, 1882) is possibly older than *Amara*. Halāyudha's *Abhidhānaratnamālā* dates from about 950 A.D. (ed. Aufrecht, London, 1861). About a century later is Yādavaprakāça's *Vaijayantī* (ed. Oppert, Madras, 1893). The *Viçvaprakāça* of Maheçvara Kavi dates from 1111 A.D. The *Mankha-koça* (ed. Zachariæ, Bombay, 1897) was composed in Kashmir about 1150 A.D. Hemachandra (1088–1172 A.D.) composed four dictionaries: *Abhidhāna-chintāmaṇi*, synonyms (ed. Böhtlingk and Rieu, St. Petersburg, 1847); *Anekārtha-saṃgraha*, homonyms (ed. Zachariæ, Vienna, 1893); *Deçīnāmamālā*, a Prākrit dictionary (ed. Pischel, Bombay, 1880); and *Nighaṇṭu-çesha*, a botanical glossary, which forms a supplement to his synonymous *koça*.

Poetics

c20.s5.1

*Cf.* Sylvain Lévi, *Théâtre Indien*, pp. 1–21; Regnaud, *La Rhétorique Sanskrite*, Paris, 1884; Jacob, *Notes on Alamkara Literature*, in *Journal of the Roy. As. Soc.*, 1897, 1898. The oldest and most important work on poetics is the *Nāṭya Çāstra* of Bharata, which probably goes back to the sixth century A.D. (ed. in *Kāvyamālā*, No. 42, Bombay, 1894; ed. by Grosset, Lyons, 1897). Daṇḍin's *Kāvyādarça* (end of sixth century) contains about 650 *çlokas* (ed. with trans. by Böhtlingk, Leipsic, 1890). Vāmana's *Kāvyālaṃkāravṛitti*, probably eighth century (ed. Cappeller, Jena, 1875). *Çṛiṅgāra-tilaka*, or "Ornament of Erotics," by Rudrabhaṭa (ninth century), ed. by Pischel, Kiel, 1886 (*cf. Journal of German Or. Soc.*, 1888, p. 296 ff., 425 ff.; *Vienna Or. Journal*, ii. p. 151 ff.). Rudraṭa Çatānanda's *Kāvyālaṃkāra* (ed. in *Kāvyamālā*) belongs to the ninth century. Dhanaṃjaya's *Daçarūpa*, on the ten kinds of drama, belongs to the tenth century (ed. Hall, 1865; with comm. Nirṇaya Sāgara Press, Bombay, 1897). The *Kāvyaprakāça* by Mammaṭa and Alaṭa dates from about 1100 (ed. in the *Pandit*, 1897). The *Sāhityadarpaṇa* was composed in Eastern Bengal about 1450 A.D., by Viçvanātha Kavirāja (ed. J. Vidyāsāgara, Calcutta, 1895; trans. by Ballantyne in *Bibl. Ind.*).

Mathematics and Astronomy

c20.s6.1

The only work dealing with this subject as a whole is Thibaut's *Astronomie, Astrologie und Mathematik*, in Bühler-Kielhorn's *Encyclopædia*, 1899 (full bibliography). See also Cantor, *Geschichte der Mathematik*, pp. 505–562, Leipsic, 1880. Mathematics are dealt with in special chapters of the works of the early Indian astronomers. In algebra they attained an eminence far exceeding anything ever achieved by the Greeks. The earliest works of scientific Indian astronomy (after about 300 A.D.) were four treatises called *Siddhāntas*; only one, the *Sūryasiddhānta* (ed. and trans. by Whitney, *Journ. Am. Or. Soc.*, vol. vi.), has survived. The doctrines of such early works were reduced to a more concise and practical form by Āryabhaṭa, born, as he tells us himself, at Pāṭaliputra in 476 A.D. He maintained the rotation of the earth round its axis (a doctrine not unknown to the Greeks), and explained the cause of eclipses of the sun and moon. Mathematics are treated in the third section of his work, the *Āryabhaṭīya* (ed. with comm. by Kern, Leyden, 1874; math. section trans. by Rodet, *Journal Asiatique*, 1879). Varāha Mihira, born near Ujjain, began his calculations about 505 A.D., and, according to one of his commentators, died in 587 A.D. He composed four works, written for the most part in the *Āryā* metre; three are astrological: the *Bṛihat-saṃhitā* (ed. Kern, *Bibl. Ind.*, 1864, 1865, trans. in *Journ. As. Soc.*, vol. iv.; new ed. with comm. of Bhaṭṭotpala by S. Dvivedī, Benares, 1895–97), the *Bṛihaj-jātaka* (or *Horā-çāstra*, trans. by C. Jyer, Madras, 1885), and the *Laghu-jātaka* (partly trans. by Weber, *Ind. Stud.*, vol. ii., and by Jacobi, 1872). His *Pañcha-siddhāntikā* (ed. and for the most part trans. by Thibaut and S. Dvivedī, Benares, 1889), based on five *siddhāntas*, is a *karaṇa* or practical astronomical treatise. Another distinguished astronomer was Brahmagupta, who, born in 598 A.D., wrote, besides a *karaṇa*, his *Brāhma Sphuṭa-siddhānta* when thirty years old (chaps. xii. and xviii. are mathematical). The last eminent Indian astronomer was Bhāskarāchārya, born in 1114 A.D. His *Siddhānta-çiromaṇi* has enjoyed more authority in India than any other astronomical work except the *Sūrya-siddhānta*.

Medicine

c20.s7.1

Indian medical science must have begun to develop before the beginning of our era, for one of its chief authorities, Charaka, was, according to the Chinese translation of the Buddhist *Tripiṭaka*, the official physician of King Kanishka in the first century A.D. His work, the *Charaka-saṃhitā*, has been edited several times: by J. Vidyāsāgara, 2nd ed., Calcutta, 1896, by Gupta, Calcutta, 1897, with comm. by C. Dutta, Calcutta, 1892–1893; trans. by A. C. Kaviratna, Calcutta, 1897. Suçruta, the next great authority, seems to have lived not later than the fourth century A.D., as the Bower MS. (probably fifth century A.D.) contains passages not only parallel to, but verbally agreeing with, passages in the works of Charaka and Suçruta. (The *Suçruta-saṃhitā*, ed. by J. Vidyāsāgara, Calcutta, 3rd ed., 1889; A. C. Kaviratna, Calcutta, 1888–95; trans. by Dutta, 1883, Chaṭṭopādhyāya, 1891, Hoernle, 1897, Calcutta.) The next best known medical writer is Vāgbhaṭa, author of the *Ashṭānga-hṛidaya* (ed., with comm. of Aruṇadatta, by A. M. Kunte, Bombay, Nir. Sāg. Press, 1891). *Cf.* also articles by Haas in vols. xxx., xxxi., and by A. Müller in xxxiv. of *Jour. of Germ. Or. Soc.*; P. Cordier, *Études sur la Médecine Hindoue*, Paris, 1894; *Vāgbhaṭa et l'Aṣṭāngahṛidayasaṃhitā*, Besançon, 1896; Liétard, *Le Médecin Charaka*, &c., in *Bull. de l'Ac. de Médecine*, May 11, 1897.

Arts

c20.s8.1

On Indian music see Rāja Sir Sourindro Mohun Tagore, *Hindu Music from various Authors*, Calcutta, 1875; Ambros, *Geschichte der Musik*, vol. i. pp. 41–80; Day, *The Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan*, Edinburgh, 1891; Çārngadeva's *Saṃgītaratnākara*, ed. Telang, Ānand. Sansk. Ser., 1897; Somanātha's *Rāgavibodha*, ed. with comm. by P. G. Ghārpure (parts i.–v.), Poona, 1895.

c20.s8.2

On painting and sculpture see E. Moor, *The Hindu Pantheon*, London, 1810; Burgess, *Notes on the Bauddha* *Rock Temples of Ajanta*, Bombay, 1879; Griffiths *Paintings of the Buddhist Cave Temples of Ajanta*, 2 vols., London, 1896-97; Burgess, *The Gandhāra Sculptures* (with 100 plates), London, 1895; Fergusson, *Tree and Serpent Worship* (illustrations of mythology and art in India in the first and fourth centuries after Christ), London, 1868; Cunningham's *Reports*, i. and iii. (Reliefs from Buddha Gayā); Grünwedel, *Buddhistiche Kunst in Indien*, Berlin, 1893; Kern, *Manual of Buddhism*, in Bühler's *Encyclopædia*, pp. 91-96, Strasburg, 1896; H. H. Wilson, *Ariana Antiqua*, London, 1841.

c20.s8.3

On Indian architecture see Fergusson, *History of Indian and Eastern Architecture*, London, 1876; *The Rock-Cut Temples of India*, 1864; Cunningham, *The Bhilsa Topes, or Buddhist Monuments of Central India*, London, 1854; Reports of the Archæological Survey of India, Calcutta, since 1871; *Mahābodhi, or the great Buddhist Temple under the Bodhi tree at Buddha Gayā*, London, 1892; Burgess, Archæological Survey of Western India and of Southern India; Daniell, *Antiquities of India*, London, 1800; *Hindu Excavations in the Mountain of Ellora*, London, 1816; R. Mitra, *The Antiquities of Orissa*, Calcutta, 1875.

c20.s8.4

On Technical Arts see *Journal of Indian Art and Industry* (London, begun in 1884).

Linked texts (48)