A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c10.254

c10.254

However we examine the ancient Sanskrit phraseology with regard to books and their authors, we invariably arrive at the same results. In the most ancient literature, the idea even of authorship is excluded. Works are spoken of as revealed to and communicated by certain sages, but not as composed by them. In the later literature of the Brâhmaṇa and Sûtra period the idea of authorship is admitted, but no trace is to be found anywhere of any books being committed to writing. It is possible I may have overlooked some words in the Brâhmaṇas and Sûtras, which would prove the existence of written books previous to Pâṇini. If so, it is not from any wish to suppress them. I believe, indeed, that the Brâhmaṇas were preserved by oral tradition only, but I should feel inclined to claim an acquaintance with the art of writing for the authors of the Sûtras. And there is one word which seems to strengthen such a supposition. We find that several of the Sûtras are divided into chapters called patalas. This is a word never used for the subdivisions of the Brâhmaṇas. Its meaning is a covering, the surrounding skin or membrane; it is also used for a tree. If so, it would seem to be almost synonymous with *liber* and βίβλος, and it would mean *book*, after meaning originally a sheet of paper made of the surrounding bark of trees. If writing came in towards the latter half of the Sûtra period, it would no doubt be applied at the same time to reducing the hymns and Brâhmaṇas to a written form. Previously to that time, however, we are bound to maintain that the collection of the hymns, and the immense mass of the Brâhmaṇa literature, were preserved by means of oral tradition only.