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A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c7: History of Vedic Literature

A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c7

Language
English

History of Vedic Literature

c7.1

In taking a survey of the works which belong to the Vedic literature of India, our task would be greatly facilitated if general and characteristic features could be pointed out by which Vedic and non-Vedic works might at once be distinguished. Without entering into a minute analysis of the individual character of a work,—a mode of criticism which, with our present knowledge of the earliest Indian literature, must be very uncertain,—it will often happen that some external mark presents itself, determining at once the age or class of writing to which it belongs. It is true that there are certain grammatical forms and orthographical peculiarities which Indian grammarians restrict to the Veda, and which, therefore, might be used as distinguishing marks of works belonging to that era. But Manu, or rather the author of the Mânava-dharma-śâstra, has also employed several Vedic forms; because in transforming Vedic verses into epic Ślokas, he is sometimes obliged to retain words and forms which are not in strict accordance with the general character of his language; a fact which accounts in some degree for the strange appearance of many of his verses, which are stiff and artificial, and very inferior in fluency to the older strains which they paraphrase.

c7.2

There is a strongly marked character in Vedic prose, and no attempt has been made to imitate it in later times. But in order to distinguish Vedic from non-Vedic poetry, we must attend more closely to the metre. Several Vedic metres have been imitated by later poets, but there are metres which never occur in Vedic works, and which may be used as criteria for distinguishing ancient from more modern poetry.

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That difference of metre should form a broad line of demarcation between two periods of literature, is not at all without an analogy in the literary history of other nations, particularly in older 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 lose 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.

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Now it seems that the regular and continuous Anushṭubh-śloka 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 Śloka occurs also in Vedic hymns, that Anushṭubh verses are frequently quoted in the Brâhmaṇas, and that in some of the Sûtras the Anushṭubh-śloka occurs intermixed with Trishṭubhs, and is used for the purpose of recapitulating¹ what had been explained before in prose. For it is only the uniform employment of that metre¹ which constitutes the characteristic mark of a new period of literature. Thus rhyme occasionally occurs in English poetry before the Norman period; yet, when we find whole poems written in rhyme and without the old Teutonic system of alliteration, we are sure that they cannot have been composed in an Ante-Norman period. The elegiac measure seems to have been used before Callinus; yet Callinus and Archilochus are always mentioned as the inventors of it:—that is, they were the first to sanction the uniform employment of this metre for entire poetical compositions. Hence no elegiac poem can be previous to the close of the 8th century B.C. The same applies to the iambus, the invention of which is commonly ascribed to Archilochus; although iambics occur interspersed in the Margites, a poem ascribed to Homer by no less an authority than Aristotle.² In the history of German literature we have several instances where poems of the 12th century¹ had to be recast as early as the 13th, on account of their metre and language; which, during this period of rapid transition, had already become obsolete and unreadable.

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¹ Sangraha-ślokas. Cf. Weber, Indische Studien, i. p. 47.

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¹ It is remarkable that in Pânini also, the word śloka is always used in opposition to Vedic literature (Pân. iv. 1. 66., iv. 3. 103. 1., iv. 3. 107.). Ślokas, even if ascribed by Indian tradition to the same author, who is considered as the Ṛishi of Vedic hymns or Brâhmaṇas, are quoted by a name different from that of his other works. The hymns or Brâhmaṇas ascribed to Kaṭha, for instance, are always to be quoted as “Kaṭhâh” (οἱ περὶ Κάθον); an expression which could never apply to poetical compositions ascribed to the same Kaṭha, if written in Ślokas. Verses written in this modern style of poetry must be quoted as “Kaṭhic Ślokas” (Kaṭhâh ślokâh). The Brâhmaṇa promulgated by Tittiri, and kept up in the tradition of the Taittirîyas, is quoted by the name of “the Taittirîyas,” but Ślokas composed by Tittiri are never included under this title. Pân. ii. 4. 21. Vâlmîki-ślokas are mentioned.

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² See Mure’s Critical History, vol. iii. ch. i.

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¹ For instance, “Reinhard the Fox,” an old High-German poem of the 13th century, is a new edition of the same poem written in the 12th century, of which fragments have been found by Grimm. Other poems which are supposed to have been remodelled in the 13th century are “Crescentia,” “Duke Ernst,” and the “Roland Song.” Lachmann supposed the same to have taken place with the “Nibelungen Klage.”

c7.9

Excluding, then, from the Vedic period the Mahâbhârata, Râmâyana, Manu, the Purânas, and all the Sâstras and Darsanas, we have now to see what remains of literary works belonging to the Vedic age.

c7.10

There are in that age four distinct periods, which can be established with sufficient evidence. They may be called the *Chhandas* period, *Mantra* period, *Brâhmana* period, and *Sûtra* period, according to the general form of the literary productions which give to each of them its peculiar historical character.

c7.11

In order to prove that these four periods follow each other in historical order, it is necessary to show that the composition of Sûtra works presupposes the existence of a Brâhmana literature; that the Brâhmana literature again is only possible with the presupposition of a Mantra literature; and lastly, that the form in which we possess the Mantra literature presupposes a period of Vedic history preceding the collection and final arrangement of the ancient Mantras or hymns.

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