The History of Indian Literature c7.2

c7.2

AT the very outset of these lectures I find myself in a certain degree of perplexity, being rather at a loss how best to entitle them. I cannot say that they are to treat of the history of "Indian Literature;" for then I should have to consider the whole body of Indian languages, including those of non-Aryan origin. Nor can I say that their subject is the history of "Indo-Aryan Literature;" for then I should have to discuss the modern languages of India also, which form a third period in the development of Indo-Aryan speech. Nor, lastly, can I say that they are to present a history of "Sanskṛit Literature;" for the Indo-Aryan language is not in its first period "Sanskṛit," *i.e.*, the language of the educated, but is still a popular dialect; while in its second period the people spoke not Sanskṛit, but Prákṛitic dialects, which arose simultaneously with Sanskṛit out of the ancient Indo-Aryan vernacular. In order, however, to relieve you from any doubt as to what you have to expect from me here, I may at once remark that it is only the literature of the first and second periods of the Indo-Aryan language with which we have to do. For the sake of brevity I retain the name "Indian Literature."