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A History of Indian Literature v1: Volume 1

A History of Indian Literature v1

Language
English

Contents

Volume 1

Front matter

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तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय

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SANTINIKETAN VISWABHARATI LIBRARY

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PB 810·9 W734 V. 1 89126

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This page is completely blank.

A History of Indian Literature, Vol. I

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BY M. WINTERNITZ, PH.D. PROFESSOR OF INDOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY AT THE GERMAN UNIVERSITY OF PRAGUE (CZECHOSLOVAKIA)

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INTRODUCTION, VEDA, NATIONAL EPICS, PURĀṆAS, AND TANTRAS

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TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL GERMAN BY MRS. S. KETKAR

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AND REVISED BY THE AUTHOR

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*Only Authorised Translation into English*

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UNIVERSITY OF CALCUTTA / THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

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PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CALCUTTA

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PRINTED BY BHUPENDRALAL BANERJEE, AT THE CALCUTTA UNIVERSITY PRESS, SENATE HOUSE, CALCUTTA.

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Reg. No. 84B—Feb. 1927—B.

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To

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RABINDRANATH TAGORE

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The Great Poet, Educator, and Lover of Man

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This English Version of the "History of Indian Literature"

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is dedicated

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as a token of loving admiration and sincere gratitude

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by the Author.

Table of Contents

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| | PAGES |
| Preface to the English Translation ... ... | ix-x |
| Preface to the German edition ... ... | xi-xiv |
| List of Abbreviations used in the Notes ... | xv-xix |
| Directions for Pronunciation of Indian Names and Words ... ... ... | xx |
| ## INTRODUCTION ... ... ... | 1-51 |
| Extent and Significance of Indian Literature ... | 1-8 |
| The Beginnings of the Study of Indian Literature in Europe ... ... ... | 8-25 |
| The Chronology of Indian Literature ... | 25-30 |
| The Art of Writing and the Transmission of Indian Literature ... ... ... | 31-40 |
| Indian Languages in their Relation to Literature | 40-51 |
| ## SECTION I. THE VEDA OR THE VEDIC LITERATURE | 52-310 |
| What is the Veda? ... ... ... | 52-56 |
| The Ṛgveda-Saṃhitā ... ... ... | 57-119 |
| The Atharvaveda-Saṃhitā ... ... | 119-163 |
| The Sāmaveda-Saṃhitā ... ... | 163-169 |
| The Saṃhitās of the Yajurveda ... ... | 169-187 |
| The Brāhmaṇas ... ... ... | 187-225 |
| Āraṇyakas and Upaniṣads ... ... | 225-247 |
| The Fundamental Doctrines of the Upaniṣads ... | 247-267 |
| The Vedāṅgas ... ... ... | 268-289 |
| The Literature of Ritual ... 271-282 | |
| The Exegetic Vedāṅgas ... 282-289 | |
| The Age of the Veda ... ... ... | 290-310 |
| ## SECTION II. THE POPULAR EPICS AND THE PURĀṆAS ... | 311-606 |
| The Beginnings of Epic Poetry in India ... | 311-316 |
| What is the Mahābhārata? ... ... | 316-327 |
| The Principal Narrative of the Mahābhārata ... | 327-375 |
| Ancient Heroic Poetry in the Mahābhārata ... | 375-387 |

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| | | | | PAGES |
| Brahmanical Myths and Legends in the Mahābhārata | ... | ... | ... | 387-405 |
| Fables, Parables and Moral Narratives in the Mahābhārata | ... | ... | ... | 405-422 |
| The Didactic Sections of the Mahābhārata | ... | ... | ... | 422-442 |
| The Harivaṁśa, an Appendix to the Mahābhārata | ... | ... | ... | 443-454 |
| The Age and History of the Mahābhārata | ... | ... | ... | 454-475 |
| The Rāmāyaṇa, both a Popular Epic and an Ornate Poem | ... | ... | ... | 475-479 |
| Contents of the Rāmāyaṇa | ... | ... | ... | 479-495 |
| The Genuine and the Spurious in the Rāmāyaṇa | ... | ... | ... | 495-500 |
| The Age of the Rāmāyaṇa | ... | ... | ... | 500-517 |
| The Purāṇas and their Position in Indian Literature | ... | ... | ... | 517-530 |
| Survey of the Purāṇa Literature | ... | ... | ... | 530-586 |
| The Tantra Literature (Saṁhitās, Āgamas, Tantras) | ... | ... | ... | 586-606 |
| CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS | ... | ... | ... | 607-611 |
| INDEX | ... | ... | ... | 612-634 |

Preface to the English Translation

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Both in Santiniketan, where I held the visiting professorship at Viśvabhāratī University in 1922-23, and elsewhere in India, I often heard expressions of regret that my ‘History of Indian Literature,’ written in German, was not accessible to the majority of Indian students. I talked about this to some of my Indian friends, and one day Professor Taraporewala suggested that an English translation might be published by the University of Calcutta. He spoke about it to the late Sir Asutosh Mookerjee, the great champion and inspirer of Oriental Studies in Calcutta University, who at once showed great interest in the work, and at his suggestion the Syndicate of the University agreed to undertake the publication. It was not difficult to find a translator. When I came to Poona in November 1922, to visit the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, I was introduced to Dr. S. V. Ketkar, the learned Editor of the Marathi Encyclopædia, and to my great surprise he showed me two big volumes, containing a typewritten English translation of the first two volumes of my “History of Indian Literature.” The translation, I understood, was the work of Mrs. Ketkar, who had made it for the use of her husband, not for publication. Mrs. Ketkar, being German by her mother tongue, English by education, and Indian by marriage, seemed to me as if predestined for the work, and she agreed to revise and rewrite her translation for the purpose of publication.

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But not only the translator had to revise her work, I myself had to revise mine. The first part of the German original, dealing with Vedic literature, had been published in 1905, the second part, treating the Epic and Puranic literature, in 1908. It was, therefore, necessary to revise the whole work for the English translation, in order to bring it up to date. Many chapters had to be rewritten entirely, smaller changes, corrections and additions, had to be made almost on every page, and the more important publications of the last twenty years had to be added to the references in the Notes. Thus this English translation is at the same time a second, revised and, I hope, improved edition of the original work.

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It is not for me to say how far the translator has succeeded in her task. But I know that she has spared no pains to make her translation as accurate and as readable as possible. And for this it is my pleasant duty to thank her. I have also to thank my pupil Wilhelm Gampert for preparing the Index.

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*Prague, Sept. 5th, 1926.* M. WINTERNITZ.

Preface to the German Edition

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The publishers of this work have announced in a notice that the series in which the present volume, dedicated to the oldest period of Indian literature, appears, is intended, "not for learned circles, but for the educated people of the nation." With this idea in mind, the class of reader which I have kept constantly in view in the course of my work is the reader who as yet knows nothing of Indian literature, and possesses no special Indological knowledge of any kind:—and yet not that reader who merely desires a desultory acquaintance with Indian literature in a leisure hour, but him who wants to make himself as thoroughly acquainted with it as it is at all possible without a knowledge of the Indian languages. An English, German or French literary history need only be a bare presentation of the course of development of a literature which presumably is already familiar. A history of Indian literature, however, in all cases in which there are no German translations—and this is unfortunately so in the majority of cases—must also instruct the German reader as far as possible in the contents of the literary productions, by means of quotations and summaries of the contents. In other words: A history of the literature must be at the same time a description of the literature. Thus of the national epics and the Purāṇas, with which the second half of the present volume deals, only few portions have so far become known in German translations. Without extensive descriptive summaries and quotations it is impossible for the reader to gain any conception at all of the works treated.

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In this way, indeed, the volume assumed larger proportions than it was originally anticipated. A second consideration also accounts for this increase in the size of the work. It is precisely the oldest Indian literature, treated in this volume, which, with reference to chronology, is to a certain extent "hovering in the air." Not a single one of the numerous and extensive works which belong to the Vedas, to the national Epics, or to the Purāṇas, can be ascribed with certainty even to this or that century. It is simply impossible, in one sentence or in a few lines, to give information on the age of the Vedas, of the Mahābhārata, of the Rāmāyaṇa and even of the Purāṇas. Even for the general reader it is not sufficient to tell him that we do not know anything definite about the date of these works. It is necessary to mark off the boundaries within which our ignorance moves, and to state the grounds on which an approximate, even though only conjectural, date of these works is supported. Therefore considerable sections had to be devoted to the enquiry concerning the age of the Vedas, the Epics and the Purāṇas. I emphasize expressly that these chapters, too, are not indeed written only for the specialist, but in the first place for the layman as characterised above, whom I had in view as my reader. If, notwithstanding, they contain something new for the specialist also,—and probably also some points which might challenge contradiction,—then it is because questions are here dealt with, which, just in recent years, have been the subject of new investigations, new discoveries, and manifold controversies.

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The references given in the Notes are partly intended for the specialist, in whose eyes they are to justify the editor's standpoint in the most important debatable questions. For it is a matter of course, that a book which is addressed to the "educated people of the nation," must also stand before the judgment of the specialist, and submit entirely to the same. On the other hand, in the Notes intended for the non-specialist, I have also made a point of referring to all German translations which are accessible by any means—and where these are wanting, to the English and French ones. I have utilised these translations only in a few cases, in which they appeared to me to reproduce the original in a particularly admirable manner. Where no translator is mentioned, the translations are my own.

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After what has been said, it will not be surprising that the originally intended size of *one* volume proved to be too narrow for this Indian Literary History. I am sincerely thankful to the Publisher for raising no opposition to the reasons which were given for the widening of the originally planned size, and for giving his consent for a second volume. This widening also thoroughly corresponds with the extent and the significance of Indian literature,—for which I refer to the Introduction (p. 1 ff.). As the present volume deals in a certain sense with the "prehistoric" period of Indian literature,—at least in their beginnings, both the Vedas and the national epics reach back to far-off epochs which cannot be fixed by means of any dates—so the second volume shall begin with the Buddhist literature, and introduce the reader to the literature of the actually historical period of India.

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Regarding the works upon which I have drawn and to which I am indebted, the Notes to the separate sections give information. What I owe to the "Akademische Vorlesungen über Indische Literaturgeschichte" by Albrecht Weber (2nd edition, Berlin 1876) which paved the way for Indian literary historiography, and to those stimulating and valuable lectures on "Indiens Literatur und Cultur in historischer Entwicklung" by Leopold v. Schroeder (Leipzig 1887) could naturally not be recorded in every single case. I also owe much, without always having specially mentioned it, to the valuable "Bulletins des Religions de l'Inde" by A. Barth in the Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, Tomes I, III, V, XI, XIV, XXVIIIf, XLIf, and XLV (1880-1902). The ingenious essays of H. Oldenberg, “Die Literatur des alten Indien” (Stuttgart and Berlin 1903) deal more with an aesthetic view and appreciation of Indian literature, which was somewhat outside the scope of my plans. The works of A. Baumgartner (Geschichte der Weltliteratur II. Die Literaturen Indiens und Ostasiens, 3. und 4. Aufl., Freiburg i. B. 1902), A. A. Macdonell (A History of Sanskrit Literature, London 1900) and V. Henry (Les Littératures de l’Inde, Paris 1904), though quite useful for their own purposes, hardly offered me anything new. The outlines of Indian literature by Richard Pischel in Part I, Section VII (“Die Orientalischen Literaturen”), of the series “Die Kultur der Gegenwart” (Berlin and Leipzig 1906), exceedingly short, but a masterpiece in their brevity, appeared only when my MS. was already finished and partly printed. I would not wish to leave unmentioned the services rendered to me by the “Orientalische Bibliographie” by Lucian Scherman, which is so indispensable to every Orientalist. Finally, I express my sincere gratitude to all those who have written friendly reviews or offered expert criticism on the first half volume which appeared two years ago.

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Prag, Kgl. Weinberge, 15th October, 1907.

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M. WINTERNITZ.

List of Abbreviations Used in the Notes

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ABA = Abhandlungen der Berliner Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philol.-histor. Klasse.

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ABayA = Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil. Klasse.

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AGGW = Abhandlungen der Königl. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Philol.-histor. Klasse.

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AKM = Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, herausg. von der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft.

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Album Kern = Album-Kern : Opstellen geschreven ter eere von Dr. H. Kern... op zijn zeventigsten verjaardag. Leiden 1903.

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AMG = Annales du Musée Guimet (Paris).

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Ann. Bh. Inst. = Annals of the Bhandarkar Institute, Poona.

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ĀnSS = Ānandāśrama Sanskrit Series (Poona).

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AR = Archiv für Religionsgeschichte.

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ASGW = Abhandlungen der philol.-histor. Klasse der Königl. Sächs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften.

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Aufrecht, Bodl. Cat. = Th. Aufrecht, Catalogus Codicum MSS. Sanscriticorum Bibliothecae Bodleianae, Oxonii 1859-64.

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Aufrecht CC = Th. Aufrecht: Catalogus Catalogorum. Leipzig 1891; II, 1896; III, 1903.

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Aufrecht, Leipzig = Katalog der Sanskrit-Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek zu Leipzig, 1901.

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BEFEO = Bulletin de l'école française d'Extrême Orient.

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BenSS = Benares Sanskrit Series.

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Bezz. Beitr. = Beiträge zur Kunde der indogermanischen Sprachen, herausg. von A. Bezzenberger.

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Bhandarkar, Report 1882-83 = R. G. Bhandarkar, Report on the Search for Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Bombay Presidency during the year 1882-83, Bombay 1884.

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Bhandarkar, Report 1883-84 = R. G. Bhandarkar, Report etc. during the year 1883-84, Bombay 1887.

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Bhandarkar Comm. Vol. = Commemorative Essays presented to Sir Ramkrishna Gopal Bhandarkar, Poona 1917.

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Bhandarkar, Vaiṣṇavism etc. = R. G. Bhandarkar, Vaiṣṇavism, Śaivism and Minor Religious Systems (Grundriss III, 6, 1913).

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Bibl. Ind. = Bibliotheca Indica.

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BSGW = Berichte über die Verhandlungen der Königl. Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Philol.-histor. Klasse.

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BSOS = Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, London Institution.

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BSS = Bombay Sanskrit Series.

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Bühler, Report = G. Bühler, Detailed Report of a Tour in Search of Sanskrit MSS. made in Kaśmīr, Rajputana, and Central India. (Extra Number of the JBRAS 1877).

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Burnell, Tanjore = A. C. Burnell, A Classified Index to the Sanskrit MSS. in the Palace at Tanjore, London 1880.

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Cambridge History = The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I. Ancient India. Ed. by E. J. Rapson, Cambridge 1922.

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Deussen, AGPh = P. Deussen, Allgemeine Geschichte der Philosophie, I, 1—3, Leipzig 1894 (2nd ed. 1906)-1908.

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DLZ = Deutsche Literaturzeitung.

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Ep. Ind. = Epigraphia Indica.

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ERE = Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, edited by James Hastings.

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Farquhar, Outline = J. N. Farquhar: An Outline of the Religious Literature of India, London 1920.

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Festschrift Kuhn = Aufsätze zur Kultur-und Sprachgeschichte vornehmlich des Orients Ernst Kuhn...gewidmet... München 1916.

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Festschrift Wackernagel = Antidoron, Festschrift Jacob Wackernagel zur Vollendung des 70. Lebensjahres, Göttingen 1924.

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Festschrift Windisch = Festschrift Ernst Windisch zum 70. Geburtstag ..dargebracht... Leipzig 1914.

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GGA = Göttinger Gelehrte Anzeigen.

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GOS = Gaekwad's Oriental Series, Baroda.

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Grundriss = Grundriss der indo-arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde.

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GSAI = Giornale della societa Asiatica Italiana.

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Gurupūjākaumudī = Gurupūjākaumudī, Festgabe zum fünfzigjährigen Doctorjubiläum Albrecht Weber dargebracht von seinen Freunden und Schülern, Leipzig 1896.

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Haraprasād, Report I, II. = Haraprasād Śāstrī, Report on the Search of Sanskrit MSS. (1895-1900), Calcutta 1901 and (1901-02 to 1905-06), Calcutta 1905.

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HOS = Harvard Oriental Series, ed. by Ch. R. Lanman.

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Ind. Hist. Qu. = The Indian Historical Quarterly, edited by Narendra Nath Law.

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Ind. Ant. = Indian Antiquary.

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Ind. Off. Cat. = Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, London 1887 ff.

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Ind. Stud. = Indische Studien, herausgegeben von A. Weber.

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JA = Journal Asiatique.

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JAOS = Journal of the American Oriental Society.

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JASB = Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.

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JBRAS = Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.

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JRAS = Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

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LZB = Literarisches Zentralblatt.

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Mélanges Lévi = Mélanges d'Indianisme offerts par ses élèves à M. Sylvain Lévi... Paris 1911.

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NGGW = Nachrichten von der Kgl. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften Göttingen, Philolog.-histor. Klasse.

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NSP = Nirṇaya Sāgara Press (Bombay).

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OC = Transactions (Verhandlungen, Actes) of Congresses of Orientalists.

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OTF = Oriental Translation Fund.

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Pischel, KG = R. Pischel, Die indische Literatur, in Kultur der Gegenwart I, 7, 1906.

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Proc. I (II, III) OC = Proceedings and Transactions of the First (Second, Third) Oriental Conference.

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RHR = Revue de l'histoire des Religions, Paris.

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RSO = Rivista degli studi orientali, Rome.

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SBA = Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademie der Wissenschaften.

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SBayA = Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der Wiss., Phil.-histor. Kl.

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SBE = Sacred Books of the East (Oxford).

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SBH = Sacred Books of the Hindus, published by the Panini Office, Allahabad.

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Schroeder, ILC = L. von Schroeder, Indiens Literatur und Cultur, Leipzig 1887.

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SIFI = Studi Italiani di Filologia Indo-Iranica.

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Smith, Early History = Vincent A. Smith, The Early History of India. Fourth Edition, revised by S. M. Edwardes, Oxford 1924.

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SWA = Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akademie der Wissenschaften.

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TSS = Trivandrum Sanskrit Series.

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Weber, HSS. Verz. = A. Weber, Verzeichnis der Sanskrit und Prakrit-Handschriften der K. Bibliothek zu Berlin.

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Weber, HIL = A. Weber, History of Indian Literature, Fourth Edition, 1904, Popular Re-issue, 1914.

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Winternitz-Keith, Bodl. Cat. = Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, vol. II begun by M. Winternitz, continued and completed by A. B. Keith, Oxford, 1905.

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WZKM = Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes.

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ZB = Zeitschrift für Buddhismus (Oskar Schloss, München).

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ZDMG = Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft.

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ZII = Zeitschrift für Indologie und Iranistik, herausg. von der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft.

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ZVV = Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde in Berlin.

Introduction

Extent and Significance of Indian Literature

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The history of Indian literature is the history of the mental activity of at least 3,000 years, as expressed in speech and writing. The home of this mental activity which has been almost uninterruptedly continuous through thousands of years, is a land which reaches from the Hindu-kush to Cape Comorin and covers an area of one and a half millions of square miles, equalling in extent the whole of Europe with the exception of Russia,—a land which stretches from 8° to 35° N. Lat., that is, from the hottest regions of the Equator to well within the temperate zone. But the influence which this literature, already in ancient times, exerted over the mental life of other nations, reaches far beyond the boundaries of India to Further India, to Tibet, as far as China, Japan and Korea, and in the South over Ceylon and the Malay Peninsula far away over the islands of the Indian and the Pacific Oceans, while to the West the tracks of Indian mental life may be traced far into Central Asia to Eastern Turkestan, where, buried in the sands of the desert, Indian manuscripts have been found.

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As regards its contents, Indian literature embraces everything which the word "literature" comprises in its widest sense: religious and secular, epic, lyric, dramatic and didactic poetry, as well as narrative and scientific prose.

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In the foreground stands the religious literature. Not only the Brahmans in their Vedas and the Buddhists in their Tipiṭaka, but also many others of the numerous religious sects, which have sprung up in India, can produce an enormous number of literary works—hymns, sacrificial songs, incantations, myths and legends, sermons, theological treatises, polemical writings, manuals of instruction on ritual and religious discipline. In this literature there is an accumulation of absolutely priceless material, which no investigator of religion can afford to pass by. Besides this activity in the sphere of religious literature, which reaches back through thousands of years, and is still being continued at the present day, there have been in India since the oldest times also heroic songs, which in the course of centuries have become condensed into two great national epics—the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa. The poets of the Indian Middle Ages during centuries drew upon the legends of these two epics, and epic poems arose, which in contradistinction to these popular epics, are designated as—ornate epics. But, while these poems, on account of their exaggerated artificiality, which often exceeds all bounds, do not by any means always suit our Western taste, Indian poets have bequeathed to us lyrical and dramatic works, which bear comparison for delicacy and intensity of feeling, and partly also for dramatic creative power, with the most beautiful productions of modern European literature. In one department of literature, that of the aphorism (gnomic poetry), the Indians have attained a mastery which has never been gained by any other nation. India is also the land of the fairy-tale and fable. The Indian collections of fairy-tales, fables and prose narratives have played no insignificant part in the history of world-literature. Indeed, fairy-tale research—that most attractive study of fairy-tales and fairy-tale motives and of their wanderings from people to people—has only become an independent branch of knowledge through Benfey's fundamental work on the famous Indian book of fables, the Pañcatantra.

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But one of the peculiarities of the Indian mind is that (it has never drawn a distinct line between purely artistic production and scientific work,) so that a division between "belles lettres" and didactic literature is not really possible in India. What appears to us a collection of fairy tales and fables is regarded by the Indians as a manual of political and moral instruction. On the other hand, history and biography have in India never been treated other than by poets and as a branch of epic poetry. Neither does a division between the forms of poetry and prose really exist in India. Every subject can be treated equally well in verses as in the prose form. We find novels which differ from the ornate epics in hardly anything except that the metrical form is wanting. Since the oldest times we find a special predilection for the mixture of prose and verse. For that which we call scientific literature, the prose form has been employed in India only for a small part, whereas verse has been used to a far greater extent. This is the case in works on philosophy and law, as also in those on medicine, astronomy, architecture, etc. Indeed, even grammars and dictionaries have been written by the Indians in metrical form. There is perhaps nothing more characteristic than that there exists a great classical epic in 22 Cantos, which pursues the definitely stated aim of illustrating and impressing the rules of grammar. Philosophy was very early a subject of literary activity in India, first in connection with the religious literature, but later also independently of the latter. Similarly, already in very early times, law and custom were,—also first in connection with religion,—made into subjects of a special law literature, written partly in verse and partly in prose. The importance of this law literature for the comparative study of law and social science is to-day appreciated to the full by prominent jurists and sociologists. Centuries before the birth of Christ, grammar was already studied in India, a science in which the Indians excel all the nations of antiquity. Lexicography, too, attains to a high age. The Indian court poets (Kavi) of later periods did not give utterance to that which a god revealed to them, but they studied the rules of grammar, and searched in dictionaries for rare and poetic expressions; they versified according to the teachings and rules which were laid down in scientific works on prosody and poetics. Since the earliest times the Indian mind had a particular predilection for detailed analysis and for the pedantic scientific treatment of all possible subjects. Therefore we find in India not only an abundant, and partly ancient, literature on politics and economics, medicine, astrology and astronomy, arithmetic and geometry; but also music, singing, dancing and dramatic art, magic and divination, and even erotics, are arranged in scientific systems and treated in special manuals of instruction.

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But in each single one of the above enumerated branches of literature there has accumulated, during the course of the centuries, a mass of literary productions which it is almost impossible to survey, largely through the fact that in nearly all departments of religious literature, as well as of poetry and science, the commentators developed a very eager activity. Thus especially some of the most important and most extensive works on grammar, philosophy and law are only commentaries on older works. Very frequently other commentaries were again written on these commentaries. Indeed, it is not a rare thing for an author in India to have added a commentary to his own work. Thus, it is no matter for wonder, that the sum total of Indian literature is almost overwhelming. And in spite of the fact that the catalogues of Indian MSS. which can be found in Indian and European libraries contain many thousands of book-titles and names of authors, innumerable works of Indian literature have been lost, and many names of older writers are known only through quotations by later writers, or have even completely disappeared.

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All these facts—the high age, the wide geographical distribution, the extent, and the wealth, the aesthetic value and still more the value from the point of view of the history of culture, of Indian literature—would fully suffice to justify our interest in this great, original, and ancient literature. But here is something else in addition to this, which gives, just to Indian literature, a quite particular interest. The Indo-Aryan languages, together with the Iranian, form the most easterly branch of that great family of languages, to which also our language and indeed most of the languages of Europe belong, and which is called Indo-European. It was indeed this very literature of India, the investigation of which led to the discovery of this affinity of languages, a discovery which was so truly epoch-making, because it threw such an astonishing new light upon the pre-historic relations between the peoples. For, from the affinity of languages, one was forced to conclude that there was a former unity of languages, and this again presupposed a closer tie between the peoples speaking these Indo-European languages. There certainly are widespread and considerable errors concerning this relationship of the Indo-European peoples prevailing even to-day. People speak of an Indo-European "race," which does not exist at all, and never has existed. One also hears at times that Indians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Germanic peoples and Slavs are of the same blood, descendants of one and the same Indo-European "primitive stock." These were far too hasty conclusions. But though it is even more than doubtful whether the peoples which speak Indo-European languages are all descended from a common origin, still it must not be doubted that a common language, this most important instrument of all mental activity, implies a relationship of mind and a common culture. Though the Indians are not flesh of our flesh, or bone of our bone, we may yet discover mind of our mind in the world of Indian thought. In order, however, to attain to a knowledge of the "Indo-European mind," *i.e.* of that which may be called the Indo-European peculiarity in thought, reflection and poetry of these peoples, it is absolutely essential for the one-sided knowledge of the Indo-European character, which we have acquired by the study of European literatures, to be completed by an acquaintance with the Indo-European mind as evidenced in the distant East. It is for this reason that (Indian literature, more especially, forms a necessary complement to the classical literature of Ancient Greece and Rome for all who would guard themselves against a one-sided view of the Indo-European character.) Indian literature cannot, indeed, be compared with Greek literature in regard to artistic merit. The world of Indian thought has not, it is true, exercised by any means such an influence over modern European ideas as did Greek and Roman culture. (But if we wish to learn to understand the beginnings of our own culture, if we wish to understand the oldest Indo-European culture, we must go to India, where the oldest literature of an Indo-European people is preserved. For whatever view we may adopt on the problem of the antiquity of Indian literature, we can safely say that the oldest monument of the literature of the Indians is at the same time the oldest monument of Indo-European literature which we possess.)

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Moreover, the immediate influence which the literature of India has exercised over our own literature, too, should not be under-estimated. We shall see that the narrative literature of Europe is dependent on the Indian fable literature in no small degree. It is more especially German literature and German philosophy which, since the beginning of the 19th century, have been greatly influenced by Indian ideas, and it is quite probable that this influence is still on the increase, and that it will be augmented still further in the course of the present century.

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For that affinity of mind which is revealed to us in the unity of the Indo-European languages, is still clearly recognisable to-day, and nowhere so markedly as between Indians and Germans. The striking points of agreement between the German and Indian mind have often been pointed out.¹ "The Indians," says Leopold von Schroeder, "are the nation of romanticists of antiquity : the Germans are the romanticists of modern times." G. Brandes has already referred to the tendency towards contemplation and abstract speculation as well as to the inclination towards pantheism in the case of both Germans and Indians. Moreover, the German and the Indian character meet in many other respects, in a striking manner. It is not only German poets who have sung of "Weltschmerz" (world-sorrow). "Weltschmerz" is also the basic idea upon which the doctrine of Buddha is built up; and more than one Indian poet has lamented the suffering and woe of the world, the transitoriness and the vanity of all earthly things in words which remind us forcibly of our great poet of "Weltschmerz," Nikolaus Lenau. And when Heine says:

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¹ Thus especially by *G. Brandes*, "Hauptströmungen der Literatur des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts," Berlin 1872, I, p. 270, and by *Leopold von Schroeder*, "Indiens Literatur und Cultur," Leipzig 1887, p. 6 f.

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"Sweet is sleep, but death is better,
Best of all is it never to be born,"

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he expresses the same idea as those Indian philosophers, who aspire to nothing more ardently than to that death after which there is no further re-birth. Again, sentimentality and feeling for Nature are the common property of German and Indian poetry, whilst they are foreign, say, to Hebrew or Greek poetry. Germans and Indians love descriptions of Nature; and both Indian and German poets delight in connecting the joys and sorrows of man with the Nature which surrounds him. There is yet another, quite different province, in which we encounter the similarity between Germans and Indians. Mention has already been made of the tendency of the Indians to work out scientific systems; and we are justified in saying that the Indians were the nation of scholars of antiquity, just as the Germans are the nation of scholars of to-day. (In the earliest ages the Indians already analysed their ancient sacred writings with a view to philology, classified the linguistic phenomena as a scientific system, and developed their grammar so highly that even to-day modern philology can use their attainments as a foundation;) likewise Germans of to-day are the undisputed leaders in all fields of philology and linguistic science.

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In the field of Indian philology and in the research of Indian literature, too, the Germans have been the leaders and pioneers. Much as we are indebted to the English, who, as the rulers of India, took up the study of Indian language and literature as a result of practical needs, much as some prominent French, Italian, Dutch, Danish, American, Russian, and,—which should not be forgotten—native Indian scholars, have done for the investigation of Indian literature and culture,—the Germans have undoubtedly taken the lion’s share in publishing critical editions of texts, explaining and investigating them, and in compiling dictionaries and grammars. A brief survey of the history of Indological studies will show us this.

The Beginnings of the Study of Indian Literature in Europe

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¹ For this chapter see *E. Windisch*, "Geschichte der Sanskrit-Philologie und indischen Altertumskunde," I, II (Grundriss I, 1, 1917 and 1920).

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The enormous mass of Indian literary works, which to-day can hardly be surveyed by *one* investigator, has been made accessible for research only in the course of little more than a century.

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Certainly already in the seventeenth, and still more in the eighteenth century, isolated travellers and missionaries acquired a certain knowledge of Indian languages, and made themselves acquainted with one or another of the works of Indian literature. But their efforts did not fall on fruitful soil. Thus in the year 1651 the Dutchman Abraham Roger who had lived as a preacher in Paliacatta (Puliat) to the north of Madras, reported in his work "Open Door to the Hidden Heathendom"¹ on the ancient Brahmanical literature of the Indians, and published some of the Proverbs of Bhartṛhari, which had been translated into Portuguese for him by a Brahman, and which were drawn upon by Herder in later years for his "Stimmen der Völker in Liedern." In the year 1699 the Jesuit Father Johann Ernst Hanxleden went to India and worked there for over thirty years in the Malabar Mission. He was himself conversant with Indian languages, and his "Grammatica Granthamia seu Samscrdu-mica" was the first Sanskrit Grammar written by a European. It was never printed, but was used by Fra Paolino de St. Bartholomeo. This Fra Paolino—an Austrian Carmelite, whose real name was J. Ph. Wessdin—is undeniably the most important of the missionaries who worked at the earliest opening-up of Indian literature. He was a missionary on the coast of Malabar from 1776 till 1789 and died in Rome in the year 1805. He wrote two Sanskrit Grammars and several learned treatises and books. His "Systema Brahmanicum" (Rome, 1792) and his "Reise nach Ostindien" (German by J. R. Forster, Berlin, 1798) show a great knowledge of India and the Brahmanical literature, as well as a deep study of Indian languages and especially of Indian religious thought. But yet his work too has left only faint traces behind.

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¹ The book appeared in Dutch in 1651 ("Open-Deure tot het verborgen Heydendom," in 1915 newly edited by W. *Caland*), and in a German translation in Nürnberg in 1663.

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At the same time, however, the English too had begun to concern themselves about the language and literature of the Indians. It was no less a person than Warren Hastings, the actual founder of British rule in India, from whom emanated the first fruitful stimulus for the study of Indian literature, which has never since been interrupted. He had recognised, what the English since then have never forgotten, that the sovereignty of England in India would be secure only if the rulers understood how to treat the social and religious prejudices of the natives with all possible consideration. At his instigation therefore a resolution was incorporated in the law which was to regulate the Government of India, to the effect that native scholars should attend the legal proceedings in order to make it possible for the English judges in India to consider the statutes of Indian law-books at the formulation of the verdicts. And when, in the year 1773, Warren Hastings was nominated as the Governor-General of Bengal and entrusted with the highest powers over the whole of the English possessions in India, he had a work compiled by a number of Brahmans, versed in the law, out of the ancient Indian law books, under the title of "Vivādārṇavasetu" ("Bridge over the Ocean of Disputes") containing everything important about the Indian law of inheritance, family law, and such like. When the work was finished, no one could be found who was capable of translating it directly from Sanskrit into English. It therefore had to be translated from Sanskrit into Persian, from which it was translated into English by Nathaniel Brassey Halhed. This translation was printed at the expense of the East India Company in the year 1776 under the title "A Code of Gentoo¹ Law."

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¹ A German translation appeared in Hamburg in 1778. "Gentoo" is the Anglo-Indian form of the Portuguese "gentio," "heathen," and is used to designate the Indian "heathens," *i.e.* the Hindus, in contradistinction to the Mohammedans.

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The first Englishman who acquired a knowledge of Sanskrit was Charles Wilkins, who had been urged by Warren Hastings to take instruction from the Pandits in Benares, the chief seat of Indian learning. As the first-fruits of his Sanskrit studies he published in the year 1785 an English translation of the philosophical poem "Bhagavadgītā," which was the first time a Sanskrit book had been translated directly into a European language. Two years later there followed a translation of the book of fables, "Hitopadeśa," and in 1795 a translation of the Śakuntalā episode from the Mahābhārata. For his Sanskrit Grammar, which appeared in 1808, Sanskrit type was used for the first time in Europe, a type which he himself had carved and cast. He was also the first who occupied himself with Indian inscriptions and translated some of them into English.

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However, still more important for the opening-up of large departments of Indian literature was the work of the famous English orientalist William Jones¹ (born 1746, died 1794), who went to India in the year 1783 in order to take up the post of Chief Justice at Fort William. Jones had already in his youth occupied himself with oriental poetry, and translated Arabic and Persian poems into English. No wonder that, when he arrived in India, he transferred his enthusiasm to the study of Sanskrit and Indian literature. Already a year after his arrival in India he became the founder of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, which soon displayed an extraordinarily useful activity in the publication of periodicals, and especially in the printing of numerous editions of Indian texts. In the year 1789 he published his English translation of the celebrated drama "Śakuntalā" by Kālidāsa. This English translation was translated into German in the year 1791 by Georg Forster, and awakened in the highest degree the enthusiasm of men like Herder and Goethe. Another work of the same poet Kālidāsa, the lyric poem "Ṛtusaṃhāra," was published in the original text by Jones in Calcutta in the year 1792, and this was the first Sanskrit text which appeared in print. Of still greater importance was the fact that Jones translated into English the most famous and most reputed work of Indian legal literature, the law book of Manu. This translation appeared in Calcutta in 1794 under the title "Institutes of Hindu Law, or the Ordinance of Manu." A German translation of this book appeared in 1797 in Weimar. Finally Jones was also the first who affirmed the certain genealogical connection of Sanskrit with Greek and Latin and its hypothetical connection with German, Celtic and Persian. He had already also pointed out the similarities between the ancient Indian and the Graeco-Roman mythology.

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¹ William *Jones* was not only a learned and enthusiastic Orientalist, but also the first Anglo-Indian poet. He composed suggestive hymns to Brahman, Nārāyaṇa, Lakṣmī, etc.; s. E. F. *Oaten*, "A Sketch of Anglo-Indian Literature," London 1908, p. 19 ff.

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While the enthusiastic W. Jones, through the enthusiasm with which he brought to light Indian literary treasures, was primarily stimulating, the sober Henry Thomas Colebrooke, who continued the work of W. Jones, became the real founder of Indian philology and archaeology. Colebrooke had entered on his official career in Calcutta in 1782 as a youth of seventeen years, without troubling himself during the first eleven years of his sojourn in India about Sanskrit and Sanskrit literature. But when W. Jones died in 1794 Colebrooke had just learnt Sanskrit and had undertaken to translate from the Sanskrit into English, under Jones' guidance, a composition, prepared by native scholars, on the law of succession and contract, from the Indian law books. This translation appeared in 1797 and 1798 under the title "A Digest of Hindu Law on Contracts and Successions" in four folio volumes. From that time he devoted himself with untiring zeal to the investigation of Indian literature. His interest, contrary to that of Jones, lay not so much in the poetic as in the scientific literature. Therefore we are indebted to him not only for further works on Indian law, but also for pioneer essays on philosophy and religious life, on grammar, astronomy and the arithmetic of the Indians. Moreover it was he who, in the year 1805, in the now famous essay "On the Vedas," was the first to give definite and reliable information about the ancient sacred books of the Indians.¹ He was also the editor of the Amarkośa and other Indian dictionaries, of the famous grammar of Pāṇini, of the "Hitopadeśa," and of the epic poem "Kirātārjunīya." Further he is the author of a Sanskrit grammar, and edited and translated a number of inscriptions. Finally he amassed an exceedingly diversified collection of Indian manuscripts, which are supposed to have cost him about £10,000, and which, after his return to England, he presented to the East India Company. This collection of manuscripts is to-day one of the most valuable treasures of the library of the India Office in London.

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¹ The alleged translation of the Yajurveda which appeared in the year 1778 in French under the title "Ezour-vedam" and in 1779 also in German, is a falsification, a pious fraud, which used to be ascribed to the missionary *Roberto de' Nobili*. But *W. Caland, Th. Zachariæ* (GGA 1921, p. 157), and others deny, that he was the author of the fraud. Voltaire received this alleged translation from the hands of an official returning from Pondicherry and presented it to the Royal Library in Paris, in 1761. *Voltaire* regarded the book as an old commentary on the Veda, which had been translated by a venerable centenarian Brahman into French, and he frequently refers to the "Ezour-Veda" as an authority for Indian antiquities. Already in the year 1782 *Sonnerat* declared the book to be a falsification. (A. W. Schlegel, Indische Bibliothek, II, p. 50 ff.)

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Among the Englishmen who, like Jones and Colebrooke, learned Sanskrit at about the close of the eighteenth century, was Alexander Hamilton. The latter returned to Europe in 1802, travelling through France, and stayed for a short time in Paris. An event then happened, which, though unpleasant for himself, was extraordinarily favourable for Sanskrit learning. Just at that time the hostilities between France and England, which had been interrupted only for a short time by the Peace of Amiens, broke out anew and Napoleon issued a command that all English people who were in France when war broke out should be prevented from returning to their homes, and be detained in Paris. Alexander Hamilton was among these Englishmen. But, in the year 1802 the German poet Friedrich Schlegel² had also just come to Paris to stay there, except for a few intervals, till the year 1807, just during the time of A. Hamilton’s involuntary sojourn. In Germany attention had for a long time already been drawn to the efforts of English scholars. Especially the above-mentioned translation of “Śakuntalā” by W. Jones had attracted much attention, and had been immediately (1791) translated into German. In the years 1795-97 W. Jones’s treatises had already appeared in a German translation. Also Jones’s translation of Manu’s Law Book had been rendered into German already in the year 1797. The books of Fra Paolino de St. Bartholomeo too did certainly not remain unnoticed in Germany. Above all, however, it was the Romantic School, headed by the brothers Schlegel, for which Indian literature had a special attraction. It was indeed the time when people began to become enthusiastic about foreign literatures. Herder had already frequently directed the attention of the Germans to the Orient by means of his “Stimmen der Völker in Liedern” (1778) and his “Ideen zur Geschichte der Menschheit” (1784-91). It was the Romanticists, however, who threw themselves with the greatest enthusiasm into everything strange and distant, and who felt themselves most especially attracted by India. From India one expected, as Friedrich Schlegel said, nothing less than “the unfolding of the history of the primeval world which up till now is shrouded in darkness; and lovers of poetry hoped, especially since the appearance of the Sokuntola to glean thence many similar beautiful creations of the Asiatic spirit, animated, as in this case, by grace and love.” No wonder, therefore, that, when he made the acquaintance of Alexander Hamilton in Paris, Friedrich Schlegel at once seized the opportunity of learning Sanskrit from him. In the years 1803 and 1804 he had the advantage of his instruction and the remaining years of his stay in Paris he employed in study in the Paris Library, which already at that time contained about two hundred Indian manuscripts.¹ As the result of these studies there appeared in the year 1808 that book through which Friedrich Schlegel became the founder of Indian philology in Germany, namely, “Ueber die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier. Ein Beitrag zur Begründung der Altertumskunde.” This book was written with enthusiasm and was suitable for awakening enthusiasm. It contained also translations of some passages from the Rāmāyaṇa, from Manu's Law Book, from the Bhagavadgītā, and from the Śakuntalā-episode of the Mahābhārata. These were the first direct translations from Sanskrit into German; for what had previously been known of Indian literature in Germany, had been translated from the English.

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² *Cf. A. F. J. Remy*, "The Influence of India and Persia on the Poetry of Germany,' New York, 1901, and P. Th. *Hoffmann*, “Der indische und der deutsche Geist von Herder bis zur Romantik” Diss., Tübingen, 1915.

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¹ A catalogue of these was published by *Alexander Hamilton* in Paris, 1807 (in con. junction with *L. Langlès*, who translated *Hamilton's* notes into French). .

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While Friedrich Schlegel's work was chiefly stimulating, it was his brother August Wilhelm von Schlegel who was the first in Germany to develop an extensive activity as a Sanskrit scholar by means of editions of texts, translations, and other philological works. He was also the first Professor of Sanskrit in Germany, in which capacity he was called to the newly-founded University of Bonn in the year 1818. Like his brother, he too had begun his Sanskrit studies in Paris, namely, in the year 1814. His teacher was a Frenchman, A. L. Chézy, the first French scholar to learn and teach Sanskrit; he was also the first Sanskrit Professor at the Collège de France, and has rendered valuable services as an editor and translator of Indian works. In the year 1823 appeared the first volume of the periodical “Indische Bibliothek,” founded and almost entirely written by August Wilhelm von Schlegel, containing numerous essays on Indian philology. In the same year he published also a good edition of the Bhagavadgītā with a Latin translation, while in the year 1829 appeared the first part of Schlegel's most important work, his unfinished edition of the Rāmāyaṇa.

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A contemporary of August Wilhelm von Schlegel was Franz Bopp, who was born in 1791, went to Paris in 1812, in order to devote himself to the study of Oriental languages, and there learned Sanskrit from Chézy, together with Schlegel. But while the brothers Schlegel, as romantic poets, were enthusiastic over India, and took up their work in Indian literature as a kind of adventure,¹ Bopp joined these studies as a thoroughly sober investigator, and it was he who became the founder of a new science, Comparative Philology, which was destined to so great a future,—and this by means of his book, published in 1816, "Ueber das Conjugations-system der Sanskritsprache in Vergleichung mit jenem der griechischen, lateinischen, persischen und germanischen Sprache." In the investigation of Indian literature, too, Bopp has rendered invaluable services. Already in his "Conjugations-system" he gave as an appendix some episodes from the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata in metrical translations from the original text, besides some extracts from the Vedas after Colebrooke's English translation. With rare skill he then singled out of the great epic Mahābhārata the wonderful story of King Nala and his faithful wife Damayantī, and made it universally accessible by means of a good critical edition with a Latin translation.² It is just this one, out of the countless episodes of the Mahābhārata, which most completely forms a separate whole, and not only is one of the most beautiful portions of the great epic, but also, as one of the most charming creations of Indian poetic art, is most peculiarly suitable for awakening enthusiasm for Indian literature, and love for the study of Sanskrit. It has, in fact, become almost traditional at all Western Universities where Sanskrit is taught, to select the Nala-episode as the first reading for the students, for which purpose it is especially suitable also on account of the simplicity of the language. A number of other episodes from the Mahābhārata, too, were published for the first time and translated into German by Bopp. His Sanskrit Grammars (1827, 1832 and 1834) and his "Glossarium Sanscritum" (Berlin 1830) have done very much to further the study of Sanskrit in Germany.

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