A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s13.1

v1.c8.s13.1

We have traced the whole of Vedic literature to its latest off-shoots and stragglers, and can now no longer evade the question of the age of the whole of this great literature. If it were possible to determine, even within a few centuries, the period into which the oldest hymns of the Ṛgveda and of the Atharvaveda reach back, then it were unnecessary to devote a special chapter to this question. It would suffice to give, in a few words, the approximate age of the Veda. Unfortunately, however, it is a fact, and a fact which it is truly painful to have to admit, that the opinions of the best scholars differ, not to the extent of centuries, but to the extent of thousands of years, with regard to the age of the Ṛgveda. Some lay down the year 1000 B.C. as the earliest limit for the Ṛgvedic hymns, while others consider them to have originated between 3000 and 2500 B.C. In view of the *very great* divergence in the opinions of the specialists, it is not enough, even in a book intended for the general reader, merely to give some approximate date, for even the general reader must have an idea of the circumstances supporting the various opinions on the greater or lesser antiquity of the Veda. This is the more necessary, as the question of the period of the oldest Indian literature coincides with the question of the beginning of the Indo-Aryan civilization, a question which is of the utmost importance to every historian, archæologist and philologist. If, indeed, it is at all possible to determine the periods of the development of Indo-Aryan culture, and, going still further back, those of Indo-European culture, it can only be done hand in hand with investigation as to the period of the earliest monuments of Aryan culture in India.