A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s13.58

v1.c8.s13.58

Nevertheless, all that we know of the history of other languages and branches of languages compels us to say that languages do not remain unchanged for an indefinite number of millenaries, let alone tens of thousands of years. For this reason, the fantastic figures of 16000 or even 25000 B. C.³ as the date of the Veda, built up on the basis of astronomical or geological speculations, are absolutely impossible. Figures like this imply, too, that scarcely any cultural progress worthy of the name was made in the whole course of that overwhelmingly long aeon, which would be most surprising in the case of so talented a race as the Indians. These figures are impossible, too, because the continuity between the Vedic and the later brahmanical culture, which cannot be explained away especially as regards religion, would then become utterly inexplicable. Moreover, classical Sanskrit, as fixed by Pāṇini in his Grammar more especially on the basis of the language of the Brāhmaṇas which still formed part of the Veda proper, and again the language of the inscriptions of King Aśoka in the third century B. C., show too close a relationship with the language of the Veda for it to be feasible that a stretch of so very many thousands of years lay between.