A History of Indian Literature v2.c14: Preface to the German Edition, the First Half of Volume II
A History of Indian Literature v2.c14
- Language
- English
Preface to the German Edition, the First Half of Volume II
v2.c14.1
Just five years ago, when I wrote the preface to Volume I of this "History of Indian Literature," I had hoped that it would be possible to publish Volume II complete two years later; but the task of dealing, for the first time, with Buddhist literature presented far greater difficulties than I had foreseen. For this reason, even now only the first half of Volume II is appearing. I hope, however, that the second half—the conclusion of the work—will follow in the course of next year.
v2.c14.2
I am only too conscious of the fact that a presentation of Buddhist literature, which forms the subject-matter of this half-volume, is, at the present stage of our knowledge, a hazardous enterprise. A great part of this literature has only just been opened up, while a still greater part, especially of the Buddhist Sanskrit literature, but also some important Pāli texts, is still waiting for translators and researchers, and even for editors. In addition to this, with the small number of workers in the province of Sinology, the light which the Chinese translations throw upon the history of Buddhist literature has scarcely begun to shine. Here we may surely hope for help and improvement in the near future from French and Japanese scholars. We may also expect very shortly considerable enrichment of our knowledge of Buddhist literature and its history from the investigation of the Central Asian finds—the wealth of manuscripts which M. A. *Stein* has brought back from Khotan, and A. *Grünwedel* and A. von *Le Coq* from Turfan. Nevertheless it will take decades before all the results of these investigations will be available. An American colleague of mine hit the mark when he recently wrote to me: 'I can easily understand that your History of Buddhist Literature is the devil's own job to write.' And yet, the attempt to present Buddhist literature had to be ventured now; for it simply will no longer do, now-a-days, to write a history of Indian literature without doing justice to the Buddhist literature. Buddhism, after all, is and remains that production of the Indian mind, which is the most important in the history of the world. And how can we understand Buddhism without knowing its literature? Just as in a history of Indian religion the religion of Buddha would have to occupy a large space, just as a history of Indian art could not exist without Buddhist art, so too the history of Indian literature would show a gaping chasm if Buddhist literature were not presented therein. Even though this literature is to-day more at home in Ceylon and Burma, in Nepal and Tibet, than in India proper, yet it grew up on Indian soil, it bears all the characteristics of a genuine product of the Indian mind, it has, through far more than a thousand years, influenced Indian spiritual life, and naturally is most intimately connected with all the rest of Indian literature. However defective a presentation of Buddhist literature must necessarily still be to-day, it is nevertheless of some use for the progress of knowledge. We must have the courage to err. Our errors will serve as stepping-stones over which the knowledge of future generations of scholars will stride to new truths.
v2.c14.3
The literary references in the notes give sufficient information concerning the works from which I have drawn and the scholars to whom I am indebted. I should not, however, like to omit in this place the expression of my sincere thanks to my honoured colleague, Professor Louis de *La Vallée Poussin* in Brussels, and my dear friend and former pupil, Professor Jyun Takakusu, for several valuable printed papers and written communications.
v2.c14.4
M. Winternitz
v2.c14.5
Prague—Smichow, *17th October, 1912.*