A History of Indian Literature v3.c33: Foreword
A History of Indian Literature v3.c33
- Language
- English
Foreword
v3.c33.1
When 23 years ago I undertook to write a "history of the Indian literature" and had begun to work on its preliminaries, I hoped to be able to complete the work in one volume in about three to four years. But the more I dived deep into the subject, the mass of available materials heaped up the more and this increased the difficulties of shifting them. And thus the work, that was planned to cover a single volume, has now become one of three volumes, and parts of this book appeared at considerable intervals : 1904, 1908, 1913, 1920 and here is the last volume at the end. Now after the work is concluded, nobody can be aware of its shortcomings and imperfections more than its author himself. But in case I had wished to let it go into the world, these faults were mended, I would have to wait still for not less than 20 years. In particular I feel and have always felt the obvious deficiency that I have prepared a history of the Indian literature in a very limited measure. But the hard fact remains that we do not possess any trustworthy information about the oldest and most important works of Indian literature, and whatever we can say with regard to the antiquity and origin of the earliest religious and secular poetry as well as about the beginning of the scientific literature is nothing but hypothetical, and naturally many readers will be disappointed to find in *my history of literature* so few definite statements on chronological topics. In fact, I have been accused by a critic of having used expressions like "probably", "perhaps", "apparently", etc. at too many places. In case everything in the history of Indian literature had been fully clear it would have been easy to create an impression with discussions supported by more or less definite figures with regard to dates. But I believe that even a layman derives more benefit when he comes to know about the meagreness of chronological data in Indian literature than when one leads him into the hamlet of Potemkin. And for the beginners, who may choose to undertake research in Indology—they will need consulting this book the most, since it is of great importance [at this stage of study] to be able to distinguish accurately between definite and indefinite statements in order to arrive at the points at which further researches have to be carried. For this very reason, I have stated in the footnotes the views that I do not participate in.
v3.c33.2
Since in respect of the history of literature I was obliged to keep myself within the limits of possibility, I have most vigorously exerted my efforts to provide the reader with most unambiguous representations of every type of literature and literary works and to introduce him assuredly of an insight into the spiritual creations of India. In order to check the work from becoming still more voluminous I had to keep myself within the limits of literature, though at times it is equally difficult to separate the history of religious literature from religion and to associate the history of culture with the history of literature. Likewise the history of scientific literature, treated in the last section, can hardly become a history of the sciences.
v3.c33.3
It is natural that during the period of several years that have gone by after the publication of the first part of this work our knowledge has advanced further. So I have tried to make the work up-to-date with the addenda and corrigenda given at the end of this book.∗ Since a greater part of the third volume was already printed by the end of 1920 it has become necessary to add even to this part the addenda and corrigenda, especially when for the first time quite a large number of works, so particularly the last volumes of the "Harvard Oriental Series", and the "Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics" and the "Indian Antiquary" for the years 1914-1922 became available to me at the last moment of completion of my work.
v3.c33.4
∗ The portion of the addenda and corrigenda relevant to volume III has been, in appropriate places, included in the main work itself and the foot notes.
v3.c33.5
One of my most pleasant duty is to thank all those with whose assistance it has been possible for the work to reach the stage of at least some form of completion. His Highness the Raja of Travancore and Pandit T. Gaṇapati Śāstrī Trivendrum, the fortunate discoverer and the talented editor of the dramas of Bhāsa, to whom we owe the first edition of a series of hitherto unknown and new editions of important known texts, have laid me under special obligations by presenting all the volumes of the Trivendrum Sanskrit Series that appeared till 1919. Professor Charles Rockwell Lanmann, the highly gifted editor of the splendid “Harvard Oriental Series” had the favour of sending me its volumes that have appeared during the period of the war, deserves my most cordial thanks. To Professors Johannes Hertel, Eugen Hultzsch, Hermann Jacobi, Julius Jolly and Theodor Zachariae I am grateful for several suggestions, supplements and improvements. Mr. Privatdozent, Dr. Otto Stein, has helped me in the work of proof-correction and in preparation of the index for the present volume, and I thank him for this.
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Lastly, I thank also Mr. Johannes Ziegler, the Publisher and Bookseller (Messrs C. F. Amelangs Verlag), who in spite of the times being so hard for book trade, has taken scientific rather than business-like interest and has consented to extend the work into three volumes.
v3.c33.7
In the foreword to the second-half of the second volume I have mentioned the names of the researchers who have passed away in recent years : H. Kern († 1917), E. Windisch († 1918), P. Deussen († 1919), H. Oldenberg († 1920) and L. Von Schroeder († 1920), whose works have been mentioned so often in this book. This list was unfortunately even then incomplete and has since then become larger. Through the departure of Auguste Barth († 1916), Mabel K. H. Bode († 1922), Julius Eggeling († 1918), John Faithful Fleet († 1917), A. F. Rudolf Hoernle († 1918), Colonel G. A. Jacob († 1918), Joh. Kirste († 1920), Ernst Kuhn († 1920), Karl Eugen Neumann († 1915), Vincent A. Smith († 1920), George Thibaut († 1914) and Satis Chandra Vidyābhūṣaṇa († 1920) the band of Indologists has become thinner. A glance at the Index will demonstrate the extent to which the present work owes to them.
v3.c33.8
With melancholy I thank the always helpful friend Śāstraviśārada Jainācārya Vijayadharmasūri, who did me the favour of procuring for my work many rare and hardly available Indian publications. In his last letter of July 21 from Śivapurī, Gwalior State, where he was spending the rainy season, he had written that he was ailing but was feeling better and hoped to be well soon. He was pleased at my visit I had paid to him last autumn. I too was happy on my arrival in India to call at his place and I thank him for his kindness. Now when I am writing this foreword, I get the sad news that the venerable Jaina priest expired on September 9 of this year. The promotion of European learned work had always been dear to his heart. May the collaboration of the Indian and European scholars continue in the manner and extent he had wanted ! This has certainly already reached the cross-word of knowledge of India.
v3.c33.9
Prague, October 1922
v3.c33.10
M. WINTERNITZ