A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s7.7
A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s7.7
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v3.c35.s7.7
It is true, as Winternitz holds, that in India there has been no Herodotus or likewise a hero such as Livy or Tacitus. What the Indians lacked in was not, however, taste for history, but taste for criticism and for historical truth. And reason of this is that the writers of history were generally either court-poets or religious-minded persons. For the former the main duty was to sing in praise of their princes, to record their and their ancestors' heroic deeds and probably also to invent such ones as never took place. The divine were above all busy either with praise of their sect or in preaching to the community and to cause it to increase.