A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s8.2

v3.c35.s8.2

Lyric is the oldest Indian poetical composition known to us. The hymns to the gods and the sacrificial and magical songs of the Veda are the oldest of the extant Indian poetical compositions. Although the Vedas are essentially religious, we find in them considerable amount of secular leanings. The Uṣas-hymns and the love-spell ballads sometimes remind us of the later lyric and the hymns referring to war magic in the Atharvaveda sound almost like very old war songs. Centuries later we find gems of lyrical poems full of deep sentiments, religious fervour and such internal natural feeling that for all the time has become special characteristic of Indian poetry in the songs of monks and nuns in Buddhist literature. We come by a love-song too in a Buddhist Sutta and find traces of a drink-song in a Buddhist Jātaka¹. In the Aṇuogadārasutta of the Jaina canons some love-songs have been quoted as illustrations of sentiments in poetry². The Jaina monk Hemacandra, in a narrative of the Pariśiṣṭaparvan has preserved for us match-songs to the accompaniment of the lute after the style of the Schnaderhüpfel of Germany.