An Outline of the Religious Literature of India c3.3

c3.3

Consequently, the question arose whether it would not be possible to write a sketch of the whole religious literature of India. I was under no illusions as to the magnitude and the difficulty of the undertaking; and I was very painfully conscious of the slenderness of my own linguistic preparation for the task. On the other hand, I believed that, from the point of view of the study of religions, what was wanted was not so much fresh critical study of individual books as a clear comprehensible survey of the literature so far as critical inquiry, translations, and the publication of texts have made it known, so that the student might be able to begin the study of any part of it with intelligence, and to find his way without serious difficulty to all the existing literature, modern as well as ancient, which deals with the section of the field in which he is interested.