This book is like an occean on Sanskrit literature. It starts from origin and progress of Sanskrit Philosophy and includes object of Sanskrit Philosophy, Veda as the basis of Sanskrit Literature, Veda representing the Vedic Age, anti- quity of the Veda. The book also touches the subject of Aryans, comparison between early history of India and Greece. The mean- ing of Atman is elucidated, dialogue between Yājñavalkya and Maitreyī also given. The division of Vedic Age and the Chhandas, Mantra, Brāhmaņa and Sūtra periods have also been discussed. So many things relating to Sanskrit literature have been discussed under these periods, such as Aranyakas, Upa- nișads, Samhitās, Brāhmaņas, Hymns, Sacrifices, Priests, etc. By and large, this book is an autho- rity on Ancient Sanskrit Litera-ture. And, the contents, presentation and language of the book make this a-must to read and the reader will surely find it immensely useful.
A few words of personal explanation are due to those who may have seen, in the Preface to the First Volume of my edition of the Rig-Veda, a note announcing as ready for publication an Introductory Memoir on the Literature of the Veda. Ten sheets of this Memoir were printed when, in the beginning of the year 1851, 1 was appointed Deputy Professor, and, after the death of my lamented friend, Francis Trithen, in the year 1854, Professor of Modern European Languages and Literature -in the University of Oxford. In compliance with the statutes of the Foundation of Sir Robert Taylor, I had to write "Three Courses of Lectures in every year, on the Philology or Literature of some of the princi- pal Languages of Europe." These new and unexpected duties ren- dered it necessary for me to discontinue for a time my favourite studies. And when, after the first years of my new office, 1 was able to employ again a greater amount of leisure on their prosecu- tion, I felt that I should better serve the interests of Sanskrit Phi- lology by devoting all my spare time to editing the text and com- mentary of the Veda, than by publishing the results, more or less fragmentary, of my own researches into the language, literature, and religion of the ancient Brahmans.
Full seventy years have passed since Sir William Jones published his translation of Sakuntală, a work which may fairly be considered as starting point of Sanskrit philology. The first appearance of this beautiful specimen of dramatic art created at the time a sensation throughout Europe, and the most rapturous praise was bestowed upon it by men of high authority in matters of taste. At the same time the attention of the historian, the philologist, and the philosopher was roused to the fact that a complete literature had been preserved in India, which promised to open a new leaf in the ancient history of mankind, and deserved to become the object of serious study. And although the enthusiasm with which works like Śakuntalā were at first received by all who took an interest in literary curiosities could scarcely be expected to last, the real and scientific interest excited by the language, the literature, the philosophy, and antiquities of India has lasted, and has been increasing ever since. England, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Russia and Greece have each contributed their share towards the advancement of Sanskrit Philology, and names like those of Sir W. Jones, Colebrooke, Wilson, in England, Burnouf in France, the two Schlegels, W. von Humboldt, Bopp, and Lassen, in Germany, have secured to this branch of modern scholarship a firm standing and a universal reputation. The number of books that have been published by Sanskrit scholars in the course of the last seventy years is but small. 3 Those works, however, represent large and definite results, important not only in)' their bearing on Indian antiquities, but, as giving birth to a new system of Comparative Philology, of the highest possible importance to philology in general.4 In little more than half a century, Sanskrit has gained its proper place in the republic of learning, side by side with Greek and Latin. The privileges which these two languages enjoy in the educational system of modern Europe will scarcely ever be shared by Sanskrit. But no one who wishes to acquire a thorough knowledge of these or any other of the Indo- European languages, no one who takes an interest in the philosophy and the historical growth of human speech, no one who desires to study the history of that branch of mankind to which we ourselves belong, and to discover in the first germs of the language, religion, and mythology of our forefathers, the wisdom of him who is not the God of the Jews only, can, for the future, dispense with some knowledge of the language and ancient literature of India.
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