HISLUKY OF CLASSICAL SANSKRIT LITERATURE Being an elaborate account of all branches of Classical Sanskrit Literature, with full Epigraphical and Archeological Notes and References, an Introduction dealing with Language, Philology and Chronology and Index of Authors and Works BY KAVYAVINODA, SAHITYARATNAKARA M. KRISHNAMACHARIAR, M.A, ML. PhD, Member of the Royal Asiatic Society.of London (Of the Madras Judscut Service) ASSISTED BY HIS SON M SRINIVASACHARIAR, BA, B.L ADVOCATE, MADRAS Se PRINTED AT TIRUMALAI-TIRUPATI DEVASTHANAMS PRESS MADRAS 1937 ' [PRICE RS. 10 OR 15 5.]afatiria fadrea saftr sRarr we wT wRaa Bad ufteed ui —acge400— FET PPAT ARTA ATaTa NSN FEAT AATIAGISSAST | nEeMfeneaqaredaaearenear anfaufanrateqaaeiad ata:PREFACE Loox aT THIS DFDICATION TO Lorp Ser Vewxatgsvara! That will remind you of the Glor} and Purpose of His Mamfestation m this world of sin and exalt you to the region of the blessed and the im- mortal ‘With a salutation to the great Sages Valmiki and Vyésa, the work begins and gives an elaborate account of Ramayana, Mahabharata and Purapas, with all their recenstons, editions and commentanes The vast expanse of Classical Sansknit Literature has been arranged on the model of standard works on foreign literature The main classes are three, Sravyakavya, Dréyakavya and Sahitya, First come the poems proper, of two classes, mayor and minor, (Gravyakavya}—, which 18 all verse, or all prose or mixed prose and verse with all therr mmor vane- ties, topical and mgemous Secondly comes the drama (Dysyakivya) in all sts technical ramifications and with all motifs temporal, spiritual and allegorical Next 18 science of poetry (Sahitya) m its widest sense embracing rhetoric, dancing, music and erotics To this 1s appended a chapter on Prosody or metrics (Chandas) All topics are troduced by an exposition ofthe rhetorical defintions and theomsations and treated from their traceable beginnings, which to some extent are tradi- tional and theological , but I would not call them ‘ mythical’ implymg a stigma of falsity and fiction As far as it was in my reach, all that has been said about any author or work anywhere m books, journals or papers has been entered im the references and this will help special studies. Dynasties of Kings that ruled in India in different parts and at different times have been fully honored by a collation of rele- vent notes, epigraphical and archelogical, not merely because the kings were the fountams of literature, but many of them were themselves poets of celebnty, Works known and unknown, lost and extant, pnnted and unprinted, catalogued and uncatalogued, have all been mentioned and in many cases the stray places where they are stall avail- able in manuscript, Above all there 1s the quotation of gems of poetry of varying interest from amour and nature to devotion and renwnciation, and these m themselves are an anthology of meritorious specimens of poetic thought and expression,wd PREFACE ‘Lhe IntRopUCcTION deals with several topics of general interest allied to the study of Classical Sanskrit Literature , such for instance 1s the spiritual ong and aspect of language as envisaged m the Vedas and as elaborated by schools of Grammanans, the progress of structu- ral and Imguistic changes in the eapression of the Sanskrit language, from Chandas to Bhaga, and the like, this will assist the study of Comparative Philology, of which “ Zhe Discovery of Sanskrit” 1s acknow= ledged to be the ongm Of foremost importance, there 1s the subject of Indian Chronology India has its well written history and the Purfpas exhibit that history and chronology To the devout Hindu and toa Hindu who will stnve to be honest m the literary and hustorical way, Purdyas are not ‘ pious frauds’ In the hands of many Onentalists, India has lost (or has been cheated out of) a period of 10-12 centunes m 1ts political and literary life, by the assumption of a faulty Synchromism of Candragupta Maurya and Sandracottus of the Greek works and all that can be said against that “ Anchor-Sheet of Indian Chronology” has been said im this Introduchon In the case of those early European Onentalisis, very emment and respectable in themselves, this thought of resemblance and historical synchronism was at least sincere, for 1t was very scanty matenal that they could work upon But for their successors im that heirarchy who are mosily our “ Professors of Indian History,” that have given a longevity and a garb of truth to it by repetition, there 1s to my mind no excuse or expia- ‘thon, 2f at all it be a confession of neglect and a recognition of India’s glorious past in its entire truth The Inpex of AuTHoRS AND Worxs (in Sanskrit) 1s followed by a small supplement (m English) on miscellaneous matters The Index is not merely a means of reference and indication, but embodies correc« tions and additions, so as to act as what 1s usually expressed as “Errata et Comgenda et Addenda” Many authors and works that could not be mentioned m the body of the work, because they cams to be known too late, are entered there The reader will therefore take the Index as part of the mam work and not merely as an easy appendix to it In all, the number of works and authors would be some thousands, arranged alphabetically on the plan Of Stein’s Index to Kashmir Catalogue and Aufrecht’s Catalogus Catalogorum, Recent and living authors have been, so far as I could get at, noticed, and this work, it 1s submitted with all humuhty, deals with the ustory of Classical Sansknit Literature from the earlest fumes to the present dayPREFACE 7 In the year 1906, 1 published a small book, History of Classical Sanskrit Literature Being the first and only work of its comprehen- sion, 1t was well received everywhere in our Universities and was quoted profusely m the publications of the Universities of the Umted States of America Iwas often asked to reprint the book, but conscious of its inadequacy I did not do ul, but in its stead I thought of a compreben- sive work that would present ata glauce the full vista of Sansknit literary domam and thatin the hght of past hisioncal researches Even the ardent Pandit knows not the vast literature that has been lost or lies hidden in the libraries of India, But what are your chances of using these libraries ? Manuscripts and catalogues now out of print are all ‘stored’ im these receptacles They may be there for years, unthought and untouched, save for changes of physical location The pages may turn red, brows, blue and brittle, but they still le uncut by the hand of any reader The Guardian (Curator, Secretary, Librarian, call them as you please) will well watch these receptacles on their pedestals The guardian will applaud your attempt at research and will promise to help 1t by a loan of books on your application, but he 1s “ helpless” and must soon ex+ press his regret in reply as “rules are agaist loan” If you apply to a hngher authority for relief, the paper runs through the regular channels to the same guardian, and on bis report, after a hngermg ex- pectation, you get an order (a copy of the pnor one) with a difference only in the preamble and the subscription Libranes “ are meant fot visitors,” but most of them do not look in, but look on, all the more so, if a museum or 2 house of curios 1s adjacent to the library, And these rare books are only rarely wanted and that by a crusted anti- quanan of my ik One that comes there does not need the book, one that 1s far away cannot get it If you do go there, stealing a holiday, the key of a particular almiwrah where your wanted work is kept may be with the guardian who 1s away elsewhere What then 1s a library for? Its nota Palace of Toys! Much of this tale was true of the Onental Manuscnpts Library of Madras some years ago, when I commenced the preparation of this work Iam not sure if at present the position 1s better, But I am aware that not many years ago, there was an mdictment of the methods of this Library by His Holiness Sri Yafriyaswim! in his preface to hus edition of Spngéira- prakiisa, The expression of his chagrin, in language poetic, is well worth reading as a piece of excellent prose literatureav PREFACE I wrote for information to libraries, I rarely had a reply, for some of these guardians have “no staff, no provision for paper or postage” IfI asked for an extract from any manuscript—say the first and last few lines—some imstutulions demanded copying charges I applied for a copy, the charges were exorbitant For mstance, for an indifferent copy in two quarter sheets of thirty-two anusiubh verses (of 32 letters each) I was asked to pay about a rupee and postage I paid and consoled myself by the thought that this fee went for the maintenance of a poor Pandit, and that 1t was im no way more rapaci- ous than the fee charged recently by a Banker for giving an extract of a single Ime from a ledger, viz , Rs 5 for search, Rs 5 for copying the line, and Rs, 5 for adding a certificate that it was a ‘true copy’, and these charges are only made “according to rules” We have to gel on ‘under the rules’, no one cares to look mto these imiquities Equally so was it with many Professors of Colleges They would have no tume to reply and the few that deigned to oblige afler reminders had very little to say To trace an author and his affairs, I had in many cases to correspond with several persons, and only perseverence did win it If the post office could exempt my letters from postage, it would give a different aspect, but alas, not, It1s under these auspices I began and progressed But J cannot refrain from expressing that the acquisition of the material gathered m this book has been too costly for an equanimous retrospect and I shall not be far wrong to say that each author, save those few that are too well known, cost me on an average four annas I have often felt that it 1s nol an enterpnse that a prudent householder should have embarked upon, but it was tvo late to think of the folly Amudst official work m judicial service, in places distant from tnetropols, there was little leisure for a continuous study A few days snatched at intervals during the recesses of summer and other holidays were rarely sufficient for visits of references to libranes scattered all over India After all the work was ready—ready m bulk—about 8 years ago It went to print After a year, it was ‘armed away in the current of an estate that vested m the Official Asmgnee A request and a claim got it out of the muddle The Press was sold Delay there was, but the prmting was resumed JI fell ull and I raved about this work and its contents, astonishing the doctor what it was all about, though I thought I was lecturing sensibly on Sanskrit Literature, There ‘Was agam a change im the management and there was another lullPREFACE v After sometime, the printing was taken up and slowly moved on Once the manuscnpt of a whole chapter which was in the custody of a mana- ger was lost—‘ said to be not sent at all”—but after all traced as ‘muslaid’, after I re-wrote much of it from scanty maternal gathered agam from memory, If wath all these mishaps and vicissitudes tae work took 20 years and more, need I say that the suspense 1s enough to dole dismay to a chronic optimist which I presumed that I was, In the preparation of the work, Ihave had the fullest sympatny from all Universities (except probably the University of Madras) and all Local Governments and the Governments of Indian States and the Government of Ceylon They have been magnanimous and let me have their Sanskrit and other publications free as presents and that has well nigh contributed to the fullness of the notes, literary, epigraphical and archzlogical, To themIam ever thankful To Sjt P R, Rama Aryar, the Propnetor of Messrs P R Rama Auyar & Co, Booksellers, Madras, who with his selfless generosity first received this work mm his Press for love of hterary research, I express my first regard Due to tortuous ways divine, hs Press changed hands, but blest wast, that st became the Press of Sr. Venkatesvara Devasthanam, Tirupah, At the hands of His Holness Sat Mauant PRayvaca Dossyzg Vaku of Sri Hatheeramjee Mutt, Tirupati, then its Vicharanakartha, I received a iandly appreciation , he directed that the printmg part of the wotk bée done free in the Press, a work that has been meant to be dedicated to Sxi Venkatesvara of ‘lirupati, at whose feet my family does humbié hereditary service When the management of the Devasthanam was assumed by the Committee appomted by the Local Legislature with its Commussioner, MR K SrraRaMa Reppl, 8.4, B,L, I was allowetl to have the same concession with certain alterations It 1s with this assis+ tance and the particular mterest which the present Commissioner, Mr. A RancaNnaTas MUDALIAR, B.A, BL, evinced m speeding up the pmirting, the work 1s now seeing its publication To the Committee and the Commusioner, gratitude will ever be transcendant m my memory— all the more so because they are the custodians of the Wealth and Glory of Lonp VENKATESVARA, Owing to pressure of Official duties and the anxiety to see the end of the publication, which has been by various causes often impeded during the last eight years, errors of print have crept m, but I slyly feel that the learned eye of my loviag reader will easily slap through theft aera ag Rrerert Freeaarar sepa ata— Rrasrrarat feat sitrereawararaaint aert aa aaa eer artdtaftaute | afaaed armed weg wag starergeat sefeat- frame wert aafheasatent aratterageeranat a fatdt anit apntrefie gafitnratafiaa try + mite aa | aft (afer craft Ba araqaa SBI ATE aE Agel ara: Geraeharerattana- a | aqearend aafereraeddtarqatirar aah Prefea Frafietermn! agen ge gear | faarear afraeg Aatoaritree eretefes Sf so as arafa aeat fagie, Arena sietarcrarecreaat qiat a | yz weet: WaaeTerae: Tara: Petar Aetarae | Staci a ade | daa Bear sau aratafren: Ae TT | orareraraeTash ete fafa! ue faaftentie: sera: agieehtrateasremita sfkenaatineiateratia grtateds sft agar Se erewta awe sftahmafefeeniite areaen arom: ATR AEA free ofeeraeleereraT | AAT AAT CHEAT SCAT TALES AT LATTA STS TUTE graga gtranghs sormeed adaht afierd aredt eam Baer ae wariias sarcenieereare sarafh arasrras Gifean! Pra sated = Age —aeamant srereageatier | warmer Feeroharperguatiag | qUifaeramt srawagetiiey | aeaftatert araat gears sefar | wa- fatter: aasra: a aa wag aghag aha | gar wer ye wien gonerresrne: aeeargreare | aang aed aeat Tags aad fageftdia sardiegarart we 8 eraCONTENTS PREFACE TABLF OF TRANSLITERATION INTRODUCTION ABBREVIATIONS BIBLIOGRAPHY BOOK 1 Cuapter I Section 1 Vedic Forms of Epics,., » 2 Ramayana taal » 3 Mahabharata ae n 4 Epics Compared oe » 5 Purgas oo n 6 Tangras o BOOK II Cuaprer II Kavya a Cuarrers I1—X Mahakavya Cuaptr XI Section 1 Laghukavya » 2 Nip » 3 Sgotra Cuaprer XII Laghukavya (contd,) Cuartzr XII Sandesa Caapter XIV Ciprakavya CuapTer XV Subhisita Cuaprer XVI Section 1 Poetesses » 2 Royal Poets » 8 Unnamed Poets Carter XVIL Desivptga Pacr 12 311 391 397 407Caapter XVII Section 1 » 2 ” 3 » 4 Caaprers XIX~XX Caaprer XXI Caaprer XXII Caaprer XXII Cyaprer XXIV Cyaprer XXV Cuarrer XXVI Caaprer XXII Cuapter XXVIL Appanpix Inpex CONTENTS BOOK I Kathinaka Brhathaghii * Pancaganfra Other Tales BOOK IV Gadyahavya Campi BOOK V Dyéyakvya BOOK VI Sihigyabisgra Alankira Bharafa Sangia Kimadiggra Chandovicigt Extracts ftom Avantisundarjkagha etc, an a Pace aw At 412 423 428 » 436 496 525 707 726 810 832 877 897INTRODUCTION 3 afiets gated awer Ragas grant wrraraAg | aa Biatitet aire ata oe aft II 1. The sacred literature of India, inferior to none m vanety or extent, 1s superior to many in nobility of thought, in sanctity of spint and im generality of comprehension In beauty or prolixity, 1t can we with any other literature ancient and modern Despite the various impediments to the steady development of the language, despite the successive disturbances, internal and external, which India had to encounter ever since the dawn of history, she has successfully held up to the world her archaic literary map, which meagre outlme itself favourably compares with the literature of any other nation of the globe The beginnings of her civilization are yet m obscunty Relatively to any other language of the ancient world, the antiquity of Sanskrit has an unquestioned prionty “ Yet such 1s the marvellous continuity ” says Max Muller “between the past and the present of India, that im spite of repeated social convulsions, religious reforms and foreign mvasions, sansknt may be said to be sill the only language that is spoken over the whole ealent of the vast country So says M Wintermtz ‘Sanskrit is not a ‘dead’ language even to day. There are sill at the present day a number of Sansknt penodicals m India, and topics of the day are discussed m Sansknt pamphlets Also, the Mahabharata 1s sll today read aloud publicity, To this very day poetry 1s still composed and works written m Sansknt, and it 3s the language im which Indian scholars converse upon scientific questions, Sansknt at the least plays the same part in India still, as Latn m the Middle Ages in Europe, or as Hebrew with the Jews * “No country except India and no language except the Sansknt can boast of a possession so ancient or venerable, No nation except the Hindus can stand before the world with such a sacred heirloom in ats possession, unapproachable in grandeur and infinitely above all in 1. Indiu, 18-9, 2 Bastory of Indsan Literature, 1. 48n INTRODUCTION glory The Vedas stand alone in their solitary splendour, serving as beacon of divine ght for the onward march of humanity ”* Ihe sciences of Comparative Pathology and Mythology owe the ormgm to what has been termed the “Discovery of Sansknt” “T the Sanshnt, the antiquity and extent of ils literary documents, th transparency of 11s grammatical structure, the comparatively pnmitiv state of ancient system and thorough grammatical treatment it ha early received at the hands of native scholars, must ever secure th foremost place in the comparative study of Indo Aryan researches ” 2 A Wener in his Indian Literature thus summed up his reason for assertig the autiquity of the Vedic Literature In the more ancient parts of the Rigveda-Samhita, we find th Indian race settled on the north-western borders of India, i th Punjab, and even beyond the Panjab, on the Kubha, or Kiwpna, 1 Kabul ‘The gradual spread of the race from these seats towards th east, beyond the Sarasvats and over Hindustan as far as the Ganges can be traced in the later portions of the Vedic writings almost ste) by step The writings of the followmg period, that of the epx, con sist of accounts of the internal conflicis among the conquerors o Hindustan themselves, as, for imstance, the Mahabharata, or of th further spread of Brahmanism towards the south, as, for instance, th: Ramayana If we connect with this the first fairly accurate mforma tion about India which we have from a Greek source, viz, from Megas thenes, it becomes clear that at the time of this wnter the Brahmanis ing of Hindustan was already completed, while at the time of thi Pennplus (see Lassen, I AK,u 150,n, 1 St m 192) the very sonther most pomt of the Dekhan had already become a seat of the worshi} of the wife of Siva What a series of years, of centunes, must neces sarily have elapsed before this boundless tract of country, inhalnted by wild and vigorous tnbes, could have been brought over to Brabmanism And while the claims of the wntten records of Indian literature to ¢ high antiquity—its beginnings may perhaps be traced back even to the time when the Indo-Aryans still dwelt together with the Persa-Aryan: —are (hus indisputably proved by external, geographical testrmony the internal evidence in the same direction, which may be gathered from thew contents, 1s no less conclusive In the songs of Rik, the robus spint of the people gives expression to the feelmg of 1s relation te nature, with a spontaneous freshness and simplicity , the powers o 1 Hendu supersortty 180INTRODUCTION on nature are worshipped as superior beings, and their kindly aid besought within their several spheres Beginning with this nature-worship, which everywhere recognises only the individual phenomena of nature, and these in the first instance superhuman, we trace in Indian literature the progress of the Hindu people through almost all the phases of religious development through which the human mind generally has passed The individual phenomena of nature, which at first impress the imagi- nation as bemg superhuman, are gradually classified within their different spheres , and a certain unity 1s discovered among them Thus we arrive at a number of divine beings, each exercising supreme sway withm its particular province, Whose mfluence 1s1n course of time further extended to the corresponding events of human life, while at the same time they are endowed with human attributesand organs The number—already considerable—of these natural detties, these regents of the powers of nature, 1s further mcreased by the addition of abstrac. tions, taken from ethical relations, and to these as to the other deities divine powers, personal existence and activity are ascribed Into this multitude of divine figures, the spimit of inquiry seeks at a later stage to introduce order, by classifying and co-ordinating them according to thew principal bearings The principle followed in this distribution 18, like the conception of the deities themselves, entirely borrowed from the contemplation of nature, We have the gods who act im the heavens, 1m the air, upon the earth, and of these the sun, the wind, and fire are recognized as the main representatives and rulers respectively These three gradually obtain precedence over all the other gods, who are only looked upon as their creatures and servants Strengthened by these classifications, speculation presses on and seeks to establish the relative position of these three deities, and to arrive at unity for the supreme Being This 1s accomplished either speculatively, by actually assuming such a supreme and purely absolute Bemg, viz, “Brahman” (neut), to Whom these three im their turn stand in the relation of creatures, of creatures, of servants only , or arbitrarily, according as one or other of the three 1s worshipped as the supreme god The sun-god seems m the first instance to have been promoted to this honour? the Persa- Aryans at all events Mtamed this standpoint, of course extending st still further, and im the older parts of the Brahmanas also—to which rather than to the Sambutas the Avesta 1s related in respect of age and contents—we find the sun-god here and there exalted far above the other deities (srasavita devanam) We also find ample traces of this m the forms of worship, which so often preserve relics of antiquity, Nay,iv INTRODUCTION as “ Brahman” (masc), he has in theory retamed this position, down even to the latest times, although in a very colourless manner His colleagues, the air and fire gods, im consequence of their much more direct and sensible influence, by degrees obtained complete possession of the supreme power, though constantly in conflict with each other Their worship has passed through a long series of different phases, and itis evidently the same which Megasthenes found in Hindustan, and which at the time of the Penplus had penetrated, though ma form already very corrupt, as far as the southernmost poxnt of the Dekhan ” 3 The Gods created Devavati Mat arqaserra Aareat Rarear teat aaa | at at aaa gern Agaltenaegig | Re VI 100-11, ware TERA waist adr Mg yaTeTAT | ais erarqard fer Te TARITAT TTT || Re VIL 59-6, Paganyal: says in his Mahabhiigya aeaet sar TA eT TT 2 sie aT eeTTaT we | Brat vat gent Veal wat Vat mea mae 1” we x53 ory SRT TAIT TT TATA ATTA ay ATA Faas. me “eat ral eae gems aareataat ene | wa er Tat 1a eT. ara LE S| Maat, Per, are | ae eee wet | wa as. | Pret ae | ey ete ae | ae and Rea | git ator Teh wee ST Saag! de weaeat | ret St mea MATRA | HeTE Be wear act aereatit agra afte | reat Wt 7 ara ara ear Saree | (ee ETAT TETTATA) | Vidyarapya adopts Patanyal’s views m bis Introduction to his commentary on Rg Veda and there m speaking of the mmporlance of the study of Grammar, he says areca TERT cereale | aadx SrramrEATR | TTA THA TeTMSATEMTAR Bar EAA a er sUTHTAA | Rrontian ah ae Me Te = ae Tee eT aeRRTTT we TT | ATT weisany ened | gett one at 2 ae vv at aI sRatd greatentae Gite se ct cena at STEM THR. TT. TE TeAENeMaTTetreME | TE WR.INTRODUCTION v sifia ex gata Te aa eas arateeTeT ate Geetas- ara @ Aer seftraameram arate | renfks afhertat ofr aanetiteatean wf cara gat | seer Tae cae aTageT ToaoTT | saad aoa Aes ae ger sert Garet | A Ro LOL wl aT aes TMT TANT | a Ga avaatt a -ohaal | weet | at ator Rat) ag Pade! arta ca sad gare Tar sre oer STATA Ga Ga get oT arated earaa Rgae| eat RewMtats sarserg| aaghra Rasa Gat Fa ster aaa aaa | eAg] Tent ay ast wears | WT fo] LIRA aa TAaSal TN aala | sdvalarentae Aaa was | Ras ater waft aaaar geaat | eft ead maeT se ara | arraetd | eT aatT weNiT aT | re aT RATT eaY eraETTAY aaa |S as gat ant gery. | ante |B gaat | Base | eT VAT | wae settee | eat ay aerate alt | satdeoeanatt geraata | areedt | ariter coft | enftartecaeg sgart sratetat area AR | areata ar areata saree | Dvyendranath Guha colle ts some other references wa amar aes —" ent vate Aer at ga cat | att ore get ga cant att | Ret saitgiatt | ga eRe ae eae) Aer Fara Tat HAASE | gaa Teas Mea sa APH: aratadraia. vara tatiata eat: egal | wel ta eas fe very Sar aaa at oR Re aaeansee ama” | (eft Fed ae I— £zlele) | aeI— sentt argaftttar Farha Agate & ater ger Fir fear AgaPa gets att Aaa Tae II RS ULEvIv4, HAST UAE craft & areprardarar —*! qeanhe are. afeRenf orerte afer eater & dene gern ste feast avd Aeary | ger Tage a | STAT aft sent caries aererecerdy | aarene atresia SUN. | at. wet are age somentete Tet | aT aye era aut orrrertete Feet. | eatat ataqat exer actor Teel TAUNTS | Fay arg Vraeals Foreraray. | sree arr wa, at are ger gutvi INTRODUCTION amAay Sag Hh gag gag | ar TA asa, ar carat ake, er aeat ar areeet | ar PR are, at Teny ar TAP | rT Uy at at ameheaa a aetcqageaare, Aaa sett ary aaha ay ara ar et aeararorneene 1” (eft Fath TRE — LA lk) | Rarer ght ara we UREIRE, HUHAR ARcle, HAT aA 00122, FT WAT Volvele, Heth TAS se VUeleo-e2 asa | (HaagMareenaAly aweTg ) | wa Fe arse geqgede’s seq—“aaraat qar® Taare aareaa seca aries aaha | oreae aeaeait RaRTER TMA eat | TST RT RANA | AF TAT TTTTT. TT | at erat gear |” (anPrdrrareateatafame, 218218) | are RIT ER TT Bet (ale eT oeHITAIAGeT aT Bat aT sR ) | wel ae RTT | are Maa aya wea ahiat (wearer eat wears) | a oO —" at aT oeTTET FRE Testy smesat teeta | wt SAT MTMETAT yaaa fos. exmdasat | at eet area rexait gata | * * * * * ware VE Tat eT | ae ora (Prewreang tare) earetacraratinhy | aatrira “tare att” gf seat, aaaar war Serarar” gfe saree | aee— “Ge 2 ar cere ae ATE |” mamearaat Ta a (elt oolke)\—“< aa arrested aaret Popedr. eet aaa |” we armas — “eet arene ay wameadarat aaltrarheat aacife Prytaradate a Sat ater arate are tar areater rae SAT a TT AAS ETT MUTA aAMATEN Tet aahe TERT art ‘ * * * atom sheet gata art Rat wet TS Pathe area Rerarg”? (rate ele Sele 0) | ATMA aa — oe * * * * fea. TS gerne aay merry ge qT Ey Bar Rae freee Asia Toate sata ae mae 1, JSSP, XVIIINTRODUCTION va Se orig ware AIT TT | ARAL I AT seATE TT ATT | aar— a, 8 erst seaEaT aaaT |? Baeer are aera” adaaATeaT wha = | aa, wae ome eee Ae CoE” ae ware fraagg | wales smaUTaTy PTA — TIRE AAT, TTA aT | freant caveat ara antiaatcag 4” eft t carat aH wequre a Pree eda aie | aefe orfratafrasa, (a)—“ frafeag sfeat ant aed aor” ot ga at ane aagTeT wera ontitsateargaadic Gt ee a4 II 4 Samskrta, or as now writien, Sanskrit, 1s the language of the Gods, Girvdnavéni In this language stand the ancient scriptures of Vedic and Puragic religion The Vedic literature is the most ancient record of any people of the world and forms the source of the earhest lustory of the Indo-Aryan race, nay, mankind as a whole “The Veda has two-fold interest it belongs to the history of the world and to the history of India In the history of the world the Veda fills a gap which no literary work in any other languages could fill It carries us back to times of which we have no records anywhere, and gives us the very words of a generation of men, of whom other- wise we could form but the vaguest estimate by means of conjectures and inferences As long as man continues to take an interest in the history of his race, and as long as we collect in libraries and museums the relics of former ages. the first place m that long row of books which contains the records of the Aryan branch of mankind, will belong for ever to the Rig-veda The world of the Veda 1s a world by itself, and its relation to all the rest of Sanskrit lsterature 1s such, that the Veda ought not to receive, but to throw light over the whole his- torical development of the Indian mind” The literature of the Vedas 1» termed Srafl, meaning what has been heard, that 1s, what 1s not the work of man 5 Vedas are eternal (wfya), heginningless (azddz) and not made by man (apaurujeya) , (2) they were destroyed im the deluge at the end of the last Kalfa, and (8) that at ihe beginning of the present Kalpavia. INTRODUCTION commencing with the K7fa-juga of this present Mahayuga, the Rishis,? through fapas, re-produced in substance if not m form the ante-dilu- vian Védas which they carried in their memory by the favour of God This 1. another expression of the historical view of modern scholars, like Mr Tilak They state that the Vedic or Aryan religion can be proved to be mmterglacial, but its ultimate origzn 1s still lost m geologi- cal antiquity, that the Aryan religion and culture were destroyed during the last glacial period that mvaded the Arctic Aryan home, and that the Vedic hymns were sung in post-glacial times by poets, who had inhented the knowledge or contents therem of an unbroken tradi- tion from their ante-diluvian fore-fathers On the commencement of Vedic era, opimions are at the opposite poles Tradition takes it to a remote age of millions of years on the computation of yugas In his Arctic Home im the Vedas, B G Tilak divides the whole period from the commencement of the Postglacial era, corresponding to the begmning of our Knita Yuga of the present Mahayuga to the barth of Buddha in five paris — “I 10,000-8,000 B C —The destruction of the origmal Arctic home by the last Ice Age and the commencement of the post-glacial period I 8,000-5,000 B C —The age of the migration from the orginal home- The survivors of the Aryan race roamed over the northern parts of Europe and Asia im search of lands suitable for new settle- ments ‘he Vernol Equinox was then m the constellation of Punar- vasu, and as the Aditt 1s the presiding deity of Punarvasu, according to the termmology adopted by me in Onion, this may therefore, be called the Adit: or the Pre-Orion Penod, TM 5,000-3,000 B C—The Orion Period, when the Vernal Equinox was im Orion Many Vedic Hymns can be traced to the 1 Brhaddevata enumerates woman seers of the hymns aren Sis Rogar sremeaeEe TST | REST Tela are BET AT | seat Feqarar acer Teratae | Sear T aE Tat aT T TTT | atroter afertt arg rar der = aftr | wt cat a aaat wearer Eat IlINTRODUCTION 1 early part of this period and the bards of the race seem to have not yet forgotten the real import or significance of the traditions of the Arctic Home inherited by them It was at this time that the first attempts to reform the calendar and the sacrifical system appear to have been systematically made IV 3,060-1,400 BC—The Kpiltiha Pernod, when the Vernal Fquinox was in the Pleiddes The Astargya Samhita and the Brah- makas, which begin the series of Nakshatras with the Krittikas are evidently the productions of this period The compilation of the hymns into Samhitas also appears to be a work of the early part of this period The traditions about the Ongmal Arctic home had grown dim by this time and very often misunderstood, making the Vadic hymns more unintelligible The sacrificial system and the numerous details thereof found in the Brahmapas seem to have been developed durmg this tme It was at the end of this period that the Védinga Jytisha was orgmally composed or at any rate the position of the equinoxes mentioned therein observed and ascertained V_ 1,400-500 B C—The Pre-Buddhistic Period, when the Sitras and the Philosophical system made their appearance ” 6 “The atmosphere of England and Germany seems decidedly unpropitious to the recogmtion of this great Indian antiquity so stubbornly opposed to the Mosaic revelation and its Chronology dearly and piously cherished by these Western Onentalists Strongly permeated with the Chronology of the Bible which places the creation of the Earth itself about 4,004 BC, European scholars cannot place the great separation of the Onginal Aryan races themselves earlier than 2,000 BC, and the first historical entry of the Hinda Aryas into the continent of India before 1,500 BC” Arthur A Macdonell, may be said to summanise the opinions of these Western Onentalists, when he says ~~ “Bhstory 1s the one weak spot in Indian literature I: 1s, in fact, non-existent The total lack of the historical sense 1s so characteristic, that the whole course of Sanskrit literature 1s darkened by the shadow of this defect, suffermg as it does from the entre absence of exact chronology . .,. Two causes seem to have combmed to bring about this remarkable result In the first place, early India wrote no hustory, because it never made any The ancient Indians never went through a struggle for fe, hike Greeks m the Perman and the Romans m the Punic wars, such as would have welded their tribes mto a nation, and developed political greatness Secondly, the Brahmans, whose task it Bx INTRODUCTION would naturally have been to record great deeds had early embraced the doctrine that all action and existence are a positive evil, and could threfore have felt but little mclmation to chronicle historical events, Such being the case, defimte dates do not begm to appear m Indian hterary history till about 500 AD The chronology of the Védic Period 1s altogether conjectural, bemg based entirely on mternal evidence Three mam literary strata can be clearly distinguished 1m it by differences in language and style, as well as i religious and social views For the development of each of these strata a reasonable length of ime must be allowed, but all we can here hope to do 18 to approximate to the truth by centunes The lower limit of the second Védic stratum cannot however be fixed later than 500 BC, because ils latest doctrmes are presupposed by Buddhism, and the date of the death of Buddha has been with a high degree of probabilty calculated, from the recorded dates of the various Buddhist councils, to be 480 BC With regard to the commencement of the Védic Age, there seems to have been a decided tendency amongst Sansknit scholars to place it too Ingh 2,000 BC, 1s commonly represented as its starting point Supposing this to be correct, the truly vast period of 1,500 years is required to account for a development of language and thought hardly greater than that between Homeric and the Attic age of Greece, Professor Max Muller’s earlier estimate of 1,200 BC, forty years ago, appears to be much nearer the mark A lapse of three centuries, say from 1,300-1,000 B C, would amply account for the difference between what 1s oldest and newest in Védic hymn poetry Considemng that the affinity of the oldest from of the Avestan language with the dialect of the Védas 1s already so great that, by mere application of phonetic laws, whole Avestan stanzas may be translated word for word into Védic, So as to produce verses correct not only m form but in poetic spint, considering farther, that 1f we know the Avestan language, at as early a stage as we know the Védic, the former would necessanly be almost identical with the latter, xt 18 umpossible to avoid the conclusion that the Indian branch must have separated from the Iranian only a very short tame before the beginnings of Védic literature, and can therefore have hardly entered the North-West of India even as early as early as 1,500 BC All previous estimates of the antiquity of the Vedic penod have been outdone by the recent theory of Professor Jacob: of Bonn, who supposes that period goes back to at least 4,000 BC This theory 1g based on astronomical calculations connected with a change mthe beginnmg of the seasons, which Professor Jacob: thinks hasINTRODUCTION x taken place since the trme of the Rigveda The whole estimate 1°, however, invalidated by the assumption of a doubtful, and even im- probable, meanig im a Vedic word, which forms the very starting point of the theory ” 7 “The history of the Sanskrit literature divides itself into two great ages, Vaidika and Laukika—Sacred and Profane,—Scnptural and Classical The Mahabharata War 1s the dividing line between the two The Vedic Age may again be divided into several distinct periods, each of which for length of years may well compare with that of the entre history of many an ancient nation, 1 Chandas Period, 2 Sambiza Period 3 Brahmana Penod, 4 Aratyaka Penod and 5 Upamsad Period Each of these periods has a distinct literature of its own, vast im its extent, and varied m its civilisation, each givimg nse to the subsequent period under the operation of great social, political and religious causes , and the philosophical histonan of human civilisation need not be a Hindu to thmk that the Ancient Aryas of India, have preserved the fullest, the clearest and the truest materials for his work,” 8, “There are four Vedas, Rik (#2), Yayar (TUE), Sama (TA) and Atharvana (#471) and each Veda hes Sambité (mantra) Brahmana, Sitra and Upamgad The first three Vedas are called together as Trayi and they are called in Brahmanas also by the name micas, Samant and Yayimg1, or Bhabvgcas, Chandogas and Adhvaryus, The Sutras apply the term chandas to the Samhitas Papi uses the terms chan- das and Bhaga io distinguish Vedic and non-Vedic literature. Yajor veda has two Sambitas called Sukla and Kygna, or Vajasaneya and "Tastpariya ” “The Samhita of the Rk 1s purely a lyrical collection, formmg the immediate source of the other three The next two are made up of verses and mtual formule, meant to be recited at sacrifices, The Atharva Samhita resembles the Rik im that it forms a store of songs; devoted to sacnfices mostly m connection with incantations and magical charms,” 9 The Brahmanic period comprehends “the first establishment of the three-fold ceremomsal, the composition of the individual Brahmanas and the formation of the Charanas, They connect the sacnficial songs and formulas with the sacrificial mite by pomting out on the one hand thei direct relation, and on the other their symbolical connection with each other Their general nature 1s marked by masterly grandi- loquence, and antiquarian sincerity, Though m the words of Prof,x {NTRODUCTION Eggeling, these works deserve to be studied as a physician studies the twaddle of idiots or the raving of mad men, they lack not striking thoughts, bold expression and logical reasonmg The Brahmanas of the Rik generally refer io the duties of the Hotr, of the Saman to those of Udgatr, of thé Yayus, to the actual performance of the sacn- fice They are valuable to us as the earliest records of Sansknit prose ” 10 “The Sitra literature forms a connecting link between the Vedic and the classical Sanskrit ‘Sutra’ means a ‘string’ and com- patibly with this sense, all works of this style are nothing but one un- interrupted chain of short sentences linked together in a most concise form Sutras represented 4 scientific expression of the tradition and dis- cussion recounted in Brahmatas They systematised the source of the mtuals and so far as Kalpastifras or Srautasttras go, they relate strictly to sruji or the Vedas To these siitras have been added Gphyasitras or those that regulate domestic mtes They are partly based on srutis and partly on smptis (unrevealed literature) Siitras have been the consequence of a national need for concise guide-books for ceremonial, and represented a ‘codification of case-law’ in the sphere of sacrifices and ceremonials? 11 Upanspads* are expressions of philosophical concepts, They embody the beginnings and progrers of esoteric ideas, which had to a large extent been mentioned in Aranyakas, writings supplementary to Brahmanas, 12, A Wazper sums up the direct data attestimg the posterionty of the Classical Pernod thus — ) Its openmg phases everywhere presuppose the Vedic period. ag entirely closed, its oldest portions are regularly based on the Yedic literature, the relations of life have now all arnved ata stage of development of which m the first penod we can only trace the germs and the beginnmg The distinction between the periods 1s also by changes in lan« guage and subject-matter 1 Té mught be seen that the usefulness of this species of composition was 60 mush appreciated that in every branch of learning sutras came to be composed and indeed are said to be the most ancient form of the solences 2, ‘The anthorlty of compositions like Upanishads has come to be respected to such an extent that in later times, several of that name were brought into being very often sectarian in thelr tenor We have ‘108 Upanishads’ and if not more on various ‘topies, for instance, Garbhopamgad on embryology and Manmathopanisad on erotics,INTRODUCTION silt First, as regards language — 1 The special characteristics m the second period are so sigmifi- cant, that 1t appropniately furnishes the name for the period, whereas the Vedic period receives its designation from the works composing it 2, Among the various dialects of the different Indo-Aryan tnbes, a greater unity had been established after ther emigration into India, as the natural result of their mtermmging in their new home The grammatical study of the Vedas fixed the frame of the language so that the generally recognised Bhasha had arisen The estrangement of the civic language from that of the mass accelerated by the assimilation of the aboriginal races resulted in the formation of the popular dialects, the prakrits—procetding from the ongimal Bhasha by the assimilation of consonants and by the curtailment or loss of termination 3 The phonetic condition of Sanskrit remains almost exactly the same as that of the earliest Vedic In the matter of grammatical forms, the language shows itself almost stationary Hardly any new forma- tions or inflexions make thew appearance yet, The most notable of these grammatical changes were the disappearance of the subjunctive mood and the reduction of a dozen infinitives to a smgie one In de- clension the change consisted chiefly in the dropping of a number of synonymous forms 4 The vocabulary of the language has undergone the greatest modifications It has been extended by derivation and composition according to recognised types, Numerous words though old seem to be new, because they happen by accident not to occut in the Vedic literature Many new words have come in through continental borrow~ ings from a lower stratum of Janguage, while already existing words have undergone great changes of meaning, Secondly, as regards the subject-matter — 1 The Vedic hterature handles its various subjects only in ther details and almost solely m their relation to sacrifice, whereas the classical discusses them in their general relations. 2, In the former a simple and compact prose had gradually been developed, but m the latter this form 1s abandoned and a rhythmic one adopted im its stead, which was employed exclusively, eyen for strictly scientific exposition “That difference of metre should form a broad lne of demarcation between the penods of literature 1s not at all without analogy m the Iiteraty history of other nations, patticularly in other times. If once axiv INTRODUCTION new form of metre begins to grow popular by the influence of a poet who succeeds m collecting a school of other poets around him, this new mode of utterance 1s very apt to supersede the other more ancient forms altogether People become accustomed to the new rhythm sometimes to such a degree, that they lost entirely the taste for their old poetry on account of its obsolete measure No poet, therefore, who wnites for the people, would think of employing those old fashion- ed metres, and we find that early popular poems have had to be transfused into modern verse in order to make them generally readable once more Now it seems that the regular and contmuous Anushtubh sloka 1s ametre unknown during the Vedic age, and every work written in it may at once be put down as post-Vedic It1s no valid objection that this epic sloka occurs also in Vedic hymns, that Anushtubh verses are frequently quoted in the Brahmanas, and that in some of the Sutras the Anushtubh-sloka occurs intermixed with Tnshtubhs, and 1s used for the purpose of recapitulatmg what had been explamed before mm prose For it 18 only the uszform employment of that metre which constitutes the charactenstic mark of a new period of literature * 13 “The languages of the world have been divided into three famihes, the Aryan or Indo-European, the Semitic and the Turamian The first comprises the Indian branch, consisting of Sansknt, Pali and the Praknts, and the modern vernaculars of Northern India and Ceylon, the Iranic branch consisting of Zend, the sacred language of the Parsis, the Pehlevi artd the other cognate dialects, the Hellenic or the Greek branch, compnsing the languages of Ancient Greece and its modern representatives, the Italic branch, consisting of the Latin and cognate ancient languages of Italy and the dialects denved from Latin, the Italian, the French and the old Provencal, the Spanish, the Portugese, and the Wallachian , the Keltic or the language of those Kelts or Gauls that so often figure m Romam History, and distinguished mto two varieties, the Kymmc, now spoken in Wales and in the Province of Britany in France, and the Gaclc, spoken m the Isle of Man, the Highlands of Scotland, and Ireland, the Lithunian and Slavonic, compnsing the languages of Lithunia, Russia, Bulgaria, and of the Slavonic races generally, and the Teutonic branch, consisting of the Scandinavian grou, 1 e, the languages of Sweden, Norway, Iceland, and Denmark, of the High German z¢ the old and the present language of Germany, and of the Low German, which compnised the old Anglo- 1, Mulr's Orvtical History, III, 0 &INTRODUCTION xv Saxon and the other languages spoken on the coasts of Germany, the modern representatives of which are the English, and the dialects spoken in Holland, Friesland, and the North of Germany The second family compmises the Hebrew, the Arabic, the Chaldee, the Syriac, the Carthagimian, and the cognate and denved languages, and the third, the Turkish and the languages of the Mongolian tribes To this last family the dialects spoken in Southern India are a'so to be inferred The Zend approaches Sanskrit the most, but the affinities of this latter with Greek and Latin are also very strikmg, and such as to convince even a determmed sceptic Sanskrit has preserved a greater number of ancient forms than any of these languages, hence it 1s indispensable for purposes of comparative philology ” 14 “India may justly claim to be the ongmal home of scientific philology In one of the most ancient Sansknt books, the Samhita of of the Black Yayurveda, there are distinct imdications of the dawn of linguistic study * The Brahmatas of the Vedas which rank next to the Samhitas, and even the Taittimya Samhita itself, the composition of which differs in no particular from its Brahmana, are all full of etymologi- cal explanations of words, though often they are fanciful * One Acharya followed another, and they all carefully observed the facts of ther Janguage, and laid down the laws they could discover They studied and compared the significations and forms of words, observed what was common to them, separated the constant element from that which was variable, noticed the several changes that words undergo im,different circumstances, and by such a process of philological analysis completed a system of grammar and etymology In the Nirukta, Yaska, whose exact, date we do not know, but who must have flounshed several centuries before Christ, lays down correct principles of the derivation of words, a a qereqeqrgaraad Zar eaaattat NT are ease atsorhtax att au San aaa a ae Dera eft aeMaRATTT ae TRY aR TETRA sqreTTEAMRa SMHT AY TT Speech was once inarticulate and undistinguished (onto its parte), ‘Then the gods cald to Indea, ‘Distinguish ou speech into parts" He said, Iwill askagiftof you, let Soma be poured into one cup for me and Vaya together’ Hence Soma 1s poured into one cup for Indra and Vayu together ‘Then Indra going into ite midet distinguished 1 Hence distinot speech 18 now spoken Tait Smh , VI 4,7 Q ‘Tho ait Brahm gives the etymology of MY (IX 9), of ATST (IIT 38), of ‘HTT (VIL 18), the Tait Samh, of SF ( 61), of Ja QT 4,12 and 1 6,2 the Tat Brabm, of et (1.15), 0 ABT (I 7,18), ko soxvi INTRODUCTION The last of the grammarian Acharyas were Pantin, Katyayana, and Patanjal The Prakpit dialects which sprang from Sansknt were next made the subject of observation and analysis The laws of phonetic change or decay im accordance with which Sansknt words became Pra. pit were discovered and laid down The Sanskrit and non-Sanskrit elements in those languages were distinguished from each other This branch of philology also was worked up by a number of men, though the writings of one or two only have come down to us In this condition Sansknt philology passed into the hands of Europeans The discovery of Sanskrit and the Indian grammatical system at the close of the last century led to a total revolution in the philological ideas of Europeans But several circumstances had about this time prepared Europe for independent thought in philology, and Sansknt supplied the principles upon which it should be conducted, and determined the }current in which it should run The languages of Europe, ancient and modern, were compared with Sansknt and with each other his led to comparative philology and the classifi- cation of languages, and a comparison of the words and forms im the different languages led scholars into the secrets of the growth of human speech, and the science of language was added to the test of existing branches of knowledge ”* It has been said by emment wniters that at one time sansknt was the one language spoken all over the world, “Sanskrit 1s the mother of Greek, Latin and German languages and it has no other relation to them,” that “sansknt 1s the orginal source of all the European lan- guages of the present days,” and that “1n point of fact the Zind 1s denved from the sanskrit ”* 15 Tradition traces the beginnings of the sanskrit language to the fourteen aphorisms or Mahegvara sitras They are & € 3 onwards to % %, These sounds, vowel and consonant, emanated from the sound of Siva’s damara (drum) at the time of bus dance To these letters and sounds 1s attached a mystic sigmficance and Nandikesvara has ex- plained their import with all solemnity As the Kankas of Nandikeg- vara are rare, they are printed here* 7 Fy RG Bhandarkar, Lectures on Development of Language of Sanskrst, 7 2, Hsndu Supersorsty, 1778, A Dubois’ Bable wn Indsa, MaxMuller's Beienc of Language, I qian Dvyendranath Guha’s, Devadhasha, JSSP, XVIII. 150, 8 They are printed with the commentary of Upamanya, m the Nimayasage Ban, of Mahabbasya, p 189 ™ 71o 11. 12, 13 INTRODUCTION xm % ae aT Al TAA ATTICA TAT SRI ATTA | sagem araktrarmnkat Raqameq |) ar eas aay serabagae | arent sorte ofrecer Ul lagsq] aa aaer wider aireqg | Resont autre args sae I ae AT THT AAT | area aaragrtea saa | ad gona US marae sry | waa cert wera ary ae aT I a& Rawat Veet a ar ad | qranrataaeans HAT aE Sar AAT I wert ofeiga ara era | gan atautat ofnearere 7a I aiergryferer aed | armaatate sedaat Aensat tt sare afiara aieerieeset Far | sere Araergrardea. Il [FER meg eat arat wae eaedaT | atta afraniter sergrasitara Il gfoatanaresaarar + Prag | aaaiet aacerartateg tl aren aeq Reedt Ratio | antai waa etemreata fig: Ul iqavrel gare ateaaearreart wizegy | arftreareertgarat a ga fe ferfarrgsvin 14. 15. 16. 17, 18. 19. 20 21. 22, 23. INTRODUCTION eR ql ait waAEeT. a sera aa: | great eat siaunacrataerah. leqaatel WIGEHRAGIAT ASAT | sPaqragqesweqgaraegg « gt fF tl erie edlveet FT qe ageeede | carraseda g sterears Ga arg il lea] ard Yararraratat gt seg | STRATA staHeoTATSoHAN Ul lITHEeET TA! Waa CUTIE THSIAT | atrmatat gar wa artemedaeggy Ul lau area a asrdtaaaaraa: | adsigg fea earacral a faz | aint giant ] etfeqagr we Ti lgzagql azay adyarat qeary cere. | esa BI sar sear. Ul lTTTse ce TARA Tag RATT | aterm saat TaTSTRL 1 lenssaqzraa meas Fa weakest. | THe BUT GHesT aaa tl aiifectrradtier: STorenr. drarqa: | WIM APTSATM GeO:INTRODUCTION pa leqql 24 seit ges 3a Pina aeaaq | wantita fats aagenfefe FPA UI legac 25. Ba THAT TT Toa fear ger | warhrey marta wet atest Ty | 26 HUTA THT. | mare NANT area Ul lal 27, ware ot ah wafanefine | FEMRATTT ES eaTVS safeatrae Ul aft aRSaegar eer gaa I 16“ The Iiterature of Sanskrit presents, as ordinarily considered, two varieties of the language, but a third may also, as I shall presently endeavour to show, be clearly distinguished, Of these the most ancient is that found in the hymns of the Rigveda Samhita These were com» posed at different ismes and by different Rishis, and were transmitted from father to son in certain famihes Thus the third of the ten collec- tions, which make up the Samhit@ bears the name of Visvamutra, and the hymns contamed in it were composed by the great patriarch and tus descendants. The seventh is ascribed to Vasishtha and his family, The composition of these hymns therefore extended over a long period, the language 1s not the same throughout, and while sometimes they present a variety so close to the later Sansknt jhat there 1s little difficulty in understanding them, the style of others 1s so antiquated that they defy ali efforts at interpretation, and their sense was not understood even by the Rishis who flourished in the very next literary period, that of the Brihmagas, Stull for our purposes we may neglect these differences and consider the Vedic vanety of Sansknt as one,” 17 The history of Sanskrit affords considerable scope for a study of the growth of language It presents distinct varzeires of spesch'which are linked together exactly as Modern Enghsh 1s wath the Anglo-Saxon The most ancient form 1s that composing the text of the Rig Veda Sam- ita. Consisting of ten books, it was the work of different rzshzs, preserved by oral tradition in their familes Despite the muitte distinctions in the ldigunge of th Rit Samitutd, we may for all practical purposes treatxx INTRODUCTION the Vedic vanevy of Sanskni as a compact dialect Promimently, this dialect presents some peculiarities of form and usage, which may thus be summed up (:) The nominative pulural of noun ending m 4 1s SAT as well as FY as Sat oor @at , the istrumental bemg Rafa or 9 (u) The nommative and the vocative dual and plural of nouns in & not rarely end in HT as Qa Rat =a salt. (m) The instrumental singular of femmme nouns in © 1s occas- sionally formed by lengthening the vowel as dit and we (wv) The locative smgular termmation w often ehded as WW satay (v) The accusative of nouns in 3 are formed by ordinary rules of euphonic combmation as 444 or THAT, and the instrumental by affixing Ml or TW or Far as SHAT or ATA (v1) The dative of the personal pronouns ends in { as 5% or ae (vu) The parasmaipada first person plural termination 1s AR as qaneaTerqaen®, and of the third person plural 1s € or @ as & or set. (va1) The 4 of the atmanepada termmation 1s often dropped es @famaeet , and mstead of * there is AL, as TET (1x) In the place of the umperative second person plural, there are G, 4, 8A and MG as TH, TIA, AISA and STAT (s) Exght different forms of the mood Bz, signifying condition, are everywhere abundant os 9 oat enftaq. (=) Roots are not restricted to particular conjagations and at the caprice of the Rishi the same comes io more than one class (x:i) The infinitive suffixes are @, a, we, a and a as TH, aa, gored, Gat and arama » the accusatives of some nouns are treated as infinstives governed by B%, as fart TTI, the termmations Wand %% occur when combined with PAT os Tate. or seg > the potential particyples arpINTRODUCTION xxi denoted by the suffixes @1, 2, G04 and as Pat, wae, FAT and FA, the indechnable past ends in UT as WATT, some forms as Tet are also met with (am) A vanely of verbal denvatives as 70 (hanasome), FR, (fe) and Sq, (product) are frequent (xv) A large number of words which have become obsolete or lost their significance in later Sanskrit are everywhere abundant as ovata, 4g and sitar These peculiarities have been noted as the most frequent and the most salient, but many others are mentioned by Panini ‘The Vedic dialect 1s the first record of the Sanskrit tongue, from which by pro- cesses of phonetic decay and natural elision the later language has been perfected Here 1s a specimen of Vedic Sansknt — a, ae FT et gar a 8a em aaq | alae arate ara aera eat Pieter dea | aT eer aT II 4. wer eae ACH Te SUMS | TeteraTeTTET Il ve Far at atten ceraha saare | Ae ara eaths go are GAAM aay Tema | STENT BAT I ak. mae Rareagar PP erftr cafe | eanlt ary zat Ul 22 gat Prarer arate. grat Bea LT oT aT TTA Ul 43. gaa eT get eaMeT sy TeT | ATT TF Il “These eight verses contain 72 different gadas or gramiatical forms, not counting the prepositions as separate Jadar Of these, 19 have become altogether obsolete m classical Sanskrit, and 12 have changed their significations ” 18 The Brahmanas of the Rk and the Yayus present the second stage in the development Many of the peculiar words have become ob- solete, and the declensions have mostly approached the classical gram~ mar The roots have no indiscnmmate conjugation The subjunctive 1s almost gone out of use The indeclinable past and the gerundial in- fimtive end in 1 and G1, verbal forms of all moods and tenses are seen in abundance, Still there are the touches of the vedic relation- ship and archaisms are not rare — () Some femme nouns have common forms for the dative and the genitive, as TF WsaTaT 5MAL IN1RODUCTION (u) The 7 of the third person 1s ofien dropped as before, as aadt tt saan , (11) Some of the aorst forms do not follow the rules of Pinm, as FAI AT TG SAT (av) Some atiquated words occur as HAT% (a shaft) Pasta (refer ce) ATA (prosper ous) The Artereya Brahmata quotes some géfhas which are obviously more archaic than the rest of the work Notwithstanding these irregu~ lantues, the Brahmanas are “the best representatives extant of the verbal portion of that language of which Panim writes the grammar, though he did not mean these when he spoke of the dhasha” The gradual and perhaps rapid progress in the symmetry and simplicity of the language had still to be accelerated by the work of later authors and their writings furnish an ample illustration of the next stage of Imguistic development 19 Yasxa’s Nirvxia forms the mlermediate mk between the Vedic and the non-Vedic literature It ss not devoid of archaic expres- sion, for we meet with such phrases as ‘$9280 AFT * (unable to teach) and fEfaet WA? (suvested with soverergnty) But we have no clue to the dawn of a change of style from simplicity to complexity To the same period im the history of Sansknit belongs Paninr His Astidhyityi 1s based on the grammar of the daa No language has survived to us that lilerally represents Panini’s standard of dialect Perhaps the later Brihmaras are the only best representatives At any rate there is no portion of the existing Sanskrit hterature that accurately represents Panim’s Sanskrit, as regards the verbs and the nommal derivatives Probably his grammar had for ils basis the vernacular language of his day ‘Yaska and Panmi stand to us the authorities on record of that form of the language which immediately followed the purely Vedic stage 20° Times had advanced, and with it the language Payuni’s dhtiga could no longer stand stationary ‘The operation of the concurrent causes of linguistic progress had by the days of KA1vAvANA and PatanjALt modified Panim's denotation and introduced new changes in the grammar of the language or im the scope of the aphorisms. Katyayana’s Varjekas and Patanyali’s AMahibhigya are devoted to the: Proper interpretation of the sifras and to the apt introduchion of the missing links If to Katyayana’s eyes 10,000 maccuracies are discernible im Pan, the only explanation must be that to Payini they were notINTRODUCTION awn maccuracies, but by Kagyayana’s ume the language had progressed and necessitated a fresh appendis or erratum m Panim’s grammatical treatise 1 he period of interventzon must have been sufficiently long to allow old grammatical forms to become obsulete and even incorrect and words and their meanings tu hecome antiquated and even ununder- sandable 21° Paganjalt discusses the change and progress of the language, in the sdstraic form of a dialogue between an objector and a mover thus PRATT afa 2 wear age aam-- ss, a, a, TR React aera sien, wary wera TETAS FT CariMTTAT arse ATR | ee maT MaWa-- agead— aft 3 sear sega. eff, ae waar Tye, sag TAR, aft Tega Mae | ag ga ay ATE ata wear saga eft Baer aaa GET TERA TNT agent? Sag Protifien | amit mad am star erate wegese | orga ae a, Wasaga oF | ae —adereh aaardiae gee Teal aA arg, earfefe | a qatsentaam 2 | 18 ate? aesracr ef | FST RAT AAT BF | waiasE se, were Se | sreeregen ghee Sereh areqnaerry | RUTH eT Aq Te SH Hea ¢ oR wearing | AF wear ABET! aft ar weqaraal aeaig gor Hl sprain: RATTAN | arity wea eat sea | ga? TATRA | Tea aE wom seam TgeP | cen —see wae, 8 En , Yeerere, Bp thi: , Beet, 7 gad , Bae, eT THT ee |Au INTRODUCTION age Teaay | arage aa diereeiaaaaa | arn aden ardertet ateeaari sq area aireces | ae aPaTarae at ef gear aT mremataaa | aa fate | ae Gas wear Farts aySG | a Frwraqe ? sqerdt ae Arrat | Fer waa TTT | wader weudt, TH Seat, TaN Far attr atEer aga a, TE aqreaera , seral ade, cahteftar era, TaersaT ae., Hat ae RO feakdary wee wm | gaT wR wa PreeagtseNrenger eft art Bae eeraat | after ire aT AARRR eer da aa Aaaear ext | wear | wataferat wale ant aaft fee teat ae sa et! eae aeg we memag atteat agate | afteaart srg, areeareg | Y qua aadsrger atiea sear Y Aral viet oT) w? a lar amenadtagn, Tat tat wat aay, Fae ye AE TH, aT wat ae Tea” ef |? Porv ®RaIGM: | There exist (some) words which are not used, for instance, 3, Ot, TH, Fy (These are forms of the second person plural of the Perfect,) The Siddhantm, or the prmcipal teacher, who advocates the doctrine that 1s finally laid down asks — Sip What if they are not used? Purv You determme the grammatical correctness of words from their bemg used Those then that are not now used are not gramma- ucally correct Sm What you say 1s, in the first place, mconsistent, wiz » that words exist which are not used If they exist they cannot be not used, if not used, they cannot exist To say that they exist and are not used 1 Mah&bbagya, (Nirnayacagara Edition), Vol I, pages 69-65,INTRODUCTION KV isimconsistent You yourself use them (utter them) and say (in the very breath) there are words which are not used What other worthy luke yourself would you have to use them im order that they might be considered correct ? (lat What other person hike yourself 1s correct or 1s an authonty in the use of words) Purv This is not inconsistent I say they exist, since those who know the Sastra teach their formation by [laying down] rules, andIsay they are not used, because they are not used by people Now with regard to [your remark] What other worthy, &” [when I say they are not used] I do not mean that they ure not used by me Srp What then? Purv Not used by people Sip Verily, you also are one amongst the people Purv Yes, I am one, but am not the people Sip (Vart aeamge eft Fart wart) If you object that they are not used, it will not do (the objection 1s not valid) Purv Why not? Sip Because words are used to designate things The things do exist which these words are used to designate (Therefore the words must be used by somebody If the things est, the words that denote them must exist) Porv (Vari amatt. TaNTFHATT) (It does not follow) Ther non-use 1s what one can reasonably infer Sm Why? Purv Because they (people) use other words to designate the things expresed by these words, for mstance, ® (4gftat m the sense of ST, ® TT AImt in the sense of A, # YI GIT. im the sense of TH , & TF WHAT im the sense of cy (We here spe-participles had come to be used for verbs of the Perfect Tense) Sw (Vart age ateraq) Even af thfge-words are not used they should be essentially taught by rulef dist ~@,Jong sacrificial sessions are It ism this way Long sacriticie. s6stions Atg/such as last for a hundred years and for a thousand yeard\ 9% modern uggs ndne whatever holds them, but the writers on sacrifites t¢ach them by‘Tules, simply because [to learn] what has been hand& Mown~by~ tradityon from ibe Rishis 1s religiously mentorious And teereover (Yatt Wa Zara), all these words are used m other places D>xxVI INTRODUCTION Purv —They are not found used, Stp —An endeavour should be made to find them Wide indeed is the range over which words are used , the earth with its seven continents, the three worlds, the four Vedas with their angas or dependent treatises and the mystic portions, in their various recensions, the one hundred branches of the Adhvaryu (Yajur-Veda), the Sama-Veda with its thous- and modes, the Bahviichya with its twenty-one vaneties, and the Athar~ vapa Veda with nme, Vakovakya, Epics, the Puranas, and Medicine ‘This 1s the extent over which words are used Without scarching this extent of the use of words, to say that words are not used 1s simple rashness In this wide extent of the use of words, certain words appear restricted to certain senses in certam places Thus, wala 1s used in the sence of motion among the Kambojas, the Aryas use it m the derived from of @4, BHT is used among the Surashtras: weft among the eastern and central people, but the Aryas use only 74, e1fa as used m the sense of ‘culimg’ among the easterns 44 among the northerners And those words which you think are not used are also seen used Porv ~-Where? Sm In the Veda, Thus, ware at kage | gat tad Waal aT UN FT FAS Te | TE eT TETT | [\ We here see that the objector says that certain words or forms are not used by people, and therefore they should not be taught or learnt The mstances that he gives are forms of the perfect to some roots and observes that the sense of these forms is expressed by using other words which are perfect participles of these roots, These statements are not demed by the Siddhanti, but he does not allow that the forms should not be taught on that account Though not used, they should be taught and learnt for the sake of the religious merit consequent thereon, just as the ceremonial of long sacnficial sessions, which are never held, is, Then the objector is told that though not used by people, the words may be current mm some other country, continent, or word, or they must have been used somewhere in the vast literature of the language As regards the particular isiances, two of them are shown to be used in the Vedas It thus follows thatim the time of KAtyayana and Patanyalt, such verbal forms had become obsolete, and participles were used in their place But 1t must have been far other- wise in the time of Patim He gives mmute rules for constructinng the mnumerable forms of the Sanskrit verb,”’]INTRODUCTION Xv 22 A few of those promment changes are given below — @) Papin: in a special rule says that 0% has {44 for us neuter in the Vedas Obviously he intended to evhaust the list Katyayana has to add SF to it (i) Panini, when he says Ree salaftiat a, would imply that each form has no other sense than that of a bird, but Katyayana adds that both the forms are optional in the sense of ‘ birds,’ while m any other sense they represent separate words , (ii) The vocative singular of neuter nouns ending in W% such as WT as according to Panini 77, but Katyayana would add an optional A®, (iv) Some feminine formations are not noticed by Papin, which K&tyayana {s forced to allow, as M4 and saqrearat. (v) The word amt 1s rendered as We by Panim; Kagyayana substitutes for it WET (vi) The words and meanings of words employed by Katyayana are such as we meet with in the classical.period and his expres sions would not invite any special attenton This cannot be said of Pépini Many of his words are antiquated in the later language as Hf (Ceswre)) STRAT (bargain), EF (pr ves") “In Panini’s time a good many words ahd expressions were current which aflerwatds betame obsolete , verbal forms were commonly used whith ceased to be used in Katyayana’s time, and some grammatical forms were developed in the time of the latter which did not exst m Paguni’s Patuni’s Sanskrit must, therefore, be identified with that which preceded the Epics, dnd he mbst be referred to the hterary penod between the Brahmanas and Yaska Hence it 1s that the Brahmayas, as observed before, are the best existing representatives of the language of which Panim wnites the grammar Katyayana on other hand wrote when the language arrived at that stage which we have called classical, Thus, then, we have been able to trace three distinct periods in the development of Sanskrit Furst, we have the Vedic period, to which the Rigveda Samhita, the Mantra portion of the Vayurveda, and the more antiquated part of the Atharva-Sambita are to be referred Then commences another period, at the threshold of which we find the Brahmagas, which, so to say, look backwards to the preceding,xvii INTRODUCTION that 1s, present the vedic language 1m the last stage of its progress towards Panim’s Bhasha, and, later on, we have Yaska and Panim ‘This may be called the period of Middle Sanskrit, And last af all, there is the classical period to which belong the Epics, earliest specimens of Kavyas and dramatic plays, the metrical Smritis, and the grammatical work of Katyayann Panim’s work contains the grammar of Middle Sansknit, while Kalyayana’s that of classical Sanskrit, though he gives his sanction to the archaic forms on the principle, as he himself has stated, on which the authors of the sacnficial Sutras teach the ritual of long sacrificial sessions, though they had ceased to be held mm their time Patanjali gives but few forms which differ from Katyayana’s and in no way do they indicate a different stage im the growth of the language; hence his work 18 to be referred to the same period The form which the language assumed at this time became the standard for later writers to follow, and Katyayana and Patanjali are now the generally acknow- ledged authorities on all pomts concerning the correctness of Sanskrit speech. We shall hereafter see that the last two stages have left dis» tinct traces on the Prakrits or the derived languages Professor Goldstucker has shown from an examination of the Vartkas, that certam grammatical forms are not noticed by Panim, but are taught by Katyayana and concludes that they did not exist in the language in Papin1’s time. I have followed up the argument in my lectures ‘On the Sanskpit and Prakpit languages,’ and given from the Vartikas several ordinary mstances of such forms From these one of two conclusions only 1s possible, ws, either that Panini was a very careless and ignorant grammanan, or that the forms did not exist in the language 1n his time The first 1s of course inadmissible, wherefore the second must be accepted I have also shown from a passage in the mtroduction to Patanjali’s Mahabhashya, that verbal forms such as those of the Perfect which are taught by Panim as found in the Bhasha or current language; not the Chhandasa or obsolete language, had gone out of use m the time of Katyayana and Patanyaly, and participles had come io be used instead Professor Goldstucker has also given a hist of words used by Panini im his siitras in a sense which became obsolete in the time of Katyayana and shown what portion of Sanskrit hterature did not probably exist in Papim’s time but was known to Katyayana, and mone case comes to the not unjustifiable conclusion that the time that had elapsed between Panini and Katyayana was so great that certain literary words which either did not exist nm Paniny’s tame or were not old to him came to be considered by Katyayana {o be as old asINTRODUCTION xxix those which were old to Panini Agam, according to Pats rules the Aorist expresses (1) past time generally, or the simple completion of an action, (2) the past time of this day and not previous {o this day and (3) recent past time, and thus resembles in every respect the Enghsh Present Perfect Butin the later language the distanclion between that tense and the other two past tenses is set aside and the Aonst 1s used exactly hke these Now, the language of the verses ascribed to Panim and generally the language of what Professor Max Muller calls the Renaissance period 1s grammatically the same as that of Katyayana and Patanyali, and 1s the language of participles instead of verbs, and even from theirs it differs in making extensive use of com- pounds and neglecting the distinction between the Aonst and the other past tenses The Sansknt of Papim’s time 1s more archaic than that of Katyayana’s tume, and Panimr’s rules are nowhere more secru- pulously observed than im such an ancient work as the Aitareya Brahmana The many forms and expressions which he teaches, atid which must have existed m language are nowhere found in the later literature , while specimens of them are to be seen in that Brahmana and hike works Between therefore the archaic language of the sutras and the language which Panim calls Bhasha and of which he teaches the grammar, on the one hand, and the language of the Renaissance period on the other 1s such a wide difference that no one will ever think of attributing a work written in the style and language of this penod to the Great Grammanan As Yaska and Pani to the same penod of Sansknt literature the style and manner of a work written by Pani: the grammarian, must resemble those of the Nirukta, but im the few verses attributed to Pani: there 1s no such resemblance whatever. Should the entire work be discovered and found as a whole to be written m an archaic style, there will be time enough to consider its claim on behalf of these artificial verses?” 23° “The earliest Sanskrit Alphabet was possibly made up of five semi-vowels, five nassals, five soft and five hard aspirates, m all twenty consonants The twenty sounds found m the aphors G4%&z, 4% FASTA, MAY, AT, AHSSA, are the oldest, the final consonants beng of course later additions As no consonants can be pronounced with- out a vowel, the sound of a, az or 0, according to ihe idiosyncrasies of the several tribes, came to be unconsciously blended with it The aphors S48 and EX belong to a subsequent age, the four consonants im them being more or less connected in origin with si-s In course 1 BG, Bhandarkar, Date of PatamalyxX INTRODUCTION of tume the aspirates produced the unaspirates, and the aphors HAMTERA and #14, were added, the three c6nsonants FT being placed before { The order m which the vowels a, 2, 2,+,| are arranged 1s the same with that of the sem-vowels 4, y, 2, 7, /, thus raising a sus- picion that the correspondence between the 5 vowels and the 5 semi-vowels was not quite unknown in the age of the composition of the vowel-aphors There 1s again a suspicion, that the vowels ¢ and 0, which have a separate aphor whe assigned {o them, were originally monophs, not diphs , the only diphs known in this age were a: and au formed of a+: and a+ respectively These four aphors thus belong to an age, when 9 vowels in all, 7 monophs and 2 diphs, were recognised, Were the seven monophs pronounced short or long? their traditional pro- tunciation 1s no doubt short, butim an age not accustomed to the distinction between short and long, the pronunciation was possibly also long, at least among some of the tribes Did Pam recognise the vowel % in the aphor #@%? or did the aphor im his age confain only #? The aphors SY and @% contam only one letter each, and it may be held, that hke them the aphor * also contamed only one letter, namely ¥, here 1s only one root, wiz , 74, contammng the vowel @ But Papin does not recognise the root as Faq, according to him (g4to-18, 2 VIII), the root is 2% and Fas formed from ®1, by changing the sound of { initto & Pagan, thus deriving FY, from 81, recognises xo % in the aphor *@% the grammatical tradition 4s therefore quite correct in not ascribing the authorship of the alpha- aphors to him The fourteen aphors are thus the product of a pre-Papini tage, these aphors describe a dialect which possessed only seven short monophs and two diphs, and which had, besides, no lack of words tontaming the vowel & and the semi-vowel in them The sound of the semi-vowel possibly resembled that of ayizin Arab and Hob, and as such must have had a distinct sigh assigned to it, though now ure= coverably lost. The age of Papin: 1s ths conspicuous by the loss of the sign of the semi-vowel /, and by the scarcity of the vowel &, the former event having led to the confounding of the semrvowel 2 with the spir 4, while the latter led to the non-recognilion of the vowel @ ‘Lhe age of the composition of the Fourteen Alpha-aphors, recognismg the seven sho:t monophs, two dipths and the semi-vowel g, may be called Pre-Pauni Age L The age of Pam will be found conspicuous not only by the loss of one short vowel @, but of three more short vowels, M1, %, and SiINTRODUCTION xM & may claim at least a few words, while the semi-vowel ® has not been ousted from the premier piace, though no words have been preserved for it 1o clam But the shor! vowels il, { and @f, to use a scientific expression, have evaporated zuithout residue Sakatayana knew tno se and two vs, the one /git aud the other heavy Panini makes mention of Sakatayana having known them, but as to whether any distinction was made between them, when he (Panim1) lived, absolutely nothing is known This age of short 4 and of the two-fold 4 and { may be called the Pre-Pauim Age II” 94, Samskrta Here then the Samskri language had assumed a shape true to its name Samskyta The later epics, poems and dramas do not show any progress in the grammar, structure and signi- fication of the language, though as regards style, they class themselves ito an isolated species of literary composition For all practical purposes, the language as perfected by the work of Katyayana and Patanjalt has been the standard of later lilerature, and these are now the achnowledged authonities on all points concernmg the grammar or construction of the Sanskrit speech erearee AeA BIS eae | Tard aesT” NAAT | tea a“ aepa are Sat arrareren wee (wees Ra), eae Bt aia sefereaftarreraarcetr saa STRATA | arazioght F (21) eee aa — “cepa aftnt ars secerag Pixar | set aeBaMTT WETS aA was Sera | aera, BRAM TAMaRTET ok, —“ ger eet Tee Seta fee meraaer ay sea | Tar aa srTeeht ae aT ByseT eT ESTE GT fe arar RR sara 1” ef 25. “The earliest literature presents a fluent and simple style of composition The sentences are short and verbal forms are abundant Attnbutive and nommal expressions do not find a place therem Thuis construction 18 facilitated by a succession of concise 1deas, which gives it a sort of simple grace and fine-cut stractare This then 1s the form of the Brahmana language It lacks not striking thoughts, bold ex- pression and impressive reasoning, Leaving out of account the un- natural appearance of the sutra style—whbich was not however a liter- ary composition—we come to Yaska and his Nirukga Scientific as it 1s, the language of Yaska often reminds us of the earlier wntmgs The 1, HB Bhagwat, Lectures on Sanskre?'s Language, Bombayxx INTRODUCTION frequency of verbal forms was current durmg the time of Panim It was after the epoch of the Ashtadhyay: that a change had come over literary styles Attributes attached greater attention and compounds could alone compress long dependent sentences ito the needed form *In argument the ablative of an abstract noun saves a long periphrasis’ The minute rules of Pani: for constructing the innumerable verhal forms facilitated this mama for conciseness of expression Thus the fluent or simple style came gradually to be displaced by the formative or attributive style To this was added the richness aud flembihty of the sansknit language itself, which allowed any sort of twisting and punning of the literary vocabulary The Puranas and the Ithasas were composed at the transitional stage in ihe history of literary styles They present at the same time the simplicity of the earler language and the complexity of the later composition So do the earhest speci- mens of poetic and dramatic literature, Hence the natural and not improbable conclusion 1s that if an author shows an easy aud elegant style and if the flow of bis language 1s more natural, it must be either his taste is too esthetic for his age or his work must be assigned to an early period in the history of literature This artificial style was greatly developed in the field of philosophy and dialectics Patanyali’s language is most simple, lucid and impressive The sentences if there- fore really consists of a series of dialogues, often smart, between one who maintamns the fiirvapakska, and another who plays down the siddhinta Hence, the language 1s plain and simple, and the sentences are short, and such as a man may naturally use m ordmary conversa~ tion or oral disputation The forms of words are all similar to the earlier dramas or the Puranas Sabaraswamm has a lively style, though this presents a further stage m the downward progress Now the philosophical style sets in and continues to a degree of mischief which 1s now beyond all reforma- tion, Sankara represents the middle stage His explanations are aided by dialectic termmology The sentences are much longer than those of the earler writers, the construction 1s more myolved, there 1s a freer use of attnbutive adjuncts, and the form 1s that of an essay or a lecture, mstead of an oral disputation. But his language 1s fluent and perspicuous, but not petrified as that of later wnters ‘he last stage 1s reached 3n the works of the Natyayikas ‘hese latter hate ihe use of verbs The ablative singular and the indechnable particles play a promment part in ther composition Nouns are absiract and even participles are rare, The style is one of solidified formule, rather ofINTRODUCTION xxxui virying discourse Thus the end 1s that the movement which started wlth the simple sentence and predicative construction has ran up to a stage where the original character 1s entirely modified and the Sansknt language has become a language of abstract nouns and compound words The greater use or altributive or nominal forms of expression gradually drove out a large portion of the Sansknit verb, and gave a new character to the language, which may be thus described —Very few verbal forms are used besides those of such tenses as the Present and Future, participles are frequently met with, the verbal forms of some roots, especially of those belonging to the less comprehensive classes, have gone out of use, and in their place we often have a noun expressive of the special action and a verb expressive of action generally , compound words are somewhat freely employed and a good many of the Taddhita forms or nomial derivatives have disappeared, and im their stead we have periphrastic expressions 26 Spiritual Aspect, ‘The grammatical dessertations of the Hindus were not confined to a narrow field, nor were the Hindn gram- marians content with mere formulation of rules for the formation of words ‘The spiritual aspect of sound seems to have made a deep impression upon their mind and left its stamp on their whole outlook regarding sadda ‘lhe sabdikas succeeded i discovering a way of spiritual discipline even through the labyrimthine mass of grammatical speculations Enquiries into the ultimate nature of ak led them toa sublime region of sadhana—a region of perfect bliss and pure cons- ciousness The cultivation of grammar gave rise to a spintual vision which, to speak, enabled the vag-yogavid to visualise Brahman im the wreath of letters (varnamala) Letters are denoted n Sansknt by the same term (eésara) as is often apphed to Brahman A glance at the language im which aksara has been interpreted by grammanans of old will serve to open our eyes to the supreme importance of varnas To the spmtual insight of Patanjali varnas were not only phonetic types bat the glowmg sparks of Brahman illommmg the entire sphere of existence alert aiRaset at me aee | Varfka asqrecearat aaa ghrr aearxtesaq sftefedt React met | Mababhasya,I 2 3 The study of grammar has been declared to be the direct means of attammg the Supreme Being who, though one and without a second, zgxxxly INTRODUCTION appears to be manifold owmg to the operation of maya? Grammar in its religious and mystical speculations 1s m line with the teachings of the Upanisads, reinterpreting the same doctrmes of yoga and upasana as are generally found mm the sacred texis of India * It was left io Patanjah and lus followers to unlock the portal ofa new kingdom of thought, so as to throw hight upon the ultimate end of all enquiries into words The Mahabhasya portended the birth of a form of sadbana in which sabda or Eternal Verbum should be wor- shipped with all the reverence shown to a Divinity* In order to atta union with Brahman or to get oneself completely merged in the Absolute, one 18 directed to take up the mysterious course of Sabda- sadhana‘ Patanjali seems to have been the first among the Indian grammarians to give a spimtualistic colour to the speculations of grammar, The sabdabrahmopasana, as 1s formulated in the Upanisads, had undoubtedly mfluenced his trend of thought The mysticism underlymg the phenomena of speech was undou- btedly the aspect which seems to have made the deepest impression upon the grammanan, ‘The utterance of sound 1s with hm a wvid materialisation of mner consciousness, To the grammanan sabda 1s not a lifeless mechanism invented by man, It is more than a mere sound or symbol It 1s consciousness that splits itself up ito the twofold category of sabda and artha, and what we call vak, as the vehicle of communication, 1s nothmg but an expression of ca:unya lymg within® Patanyal: has taken notice of two kinds of words, namely, nitya (eternal) and darya (created) By the former he understands the Supreme Reality that transcends all limitations of isme and space The atinbutes whereby the Vedantin describes Brahman or Absolute a ate aaTaaageT TTT | TETETTATT ae ENPTEAE || Vakyspadtya, a Te aes Ta TeaTETAMATAAT | Yogs sugras, 97-28 8 Pufvnyali aays that one should pursue the study of grammar for the supreme object of attaining equality or sameness with the Great God Reet Bq seared qa eater TET | 4 While commenting on the Rk (Rgveda, X 6,71), Patenjali had laid stress on tho necessity of making a thorough study of grammar, becsuse it renders the gram marian capable of attaining uoion with Brahman (@TgSarf Sa) 5 ReeTTrTaiET TTTT TRA ey I—Ponyactje under Vakyapadiys, I 1,INTRODUCTION xxAV have all been used by Patanjali in this interpretation of nuya sabda® He has more than once drawn our attention to this eternal character of sabda This will give us some idea of the magnitude in which sabda was understood by the famous grammanan whom tradition makes an incarnation of Sesa His poetical descnption of varnas, to which we have already referred, best illustrates the spiritual outlook of bis mind, From the sruus he has quoted in laudation of vak and vyakarana, and it 1s sufficiently clear that he was an ardent and devout worshipper of vak, belongmg to that class of mystics who in their spintual experience make no distinction between para vak and para Brakman Patanjalt used to look upon sabda as a great divinity (mahan deoah) that makes ils presence felt by every act of utterance. He was a yogin whose inward vision (frazbha jnana) permitted him to have a look ito that eternal flow of pure consciousness that 18 undisturbed from outside* He was a true type of Brahmin who visualised the ultimate nature of vak by dispelling the darkness of ignorance through the aid of his illummating knowledge of sabda- tattva® The worship of vak, which has is ongin in the Upanisads* and which found so promment an expression m the Agamas, was eatnestly followed up by the sabdikas, partscularly by Patanyali and Bhartrhan, Sabdabrahmopasana, as we find m grammatical dissert- ations, is only a reproduction of the teachings of the Upanisads ® Words are not mere sounds as they ordinanly seem tobe, They have a subtle and intellectual fotm within, The mternal source from which they evolve is calm and serene, eternal and impetishable, ‘The real form of vak, as opposed io external sound, hes far beycnd the range of ordinary perception, We are told that it requires a good deal of sadhana to have a glimpse of the purest form of speech. The rk to which Patanjali has referred beats strong evidence to this fact, Vak 1s said ro reveal her divine self only to those who are so tramed. 1 fay Teg Fae. aeacrnaarrsehee. Mababbasya, I, 1, 1 2 aT Tet. ser aifeercgahet vereseior eect xa RAMTAATAT |—Helardya under Vakyopadiya, 8 92, 3 Sarat TeMsT TReMPaT ATs eTTER ars ad aT aT. | —~Pradipoddyots 4, FAY ATT ATTEN |—Obtodogys, vIn a 5, Sara I Fes |—Mahabbagya,xxxvi INTRODUCTION as to understand her real nature Such ‘sas the exalied nature of vak upon which the grammanan used to meditate ”* 27° Writing Ir was BEEN SAID THAT ANCIENT INDIA KNEW NO ‘wRITING and that wnting was introduced somewhere about 1800 BC, by traders coming mto India from Phoemcia and Mesapotamia The Vedas were meant for recital and the bards sang the hymns The idea mvolved in the name érufz for the Vedas 1s recitation and ‘ hearing,’ for it 1s the sound waves started by the voice regulated by intonations that create the mystic or magnetic effect Indeed, there 1s a species of work called Vedaprayoga wherem the use of particular hymns for specific objects 1s prescribed Such, for instance, are hymns for getting a sprout of water from barren ground or for dnving out evil spints or for promoting easy delivery The various asfras ranging from Brahmagtra, the most infalliable one, are mere mantras and when Visvamifra initiated Rama into astras, he taught mantra-grima* From the circumstance that Vedic hymns were used for recitals, 1{ cannot be said that the Vedic age had no scnpt, Itis the tradition that Vighnesvara wrote all Mahabharata to Vyisa’s dictation ‘The sages who were omniscient and who could foresee and create things supernatural would not have failed to have @ means of recording their 1deas and expressions for the benefit of posterity Reg-Veda (I 164, 94, 1X 13-3) uses the word aisara, The wotd sijra found on the Madbukanda of the Brihmagas of White Yajus signifies a metaphorical use of the sitjr@ proper, meaning ‘thread’ or band Goldstucker in his Study of Panne distinctly expressed that the words sifra and grantha ‘ must absolutely be connected with writing’ Panm® explamed the formation of the word Vavanéini and Katya- yana’s Vartika says that the noun ‘4fz’ (wring) must be supplied to signify the wmung of the Yavanas * aoe ee eee eee Eee eet 1 BO Ghakeavarti, Spsrstual Outlook of Sanskrit Grammar, (J of Dep of Letters, Oaloutta, 1984) a. aT TET w seTAldaTet TAT | adl cara ett aspramaeay | 1. 99.19 * * * areeg ateaer Rafa ated. | wareeeeretttr waforertir weaaq || 1 27 29-28 8 Pansns, 26 , Maxmoller, 1Sf,, V 20, 24, 11 96, Webor, 2/1 15, 921, 4, Ist, ¥.68, 1, IV. 89. i ™ i eeeINTRODUCTION xaxvii Patanjali has a long discussion on Akgara thus wat A ae Prargatiaat atrereg | ar efter at erect ase UI ahaa Gaines eq eT | SET TTT | aot arg Waa sera Geet arerrercheta war Fae | feartigaRatt ¢ adera atari oa ae ade | aaiftescet cert aoe II Of the Northern Indian scripts descended from the Brabmi 1s Nagan or Devanagari and the alphabets of that script are the formule of Mahesvarasitras, making up vowels 4% and consonants && A study of paleography has come to distinguish the types of early wnitings Kharosht: and Brahm: The former was current m Gan- qhara (East Afghanistan and North Punjab) and was borrowed from the Aramaic type of Semitic writmg in use doing the fifth century BC The latter, Brahmi 1s “ the true national writmg of India, because all late Indian alphabets are descended from it, however dissimilar they may appear at the present day * 28 History, It bas been said that the Hindus possess no national hustory Max Muller accepts this proposition as a postulate, builds on it and explams ihe so-called absence of anythmg like historical literature among the Hindus to their beg a nation of philosophers 1. Bor Phililogy, language and paleography generally, see the following — Origen of Devanagars Alphabet, (14, XXXV, 968, 970, 811), Dravidian cle ments on Sanskrst dectronarses (14, 1 285) , Hindu Scrence of Grammar (14, XIV 88), On Kharosths wating (14, XXIV 985, 811, XXXII 79, XXXIV 1, 96, 45), Progress Report of Langusstic Survey of Indsa (14, XLI, 179), Serspts and Signs from Indsan Neolsthes, (LA, XLVI 67), Phslvlogseat powstson of Sanskrst on Indsa (14, XVII 124, XXIV 81, XIV 88} A. 4 Maodonell, Vedse Grammar , Hans Ra, Vedto Kosa, M § Ghata, Leo tures on Reg veda, P. D Gune, Introduction to Oomparatsue Phwlology, 8 K Belvalkar, Systems of Sanskrit Grammar, W D Whitney, Sanskrst Grammar , F, Kielhom, Grammar of Sanskrst Language, A Oarnoy, Grammaws, A Weber, Indeschen Phslologye in 1St, III, E Windisch, Gesohschta der Sanskret Phliologse , Hornle, JASB, LIX No, 2, Waddell, On the use of Paper, JRAS, (1914) 1363 Hoaraprasad Sastri, Rep 1,7, Bhandarkar, POCP, 11, 805, Bubler, Indtan Paleo- graphy and The Orsgen of Brahms Alphavet , Isaac Taylor, The Alphabet.xxv INTRODUCTION “ Greece and India are, indeed, the two opposite poles in the historical development of the Aryan mau To the Greek, existence 1s full of life and reality, to the Hindu, 111s a dream, a delusion The Greek 1s at home where he 1s born, all his energies belong to his country, he stands or falls with his party, and 1s ready to sacrifice even his life to the glory and independence of Hellas The Hindu enters this world as a stranger, all his thoughts are directed to another world, he takes no part even where he 3s driven to act, and when he sacrifices his life, it 1s but to be delivered from st ”* But A Stein in his Introduction to Rayagarangini has thus answer- edit “It has often been said of the India of the Hindus that it pos- sessed no history The remark 1s true if we apply it to history as a science and art, such as classical culture in its noblest prose-works has bequeathed it to us But it 1s manifestly wrong 1f by history 1s meant either historical development or the materials for studymg it India has never known, amongst its Sasfras, the study of history such as Greece and Rome cultivated or as modern Europe understands it, Yet the materials for such study are equally at our disposal in India, They are contained not only in such original sources of information as Inse crptions, Coins and Antiquarian remains, generally, advancing research has also proved that written records of events or of traditions concern- ing them have by no means been wanting in ancient India H H Wilson m lus admirable Introduction to his translation of the Vignu Puraja, while dealing with the contents of the Third Book observes that a very large protion of the contents of the Iuhasas and 4nd Purapas 1s genuine and writes ‘— “The arrangement of the Vedas and other wnitings considered by the Hindus—bemg, in fact, the authorities of their religious rites and beliefs—which 1s described in the beginning of the Third book, 1s of much importance to the History of the Hindu Literature and of the Hindu religion The sage Vyasa 1s here represented not as the author but the arranger or the compiler of the Vedas, the Iuhasas and the Puranas His name denotes his character meanmg the ‘ arranger’ or * distributor ’, and the recurrence of many Vyasas, many indviduals who remodelled the Hmdu scnptures, has nothing in it, that 1s umprobable, except the fabulous intervals by which their labours are separated, ‘The re-arranging, the re-fashionmg, of old materials 18 nothmg mote than the progress of time would be hkely to render necessary. The aT aaa aan anit AES 1, A8L, 9,INTRODUCTION XNSIX last recognised compilation 1s that of Knshna Dvaipayana, assisted by Brahmans, who were already conversant with the subjects respectively assigned to them They were the members of the college or school supposed by the Hindus to have flounshed in a period more remote, no doubt, than the truth, but not at all unlikely to have been instituted at some time prior to the accounts of India which we owe to Greek writers and in which we see enough of the system to justify our inferrmg that it was then entire That there have been other Vyasas and other schools since that date, that Brahmans unknown to fame have re-modelled some of the Hmmdu scriptures, and epecially the Puranas, cannot reasonably be counted, after dispassionately weighing the strong internal evidence, which all of them afford, of their intermixture of unauthorized and comparatively modern ingredients But the same internal testimony furnishes proof equally decisive, of the antenor existence of ancient meterials, and it 18, therefore, as idle as it 1s irra- tional, to dispute the antiquity or the authenticity of the contents of the Puranas, in the face of abundant positive and circumstantial evidence of the prevalence of the doctrmes, which they teach, the currency of the legends which they narrate, and the mtegnty of the institutions which they describe at least three centuries before the Chnstian Era But the omgin and development of their doctnmes, traditions and institutions were not the work of a day, and the testi- mony that establishes their existence three centunes before Chnstiamty, carries 1t back to a much more remote antiquity, to an antiquity, that is, probably, not surpassed by any of the prevailing fictions, mstita- tions or beliefs of the ancient world ” Again, in dealing with the contents of the Fourth Amsa of the Viggu Purana, the Professor remarks — “The Fourth Book contains all that the Hindus have of ther Ancient History, It 1s a tolerably comprehensive list of dynasties and individuals , itis a barren record of events It can scarcely be doubted, however, that much of it 1s a genuime chronicle of persons, 1f not of occurrences That it 1s discredited by palpable absurdities in regard to the longevity of the princes of the earlier dynasties, must be granted, and the particulars preserved of some of them are tmvial and fabulous Still there 1s an artificial simplicity and consistency m the succession of persons, and a possibility and probability in some of the transactions, which give to these traditions the semblance of authenticity, and render it likely that these are not altogether without foundation At any rate, ya the abgence of all other sources of information the record, sachxl INTRODUCTION as iL.1s, deserves not to be altogether set aside It 1s not essential to als celebrity or its usefulness, that any evact chronological adjustment of the different reigns should be attempted ‘Their disirbution amongst the several Yugas, undertaken by Sir William Jones, or his Pandits, finds no countenance from the orginal texts, rather than an identical notice of the age in which a particular monarch ruled or the general fact that the dynasties prior to Knshna precede the time of the Great War and the beginning of the Kali Age, both which events are placed five thousand years ago ‘This, may, or may not, be too remote, but it 1s sufficient, ima subject where precision is impossible, to he satisfied with the general impression, that, in the dynasties of Kings detailed m Puranas, we have a record, which, although it cannot fail to have suffered detriment from age, and may have been injured by careless or injudicious compilation, preserves an account not wholly undeserving of confidence, of the establishment and succession of regular monarchies, amongst the Hindas, from as early an era, and for as continuous a duration, as any 1m the credible annals of mankind” And lastly, m discussing the general nature of the Puranas and of their values as historical records, he says — “ After the date of the Great War, the Vishnu Purana, in common with other Puranas, which contam similar lists, specifies Kings and Dynasties with greater precision, and offers political and chronological particulars to which, on the score of probibility there 1s nothing to object In truth, their general accuracy has been incontrovertbly established Inscriptions on columns of stone, on rochs, on coins, deciphered only of late years through the extraordinary ingenuity and perseverence of Mr James Princep, have venfied the names of races and titles of prmces—the Gupta and the Andhra Rayas mentioned in the Puranas ” 29 In ms Rajasthan, Col Tod says — “ Those who expect from a people like the Hindus a species of composition of precisely the same character as the historical works of Greece and Rome, commit the very egregious error of overlooking the pecalilarities which distinguish the natives of India from all other races, and which strongly discnminate their intellectual productions of every kund from those of the West Their philosophy, ther poetry, ther architecture are marked with traits of originality , and the same may be expected to pervade their history, which, like the aris enumerated,INTRODUCTION xii took a character from its intimate association with the religion of the people In the absence of regular and legitimate historical records, there are, however, other native works, (they may, indeed, be said to abound) which, in the hands of a skilful and patient investigator, would afford no despicable materials for the history of India The first of these are the Puranas and geneological legends of the princes which, obscured as they are by the mythological details, allegory, and impro- bable circumstances, contam, many facts that serve as beacons to direct the research of the historian.” 30“ Another species of historical records 1s found m the accounts given by the Brahmins of the endowments of the temples, ther dilapi- dation and repairs, which furnish occasions for the mtroduction of historical and chronological details In the legends respecting places of pilgrimage and religious resort, profane events are blended with superstitious mtes and ordinances, local ceremonies and customs The controversies of the Jains furnish, also, much historical information, especially with reference to Guzerat and Nehrwala durmg the Chaulac dynasty From a close and attentive exammation of the Jain records, which embody all that those ancient sectarians knew of science, many chasms in Hindu history might be filled up ” “Every MaTHa or religious college of any importance preserves the succession of its heads Among the Jains, we have the PaTTavaris or successions of pontifis, for a full and lucid notice of some of which we are indebted to Dr Hoernle they purport to run back to even the death of the last TrrTHaMKARA Vardhamana-Mahavira.” 31, “The preservation of pedigrees and successions has evidently been a national characteristic for very many centunes And we cannot doubt that considerable attention was paid to the matter m connection with the royal famihes and that Vamsavalis or Rayavalis, lists of the laneal successions of kings, were compiled and kept from very early times We distinctly recognise the use of such VAMSAVALIS,—giving the relationships and successions of kings, but no chronological details beyond the record of the total duration of each reign with occasionally a coronation-date recorded m an era,—i the copper-plate records ‘We trace them, for stance, in the introductory passages of the grants of the Eastern Chalukya Series? which, from the penod AD 918 to 925 onwards, name the successive kings beginning with the founder of 1, See SIZ, 1 85, BI, V. 181. Fxii INTRODUCTION the Ime who reigned three centunes before that tme, but do not put forward more than the length of the reign of each of them, and, from cerlain differences in the figures for some of the reigns, we recognise that there were varying recensions of those VAMSAVALIs We trace the use of the VAMSAVALIS agam in the similar records of the Eastern Gangas of Kalmga, which, from A.D 1058 onwards,” give the same details about the kings of that line with effect from about AD 990, and one of which, issued AD 1296,* includes a coronation-date of AD 1141 or 1142 There has been brought to hight from Nepal a long Vamsavatt, which purports to give an unbroken hst of the rulers of that country, with the lengths of their reigns and an occasional landmark 1m the shape of the dale of an accession stated im an era, back from AD 1768 to even so fabulous an antiquity as six or seven centuries before the commencement of the Kal age m BC 3102” 32 In ts Rajafarangizi," Karzana mentions certain previous wniters,— Suvrata, whose work, he says, was made difficult by misplaced learnmg, Kshemendra who drew up a hist of kings, of which, however, he says, no part 1s free from mistakes, Nilamum1, who wrote the Niza- MATAPURANA , Helaraya, who composed a list of kings in twelve thousand verses, and Srmihira or Padmamubira, and the author of the SricucHavitta His own work, he tells us, was basedon eleven collections of RajaAKATHAS or stories about kings and on ihe work of Nilamum,” “Tamrasasana, or “ copper-chapters” consist sometimes of a single plate, but more usually of several plates strung together on a large signet-ring which bears generally the seal of the authonty who issued the particular chapter The stone records usually descnbe themselves by the name of St/asasana, ‘Stone-chapters,’ St/a-Jekha, ‘ Stone-wnitings,’ or Prasasé, ‘ Eulogies,’ ‘Lhey are found on rocks, on religious columns such as those which bear some of the edicts of 1 BL, IV 188 2, JA8B, LEV 999, 8 Kalhana made use of () STQBTOTEH, ediota—tnsonptions regarding the creation of eouscctation of temples ole (uw) AFM, edists—rnsorption recording grants, chicfly of grants and allow ‘ancea engrossed on copper plates (ih) TAMRTTE, tables containing laudatory insorphions or places (1) €7et, works on various aclencesINTRODUCTION xh Priyadasi and others which were set up in front of temples as “flag- staffs ” of the Gods, on battle-columns or columns of victory such as the two at Mandasor, on the walls and beams and pillars of caves and temples, on the pedestals of mages, and on slabs built mto the walls of temples or set up im the courtyards of temples or in conspicuous places in village-sites or fields And they are often accompanied by sculptures which give the seal of the authority issumg the record, or mark its sectarian nature, or illustrate some scene referred to m it” 33 The Chronology of Classical Sanskrit Literature starts with Mahabharata war and Kahyuga Kahyuga commenced on 18th February 3102 B C, just on the day on which Sri Krsna departed to his divine abode The Kuru-Péndava war was fought 37 years before Kau, that 13m 3139 BC Onwards from the commencement of Kaliyuga, Parapas conta accounts of various kingdoms that flourished from time to tame and successive dynasties that ruled and fell during the course of about 35 centumes To an impartial observer the tenor of these accounts warrants their accuracy and to the mind of the Hindus—the Hindus of those bygone ages, when scepticism had not called tradition superstitution—life here is evanescent and hife’s endeavour must be the attaimment of beatitude eternal Ancient sages (yf1s) perceived the divine hymns of the Vedas and passed them on for the edification of posterity Since the advent of Kah, a prospective crop of vice and folly was predicated and to wean the ernng world from such sin and misery, Vyasa formulated Puranas, with the object of Vedopabphmava att AAT, that 1s, supplemented the exposition of Vedic teachings, and that in the garb of a language and narrative that would be easily assimilated by the masses To such philosophical minds, the mse and fall of kings and kingdoms was not worth remembrance, save as ano- ther realistic means of illustrating the tenets of philosophy, eg, the truth of the divine essence, Brahman, the unreality of sensual pleasures, the liberation of individual soul and the attarnment of etetnity in beat tude or oneness with the Spint Divine and above all the {nevitable occurance of God’s mandates shortly termed Destiny or otherwise called Kala or Niyatt If this is the object of Puranic literature, it 1s a sacrilege to chatge the author or authors of them, whoever 1t was, with having fabricated scriptural testimony for attributing an antiquity to Indian literature and Indian civilization, which it did not possess , for even if they had been, a8 many onentalists have sald, made ap late after the Christan era,xiv INTRODUCTION the authors could not have anticipated this method of study of political history of the 18th and 19th centunes AD The Puraic lists of dynasties of kings and kingdoms furnish details of dates to an extent that even in days of historical records may be surpnising, for they mention even months and days in their computation Whatever those ancient authors did or wrote, they did it with sincerity and accuracy, ‘truth ’ being the basis of accuracy Our educational istilutions are Saturated with the teachings of modern scholars on the untruth of these Parapic accounts, but it 1s still hoped that time will come when truth will tnumph and display a real orientation of ancient Indian History * 34 = Of the several kingdoms and dynasties of which Puranas have recorded political history, there 1s the kingdom of Magadha For our present purposes of sifting and settling the chronology of India up to the Christian era the history of Magadha 1s particularly relevant, for 1 18 at Magadha, ‘ Chandpagupia’ and ‘ Asoka’ ruled and 11 18 on these names that the modern computation of dates has been based for everything relating to India’s literary history and it 1s those two names that make the heroes of the theory of Anchor Sheet of Indan Chronology 35 The Kingdom of Magadha was founded by Brhadratha, son of Upancara Vasu, the 6th in descent from Kuru, of the Candra Vaméa, That happened 161 years before Mahabharata war Tenth in descent from Bphadratha was, Jarasangha Jarasandha perished at the hand of Kamsa and i his place Sahadeva was istalled on the throne, Sahadeva was an ally of Pandavas and was killed in the war, that 1s in 3139 BC, Hhs son Marjin (or Somadhs or Somavst) was his successor and the first king of Magadha after the war From him 22 kings of this Barhadragha dynasty ruled over Magagha for 1006 years, or oughly stated, for 1000 years * For matance, Mafsya Puriga says ‘— erfealtan wat altars qemu: | i stage g Se ay AAA II 169, 30 Ripunyaya was the last king of this dynasty He was assassinated 1 F B, Pargiter has given an amicable eammaty of Harly Indian ‘Traditional History aa recorded in Puranas in JRAS (1914) 967 ef sag 2 BeoK P Jayasval, Briadratha Clrcnology, JBORS,1V 1, Sitanath Pra Ahan Chronlecy of Ancient Ind, Csloutia, Hemchandra Raychaudhurl, Pelsticat y of Tndva from the accession of Parsksst to the etctunct a aaa toner ton of the GuptaINTRODUCTION xlv by Pulaka and Pulaka succeeded to the throne His son was Pradyota or Balaka Thus came the PRapyoTa or BALAKA DYNESTY in 2133 BC, Thus Matsya Purapa says — qemtradiag aifterraaiag | ges enfta ear agraiteatt le tl fea ghey Tee qua | a angered afr aaafsa 8 Ul “When the Barhadrathas, the Vitthdtras and the Avan¢ms have passed away, Pulaka after killimg his master (King Ripufiyaya) will instal his son Balaka as King Balaka, the son of Pulaka, will, im the very sight of the Kshattriyas of his time, subjugate these neighbounng kangs by force and will be devoid of royal policy ” 36 Instead of crowning himself as king agamst the wishes of the people, Pulaka got the only daughter of Ripunyaya married to his son Pradyota and installed him on the throne here were 5 kings of this dynasty* and they ruled for 138 years (1995 B,C). Vaynu Purava says — aoa waar er | wefiataraa ates gat sar WAXI 37 + Stwunaga got im by conquest or usurpation and founded Sisuvaca pynasTy m 1995 BC* There were 10 kings of this dynasty and they ruled for 360 or 362 years1¢. 1635 BC Thus Vayu Purapa Ss aaa aftartr 3 Bgara aT aw! wart Afr asi fiewasaftrett J I 1 Pradyota (28), Balaka (24 or 28), Vidakhayupa (50 or 83), Janake or Suryaka or Bajaka (21 or 91), Nandivardhana (90 or 80) ‘The periods vary according to the versions of the Purdgas or thet readings. But ‘Matsya Pur&ina makes the period 152 years rarer ces 3 aT | 2 Siéuotga (40), Kakavarga (86), Kgemavarma (26, 20 or 86), Ksatraujas of ‘Kgemans (40 24 or 20), Vidhisara or Bimbisdra or Vindhyasira (28 or 88), Ayatadagra (97 of 25, of 89 or 52), Daredke or Darbhaka (24), Udayana or Udaydsva, or Ayaya or ‘Udayabhadra (88), Nandivardhana (42 or 40), Mab4nandin (48 or 68). Tt was Udayin ‘that built the city of Kusuma on the Ganges sah afiar searq Tasag TAT TT. | @ 2 geae wat Blom SamTATT | area afer BS Tatiss sheaf Utxiv INTRODUCTION Here ended the Sisunaca pyNasTy in 1635 BC, 38 Mah4padma known as Nanda was the illegitimate son of Mahbanandin, the last king of that dynasty, and came to the throne He founded the Nanpa dynasty m 1635 BC He ruled for 88 years and bis sons Sumalya and seven others ruled for 12 years until 1635 BC, This dynasty lasted for 10 years? Vigtu Puriga says reared sariigasteedistre agrast wea TegTT eT SRremeraet AAT Roll TT safe TAT TTTET AATF HRA a Rerwanagtamet aera. gfe area Ra aera} gar warearar waa 88 ae AarTTesE Ge aeaa Rw Il aR. wage ge thea eatead afteaha 4 ll cae waaay aed are waehteat WR erate dat geet AemPa Re Ul ae wr aaaeRet (aes alt gueRrT aaTaq—et Pecan) Ty Siiteafe Re l—Amsa, IV, Ch xxv Bhagavata Puraga says menPage Us TitTatea ee Ul < | Ferns atere geatarved | att an afta garaneraniier ls a ersatl Weatageficaras | arfteait mera fats ga aria. | 0 Ul ta aiset aeraha gATeINeET gar | a gat aera vet carr at Ta Tat lee Hl aa wary fir eeteraalteaa | aermaTe Set aE reheat eat Uh ee I a a ema 2 feat Teashtiteaey | wet aftarcey aeetsiertt 1 2 11 —Skangha XII Ch ii Vayu Purapa says wemPagmst qeral sreage | Saeed wert edgaraé aT 1 ag I 1 See K P Jaynsval, Sassunaga and Maurya Ohronology, JBORS, I. i,INTRODUCTION xivii aa wae cart ae aaa | qaUg Fae Tewar AAT | RRv I wert ¢ asi gfat trePeate | aigamiiga afeaisder 2 werq | RR< Il wee mea ast war grea FT | merre Pha afeara aa HATE | &RS Il sateafe aq aalg Hee 2 fasta. | gra wer ated ateq a afieafy tl 20 Il aaTe TT UST Seey wTTale | agtrag sar War weRTat aaa Ml Re Hl —Chapter XCIX, Matsya Puriga Says — ReMmaECs war seras | ee Ul BHT FETT eiaMeTs BT | wa ware ust ae aearT Re I weUg g Hae geet alacaey | gerfifa @ auiftr gat cetreaf i 2° I wderaikare arftasta Bea: | grreartgar wet war wee F wa. tke Al merase Tait aacqha sar ATT | safeafa Hier aarauiter ay I 23 Il ARepreaae e wat UbshteT | ren vet atea edt alate afheata il 28 Ul —Chapter CCLXX, Brahmanda Purana gives the following account — nerPagamsh rat ereegd: | sea HET aIeArTS AT: | 22 Il aa: wate wart affea aaa. | gare a FET Geesat AAG | xe Il aerate ¢ asttr gfidt crefieafer | ater ager arPrirsire 2 aerg tl 22xlvun INTRODUCTION aerarT aaa wel aa aTeT 3 aT | mere Tha atone aT FATT Ml CRR Ul sareafy ag aay Ret 2 Bata | Bren wet ahad Req a alee | ewe Il waa aT Tey SRT eratcate | aglaag amt cat waa aPrafe |) ey Il —Upédghata, Ch LXXIV The following 1s the description of the Nanda Dynasty as given in the Kahyuga Rayavyttinta — rerree TaTT weet Her | BeaRaY HET THAT eI za Ul aferdiscafiadr aearas-at | Rereata Trey Heide Bears Il searafigr ate Airey | Pret asa oer fats ga aria Ul BeUE eae GHewT ACT | a gemta gRataaetcares | smferafe were ae faeegigaragT | aa: ot afteara aR aa sat II seria g actin grt areas | a9 amaeraedt aaa aes u ra asd afeaPa gAITEET AT | anteata ares eat sree F sat Il FETT TAT Ha ara eft ar | great wet ater ga areata 3 ar tl sahtatt ary aay arearett Raa | TaUT a TART Meet eraPeahy Il —Bhiga, I, Ch u 39 “It will be clear from these numerous extracts quoted in full from the various important Puratas, which are practically identical with one another, that the Founder of this Dynasty was Mahépadma wellINTRODUCTION xx known otherwise as Dhana Nanda, that he was the son of Mahbanandin, the last of the Saisunfiga Dynasty, that he was bor to that king from a Sadra wife, that he was most avarici us and powerfal, that he extir- pated the Kshattnya rulers of his time like a second Paragurama the destroyer of the Kshattriyas m the olden times, that he subjugated the different lines of Kings of the Solar and Lunar dynasties who began to rule m the various parts of Northern India from the time of the Mahabharata War commencing from the Coronation of Yudhishtbira in the year 3139 B,C, that he became a paramount Kimg and Emperor of the whole of India between the Himalaya and the Vindhya moun- tains by putting an end to the ancient familes of Kings, such as Aiksh- vikus, Panchélas, Kauravyas, Hathayas, Kalakas, Ekalmgas, Sarasénas, Maithilas etc, who ceased to rule as separate dynasties ever smce that time, that he ruled the kingdom under one umbrella for a period of 88 years, that his 8 sons jomtly ruled the kingdom for a short period of 12 years, that these Nine Nandas, including the father and his eight sons ruled Magadha altogether for a total period of 100 years from 1635 to 1535 B C, that these Nandas were extirpated by the Brahman Chiapakya, well known as Kautilya, on account of his crooked and Machiavelian policy, and that he replaced his protege Chandragupta, an illegitimate son of Mahapadma Nanda by his Sidra wife Mura on the throne of his father” But Vincent A Smith chooses to assign to these nine Nandasa total period of only 45 years for their reigns 40 Candragupta came to the throne as the son of Mur; so he was a Maurya and the dynasty which he started was Maurya dynasty. Candragupta’s son was Bindusaéra and Bindusara’s son was Asoka or Asokavardhana, An old grantha manuscnpt of Matsya Puraga gives this account aaferad eat Tat RT aa | crantafaratir aac AGT HN Rw Il saltey aeraat atarsite gts ae ga. Srey sivas) areas tl 24 Ul STOTT F Ale TUTTE. | aera qeash® aqateaaioa. U2 Ul after srseaatt agar etaee: | maa aa TAM eT GT TATA: | Ro llINTRODUCTION mares fe anit maar afta | after aaastf drawat amet tl Re Il aftar saan g va asi aaa. | genaeg ait we gist wate. | 28 Il eed ae o 2 7 3 Areas aya | enh aftr asifer dea sara aHeaA Ul Ro Il This version of the Matsya Purana tolerably agrees with that given im the Kahyuga Rajavgttinta — saree aeamatrstereT | aaferag war ca sient gets Ul wertattastt Regartt aaeatt | satiny aa Tat atarsaterdt | anaengaase aaivadt afseait | aah aif agar ater 3 gatsa tl wgmibagranat watt Fase | afar aa anit) der gaey Tad wires gat Us Msas. BT | afin eaastfir aaeat ach. Il aa waaG Tat aeasE ear ge | TERT TAT sea LATSTT Ul gtrrafaert rat were afreate | weit g ait a TE Tea II rede an aabengaredt wets | want fer ateaPa ae re a eat FST Il —Bhiga LI, Chapter 1 Thus Candragupta reigned from 1535 to 1501 B,C for 34 years, Bundusra from 1501 to 1473 for 28 years and Asoka from 1473 to 1437 BC for 36 years And in all there were twelve Kings of Maurya dynasty, the last of whom was Byhadra¢ha * 1 Candragupts, Bundusara or Bhadrasiira or Nandasars or Varisdra (28 or 25), Afoks or Afokavarghana (86 or 87) , Suyadas or Supardva or Kandla or Kuéala (g), Dasdraths or Banghupalita (8 or 10), (6) IndrapAlita (7 or 10), Harga or Hargavar dbana (8), (8) Sangnta or Sammati or Samrati(9), Salbéuka (18), Somaéarman or Devagharman or Devavarman or Dasavarman (7), Sstadhanvan or Satadhara (8 or 9), Brhadratha or Brhadudva (37 o 70 or 7.