152 



S ANSKKIT 



of a mixed nature, higher male characters sneaking 

 in Sanskrit, whilst women ami lower mule char- 

 acters use Prakrits, or popular dialects. Plays in- 

 variably iK'giu wiih a benediction and a prelude 

 in the form of a dialogue lietween the stage- 

 manager and one of the actors, containing some 

 allusion to the author, ami lending over to the 

 opening scene. Two standing and interesting 

 characters of the Indian stage are the Vita, or 

 dissolute associate of the hero, somewhat resem- 

 bling the parasite of the CJreck comedy, and the 

 Yidushaka, his humorous companion, or Gracioso. 

 The extant plays number about fifty. Their plots 

 are usually based on the epic legends. The greatest 

 of Indian playwrights is Kalidasa (q.v. ; r. 500 

 A.D.), the author of the SakuntalA, the Vikra- 

 iii'ii-rtts't, and MMuvikAgnimitra. Possibly some- 

 what older than these, and certainly highly in- 

 teresting as a vivid picture of the social life of the 

 time, is the MrichchhakatikA, or toy-cart, ascribed 

 to a king Sfldraka. Next to Kfilidasa, in the esti- 

 mation of native scholars, ranks BhavabhAti (q.v. ; 

 c. 700), likewise the author of three plavs viz. the 

 heroic dramas MaMeiracAarita and OttararAma- 

 charita, and the domestic drama MAlatimAdhaKa. 

 He is, however, far less of an artist than his great 

 rival, and his language is much more artificial. 

 Besides these may be mentioned S'rl Harshadeva, 

 king of Kanaui (c. 625), the reputed author (or 

 patron ) of the RatnAnali, NAgAnanda, and Priya- 

 dars'ikA ; Bhatta Narayana, author of the Vent- 

 snmhAra : and krishnatiiis'ra ( 12th century), who 

 wrote the Prabod/uichandrodaya, or 'moonrise of 

 Intelligence,' a rather tedious allegorical piny, the 

 characters of which consist entirely of aWract 

 ideas virtues and vices ranged in two contending 

 armies (see H. H. Wilson, Theatre of the Iliiidux). 



B. Scientific Literature. The first beginnings 

 of nearly all the branches of scientific inquiry cul- 

 tivated in mediaeval India may lie traced back to 

 the later Vedic times, being the natural outgrowth 

 of the Vedic religion and of the study of the 

 sacred writings. This fact indeed receives a direct 

 recognition in the trad itionary classification itself, 

 inasmuch as it includes among the Vedic litera- 

 ture, under the title of Ved&nga, or members of 

 the Veda, the original or fundamental treatises of 

 six sciences viz. phonetics (s'iksha), prosody 

 (chhandas), grammar (vy&karana), etymology 

 (nirukta), astronomy (jyotisha), and ceremonial 

 law(kalpa). Though some of these treatises, in 

 their present form at all events, cannot justly lay 

 claim to so high an antiquity, it is not improbable 

 that they are based on older treatises on their 

 respective subjects. 



( 1 ) Law (dftarma). The earliest attempts at an 

 orderly statement of social and civil usages are to 

 be found in the Dluirmag&tras, or rules of law, 

 which form part of some of the Kalpasutras, or 

 ceremonial rules (see VEDA), in close connection 

 with the ( irihyasfitras, or rules of domestic rites, 

 out of which they may indeed have originally 

 grown. The few still extant sets of Dharmosfltras 

 viz. those of liatut/idyana, Apastamba, Gaiitnnut, 

 and I'litlilillni (all trans, by G. Bilhler) though 

 mainly composed in aphorisms, are interspersed 

 with couplets or stanzas, giving the substance of 

 several rules ; and it is in these detached verse* 

 that many scholars would trace the first tendency 

 toward the com|osition of the versified codes of 

 law, the Dhiirmtu'Aftrcu or Smritm, which, some- 

 where about the beginning of our era, came to sup- 

 plant the Sfltra-cmles, and remained for centuries 

 the standard authorities on matters of law. Whilst 

 (inn- few of these new codes, like their prose pro- 

 totype*, appear to have been directly connected 

 with certain Vedic schools, such does not seem to 

 li.i\i> l..'cn the case as regards the vast majority of 



them, which were called by their authors, more or 

 less fancifully, either after some old semi mythic 

 teacher or sage, Midi as Atri, IJarita, S'aUUp*, 

 or even at'ii-r some god. such as Vishnu. Itrihaspati, 

 Yam a. Hindu law usually recognise.- thivcdistinct 

 divisions viz. AchAra, or established usage : i-mirii- 

 h&ru, or civil procedure ; and /<m<.vV/i/r. or ix-n- 

 ance. The three most ini|>ortant Smritis arc those 

 of MIIIIII (q.v. \, Yiijiniralki/ii, and I'unix'tirti. This 

 last cmle lacks, however, the section on civil law, 

 which Wit- only supplied some .'i(K) veal's ago by the 

 fiimous exegete Madhava, who composed a digest 

 of law, based on Paras'ara, with a s|>ecial chapter 

 on Vyavahftra. The new school of practical juris- 

 prudence U) which this work lielongs was usi 

 in by Vijnanes'vara's MitiikslmrA (llth century), 

 which, though primarily a commentary on Yftjna- 

 vnlkya, constantly quotes other authorities, and 

 thus serves the purposes of a digest of law, and 

 remains to this day one of the standard works on 

 Hindu law. Amongst other famous digests may 

 be mentioned Devannabhatta's Smfitirl<inlriku 

 (13th century), highly c-teemed in Southern India ; 

 JSmfltavuhana's Ituyulihiiga, the chief authority on 

 inheritance in the Bengal school ; the I'irami- 

 trmiaya, by Mitramis'ra (c. 1625); and the 

 Vyavah&raniayiikha, being the civil law section 

 of a general digest by Bhatta Nilakantha (c. 1640). 



(2) Philosophy. While the main body of the 

 Vedic, hymns are the immediate outgrowth of a 

 worship of the elemental forces of nature, not a 

 few of the hymns, especially the later ones, evi- 

 dence a strong tendency towards metaphysical 

 speculation. It is only in the Upanishads (see 

 \ KDA), however, that we meet with the first 

 attempts at some kind of systematic treatment of 

 the great problems of mundane existence, and of the 

 nature of the absolute spirit, and its relation to 

 the human mind. The drift of speculative inquiry 

 in those days, as ever afterwards, is determined by 

 two cardinal notions which are never questioned, 

 and have assumed the force of axioms in Hindu 

 philosophy viz. the pantheistic notion of the 

 spiritual unity of all sentient beings, and the 

 transmigration of souls. To the Hindu mind the 

 latter notion seems the necessary consequence of 

 the former. All individual souls are identical in 

 nature, having emanated from, and being destined 

 to return to, the infinite, all-pervading spiritual 

 essence, the Brahman or Atman. The apparent 

 difference of the spiritual element in different 

 kinds of animated beings (elemental gods, men, 

 animals, plants ) is due to a greater or less degree 

 of contamination with matter, and consequent 

 obscuration ; and it is only by a gradual process o f 

 improvement and purification, in repeated terms 

 of liodily existence i.e. through metempsychosis 

 that lower beings can raise themselves to the state 

 of purity requisite for their union with the Supreme 

 Spirit ( para mat man ). Ignorance of its own real 

 nature, and of its identit\ with the worldxiul. is 

 what alone kee|is the individual soul chained to 

 matter, and to material existence with it hateful 

 accompaniment of passion and sullcring. To dispel 

 this ignorance by setting forth the true relation- 

 bet ween the individual being and the Brahman, as 

 a preliminary to final emancipation, is the task 

 and aim of philosophy. 



Six philosophical systems (dars'ann) are re- 

 cognjsed by orthodox Hindus, which fall, however, 

 into three pairs so closely connected that each pair 

 formsacommon school of philosophy viz. MlmdrnsA 

 and VedAnta, SAnkhya and Yoga, Nydya and 

 Vais'eMka, Nothing certain is as yet known as 

 to their date or order. The tenets of each system 

 are propounded in a manual of concise aphorisms 

 (sutra), ascribed to the respective founder, and 

 commented upon by numerous writers. 



