261 



-AN'SKRIT LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 



SANSKRIT LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 



2fi2 



Greek kings found in Caubul, and near the Indus, which have been 

 deciphered by Prinsep, Lassen, Wilson, and E. Thomas. (J. Prinsep, 

 ' Essays on Ind. Antiquities.' Lond., 1858, 2 vols.) Many of the names 



.. liich have been transmitted to us by the Greeks are Prakrit ; 

 that of the Deccan, for instance, in the Periplus of the Erythnean Sea, 

 Aaxi"aSaS>js, does not correspond to the Sanskrit dak?tlndj>a//ia, but 

 strictly to the Prakrit dakl-hinahadka. Hence it follows, that in the last 

 five centuries B.C. the Prakrit must have become completely the language 

 of the people ; and indeed the dramas which were written about this 

 how the relation of the two languages in the most distinct 

 manner, the men speaking Sanskrit, and the women and inferior 

 characters Prakrit ; which is likewise a proof that the Sanskrit 

 was actually a living tongue, and was used in conversation by 

 all educated people. This is proved by many other circum- 

 stances ; and it would be a great mistake to view the Sanskrit as 

 having become from this time merely a learned language. On the 

 contrary, it was in vogue at the court of Cashmere as late as the 12th 

 century A.D. (Lassen, 1. 1., iii., p. 1082, ff.), and probably in the small 

 independent courts of Malwa even in the 14th and 15th centuries. It 

 is consistent with all that we know, that the language should be in 

 a different condition in the different provinces of India, The Moham- 

 medan conquest, however, gave the final blow to it, and it is now used 

 only in learned disputatious in the colleges of the Brahmins. 



iture. The Sanskrit literature begins with the Vedas, and is 

 founded entirely upon them. [VEDAS.] The rest of the literature 

 may be divided into the poetical and the scientific. The poetical 

 literature may be referred to two distinct periods, one of which is 

 chiefly distinguished by the composition of the great epic poems, and 

 the other may be characterised as the period of artificial poetry. In 

 the former, the interest is a national one, and arises from the subject; 

 in the latter, it depends upon the form. 



Pot try. We possess the epic poetry only in its most perfect 

 state, and consequently its origin is involved in obscurity, and must be 

 looked for among the rhapsodista, whom the ' H&mayana ' presents to 

 u pretty much in the game character as that in which they appear 

 among the later princes of India. The materials of the epic consisted 

 ily of the genealogies of the princely families whom the rhap- 

 sodista served, and next, of certain prominent events in the family 

 history, which were at first sung separately, but afterwards incorporated 

 in the genealogy itself. It is possible therefore that there may have 

 been as many epic poems as there were princely races. In the lapse 

 of time, however, all these poems have been lost except two, which are 

 indebted for their preservation irtly to their poetical merit, and still 

 more to the interest of the subject : these are the ' R&mayaua ' and the 

 ' MahabhoraU.' But even these have undergone many important 

 alterations since they came from the hands of the authors ; in fact, 

 they have been entirely remodelled in accordance with the interests of 

 the priesthood, by the addition of those parts in which Roma and 

 Krishna, originally no more than mortal heroes, appear as incarnations 



-linu ; these additions, however, liave been so loosely attached, 

 that they might easily be separated without detriment to the whole. 

 In the ' VUbabharata,' the object has been kept in view of including 

 in one collection the whole cycle of tradition ; and as the epic 

 poems " were intended for the instruction and amusement of the 

 warrior caste, not only was everything added which could increase their 

 reverence for the Brahmin*, but there are whole books, of considerable 

 length, in which their systems of cosmogony, philosophy, and law are 

 explained in a popular manner. 



The R&niyaiut. The subject of the ' HamAyana ' is the descent of 

 Vishnu, for the purpose of averting the threatened destruction of the 

 whole world by the prince of the demons, Havana. Kama, the son 

 of Dasaratha, king of Oude, was brought up by wise Brahmins, espe- 

 cially Vii-vAinitra ; while yet very young ho overcame the demons in 

 several battles, and by his superhuman strength obtained the hand of 

 the beautiful Sita. He was about to be appointed successor of bis 

 aged father, and to be his partner on the throne, when the plan was 

 frustrated by a court intrigue, and he was compelled to wander 

 abroad as an exile. With Sita and bis brother Lakahmana, who also 

 participated in the divine nature of Vishnu, he dwelt in the inhospit- 

 able wilds of the Deccan, in the fore t of Dandaka, at the sources of the 

 Qodavery. This course of events was necessary in order to bring him 

 and Havana together, for hen: Kama rn.-ule liiin.-vlf t-Tiil.l.- to the 



us, and having nn:- '.rir]un.-ikh:i,tlie 



Bavana, the demon-prince, partly o<n ol revenge for tlii-. outi.igt-, and 

 partly inflamed liy vi SitA, carried her oil", and I 



her in safety to his residence at Lanka (Cey, i .mil L.ik.-h 



mana, unacquainted with the abode of Havana, wandered about in the 

 peninsula in search of Situ. The ape-king Sugriva, who had been 

 ned by his own brother Bali, wag restored to his kingdom by 

 Rama, and from a feeling of gratitude sends out a boat of apea for the 

 purpose of finding the abode of SltA. The ape Hanuman at length 

 discovers it, passes across the strait, seeks out and speaks with Sita, 

 seU fire to Lanka, and conveys the intelligence to Roma, v. h< . ; 

 with the whole army of a|,.-s to the southern point of thr peiiin.-nl.i, 

 when HM bridge is formed by throwing nioiintainx into the 



sea. As tin- anny is about to march upon the inland, Rama is 

 encountered by VibhUhana, Havana's brother, and a Titanian conflict 

 commences, the description of which is one of the most admired parts 



of the poem : but the demons are at length subdued ; Havana falls by 

 the hand of Rama; aud Sita is recovered, and having been found 

 pure, as well by the ordeal of the gods as by the word of Brahma 

 himself, she is again united to Rama, who, returning to Ayodhya, 

 receives from the hand of his brother Bharata the dominion to which 

 he is entitled. 



These are the contents of the first six books, aud here the poem 

 terminates. But there is a seventh book, which is obviously a later 

 addition, and consists of matters which are entirely independent of the 

 former narrative : Sita is again separated from Rama, and bears two 

 sons, Kusa and Lava, to Valmiki. After her innocence has been 

 again established, she is carried away by the goddess Earth. Kusa 

 and Lava have learned the poem from Valmiki, its mythological 

 author, aud recite it at a great sacrificial festival, whereupon Rama 

 acknowledges them as his sons. This is obviously an etymological 

 myth derived from the Sanskrit name of the rhapsodists, kitsllava. 

 This agrees with the present introduction to the first book, in whioli 

 the origin of the poem is told in the same way, and both parts 

 must therefore be regarded as additions made by the last editor. That 

 the ' Rdmayana ' has undergone many other alterations, may easily be 

 shown. It contains, in some parts, many things which point to very 

 ancient times, and customs introduced at a later period are not even 

 alluded to ; as, for instance, the burning of widows, which was prac- 

 tised in the age of Alexander. In other parts circumstances are 

 referred to which bring xis as far clown as the 2nd century A.D., the 

 names of comparatively recent nations being mentioned : for instance, 

 the Huns. 



The time of the composition of the poem cannot therefore be ascer- 

 tained with any further degree of accuracy ; and it is still a contro- 

 verted question whether the Mahabhorata or the Hamayana, in the 

 form in which they have been handed down to us, has the better claim 

 to antiquity. It is more easy to determine what historical fact forms 

 the foundation of it. This is evidently the introduction of the Brah- 

 minical worship and civilisation into the peninsula, the wild aborigines 

 of which, as being the opponents of Brahminism, are made to appear in 

 the character of demons. The apes must represent another and a less 

 hostile race, whom the Brahmins made use of in order to overcome the 

 ruder tribes. This fact is indicated by another circumstance in the 

 poem : the guide of Roma is the hermit Agastya, to whom tradition 

 ascribes the conversion and cultivation of the Deccan, and who even 

 now shines, according to a sublime symbol, as the radiant Canopus of 

 the South. 



The ' Ruinayaiia,' since the last recasting of the poem, has under- 

 gone several revisions, four of which are known to exist (Weber, 

 ' Verzeichuiss der Berliner Sanskrit- Haudschriften,' 1853, p. 119), which 

 differ from one another less in substance than in style and arrangement. 

 That which contains the oldest and the best text is confirmed by com- 

 mentaries ; a critical edition of it to the end of the second book, accom- 

 panied by an elegant Latin translation (as far as ii. c. 20), by A. W. 

 von Schlegel, appeared at Bonn, 1829, 3 vols. The same recension is 

 represented also by the Oxford manuscript (' Catal. Cod. MSS. Saus- 

 criticorum," 1860, voL i., p. 6). An edition, based on a different text, 

 was commenced by Carey and Marshman (Seratnpore, 1806-10, 4 vols. 

 4 to) ; it goes aa far as iii. c. b'3, and contains also an English translation. 

 The whole Romayana, according to the Bengali or amplified recension, 

 was edited, with an Italian translation, by G. Gorresio (Paris, 1843-58, 

 10 vols.) ; there is also a French translation of the same by M. H. 

 Fauche (Paris, 1854, ff., 9 vols.) 



ilnhdljlidrata. For the second of the two great epic poems, see the 

 article MAHABHAKATA. 



and J ur'wi>rudence. Besides the book of Manu, which has 

 obtained the highest reputation among the ' Dharmasostras,' or law- 

 codes [MANU], there were many similar books, which were likewise 

 referred to sacred mythological personages, as Vishnu, Vrihaspati, 

 Nflrada, and others. The principal sources from which they draw 

 are the ' Samayachdrikasutras,' a class of works belonging to the last 

 period of the old Vaidic literature, in which the laws of caste, the rules 

 of discipline, the occupations of kings, householders, &c., aud the 

 administration of justice, are accurately detailed. (M. Miiller, ' History 

 of Auc. Sanskrit Lit.,' p. 134.) There was a considerable number of 

 these works, according to the different Vedas or Vaidic schools to 

 which nach proiV^-c-d to belong, the names by which they went being 

 either tliosi: of their author,-) or of tin: fainilie..j in which they were In. i 

 . These names were retained by the compilers of the Dbarma- 

 soetras ; aud the law-book of Apastauiba, for example, is distinctly 

 traceable to the Sumayacharikasutras which bear the name name. 

 The subjects of which the Dharmasastras treat are these three : 

 Achdra, comprising domestic aud civil observances and all matters 

 relating to caste ; \' yarahdra, of the duties of kings and the adminis- 

 tration of justice; and Prdyascliitta, of the civil consequences of caste- 

 defilement, or other sinful actions, and of the way how to avoid those 

 consequences by purification and penance. This threefold division is 

 strictly adhered to in the law-code of YAjnamlkya (edited by Prof. 

 Sten/.lei , in Sanskrit and German, Berlin, 1849), the first after Manu 

 in [mint of time and authority. In the other law-codes (eighteen of 

 which were printed, together with that of Yajnavalkya, at Calcutta, 

 1845, ff.), pi eminence is given to one or other of those three divisions. 

 In the laws of Vishnu, for example, the judicial portion is very meagre. 



