112 INDOIRANIAN LANGUAGES 



the numerical figures and the decimal system with which the whole 

 world reckons. The effects of the latter debt on civilization in general 

 can hardly be overestimated. Again, the discovery of Sanskrit and 

 its literature led in the nineteenth century to the foundation of the 

 sciences of Comparative Philology, Comparative Mythology, and 

 Comparative Religion; and through the first of these sciences it has 

 appreciably influenced the teaching of Latin and Greek in the schools 

 of the West. The results obtained from the study of Sanskrit are 

 also indispensable in the historical investigation of institutions and 

 customs. Indian studies are here peculiarly important because, with 

 the single exception of China, India is the only country which has 

 had a recorded historical development of some 3500 years. Let me 

 give a few examples to illustrate this remarkable continuity of civil- 

 ization. Sanskrit is still spoken by thousands of Brahmans as it was 

 centuries before our era. Nor has it ceased to be used for literary 

 purposes; for many books and journals written in this ancient 

 language are still produced. The copying of Sanskrit manuscripts 

 still goes on in hundreds of libraries in India, unchecked even 

 by the introduction of printing during the nineteenth century. The 

 Vedas are still learnt by heart as they were long before the inva- 

 sion of Alexander, and could even now be restored from the lips of 

 religious teachers if every manuscript or printed copy of them were 

 destroyed. A Vedic stanza, of immemorial antiquity, addressed to 

 the sun-god Savitri, is still recited in the daily worship of the Hindus. 

 The god Visnu, worshiped more than 3000 years ago, has countless 

 votaries in India at the present day. The wedding ceremony of the 

 modern Hindu, to single out but one social custom, is essentially 

 the same as it was hundreds of years before the Christian Era. The 

 only true basis of teaching and learning is still considered to be 

 oral instruction, just as it was in the very earliest times. Owing to 

 such survivals of language, thought, and custom from the days of 

 hoary antiquity, a visit to India is of peculiar value to the Sanskrit 

 scholar. For it is only thus that he can thoroughly realize the 

 actual facts of Indian civilization, and that the full force of much 

 that he has read is brought home to him. Let me illustrate this by 

 the experience of a friend of mine. There is a well-known hymn of 

 the Rig- Veda, in which the sound produced by pupils repeating their 

 lessons is compared with that made by frogs during the rains: 



" When one repeats the utterance of the other 

 Like those who learn the lessons of their teacher." 



My friend, a Sanskrit scholar, was a few years ago asked to visit 

 a school for native boys in the district of Behar. As he entered the 

 building, the croaking of the frogs in a neighboring watercourse 

 sounded loud in his ears. Making his way through various passages, 

 he at last came to a long corridor, where he was greatly surprised 



