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HAMILTON : "^ SPaOTATOB VKINTINO COMTAMY. ^1886 MAtKVN.M, I.IRHAttY (: \ N A n A JBinilOiH Ql- NAHONALt: ■n\ i >, TUB U OP^ 1N]J)1A, India has always been a land of marvels ; and what she has been in this resjject she still is, and will likely continue to be. The "fairy tales of science" told concerning India in our own times, equal, indeed surpass, the fabulous st . ies formerly current respecting that wonderful land. What, for instance, could be stranger than the modern doctrine of a close race relationship between India and Europe. ^And yet the truth of that strange doctrine has won for it general credence. Exact research, surveys and explorations have aided to a better appreciation of the special characteristics of India and her people, and have strengthened the desire to know, as defi- nitely as possible, theii past history and all that can be learned respecting this long unsuspected kinship. How much information of interest has been added to what was formerly known of India may be inferred from a perusal of the Reports, from time to time, through the courtesy of the India Office, received by this Associa- tion. The treasures of her fauna and flora are steadily coming to the light through the efforts of men of special fitness for their work ; and the Archaeological Survey is gradually digging up from beneath the mould of centuries, vestiges of a civilization nearly obliterated. Who can examine the reports of Gen. Cunningham, and their accom- panying photographic illustrations, without desiring to learn more of these old Indians, who it has been said, " built like giants, and decorated their buildings like jewellers." What an interesting chapter Indian history has become, and what knotty questions respecting the civilization of Europe it has helped to solve. Race after race has from time immemorial crowd- ed on the heels of its predecessors into that peninsula, driving the weaker aborigines to the shelter of the niountains and jungles, as the thf: ancikni' languaok invading Saxons drove the native Mritons to tlie hills ..nd fens of England. We can sec how in turn, (Ireek, Arab, Mogul, anil Mahratta, made India ;i;roan under the concjuerors' heel, and how Hrahmin and Buddhist, Mohammedan and Christian, Catholic and Protestant, with zeal have striven to guide the faith of her teeming millions. \Ve may also see that the spirit of commerce, which during the last four centuries has been gaining dominance in western Europe, has dealt as aggressively with India as did the spirit of con- (juest of earlier times. The trading companies of the Portuguese, Dutch, Danes, French, and English all made India a con)n'on point of mercantile attack. ; and Franc c and England, as a secjuel to their commercial rivalry, fought out on her soil some of their most san- guinary battles. For several generations past British mercantile influence in India has increased ; and political authority has followed so closely on the heels of commercial enterjjrise that India has become an integral portion of the British Empire, and there are to-day, exclusive of the native states, two hundred millions of souls in India who are our own fellow subjects under the British Crown. The languages of this immense population fall into two groups — ti^e H,yan and Non-Aryan or Dravidian tongues. The Rev. R. Caldwell, who has compiled a comparative grammar of the Dravidian languages, classifies them into nine idioms, spoken by about thirty-two millions of people. Thus : — Ihe Tamil is spoken by lo millions, " Telegu " " 14 " Canarese " " 5 " " Malayalam " '* 2>o " " Telu " " 150 thousand, and the 'I'oda, Kota, (iond and Ivhond by about half a million of people. Mr. Hunter, the well known writer on Indian subjects, has made the Non-Aryan languages of India a studyj and has given much information concerning them ; but here I can only refer to his work. The chief Aryan languages spoken in India are the Hindi, Hindustani, Bengali, Pendschabi, Sindhi, Guzerati and the language of the Mahrattas. Besides these there is however another Aryan language, which, although it is not now and has not been a living language for more than two thousand years, is the most important of the Indian tongues, The language referred ^o was the mother AND LITERATURE OF INOlA. tongue of the old Indians of Vedic times — the J-'anskrit and to the consideration of some of its mcu' salient features I ask your atten- tion. It is still studied in Irdia, ai. ' remains there, as it has been so far hack as history can be traced, the chief language of religion, law and the higher branches of learning. In its relationship to the living .\ryan tongues of India it takes a similar position to that Latin holds in relation to the Romance languages of Europe. Towards the Iranic, Celtic, (ireek, Italic, [,itauic, Sclavic and (Ger- manic anguages it stands as an eider sister, forming with them the Kami/ 1 of Languages for half a century studied under the compara- tive method, and generfilly called the Indo Germanic, Indo Ku»-o- pean, or, perhaps better than either, the Aryan tongues, derman philologists naturally favor the term Indo (iermanic, and confine the use of the term Aryan exclusively to the Asiatic -that is t.he Indian and Iranian — members of *he h mily. How long it is since this was a s])oken living language no one pretends to say with exact- ness ; but it is known from Indian rock inscriptions, dating back to about two hundred years before the Christian era, that the golden age of Sanskrit development was long anterior to these rock records, for their language had already fallen as far away from that of the \ edas as the language of modern Italy has from that of Cicero. As much for the humane spirit it br'Mthes as for its antiquity, I give one of the oldest of these inscriptions from the rocks at Cirnar. It is an edict by the Buddhist King Asoka, and was translated by Prinsep as follows: ''Everywhere within the conquered Province of " Raja Pyadasi, the beloved of the Gods, as well as in the parts *' occupied by the faithful, sue) as Chola, Pida, Styaputra and Keta- " laputra, even aj far as Tambapaimi (Ceylon), and moreover within " the dominions of Antiochus the Greek (of which Antiochus' "generals are the rulers), ev^erywhere, the heaven beloved Raja " Pyadasi's double system of medical aid is established ; both medi- " cal aid for man and medical aid for animals, together with " medicaments of all soris, which arc suitable for man and suitable '' for animals ; and wherever there is nor such provision there are to " be prepared and to be plant;d both root-drugs and herbs. " And in all the public highways wells are to be dug, and trees •' to be planted for the accommodation of man and animals." The word Sanskrit means the cultivated, the ornate. As applied to the language of the old Indians, it means the cultivated , THR ANCIENT ,.A„C.VM-.K ''"g'y, in antithesis (o ihe l-nkri, „, -J thir,y..,„ee c„„s„na„,, .t '^''"r '"'"^ '■ f°"«een vowel, each .sound „f ,he h„ ,; ;>"• f "'»h a disiinct character for -^"ed ^,™„„^,„. . ,ho,tho,her T,; f"'" S«""»"y "sed is th" ■ ;-^s are „„en .Htten ,n . 'ne^t^^r' "" '« "-d, as Sans 4 "f wuthern India used a .„„ '^''"acter, and the Brahmin' : :.::f ™' - ".ended'terw ; Zr' """'^''^'' "■^- '^- sonietnnes ,,rinted after a svsien?' f <'"'"»">'. -Sanskrit books -tre "■Pe with certain addi,i„„aU 1 ' "' ''^"'"'eration, ordinary Ko,! -^-- letters. Th, is d It^' /""^ /""^^ being used ins./ad o the 'hat such l)ooks -m., 1 eheapness rhieflv !>,„ • p;.no,o,,., .hoti;,r if, -- •" -dents'^ 'zzz " Phabet ; the reader of Samk it ,.?' '"'"''''' '" l^-"" "-e „."'/ "'I'habet. Wilkins and s,r w' 'f """' "^'ds learn the .SanTr^ •--Iteration no. used, ca Je h"" '""P'^" "'"">« "•« " - S" great was their di/iiculty in I's ' """"^ «" "° ^"'•"^''"' 'yPe »'"!' !"» .-wn hands the mi ric r ['"P"' "^'" ""k'"^ had to cm •^.".;- lengthy Indian manusc p, s' t '"' ''''"' "'^^ "-^dio prin "f lite our own, but .te7' .?'''"' "'""K ^""^ from left o;her way „ke Hebrew, aldt / ^ ^^^ ';;»' - - time it raf .,! Of "e language was „f Semitic ^ "''^ *"l'e''"'lphabe. 'eadtly analysed, and .stripped of/"**'"- ^="»^'lt »„rds can be ■••^ to leave apparent the prta„ '^^'^''^^ •••nd suffixes o ^">«- The ,„ta, numb"Ts:„T''°'" "■"< '"l>ei> me Xg thousand, and those ,n genlf, '"■" '""'' '^ less than "wo P- Of that number, as v^f.^" ^rof'"' '■' .™"l--ve.ys, II ' he same root by the use ,.f "'*''"'"« "'"3' be given to "*- grammariaL hav " omp.'^r"''"" ''" °"'" -l'^^" 0014 according ,o the terminal Ie«e^!,t ." "■""«^<'^'Pl'^''--'i- ^ n-ange our dictionaries accordinTtl 1 ''"" '■'•°'' ""^ "ot as we bo?r ' "'^ '"^"'^' Pbi'S St luW ; 7'"' '^"^-^ °f -^-^^ ^Iso tfahTh- f/'-^ '-^ o-e o^^ o^^^^^^^^^ trativen '^'"^^ inflections of the s , '=''°l'-«'-ship, a.s it 'rative passages from standard auL ''"" '"^'- "nd illus- fl AND MTERATURR OF INDIA. 5 spoken in en vowels wo sjiecial y S and R aracter for ed is that 5 Sanskrit Brahmins (Jrantha, )ooks are "f Roman ad ot the in part JJarative ■ nagari Sanskrit e exact it tyi)e. i to cut o print left to an the ihabet m be es, so aning two small ?n to ions, use. ^-ti- > we rds. uch s it us- ^'es ch extract Is taken. In the middle of Sanskrit words the vowel charac- ters used are simpler and easier to write than those used for the beginning of words; and the short A, though not written at all, has to be sounded after every consonant that has no other vowel follow- ing it, or a mark, virama^ beneath it to show that the A must not follow. One marked feature of Sanskrit is its strict adherence to the laws of euphony. All hiatus is disallowed, for there are but two or three words in the whole vocabulary where two vowels are suffered to stand together in the body of a word. And when the terminal vowel of one word meets the initial vowel of another, both coalesce into a long vowel or a diphthong, or one of them is transformed into a semi-vowel. The concurrence of consonantal sounds that are harsh is also avoided in various ways minutely pointed out in Sanskrit grammars, 'i'hcse rules for making he language a series of continuous agreeable sounds are called sandhi by the native gram- marians. The common practice in Sanskrit of running a number of words together according to the elisions, assimilations and other changes that are laws of the language, led the Hrahmins, in order to guard against the introduction of error in this way into their sacred hymns, to adopt two texts ; one the sanhito or hymnal text, arranged according to the rules referred to, the other, a pada or word text, in which each word is given unchanged by the influence connection with another word would subject it to. .Max Muller, in his edition of the Rig- Veda, completed in London ten years ago, gives the sanhita and pada texts in parall' I pages. With such '- could not e, "or" "'■^"' "■"- '"e '-' Sansk'i ™ tor,' '' '^"■"^^ "-nlc: sl:"^'' "'°' "^'^h' •^^''ury, and Fathers Ponstd »''"'"«■ "^ ^obili in 1^' ^'"' '^'er date, knew „r,t "^ ^"'' Hanxleden re,„i, ■ ""= '7"i -"-■"-able To^tt^rr^'^ °' '^^ «-skrr • ::^r-f -^ « ''l-e a romance. He lel h "'"^ "• ''^^ «fe of Del' k'!'' """'^ '"*a as „ell as "a„ krt '"° °^ "^^^ "' "-etLw t^'" ''''"' franial mark anri ,7,' '"'"'"'^<' "le garb of , u ! ''"«'"»ges of f- ".eir l: dTokrhV^r :°"''^'"^^'»-'f : r: "''^.'"^ ^-wn to India a „e: V da .T"'" "''" '- ^'^'i LTT'T E'.our^Vedam, which V u '"'""<== celebrated h„T ™'"-' £"«!«, was ittributd ' r' '"'^""""d to the t '?"^<'"'« "'c Manners ' 'ind plural. r than those "linal forms !?** f'f /tulo if^ariy forty '^■S P'intc'd ' atid three en widely known to •^'fatiire of 3lished in y univer- P. Max nus-ripts ■ Vi'rious •f adven- it litera- mgua^re ^inpara- ^ learn vasion les the elight mpor- tholic were r7th of a nade fads s of the ons ike he of |en rs ANI» LIIKKAILRK 1>K INIMA. 7 and Spirit of Nations," it is referred to as a "comnKntary by Chiiiuonton on the Veilani, whi( li the Mrahiniiis pretehd to he the most holy of all b')oks;" and he states that he has |)la( ed the MS. 'in the Kind's library, where it ( an be seen by anyone who rares to look at it. In ryyo, an Austrian bare footed friar, I'aniiliruis whose secular name was W'esdin issued the lirst Sanskrit grammar of European compilation ; and fourteen years later appeared a second and enlarged edition of the same grammar, eontainimg in addition the substance of a native dictionary called the Amara Koaha. Only one or tv,o words in this grammar (a copy of which I have the pleasure to submit lor ihe inspection of the Association) are printed in Divana^ari characters. Roman ty|)e is generally used for the Sanskrit words, though a few are printed in the (Irantha character. Both works were printed under the ausi)ices of the Propaganda at Rome, and were intended for the use of missionaries ; they have now little more than an historic value. The good brother was alive to the perplexing intricacies of the grammar he was exjjounding, for in one place he exclaims, " The admirable ( ratt of the devil ! which " had led the Brahmin philosophers to form a language at once so " rich and complicated, in order to conceal their religious dogmas, " not merely from the vulgar, but from men of instruction." About the same time that VVesdin was enlightening his mission- ary colleagues by writing Sanskrit grammars for their guidan( e, a stronger light from another (|uarter burst in u|)on the (>bscurity which enshrpuded the old Hrahminical learning. So soon as Warren Hastings was made first Governor General of India, he resolved to turn the native laws of the country to as much use as possible in the administration of justice. Halhed, who understood Persian -at the instigation of Hastings, who was anxious to carry his views into practice -undertook the work of codifying the native laws. He had nine IJrahmin pundits to assist him, and expected the work would be done in six months; but it took two years, when it was printed under the title of the *' Code of the Gentoo Laws ;" as gentoo, meaning heathen, was the common designation by the early Portuguese settlers of the native Indian races. Halhed, in a preface to the work, explained that these la\\s were not originally written in the Persian language, but that under his supervision they had been translated into Persian from a language called Sanskrit. Notwithstanding the imperfections subsequently discovered in Hal- 8 li ff'i III ■'■"E Am lENT LANGUAGF ned's Code i> ■■".--. ;,ue j:r7t ,rtf- "°°i' ^^ " -- -^ ^-^ »"■> 'he singula,, bygone civilfea,i„„ ^ f,,''^"-'; '° '^^"' "---e about Moreover, Halhe^'>- -. w^ "ed. He wfnt to India in , „„ T *'^'""''-* «s first in the «-dane.of,„ Fndianpund „ 'rVfo ^"'*'^'' «-«l■ It was the first tr ,nsin!i '^ '""> 8'^"' '^P'e poems of -d .Varren Hastings wrL': '; :,4"'° .^j^t "' =" '"^"^'^'^ -* a n,ost congenial field of labor ud'V, *^"''^™ ''o"nd himself in -ote Sir John Macpherson, " ' rbber I: T " '"° '" '"-^'^ "^ ,. '""*'-^' ""d hope before 1 lea e I„dif r'"' ^^^^ ^ay with the J understand Latin." With the ,id o ! P "'"'"" " "^ "'" '^ ^oon bus.ly engaged in the transh, „„ [\^'''""' P^^phrase he was translations o, the fable book caied the ^^^ "'f'"' "' "-" :■ " and or the Fatal Ri„g, , drama by Kalidl '''^""' '"^ ^'•'""■''', ■^"t Ijer,od, followed later on.' Th 3 r.'h'' T' "' "^ ^'"-''^ Sans- priced, and of which he wrote — ' ^^""' ^°«he so highly J ne Calcutta LitPMn, q^ • -d his colleagues, elS a "reirf''^^ ''^ ^'^ «"'. Jones • journal, the famous .Asiatic Resecht h" ""'"'''""' -"d 'he hght from all quarters on nfatteT ' ''"'^'""'^ "fo-^ns forconverrinl ;ordispersingi,againth:uXrKr:rrSr"f"'^-"'"™'^^^^^ ' val m India, paid but little at.entTo' to s ?°''=' °" "•'' «^^' art- « were at that time ra^panr^ ': ^^^JT'"^ ^^ '-ompany s servants, AND LITERATURE OF INDIA. § dealt with •standpoint ^^re about ad sprung. ' way for a "" won the aWe men work will rst in the Jnder the -brooke's 'Sir Wni. ' on his '■ society e of this of the 3:ims of t work, iself in idia he th the veil as le was and Sans- ighly nes leir ing nd rri- nd ts. and He but narrowly escaped the vortex of fashionable dissipation. In a letter to his father he says, ''Wilkins is iiskrit mad and has " more Hindu learning than any foreigner possessed since Pythagoras." Fortunately the better qualities of Colebrooke's splendid intellect soon asserted their supremacy over fashion. From boyhood he had taken a keen interest in mathematics and astronomy, und the desire at length became irresistible to learn what these ancient Indian writings had to tell about his favorite subjects. In an amusing manner he says that in the first period of his Indian studies he used to break away from the gaming table to revel in the delights of Sanskrit grammar. Twice however he became disheartened, and threw his studies aside, but only to resume them with increased ardour ; and the success he in the end achieved has immortalized his name. P'ifty years after the publication of Colebrooke's Sanskrit grammar, Max Muller writes in the preface of his grammar, "I can "hardly hope to rival Colebrooke's accuracy." To this faultless, almost microscopic, exactness in working out the details of the lan- guage was joined the master's skill for sketching boldly and in true perspective every subject of the literature that he touched, so that philologists give him the first place in the famous band of orientalists who were his contemporaries. Another feature in Colebrooke's character, which will cause his name to be held in grateful remem- brance, was his zeal for the collection and preservation of Indian manuscripts. Some tmie before his death he presented his collec- tions to the East India Company, that Sanskrit scholars might have readier access to them than was possible to get in his own private library. They number all told fifteen hundred and twenty-six vol- umes, and fifty two bundles of MSS. of a miscellaneous character. Eminent scholars regard these manuscripts as the largest and most valuable collection of Sanskrit works ever made. The seed sown by these men three generations ago has been well watered and husbanded since by many h^nds, and has brought forth fruit a hundred fold. By whom the good work has been carried on would be too long a story told in detail, and it suffices to say that Colebrooke and his co-workers have had worthy successors not only it. England but in every country in Europe ; and that America will in due time also do her share of this work, the names of Whitney and Lunman give abundant promise. In India itself, and in all civilized countries, learned societies have supplemented THE ANCIKNT LANGUAOF, and aided individual effort in extending the knowledge of Sanskrit literature. The Court of Directors of the old time East India Company in this respect nobly did their duty ; and since the author- ity of the Oown replaced that of the Company, the interests of Sanskrit learning have not been forgotten. Russia, from a regard for philological learning, which has long been a national trait of her people, and perhaps in part from fear that she was falling behind England in an intelligent appreciation of Indian modes of thought, turned patron to German scholarship in the production of an elaborate dictionary, which is deemed one of the most important Sanskrit publications of this generation. In the production of this great work, for once at least, Sclav and 'i'euton found a common standpoint for co-o])eration ; and the famous Worterbuch, published by the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg, embodying, as it does, the labours of Otto Bohtlingh and Rudolph Roth for a quarter of a century, will be a lasting monument of Russian enterprise and German learning. It would be instructive to methodically trace the results gained by the talent, time and means expended in penetrating the secrets of this old language and the immense literature of which it is the vehicle. Hut such a task would be by no means easy, and falls beyond my opportunities for research. Purified of its dross, the l)ure gold of that literature reflects for our instruction the religious and intelle(-tual life, and to some extent the social history also, of the oldest member of the ethnological family to which we ourselves belong. And what a diversity of views, wide as the poles asunder, are recorded in its manuscripts. There may be found the simple hymns of the Rishis of Vedic times ; the elaborate ritual of the Ikahminical hierarchy into which that earlier patriarchal life devel- oped ; the growth and — in India -decay of Buddhism; and the offshoots from the parent stock of the numerous sects and schools of Indian thought, whose tenets touch the most prosaic materialism on the one hand, and the most imaginative pantheism and spiritual monotheism on the other. Thanks to the untiring industry of an energetic if small number of scholars and gentlemen who hold oriental scholarship in esteem, tiie utterances of many of these old Indian writers are now fairly accessible to English readers. In the translations by Horace Hayman Wilson, John .''.uir, (Griffith, Arnold, and Max MuUer, and in those of the " Sacred Books of the East," ) AND LITERATJRE OF INDIA. I r f Sanskrit ist India 'e author- erests of egard for t of her behind thought, n of an iportant 1 of this ommon blished Jt does, er of a 56 and gained rets of is the d fails !s, the igious 3f the ieives nder, mple " the evei- the Is of I on tual an old old :he Id, t," i\ and of Trubner's " Oriental Series," may be found some of the rarest productions ot the eastern mind. Most of the literature of India comes to us directly from the Brahmins, or from the great religious sect that sprang from Brah- manism, the Buddhists. The religion it reveals is indeed crude and replete with absurd ni) ths and superstition, but possesses neverthe- les5 an interest peculiar to itself Its oldest hymns and ceremonial observances give us a glimpse of that phase of the early history of the Aryan race, when their religious consciousness was awakening them to the perception of forces sui)erior to themselves — forces con- trolling the universe. Here, it is imi)ossible to do more than cast a passing glance at the leading features of the chief groups into which the Hindu sacred literature is classified. First are the Ve-^as. To these I shall refer again. Second, the Upanishads, which contain a body of theologic al and philosophical doctrine to supplement the X'edic hymns and cere- monies. The word means literall)- sitting down by a teacher, and as applied to these treatises it means doctrines learned at a teacher's feet. For years it was supposed there were only 63 Upanishads, but the late Prof Haug, of Munich, collected one hundred and one, and believed that many more are in existence. Several of these works are trans- lated in the "Sacred Books of the East."' The first volume of that series contains five. The Upanishads are altogether more modern in thought than the N'edas, Their chief doctrine is the necessity of the union of the Atman the individual soul or self- vvith the higher universal self or soul. Rammohun Roy, some years since, thought to make them the basis of a new religious sect; and a celebrated German mystic of our own times, calls them the " products of the highest wisdom," adding, " they have been the solace of my life and will be the solace of my death." The Vedas and Upanishads are the specially sacred books of the Hindus, the books that can be called canonical. But there are several other classes of works, which, although serving only as aids to explain and illustrate those above mentioned, also partake somewhat of a sacred character. Foremost amongst these are : — 'I'hird, the Vedangas — "limbs of the Veda" — which are divided into six branches. Each branch does not so much represent a par- ) T2 THE ANCIENT LANGUAOK ticular work, as it does the special kind of knowledge requisite to learn and understand the Vedas and rightly conduct the Vedic ceremonies. These branches of knowledge are called Siks/ia, l)ronunciation ; Chhandas, metre ; Vyakarana, grammar ; Niriikta, etymology ; Jyotisha, astronomy ; and Kalpa^ ritual. These names are arranged in the style of the metrical version of the old Eton grammar as follows : — Siksha, Kalpo, Vyakaranam, Niruktatii, Chhando, Jyotisham. The rules for expoun(Jing these subjects are expressed in a very condensed manner, and are called Sutras ; literally sutra means a thread, and these rules are the clews to the knowledge taught. Grammar is of more interest to Europeans than are the rest of these subjects, and is also a branch of learning in which the Hindus excel. I have here a list of Hindu grammars which includes about a hundred native works. It was printed by Colebrooke and includes no doubtful book. Foremost in this list stands the grammar of Panini. His 3996 rules, or sutras, are illustrated and explained at great length by commentators, and they are said to answer all questions that can arise respecting the language. Modern philologists have not been slow to acknowledge their indebtedness to Indian grammar. Muller calls it " a wonderful machine, which to " my mind surpasses everything that haman ingenuity has devised " for analysing the conglomerate of any language." In the phonetic division of grammar, our most advanced grammarians are but just beginning to approach the accuracy of those of India, who Hved centuries before the Christian era. The laws of metre belong to this division of knowledge. That they were studied with care was pointed out by Colebrooke in his essays ; and also more recently by Prof. Weber, who edited with a translation and notes an important Sutra on the subject of metre. It is to the Vedas, however, that the Brahmins continually refer as the sacred well-spring of their learning, and to those, for half a century, some of the best scholars of Europe have directed their attention. The word Veda in its general acceptation signifies know- ledge. In a special sense it means the sacred knowledge of the Hindus, and more particularly that of their ancient hymns and cere- monies. There are four Vedas, each containing its own arrange- ment of hymns and ritual ; but the fourth, the Arthava-Veda, is of later date and inferior to the others. The Rig- Veda contains the , i> p J AND LITERATURE OK INDIA. 13 most ancient Hindu hymns, arranged according to their reputed authors and the divinities to whom they are addressed. The Sama- Veda is a hturgical collection of single verses to be chanted during the performance of certain ceremonies ; and most of these verses are taken from the Rig-Veda. The Vajur-Veda is also liturgical, and is partly in verse and partly in prose, i'he poetical parts of this Veda are also mainly extracted from the Rig-Veda. A small part of the Arthava-Veda is in prose, and about a sixth part of its hymns is taken from the Rig- Veda, chiefly from the tenth book. It is full of magical incantations ; and the reverential awe, inspired by natural phenomena, so characteristic of the Rig-Veda, is in it replaced by a grovelling superstition. The Rig- Veda is in many respects the most important of the four Vedas. It contains 1028 hymns of 10,580 verses, numbering all told 153,826 words. There is an index or anukramani by Saunika, who is said to have lived 400 years B.C., which gives the first words of each hymn ot the Rig- Veda, the names of the deities addressed, the name and family of each of the Vedic poets, and the metres of every verse. Even the syllables of the whole of the Rig- Veda are numbered, and in this index they are said to amount to 432,000. How old this collection of hymns is, it is impossible to say with exactness. Common consent has suffered it to be put in " the " first place of the long row of books which contain the records of "the Aryan branch of mankind.'' The hynms of the Rig- Veda are evidently not all of the same age ; and, in the absence of direct dates, a few facts of Indian history, and the internal evidence found in the hymns themselves, are the sole testimony from which an opinion can be deduced as to how old any of the hymns of this Veda are. Some of the acutest intellects of this and of the last generation have carefully weighed every particle of evidence bearing on this question ; and although, as might be supposed, the best scholars engaged in this work differ in their conclusions as to the exact age of these hymns, they yet fairly agree that the oldest are not later than 1500 before Christ. We must not infer, because Sanskrit scholars believe these hvmns to be the intellectual products of the Aryan race at a period 1500 years before Christ, that the existence of Vedic manuscripts of that age is believed in. On the contrary, we are told there are grave T4 THK ANCIENT LAN( UAOE doubts whether Sanskrit had a written literature at all much before the time of Buddha, that is, about 600 years before Christ. The oldest Sanskrit writing known to European scholars is on palm leaves in Japanese Buddhist monasteries. They were brought by Buddhist missionaries from China to Japan, and are said to be more than 1000 years old. Young Buddhist priests of one of the more liberal sects, who were studying Sanskrit at Oxford, induf:ed their f-iends in Japan to search the monasteries there for Sanskrit texts, when these palm leaves and several old manuscripts were found, and copies sent to Oxford. I have here one of these texts, printed under the care of Max Muller and his Japanese friends three years ago. It is said there is no manuscript of the \^edas in existence older th; 1 the lifteenth century of our era. These facts, however, it is con- tended, in no way militate against the anti(iuity of these hymns, as the Brahmins, like the Druids, orally imparted to theii i)upils the knowledge of their sacred mysteries. In fact that method obtains to the present day, and there are said to l)e thousands of Brahmins in India who know the Vedas by heart, and v ho from memory could detect the slightest error, even of accent, in a Vedic manuscript. The young student of the Rig- Veda has to spend eight years in the house of his (iuru or teacher, and must during that time learn by heart not only the Vedic hymns but nine other books, making altogether 30,000 lines. P'or a knowledge of the \'edas it is to Colebrooke again, indebtedness has to be acknowledged ; for his papers, published in 1805, "on the Vedas," gave the first modern account of these remarkable writings, of any value. How boldly and with what fidelity that first sketch was drawn, may be seen in the republished edition of Colebrooke's works, edited by Prof. Cowell eleven years ago. For that edition Prof. Whitney, who ranks first amongst English speaking Vedic scholars, supplied the essays " on the Vedas,'' with notes to keep them abreast of modern scholarship ; and there is scarcely a note added but is a tribute to Colebrooke's genius. It was from Colebrooke's manuscripts also that Rosen, in iSi^o, Ytrmiedhis /^t'g-Fedw Sj>ea'me^i. Rosen was a student under Bopp, and for a few years of his short life he was professor of orien- tal literature at the London University. In 1838, the whole of the first Book of the Rig-Veda, in both the sanhita and pada texts, wag published, with a Latin translation by Rosen, whose death at the s I AND LITRRATURE OF INDFA. »5 *■: early a^e of Ihirty-two had orcuned the year before. Rosen's books were the pioneers of the printed ^^eda ; and to him will remain the credit of first diffusing, through the mc liun of the printing press, the text of these interesting hymns, which prior to his undertaking had been storetl iway in the memory of the Brahmins, or lay stealthily concealed in a few dusty manuscripts. Aufrecht, in 1863, conipleted for Webers Indische Studien an edition of the whole of the Rig- Veda in transliteration. Max MuUer devoted a good i)art of twenty-five years of the best of his life to bringing out, under the ])atronage of the East India Clo. and the Secretary of State for India, his great edition of the Rig-Veda in devanagari characters, and in both sanhita and jjada texts. The first edition, which was completed ten years ago, had also the celebrated native commentary of Sayana, a writer of the 14th century, A.I)., and a second edition, with the texts only, has since been printed from the ediiio princepi. Even in India the desire to jwssess the \'eda has been strong enough to overcome the prejudices of the iJrahmins, and one or two editions of the Rig-\'eda, with translations into some of the living languages of India, have i)een printed. In 1869, Muller ])ublished an English translation of the hymn.s to the Maruts, or .Storm (iods, from the Rig-Veda; and Prof. \Vilson, in 1850, commenced a trans- lation whi( h in fifte'^n years comprised all the hymns. A French translation by Langlois was' commenced as early as 1848. It has reached a second edition, notwithstanding the severe criticism to which it has been subjected. 'I'wo German translations, one by Ludwig and one by ( rrassman, of all the hymns of the Rig-Veda have also been published within a few years, (irassman in his trans- lation closely follows the rhythm of the original, and his work is highly esteemed, as his dictionary of the Rig-Veda, pui)lished in 1873, four years before his translation >l the hymns, had already placed him in the front rank of Vcdic scholars. While the limits of this paper preclude all analysis of the Vedic hymns, and any reference to the epic and dramatic Indian poetry of a later date, I may say that any of the versions of the Rig-Veda referred to, will be found to abound in information respecting the early Aryan race. A rude cultivation of the soil, cattle raising and fighting, were the occupations chiefly followed in these early times, and grain and herds were consequently the chief wealth. There are ;6 THE ANCIENT l-AroUAGE in these hymns frequent references to the grei v Indian rivers, and to the sea, and to merchants who brave its perils for the sake of gain. Wedding and funeral rites are both described in an interesting man- ner, and incidentally much may be gathered with regard to the social customs of these early days, (iambling, especially with dice, was a favorite pastime. Nowhere are the praises of water more sweetly sung than in these hymns, though truth compels us to say that the intoxicating juice of the Soma or moon plant is also extoMed in strains unsurpassed for fervor by the Bacchanalian poets of any age or country. A large number of the hymns of the Rig- Veda are devoted to the praises of Agni, fire; Indra, the mighty god of the firmament ; and the Maruts or Storm Gods that are Indra's attend- ants. Others are in praise of Surya or Savitra — the sun, and to the sons of the boundless, the infinite, called Adityas, which Wilson thinks are manifestations of the sun in the different months of the year. One of these, Varuna, has many hymns in his favour, and so has Mitra, whose name is generally joined to that of some other deity. One poet affirms the t dstence of thirty-three gods, who rule over earth, air and water, eleven to each region ; and in another hymn the poet in his ecstasy exclaims that the number is three thousand, three hun- dred and thirty-nine. Through this polytheistic darkness there are however gleams of light as of one superior being, the Aditi, the infinite, ruling over all; and a high native authority asserts " that all " the gods of the Rig- Veda are but parts of one atman or soul, sub- " servient to the diversification of his praises, through the immensity " and variety of his attributes." The prayers and offerings to the Vedic gods are chiefly for temporal blessings. They are of the earth earthy. The burden of the suppliant's prayer is in most cases the same; that his crops and herds and children may prosper, and that all impending evils threatening him may be averted, and turned against his enemies to their destruction. In one or two places the poet makes a confession of wrong doing, and asks forgiveness. Some of the hymns are monotonous, and but for their antiquity would have little interest ; but most of them are instructive, and not a few are full of poetic conceptions of the highest merit. The following hymn to Ushas, the Dawn, for both sentiment and poetic imagery, is a fair specimen of the best and oldest type of the hymns of the Rig-Veda. ^» ,-^\\ ^ *^:) >k t ■• AND LITERATURE OF INDIA. 1 7 TO THE DA^»'N. KIG-VEDA, VII, 77. Bright as a bride, shines forth the virgin day-break, Arousing all that lives to daily action. Only freed by man's toi! can Agni * flame forth, The dawn brings light by striking down the darkness. Upwards she rose, and spread, still nearer coming. With glistening garments clad, she grew in brightness, Of golden splendor, and of face mo3t comely, Parent of morning kine, { leader of c',.y-light. Oh ! happy she, blest dawn, the God's eye, bringing Whitest of steeds, and proudest, sleekest, leading. In radiance draped, the ruddy morn is coming. In treasures rich, sue tracks the path for mortals. With bles-,ings nearing, drive hence the unfriendly. Call forth for us the wide, protected pastures. Hold back our Toemen, blessings bring unto us, Client thy adorer added gifts, thou rich one. Stream down on us thy best, thy brightest radiance. Oh ! Goddess Ushas vouchsafe us long lifetime, And give us food, thou, who hast every blessing, Let us abound in cattle, horses, chariots. Oh ! heaven's daughter, thou whoi.. the Vasishthast With songs do praise, thou dawn, thou high-born fair one, Ciive wealth to us, exalted, wide spread riches. And all ye Gods, with all your grace, aye shield us. In almost every hymn of that rude Vedic age, the magic influ- ence of poetry to soften and subdue the harsh and carking cares of life is apparent ; and thus from that remote past comes an additional illustration of the truth of Bornes' words : *' Poetry benignantly "vouchsafes to mortals what nature withholds; a golden age which " does not deteriorate, a spring time that does not fade, cloudless hap- " piness, and everlasting youth." * Fire. I The morning clouds. t Name of a celebrated family, the chief of which is the reputed author of the hymns of the VII mandala of the kig-Veda.