India's Past: A Survey of Her Literatures, Religions, Languages, and Antiquities (Classic Reprint)

358 Pages·2017·11.546 MB·

by  Arthur Anthony Macdonell

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EAST GATEWAY OF GREAT STUPA, SAN'CHI
(see p. 65)
INDIA’S PAST
A SURVEY of her LITERATURES
RELIGIONS, LANGUAGES
and ANTIQUITIES
By
A. A. MACDONELL
Emeritus Professor of Sanskrit
in the University of Oxford
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1927
Printed in England
At the Oxford University Press
By John Johnson
Printer to the University
831-0
Mohs--
350379
PREFACE
This work summarizes India’s intellectual history, which
in its various aspects has been the subject of my studies for
slightly more than half a century (1875 to 1926). It sets
forth in nine chapters the mental development of the most
easterly branch of Aryan civilization since it entered India
by land till it came in contact by sea with the most
westerly branch of the same civilization after a separation
of at least 3,000 years. The four centuries that have since
elapsed (1498 to 1926) are here touched upon only as showing
the most recent distribution of the Indian vernaculars and
the rise of their literatures, as well as the process by which
the development of the purely indigenous period gradually
became known to the new-comers from the west. This
process was so slow that three centuries passed before the
alien arrivals recognized that they themselves were the
inheritors of a civilization which was the same in origin as
that of the recently occupied eastern land. An account of
the influence of this western civilization on that prevailing
in modern India, I have left to the political history of the
last four centuries; for it would in any case have proved
too extensive as well as unsuitable for inclusion in this
volume. All such matter will be found in The Oxford-
History of India by the late Dr. Vincent Smith. The
actual ground covered by the present ‘volume is this.
The introductory chapter describes the physical aspects of
India and their resulting effect on migrations of population
into this area. The next chapter tells of the language)
the literature, and the religion of the earliest period of the
Aryans in India. Then follows an account of the later
vi Preface
Vedic period and the introduction of writing. The fourth
chapter describes the early post-Vedic age, including the
rise of Jainism and Buddhism as well as their art. The
next chapter deals with the epic and classical literature of
India. The sixth chapter is concerned with Indian stories,
fairy tales, and fables, together with their important place
in world literature. The seventh chapter treats of the
various aspects of technical literature such as grammar,
lexicography, philosophy, law, practical arts, medicine,
astronomy, and mathematics. The next chapter embraces
the vernacular languages of India and their literatures.
The final chapter shows how Europeans became acquainted
with India’s past by a study of her early literature, her
inscriptions, her archaeology, and her coinage, pointing out
the most efficient means of extracting from these sources
further facts relating to the past. It also gives some account
of the labours of those scholars by whom India’s bygone
history has been recovered.
Each chapter concludes with a selected bibliography
including works that supply further references. For the
range of our knowledge of India’s past is now so extensive
that the information supplied by this book could only
cover the main and essential points, the selected biblio¬
graphy being intended to serve as an up-to-date and
trustworthy guide for both the general reader and the
student in whichever direction further details are sought.
Its contents are meant, within a small compass, to direct
both the English and the Indian reader through the long
tract of time from the beginning of the Vedic age down to
the epoch when the modern European became acquainted
with the Indo-Aryan. These two civilizations, starting
from a common source, have after a separation of at least
3,000 years again become united during the last four