Table Of ContentTriibner’s Oriental Series
THE HISTORY OF INDIAN
LITERATURE
Triibner’s Oriental Series
THE HISTORY OF INDIAN
LITERATURE
Trubner’s Oriental Series
INDIA: LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
In 14 Volumes
I Indian Poetry
Edwin Arnold
II A Sketch of the Modern Languages of the East Indies
Robert N Cust
III Lays of Ancient India
Romesh Chunder Dutt
IV The Birth of the War-God
Ralph TH Griffith
V The Bengali Drama
P Guha-Thakurta
VI Miscellaneous Essays Relating to Indian Subjects Vol I
Brian Houghton Hodgson
VII Miscellaneous Essays Relating to Indian Subjects Vol II
Brian Houghton Hodgson
VIII Metrical Translations from Sanskrit Writers
J Muir
IX The Spirit of Oriental Poetry
Pur an Singh
X The History of Indian Literature
Albrecht Weber
XI The Satakas of Bhartrihari
B Hale Wortham
XII Behar Proverbs
John Christian
XIII A Classified Collection of Tamil Proverbs
Herman Jensen
XIV Folk-Tales of Kashmir
J Hinton Knowles
THE HISTORY OF INDIAN
LITERATURE
ALBRECHT WEBER
First published in 1878 by
Triibner & Co Ltd
Reprinted in 2000, 2002 by
Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, 0X14 4RN
Transferred to Digital Printing 2007
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
© 187 8 Albrecht Weber
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
The publishers have made every effort to contact authors/copyright holders
of the works reprinted in .
Trubner’s Oriental Series
This has not been possible in every case, however, and we would
welcome correspondence from those individuals/companies
we have been unable to trace.
These reprints are taken from original copies of each book. In many cases
the condition of these originals is not perfect. The publisher has gone to
great lengths to ensure the quality of these reprints, but wishes to point
out that certain characteristics of the original copies will, of necessity, be
apparent in reprints thereof.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
The History of Indian Literature
ISBN 0-415-24509-5
India: Language and Literature: 14 Volumes
ISBN 0-415-24289-4
Triibner s Oriental Series
ISBN 0-415-23188-4
ISBN 978-1-136-38693-0 (ebk)
THE H I S T O R Y
OF
INDIAN LITERATURE.
3
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Fourth Edition, 1904
Popular Re-issue, 1914
The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved
TRANSLATORS’ NOTE.
According to the original intention, the English trans
lation of this work was to have appeared shortly after the
second German edition, which came out in the end of 1875,
and which, as mentioned by the author in his preface, was
in part prepared with a view to this translation. In con
sequence, however, of the death of Professor Childers,
under whose direction it was in the first instance begun,
and of whose aid and supervision it would, had he lived, have
had the benefit, the work came to a stand-still, and some
time elapsed before the task of continuing and completing
it was entrusted to those whose names appear on the title-
page. The manuscript of the translation thus interrupted
embraced a considerable part of the text of the first divi
sion of the work (Yedic Literature). It had not under
gone any revision by Professor Childers, and was found to be
in a somewhat imperfect state, and to require very material
modification. Upon Mr. Zachariae devolved the labour of
correcting it, of completing it as far as the close of the
Yedic Period, and of adding the notes to this First Part
none of which had been translated. From the number of
changes introduced in the course of revision, the portion
of the work comprised in the manuscript in question
has virtually been re-translated. The rendering of the
second division of the volume (Sanskrit Literature) is
entirely and exclusively the work of Mr. Mann.
The circumstances under which the translation has been
TRANSLATORS' NOTE.
viii
produced have greatly delayed its appearance. But for
this delay some compensation is afforded by the Supple
mentary Notes which Professor Weber has written for
incorporation in the volume (p. 311 ff.), and which sup
ply information regarding the latest researches and the
newest publications bearing upon the subjects discussed in
the work. Professor Weber has also been good enough to
read the sheets as they came from the press, and the trans
lators are indebted to him for a number of suggestions.
A few of the abbreviations made use of in the titles of
works which are frequently quoted perhaps require ex
planation: e.g., I. St. for Weber's Indische Shidien ; I. Str.
for his Indische Streifen; I AK. for Lassen’s Indische
Alterthumshunde; Z. D. M. G. for Zeitschrift der deutschen
morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, &c.
The system of transliteration is in the main identical
with that followed in the German original; as, however, it
varies in a few particulars, it is given here instead of in
the Author’s Preface. It is as follows
a d i i u t i y i j !
\i
li e ai o au;
k kh g gh n;
ch chh j jh n;
% th d dli n;
t th d dh n;
p ph b bh m;
y r 1 v;
s sli s h;
Anusv^ra m, in the middle of a word before sibilauU fi;
V isarga h.
July
, 1878.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
The work of my youth, which here appears in a new edi
tion, had been several years out of print. To have repub
lished it without alteration would scarcely have done ;
and, owing to the pressure of other labours, it was im
possible for me, from lack of time, to subject it to a com
plete and systematic remodelling. So the matter rested.
At last, to meet the urgent wish of the publisher, I re
solved upon the present edition, which indeed leaves the
original text unchanged, but at the same time seeks, by
means of the newly added notes, to accommodate itself to
the actual position of knowledge. In thus finally decid
ing, I was influenced by the belief that in no other way
could the great advances made in this field of learning
since the first appearance of this work be more clearly ex
hibited than precisely in this way, and that, consequently,
this edition might at the same time serve in some measure
to present, in mice, a history of Sanskrit studies during
the last four-and-twenty years. Another consideration
was, that only by so doing could I furnish a critically
secured basis for the English translation contemplated by
Messrs. Triibner & Co., which could not possibly now give
the original text alone, as was done in the French transla
