A History of Sanskrit LiteratureTaken in conjunction with my sanskrit Drama, published in 1924, this work covers the field of Classical Sanskrit Literature, as opposed to the Vedic Literature, the epics, and the Puranas. To bring the subject-matter within the limits of a single volume has rendered it necessary to treat the scientific literature briefly, and to avoid discussions of its subject-matter which appertain rather to the historian of grammer, philosophy, law, medicine, astronomy, or mathematics, than to the literary historian. This mode of treatment has rendered it possible, for the first time in any treatise in English on Sanskrit Literature, to pay due attention to the literary qualities of the Kavya. Though it was to Englishmen, such as Sir William Jones and H. T. Colebrooke, that our earliest knowledge of Sanskrit poetry was due, no English poet shared Goethe`s marvellous appereciation of the merits of works known to him only through the distorting medium of translations, and attention in England has usually been limited to the Vedic literature, as a source for comparative philology, the history of religion, or Indo-European antiquities; to the mysticism and monism of Sanskrit philosophy; and to the fables and fairy-tales in their relations to western parallels. The neglect of Sanskrit Kavya is doubtless natural. The great poets of India wrote for audiences of experts; they were masters of the learning of their day, long trained in the use of language, and they aim to please by subtlety, not simplicity of effect. They had at their disposal a singularly beautiful speech, and they commanded elaborate and most effective metres. Under these circumstances it was inevitable that their works should be difficult, but of those who on that score pass them by it may fairly be said ardua dum metuunt amittunt vera viai. It is in the great writers of Kavya along, headed by Kalidasa, that we find depth of feeling for life and nature matched with perfection of expression and rhythm. The Kavya literature includes some of the great poetry of the world, but it can never expect to attain wide popularity in the West, for it is essentially untranslatable German poets like Ruckert can, indeed, base excellent work on Sanskrit originals, but the effects produced are achieved by wholly different means, while English efforts at verse translations fall invariably below a tolerable mediocrity, their diffuse tepidity contrasting painfully with the brilliant condensation of style, the elegance of metre, and the close adaptation of sound to sense of the originals. I have, therefore, as in my Sanskrit Drama, illustrated the merits of the poets by Sanskrit extracts, adding merely a literal English version, in which no note is taken of variations of text or renderings. To save space I have in the main dealt only with works earlier than A.D. 1200, though especially in the case of the scientific literature important books of later date are briefly noticed. This book was sent in completed for the press, in January 1926 but pressure of work at the University Press precluded printing until the summer of 1927, when it wa deemed best, in order not to delay progress, to assign to this preface the notice of such new discoveries and theories of 1926 and 1927 as might have permanent interest. |
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accept alliteration appears ascribed Bāņa borrowing Brahmin Buddhist Canto century character claim clear clearly close compared deals death definite derived distinct doctrine doubt doubtless early effect effort elaborate epic essentially evidence existence expression fact figures followed given gives grammar Greek hand idea important Indian influence interesting Jain JRAS Kālidāsa king knowledge known language late later legend less literature lived matter means mentions merely metre moon nature original parallel perhaps period picture poem poet poetics poetry possible practice Prākrit present preserved prince probably prose prove recognized reference regarding relation result rules Sanskrit seek seems seen sense shows speech stanzas story style suggestion Sūtra tale tells term tion tradition trans true Vedic verses writers written wrote
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Page xviii - It would, indeed, be melancholy if this were the best that India could show as against the Republic of Plato or the Politics of Aristotle...
Page xxxvi - WZKM. Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes. ZDMG. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft.
Page 176 - The extraordinary power of compression which Sanskrit possesses is seen here at its best; the effect on the mind is that of a perfect whole in which the parts coalesce by inner necessity.
Page 90 - ... that the subject should be taken from old narratives or traditions, not therefore invented ; the hero should be noble and clever ; there should be descriptions of towns, oceans, mountains, seasons, the rising and setting of the sun and the moon, sport in parks or the sea, drinking, love-feasts, separations, marriages, the production of a son, meeting of councils, embassies, campaigns, battles, and the triumph of the hero, though his rival's merits may be exalted.
Page vii - The great poets of India wrote for audiences of experts ; they were masters of the learning of their day, long trained in the use of language, and they aim to please by subtlety, not simplicity of effect. They had at their disposal a singularly beautiful speech, and they commanded elaborate and most effective metres.
Page xxxvi - Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. JRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Page 241 - Nitisastra alike, there is much commonsense and that is often in accord with practical morality, at no time can we regard the didactic fable as intended merely to extol cleverness without regard to morality, there lingers around the work a distinct...
Page 240 - ... Sanskrit Literature" by A. Berriedale Keith. First print 1928, reprint (Delhi) 1996. Mr. Keith writes, "Sometime in the course of the second millennium BC Indo-European tribes occupied, in varying degrees of completeness, vast areas in Iran, Asia Minor, and north-west India." (Beginning of the book) "We may safely assume that from the earliest times of the life of the Vedic Indians in India, tales of all sorts passed current among the people, however useless it may be to discriminate them as...
Page xxxv - BSL. Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris. BSOS. Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, London Institution.
Bibliographic information
| Title | A History of Sanskrit Literature |
| Author | Arthur Berriedale Keith |
| Edition | reprint |
| Publisher | Motilal Banarsidass Publishe, 1993 |
| ISBN | 8120811003, 9788120811003 |
| Length | 575 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |