A History of Sanskrit Literature

by Arthur Anthony Macdonell

Chapter I.

On the history of Sanskrit studies see especially Benfey, Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft, Munich, 1869. A very valuable work for Sanskrit Bibliography is the annual Orientalische Bibliographie, Berlin (begun in 1888). Page 1: Some inaccurate information about the religious ideas of the Brahmans may be found in Purchas, His Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World and the Religions observed in all Ages, 2nd ed., London, 1614; and Lord, A Discoverie of the Sect of the Banians [Hindus], London, 1630. Abraham Roger, Open Deure, 1631 (contains trans. of two centuries of Bhartṛihari). Page 2, Dugald Stewart, Philosophy of the Human Mind, part 2, chap. i. sect. 6 (conjectures concerning the origin of Sanskrit). C. W. Wall, D.D., An Essay on the Nature, Age, and Origin of the Sanskrit Writing and Language, Dublin, 1838. Halhed, A Code of Gentoo [Hindu] Law, or Ordinations of the Pandits, from a Persian translation, made from the original written in the Shanscrit language, 1776. Page 4: F. Schlegel, Ueber die Sprache und Weisheit der Inder, Heidelberg, 1808. Bopp, Conjugationssystem, Frankfort, 1816. Colebrooke, On the Vedas, in Asiatic Researches, Calcutta, 1805. P. 5: Roth, Zur Literatur und Geschichte des Veda, Stuttgart, 1846. Böhtlingk and Roth’s Sanskrit-German Dictionary, 7 vols., St. Petersburg, 1852–75. Bühler’s Encyclopædia of Indo-Aryan Research, Strasburg (the parts, some German, some English, began to appear in 1896). Page 6: See especially Aufrecht’s Catalogus Catalogorum (Leipsic, 1891; Supplement, 1896), which gives a list of Sanskrit MSS. in the alphabetical order of works and authors. Adalbert Kuhn, Herabkunft des Feuers, 1849; 2nd ed., Gütersloh, 1886. Page 11: A valuable book on Indian chronology (based on epigraphic and numismatic sources) is Duff’s The Chronology of India, London, 1899. On the date of Buddha’s death, cf. Oldenberg, Buddha, Berlin, 3rd ed., 1897. Page 13: Fa Hian, trans. by Legge, Oxford, 1886; Hiouen Thsang, trans. by Beal, Si-yu-ki, London, 1884; I Tsing, trans. by Takakusu, Oxford, 1896. Führer, Monograph on Buddha Sakyamuni’s Birthplace, Arch. Surv. of India, vol. xxvi., Allahabad, 1897; Albērūnī’s India, trans. into English by Sachau, London, 1885. Page 14: Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, vol. i., 1877, vol. iii., 1888, Calcutta. Epigraphia Indica, Calcutta, from 1888.

Important Oriental journals are: Indian Antiquary, Bombay; Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Leipsic; Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, London (with a Bengal branch at Calcutta and another at Bombay); Journal Asiatique, Paris; Vienna Oriental Journal, Vienna; Journal of the American Oriental Society, New Haven, Conn. On the origin of Indian writing (pp. 14–20), see Bühler, Indische Palæographie, Strasburg, 1896, and On the Origin of the Indian Brāhma Alphabet, Strasburg, 1898. Page 18: The oldest known Sanskrit MSS., now in the Bodleian Library, has been reproduced in facsimile by Dr. R. Hoernle, The Bower Manuscript, Calcutta, 1897. The Pāli Kharoshṭhī MS. is a Prākrit recension of the Dhammapada, found near Khotan; see Senart, Journal Asiatique, 1898, pp. 193–304. Page 27: The account here given of the Prākrit dialects is based mainly on a monograph of Dr. G. A. Grierson (who is now engaged on a linguistic survey of India), The Geographical Distribution and Mutual Affinities of the Indo-Aryan Vernaculars. On Pāli literature, see Rhys Davids, Buddhism, its History and Literature, London, 1896. On Prākrit literature, see Grierson, The Mediæval Vernacular Literature of Hindustan, trans. of 7th Oriental Congress, Vienna, 1888, and The Modern Vernacular Literature of Hindustan, Calcutta, 1889.

Chapter III.

On the text and metres of the Rigveda see especially Oldenberg, Die Hymnen des Ṛigveda, vol. i., Prolegomena, Berlin, 1888; on the accent, Wackernagel, Altindische Grammatik, vol. i. pp. 281–300 (full bibliography), Göttingen, 1896; on the Rigveda in general, Kaegi, The Rigveda, English translation by Arrowsmith, Boston, 1886. Editions: Saṃhitā text, ed. Max Müller, London, 1873; Pada text, 1877; Saṃhitā text (in Roman characters), ed. Aufrecht, Bonn, 1877 (2nd ed.); Saṃhitā and Pada text with Sāyaṇa’s commentary, 2nd ed., 4 vols., by Max Müller, London, 1890–92. Selections in Lanman’s Sanskrit Reader (full notes and vocabulary); Peterson’s Hymns from the Rigveda (Bombay Sanskrit Series); A. Bergaigne and V. Henry’s Manuel pour étudier le Sanskrit Védique, Paris, 1890; Windisch, Zwölf Hymnen des Rigveda, Leipzig, 1883; Hillebrandt, Vedachrestomathie, Berlin, 1885; Böhtlingk, Sanskrit-Chrestomathie, 3rd ed., Leipsic, 1897. Translations: R. H. T. Griffith, The Rigveda metrically translated into English, 2 vols., Benares, 1896–97; Max Müller, Vedic Hymns (to the Maruts, Rudra, Vāyu, Vāta; prose), in Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxxii., Oxford, 1891; Oldenberg, Vedic Hymns (to Agni in Books i.–v.: prose), ibid., vol. xlvi., 1897; A. Ludwig (German prose), 6 vols., Prag, 1876–88 (introduction, commentary, index). Lexicography: Grassmann, Wörterbuch zum Rigveda, Leipsic, 1873; the Vedic portion of Böhtlingk and Roth’s Lexicon and of Böhtlingk’s smaller St. Petersburg Dictionary (Leipsic, 1879–89); Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford, 1899; Macdonell, Sanskrit-English Dictionary (for selected hymns), London, 1893. Grammar: Whitney, Sanskrit Grammar, 3rd ed., Leipzig, 1896; Wackernagel, op. cit., vol. i. (phonology); Delbrück, Altindische Syntax (vol. v. of Syntaktische Forschungen), Halle, 1888; Speijer, Vedische und Sanskrit Syntax in Bühler’s Encyclopædia, Strasburg, 1896.

Chapters IV. and V.

Consult especially Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, in Bühler’s Encyclopædia, vol. iii. part 1 (complete bibliography), 1897; also Kaegi, op. cit.; Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, vol. v., 3rd ed., London, 1884; Barth, The Religions of India, English trans., London, 1882; Hopkins, The Religions of India, Boston, 1895; Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda, Berlin, 1894; Bergaigne, La Religion Védique, 3 vols., Paris, 1878–83; Pischel and Geldner, Vedische Studien, 2 vols., Stuttgart, 1889–92; Deussen, Allgemeine Geschichte der Philosophie, vol. i. part 1: Philosophie des Veda, Leipsic, 1894. On method of interpretation (pp. 59–64), cf. Muir, The Interpretation of the Veda, in the Journal of the Roy. As. Soc., 1866. Page 68: On the modification of the threefold division of the universe among the Greeks, cf. Kaegi, op. cit., note 118. P. 128: On dice in India and the Vibhīdaka tree, cf. Roth in Gurupūjākaumudī, pp. 1–4, Leipsic, 1896.