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Wednesday, November 7, 2012

History of Sanskrit Literature -11 (BY ARTHUR A. MACDONELL

















History of Sanskrit Literature

(BY
ARTHUR A. MACDONELL, M. A., Ph.D.
BODEN PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT)




So day and night still bear away
The life oj every mortal man.
It is uncertain who was the author of the Hitopadeqa ;
nor can anything more definite be said about the date of
this compilation than that it is more than 500 years old,
as the earliest known MS. of it was written in 1373 A.D.
As both the Panchatantra and the Hitopadega were
originally intended as manuals for the instruction of
kings in domestic and foreign policy, they belong to
the class of literature which the Hindus call nlti-c-dstra,
or " Science of Political Ethics." A purely metrical
treatise, dealing directly with the principles of policy,
is the Niti-sara, or " Essence of Conduct," of Kamandaka,
which is one of the sources of the maxims introduced
by the author of the Hitopadeqa,
COLLECTIONS OF FAIRY TALES 375
A collection of pretty and ingenious fairy tales, with
a highly Oriental colouring, is the Vetala-panchavimcati*,
or "
Twenty-five Tales of the Vetala
"
(a demon supposed
to occupy corpses). The framework of Jthis collection is
briefly as follows. King Vikrama of UjjayinI is directed
by an ascetic (yogin) to take down from a tree and convey
a corpse, without uttering a single word, to a spot in
a graveyard where certain rites for the attainment of
high magical powers are to take place. As the king is
carrying the corpse along on his shoulders, a Vetala,
which has entered it, begins to speak and tells him a
fairy tale. On the king inadvertently replying to a
question, the corpse at once disappears and is found
hanging on the tree again. The king goes back to fetch
it, and the same process is repeated till the Vetala has
told twenty-five tales. Each of these is so constructed
as to end in a subtle problem, on which the king is
asked to express his opinion. The stories contained in
this work are known to many English readers under the
title of Vikram and the Vampire.
Another collection of fairy tales is the Simhdsanadvatrimcikdy
or "Thirty-two Stories of the Lion-seat
"
{i.e.
throne), which also goes by the name of Vikrama-charitay
or " Adventures of Vikrama." Here it is the throne of
King Vikrama that tells the tales. Both this and the
preceding collection are of Buddhistic origin.
A third work of the same kind is the uka-saptatiy or
"Seventy Stories of a Parrot." Here a wife, whose
husband is travelling abroad, and who is inclined to
run after other men, turns to her husband's clever
parrot for advice. The bird, while seeming to approve
of her plans, warns her of the risks she runs, and makes
her promise not to go and meet any paramour unless
25
376 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
she can extricate herself from difficulties as So-and-so
did. Requested to tell the story, he does so, but only
as far as the dilemma, when he asks the woman what
course the person concerned should take. As she cannot
guess, the parrot promises to tell her if she stays
at home that night. Seventy days pass in the same
way, till the husband returns.
These three collections of fairy tales are all written
in prose and are comparatively short. There is, however,
another of special importance, which is composed
in verse and is of very considerable length. For it contains
no less than 22,000 qlokas, equal to nearly onefourth
of the Mahdbhdrata, or to almost twice as much
as the Iliad and Odyssey put together. This is the
Kathd-sarit-sdgara, or " Ocean of Rivers of Stories." It
is divided into 124 chapters, called tarangas, or "
waves,"
to be in keeping with the title of the work. Independent
of these is another division into eighteen books called
lambakas.
The author was Somadeva, a Kashmirian poet, who
composed his work about 1070 A.D. Though he himself
was a Brahman, his work contains not only many traces
of the Buddhistic character of his sources, but even direct
allusions to Buddhist Birth Stories. He states the real
basis of his work to have been the Brihat-kathd, or " Great
Narration," which Bana mentions, by the poet Gunadhya,
who is quoted by Dandin. This original must, in the
opinion of Biihler, go back to the first or second century
A.D.
A somewhat earlier recast of this work was made
about A.D. 1037 by a contemporary of Somadeva's named
Kshemendra Vyasadasa. It is entitled Brihat-kathdmanjari,
and is only about one-third as long as the KathdKATHA-
SARIT-SAGARA 377
sarit-sdgara. Kshemendra and Somadeva worked independently
of each other, and both state that the original
from which they translated was written in the pai$achi
bhdshd or " Goblin language/' a term applied to a number
of Low Prakrit dialects spoken by the most ignorant and
degraded classes. The Kathd-sarit-sdgara also contains
( Tarangas 60-64) a recast of the first three books of the
Panchatantray which books, it is interesting to find, had
the same form in Somadeva's time as when they were
translated into Pehlevi (about 570 A.D.).
Somadeva's work contains many most entertaining
stories ; for instance, that of the king who, through
ignorance of the phonetic rules of Sanskrit grammar,
misunderstood a remark made by his wife, and overcome
with shame, determined to become a good Sanskrit
scholar or die in the attempt. One of the most famous
tales it contains is that of King (Jibi, who offered up his
life to save a pigeon from a hawk. It is a Jdtakay and is
often represented on Buddhist sculptures ; for example,
on the tope of AmaravatI, which dates from about the
beginning of our era. It also occurs in a Chinese as
well as a Muhammadan form.
Ethical Poetry.
The proneness of the Indian mind to reflection not
only produced important results in religion, philosophy,
and science ; it also found a more abundant expression
in poetry than the literature of any other nation can
boast. Scattered throughout the most various departments
of Sanskrit literature are innumerable apophthegms
in which wise and noble, striking and original thoughts
often appear in a highly finished and poetical garb.
378 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
These are plentiful in the law-books ; in the epic and
the drama they are frequently on the lips of heroes, sages,
and gods ; and in fables are constantly uttered by tigers,
jackals, cats, and other animals. Above all, the Mahdbhdrata,
which, to the pious Hindu, constitutes a moral
encyclopaedia, is an inexhaustible mine of proverbial
philosophy. It is, however, natural that ethical maxims
should be introduced in greatest abundance into works
which, like the Panchatantra and Hitopadeca, were intended
to be handbooks of practical moral philosophy.
Owing to the universality of this mode of expression
in Sanskrit literature, there are but few works consisting
exclusively of poetical aphorisms. The most important
are the two collections by the highly-gifted Bhartrihari,
entitled respectively Niticataka, or "
Century of Conduct,"
and Vairdgya-cataka, or "
Century of Renunciation."
Others are the Qdnti-catakay or "Century of
Tranquillity," by a Kashmirian poet named ^ilhana ; the
Moha-mudgaray or " Hammer of Folly," a short poem
commending the relinquishment of worldly desires, and
wrongly attributed to (^ankaracharya ; and the Chdnakyacataka,
the " Centuries of Chanakya," the reputed author
of which was famous in India as a master of diplomacy,
and is the leading character in the political drama Mudrdrdkshasa.
The Niti-manjariy or " Cluster of Blossoms of
Conduct," which has not yet been published, is a collection
of a peculiar kind. The moral maxims which it
contains are illustrated by stories, and these are taken
exclusively from the Rigveda. It consists of about 200
clokas, and was composed by an author named Dya Dviveda
who accompanied his work with a commentary. In
the latter he quotes largely from the Brihaddevatd, Sayana
on the Rigveda, and other authors.
ETHICAL POETRY 379
There are also some modern anthologies of Sanskrit
gnomic poetry. One of these is (Jrldharadasa's Saduktikarndmrita
y or " Ear-nectar of Good Maxims/' containing
quotations from 446 poets, mostly of Bengal, and compiled
in 1205 A.D. The (^drngadhara-paddhati, or "Anthology
of (Jarngadhara," dating from the fourteenth
century, comprises about 6000 stanzas culled from 264
authors. The Subhdshiidvall, or " Series of Fine Sayings,"
compiled by Vallabhadeva, contains some 3500 stanzas
taken from about 350 poets. All that is best in Sanskrit
sententious poetry has been collected by Dr. Bohtlingk,
the Nestor of Indianists, in his Indische Spruche. This
work contains the text, critically edited and accompanied
by a prose German translation, of nearly 8000 stanzas,
which are culled from the whole field of classical Sanskrit
literature and arranged according to the alphabetical
order of the initial word.
Though composed in Pali, the Dhammapada may
perhaps be mentioned here. It is a collection of
aphorisms representing the most beautiful, profound,
and poetical thoughts in Buddhist literature.
The keynote prevailing in all this poetry is the doctrine
of the vanity of human life, which was developed before
the rise of Buddhism in the sixth century B.C., and has
dominated Indian thought ever since. There is no true
happiness, we are here taught, but in the abandonment
of desire and retirement from the world. The poet sees
the luxuriant beauties of nature spread before his eyes,
and feels their charm ; but he turns from them sad and
disappointed to seek mental calm and lasting happiness
in the solitude of the forest. Hence the picture of a
pious anchorite living in contemplation is often painted
with enthusiasm. Free from all desires, he is as happy
380 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
as a king, when the earth is his couch, his arms his
pillow, the sky his tent, the moon his lamp, when renunciation
is his spouse, and the cardinal points are the
maidens that fan him with winds. No Indian poet
inculcates renunciation more forcibly than Bhartrihari
; the humorous and ironical touches which he occasionally
introduces are doubtless due to the character of
this remarkable man, who wavered between the spiritual
and the worldly life throughout his career.
Renunciation is not, however, the only goal to which
the transitoriness of worldly goods leads the gnomic
poets of India. The necessity of pursuing virtue is the
practical lesson which they also draw from the vanity
of mundane existence, and which finds expression in
many noble admonitions :
Transient indeed is human life,
Like the moorts disc in waters seen :
Knowing how true this is, a man
Should everpractise what is good {Hit. iv. 133).
It is often said that when a man dies and leaves all
his loved ones behind, his good works alone can accompany
him on his journey to his next life. Nor should
sin ever be committed in this life when there is none to
see, for it is always witnessed by the u old hermit dwelling
in the heart," as the conscience is picturesquely
called.
That spirit of universal tolerance and love of mankind
which enabled Buddhism to overstep the bounds not
only of caste but of nationality, and thus to become the
earliest world-religion, breathes throughout this poetry.
Even the Mahdbhdrata, though a work of the Brahmans,
contains such liberal sentiments as this :
ETHICAL POETRY 381
Men of high rank win no esteem
If lacking in good qualities;
A Cudra even deserves respect
Who knows and does, his duty well (xiii. 2610).
The following stanza shows how cosmopolitan Bhartrihari
was in his views :
" This marts our own, a stranger that" :
Thus narrow-mindedpeople think.
However, noble-ininded men
Regard the whole world as their kin.
But these poets go even beyond the limits of humanity
and inculcate sympathy with the joys and sorrows of all
creatures :
To harm no living thing in deed,
In thought or word, to exercise
Benevolence and charity :
Virtue's eternal law is this (Mahdbh. xii. 5997).
Gentleness and forbearance towards good and bad
alike are thus recommended in the Hitopadeqa :
Even to beings destitute , >r<~^
Ofvirtue good men pity show :
The moon does not her light withdraw
Evenfrom the pariah's abode (i. 63).
The Panchatantraj again, dissuades thus from thoughts
of reven'g&"e ;
Devise no ill at any time
To injure those that do thee harm :
They ofthemselves will some dayfall,
Like trees that grow on river banks.
The good qualities of the virtuous are often described
and contrasted with the characteristics of evil-doers.
382 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
This, for instance, is how Bhartrihari illustrates the
humility of the benevolent :
The trees bend downward with the burden of theirfruit,
The clouds bow low, heavy with waters they will shed :
The noble hold not high their heads through pride of'wealthj
Thus those behave who are on others' good intent (i. 71).
Many fine thoughts about true friendship and the
value of intercourse with good men are found here, often
exemplified in a truly poetical spirit. This, for instance,
is from the Panchatantra :
Who is not made a better man
By contact with a noblefriend?
A water-drop on lotus-leaves
Assumes the splendour of a pearl (iii. 61).
It is perhaps natural that poetry with a strong pessimistic
colouring should contain many bitter sayings
about women and their character. Here is an example
of how they are often described :
The love ofwomen but a moment lasts,
Like colours of the dawn or evening redj
Their aims are crooked like a river's course;
Inconstant are they as the lightningflash ;
. Like serpents, they deserve no confidence {Kathas. xxxvii. 143).
At the same time there are several passages in which
female character is represented in a more favourable
light, and others sing the praise of faithful wives.
Here, too, we meet with many pithy sayings about
the misery of poverty and the degradation of servitude ;
while the power of money to invest the worthless man
with the appearance of every talent and virtue is described
with bitter irony and scathing sarcasm.
As might be expected, true knowledge receives freETHICAL
POETRY 383
quent and high appreciation in Sanskrit ethical poetry.
It is compared with a rich treasure which cannot be
divided among relations, which no thief can steal, and
which is never diminished by being imparted to others.
Contempt, on the other hand, is poured on pedantry
and spurious learning. Those who have read many
books, without understanding their sense, are likened to
an ass laden with sandal wood, who feels only the
weight, but knows nothing of the value of his burden.
As the belief in transmigration has cast its shadow
over Indian thought from pre-Buddhistic times, it is
only natural that the conception of fate should be
prominent in Sanskrit moral poetry. Here, indeed, we
often read that no one can escape from the operation of
destiny, but at the same time we find constant admonitions
not to let this fact paralyse human effort. For,
as is shown in the Hitopadeqa and elsewhere, fate is
nothing else than the result of action done in a former
birth. Hence every man can by right conduct shape his
future fate, just as a potter can mould a lump of clay
into whatever form he desires. Human action is thus
a necessary complement to fate ; the latter cannot proceed
without the former any more than a cart, as the
Hitopadeqa expresses it, can move with only one wheel.
This doctrine is inculcated with many apt illustrations.
Thus in one stanza of the Hitopadega it is pointed out
that "
antelopes do not enter into the mouth of the
sleeping lion
"
; in another the question is asked,
" Who
without work could obtain oil from sesamum seeds ?
"
Or, as the Mahdbharata once puts it, fate without human
action cannot be fulfilled, just as seed sown outside the
field bears no fruit.
For those who are suffering from the assaults of
384 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
adverse fate there are many exhortations to firmness
and constancy. The following is a stanza of this kind
from the Panchatantra :
In fortune and calamity
The great ever remain the same ;
The sun is at its rising red,
Red also when about to set.
Collected in the ethico-didactic works which have
been described in this chapter, and scattered throughout
the rest of the literature, the notions held by the
Brahmans in the sphere of moral philosophy have never
received a methodical treatment, as in the Pali literature
of Buddhism. In the orthodox systems of Hindu philosophy,
to which we now turn, they find no place.
CHAPTER XV
PHILOSOPHY
The beginnings of Indian philosophy, which are to be
found in the latest hymns of the Rigveda and in the
Atharvaveda, are concerned with speculations on the
origin of the world and on the eternal principle by
which it is created and maintained. The Yajui~veda
further contains fantastic cosmogonic legends describing
how the Creator produces all things by means of the
omnipotent sacrifice. With these Vedic ideas are intimately
connected, and indeed largely identical, those of
the earlier Upanishads. This philosophy is essentially
pantheistic and idealistic. By the side of it grew up an
atheistic and empirical school of thought, which in the
sixth century B.C. furnished the foundation of the two
great unorthodox religious systems of Buddhism and
Jainism.
The Upanishad philosophy is in a chaotic condition,
but the speculations of this and of other schools of
thought were gradually reduced to order and systematised
in manuals from about the first century of our
era onwards. Altogether nine systems may be distinguished,
some of which must in their origin go back
to the beginning of the sixth century B.C. at least. Of
the six systems which are accounted orthodox no less
than four were originally atheistic, and one remained
so throughout. The strangeness of this fact disappears
38s
386 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
when we reflect that the only conditions of orthodoxy
in India were the recognition of the class privileges of
the Brahman caste and a nominal acknowledgment of
the infallibility of the Veda, neither full agreement with
Vedic doctrines nor the confession of a belief in the
existence of God being required. With these two limitations
the utmost freedom of thought prevailed in
Brahmanism. Hence the boldest philosophical speculation
and conformity with the popular religion went hand
and hand, to a degree which has never been equalled in
any other country. Of the orthodox systems, by far the
most important are the pantheistic Vedanta, which, as
continuing the doctrines of the Upanishads, has been
the dominant philosophy of Brahmanism since the end
of the Vedic period, and the atheistic Sankhya, which,
for the first time in the history of the world, asserted
the complete independence of the human mind and
attempted to solve its problems solely by the aid of
reason.
On the Sankhya were based the two heterodox religious
systems of Buddhism and Jainism, which denied
the authority of the Veda, and opposed the Brahman
caste system and ceremonial. Still more heterodox was
the Materialist philosophy of Charvaka, which went
further and denied even the fundamental doctrines
common to all other schools of Indian thought, orthodox
and unorthodox, the belief in transmigration dependent
on retribution, and the belief in salvation or release from
transmigration.
The theory that every individual passes after death into
a series of new existences in heavens or hells, or in the
bodies of men and animals, or in plants on earth, where
it is rewarded or punished for all deeds committed in a
DOCTRINE OF TRANSMIGRATION 387
former life, was already so firmly established in the sixth
century B.C., that Buddha received it without question
into his religious system ; and it has dominated the belief
of the Indian people from those early times down to the
present day. There is, perhaps, no more remarkable
fact in the history of the human mind than that this
strange doctrine, never philosophically demonstrated,
should have been regarded as self-evident for 2500 years
by every philosophical school or religious sect in India,
excepting only the Materialists. By the acceptance ot
this doctrine the Vedic optimism, which looked forward
to a life of eternal happiness in heaven, was transformed
into the gloomy prospect of an interminable series of
miserable existences leading from one death to another.
The transition to the developed view of the Upanishads
is to be found in the ^atapatha Brahmana (above, p.
223).
How is the origin of the momentous doctrine which
produced this change to be accounted for ? The
Rigveda contains no traces of it beyond a couple of
passages in the last book which speak of the soul of
a dead man as going to the waters or plants. It seems
hardly likely that so far-reaching a theory should have
been developed from the stray fancies of one or two
later Vedic poets. It seems more probable that the Aryan
settlers received the first impulse in this direction from
the aboriginal inhabitants of India. As is well known,
there is among half-savage tribes a wide-spread belief
that the soul after death passes into the trunks of trees
and the -bodies of animals. Thus the Sonthals of India
are said even at the present day to hold that the souls of
the good enter into fruit-bearing trees. But among such
races the notion of transmigration does not go beyond a
388 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
belief in the continuance of human existence in animals
and trees. If, therefore, the Aryan Indians borrowed the
idea from the aborigines, they certainly deserve the credit
of having elaborated out of it the theory of an unbroken
chain of existences, intimately connected with the moral
principle of requital. The immovable hold it acquired on
Indian thought is doubtless due to the satisfactory explanation
it offered of the misfortune or prosperity which
is often clearly caused by no action done in this life.
Indeed, the Indian doctrine of transmigration, fantastic
though it may appear to us, has the twofold merit of
satisfying the requirement of justice in the moral government
of the world, and at the same time inculcating a
valuable ethical principle which makes every man the
architect of his own fate. For, as every bad deed done
in this existence must be expiated, so every good deed
will be rewarded in the next existence. From the enjoyment
of the fruits of actions already done there is no
escape ; for, in the words of the Mahabhdratay
" as among
a thousand cows a calf finds its mother, so the deed
previously done follows after the doer."
The cycle of existences (samsdrd) is regarded as
having no beginning, for as every event of the present
life is the result of an action done in a past one, the
same must hold true of each preceding existence ad
infinitum. The subsequent effectiveness of guilt and of
merit, commonly called adrishta or "the unseen," but
often also simply karma, "deed or work," is believed
to regulate not only the life of the individual, but the
origin and development of everything in the world ; for
whatever takes place cannot but affect some creature,
and must therefore, by the law of retribution, be due
to some previous act of that creature. In other words,
DOCTRINE OF SALVATION 389
the operations of nature are also the results of the
good or bad deeds of living beings. There is thus no
room for independent divine rule by the side of the
power of karma, which governs everything with iron
necessity. Hence, even the systems which acknowledge
a God can only assign to him the function of guiding the
world and the life of creatures in strict accordance with
the law of retribution, which even he cannot break. The
periodic destruction and renewal of the universe, an
application of the theory on a grand scale, forms part of
the doctrine of samsara or cycle of existence.
Common to all the systems of philosophy, and as old
as that of transmigration, is the doctrine of salvation,
which puts an end to transmigration. All action is brought
about by desire, which, in its turn is based on avidya, a
sort of "ignorance," that mistakes the true nature of
things, and is the ultimate source of transmigration.
Originally having only the negative sense of non-knowledge
(a-vidyd), the word here came to have the positive
sense of " false knowledge." Such ignorance is dispelled
by saving knowledge, which, according to every philosophical
school of India, consists in some special form
of cognition. This universal knowledge, which is not
the result of merit, but breaks into life independently,
destroys, the subsequent effect of works which would
otherwise bear fruit in future existences, and thus puts
an end to transmigration. It cannot, however, influence
those works the fruit of which has already begun to
ripen. Hence, the present life continues from the
moment of enlightenment till definite salvation at death,
just as the potter's wheel goes on revolving for a time
after the completion of the pot. But no merit or demerit
results from acts done after enlightenment (or
390 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
" conversion "
as we should say), because all desire for
the objects of the world is at an end.
The popular beliefs about heavens and hells, gods,
demi-gods, and demons, were retained in Buddhism and
Jainism, as well as in the orthodox systems. But these
higher and more fortunate beings were considered to be
also subject to the law of transmigration, and, unless they
obtained saving knowledge, to be on a lower level than
the man who had obtained such knowledge.
The monistic theory of the early Upanishads, which
identified the individual soul with Brahma, aroused the
opposition of the rationalistic founder of the Sankhya
system, Kapila, who, according to Buddhist legends,
was pre-Buddhistic, and whose doctrines Buddha followed
and elaborated. His teaching is entirely dualistic,
admitting only two things, both without beginning
and end, but essentially different, matter on the one
hand, and an infinite plurality of individual souls on
the other. An account of the nature and the mutual
relation of these two, forms the main i content of the
system. Kapila was, indeed, the first who drew a sharp
line of demarcation between the two domains of matter
and soul. The saving knowledge which delivers from
the misery of transmigration consists, according to the
Sankhya system, in recognising the absolute distinction
between soul and matter.
The existence of a supreme god who creates and
rules the universe is denied, and would be irreconcilable
with the system. For according to its doctrine the unconscious
matter of Nature originally contains within
itself the power of evolution (in the interest of souls,
which are entirely passive during the process), while
karma alone determines the course of that evolution.
THE SANKHYA SYSTEM 39 i
The adherents of the system defend their atheism
by maintaining that the origin of misery presents an
insoluble problem to the theist, for a god who has
created and rules the world could not possibly escape
from the reproach of cruelty and partiality. Much stress
is laid by this school in general on the absence of any
cogent proof for the existence of God.
The world is maintained to be real, and that from
all eternity ; for the existent can only be produced from
the existent. The reality of an object is regarded as
resulting simply from perception, always supposing the
senses of the perceiver to be sound. The world is
described as developing according to certain laws out
of primitive matter (prakriti or pradhdnd). The genuine
philosophic spirit of its method of rising from the known
elements of experience to the unknown by logical demonstration
till the ultimate cause is reached, must
give this system a special interest in the eyes of evolutionists
whose views are founded on the results of
modern physical science.
The evolution and diversity of the world are explained
by primaeval matter, although uniform and
indivisible, consisting of three different substances called
gunas or constituents (originally "strands" of a rope).
By the combination of these in varying proportions the
diverse material products were supposed to have arisen.
The constituent, called sattva, distinguished by the
qualities of luminousness and lightness in the object, and
by virtue, benevolence, and other pleasing attributes in
the subject, is associated with the feeling of joy; rajas,
distinguished by activity and various hurtful qualities,
is associated with pain ; and tamas, distinguished by
heaviness, rigidity, and darkness on the one hand, and
26
392 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
fear, unconsciousness, and so forth, on the other, is
associated with apathy. At the end of a cosmic period
all things are supposed to be dissolved into primitive
matter, the alternations of evolution, existence, and dissolution
having neither beginning nor end.
The psychology of the Sankhya system is specially
important. Peculiarly interesting is its doctrine that
all mental operations, such as perception, thinking,
willing, are not performed by the soul, but are merely
mechanical processes of the internal organs, that is to
say, of matter. The soul itself possesses no attributes
or qualities, and can only be described negatively.
There being no qualitative difference between souls,
the principle of personality and identity is supplied by
the subtile or internal body, which, chiefly formed of
the inner organs and the senses, surrounds and is made
conscious by the soul. This internal body, being the
vehicle of merit and demerit, which are the basis of
transmigration, accompanies the soul on its wanderings
from one gross body to another, whether the latter be
that of a god, a man, an animal, or a tree. Conscious
life is bondage to pain, in which pleasure is included
by this peculiarly pessimistic system. When salvation,
which is the absolute cessation of pain, is obtained, the
internal body is dissolved into its material elements, and
the soul, becoming finally isolated, continues to exist
individually, but in absolute unconsciousness.
The name of the system, which only begins to be
mentioned in the later Upanishads, and more frequently
in the Mahdbhdrata, is derived from sanikhyd,
il number."
There is, however, some doubt as to whether it originally
meant u
enumeration," from the twenty-five tattvas
or principles which it sets forth, or " inferential or
SANKHYA-KARIKA SANKHYA SUTRAS 393
discriminative
"
doctrine, from the method which it
pursues.
Kapila, the founder of the system, whose teaching is
presupposed by Buddhism, and whom Buddhistic legend
connects with Kapila-vastu, the birthplace of Buddha,
must have lived before the middle of the sixth century.
No work of his, if he ever committed his system to
writing, has been preserved. Indeed, the very existence
of such a person as Kapila has been doubted, in spite
of the unanimity with which Indian tradition designates
a man of this name as the founder of the system. The
second leading authority of the Sankhya philosophy
was Panchacikha, who may have lived about the beginning
of our era. The oldest systematic manual
which has been preserved is the Sankhya - karika
of I^VARA-KRISHNA. As it was translated into Chinese
between 557 and 583 A.D., it cannot belong to a later
century than the fifth, and may be still older. This
work deals very concisely and methodically with the
doctrines of the Sankhya in sixty-nine stanzas (composed
in the complicated Arya metre), to which three
others were subsequently added. It appears to have
superseded the Sutras of Panchacikha, who is mentioned
in it as* the chief disseminator of the system. There
are two excellent commentaries on the Sdnkkya-kdrikd,
the one composed about 700 A.D. by Gaudapada, and
the other soon after 1100 A.D. by Vachaspati Micra.
The Sankhya Sutras, long regarded as the oldest
manual of the system, and attributed to Kapila, were
probably not composed till about 1400 A.D. The author
of this work, which also goes by the name of Sankhyapravachana,
endeavours in vain to show that there is
no difference between the doctrines of the Sankhya and
394 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
of the Upanishads. He is also much influenced by the
ideas of the Yoga as well as the Vedanta system. In
the oldest commentary on this work, that of Aniruddha,
composed about 1500 A.D., the objectiveness of the
treatment is particularly useful. Much more detailed,
but far less objective, is the commentary of Vijnanabhikshu,
entitled Sankhya - pravachana - bhdshya, and
written in the second half of the sixteenth century.
The author's point of view being theistic, he effaces
the characteristic features of the different systems in
the endeavour to show that all the six orthodox systems
contain the absolute truth in their main doctrines.
From the beginning of our era down to recent times
the Sankhya doctrines have exercised considerable influence
on the religious and philosophical life of India,
though to a much less extent than the Vedanta. Some
of its individual teachings, such as that of the three
gunasy have become the common property of the whole
of Sanskrit literature. At the time of the great Vedantist,
(Jankara (800 A.D.), the Sankhya system was held
in high honour. The law book of Manu followed this
doctrine, though with an admixture of the theistic
notions of the Mlmamsa and Vedanta systems as well
as of popular mythology. The Mahabharata, especially
Book XII., is full of Sankhya doctrines; indeed almost
every detail of the teachings of this system is to be
found somewhere in the great epic. Its numerous
deviations from the regular Sankhya text-books are only
secondary, as Professor Garbe thinks, even though the
Mahdbhdrata is our oldest actual source for the system.
Nearly half the Puranas follow the cosmogony of the
Sankhya, and even those which are Vedantic are largely
influenced by its doctrines. The purity of the Sankhya
BUDDHISM AND JAINISM 395
notions are, however, everywhere in the Puranas" obscured
by Vedanta doctrines, especially that of cosmical
illusion. A peculiarity of the Puranic Sankhya is
the conception of Spirit or Purusha as the male, and
Matter or Prakriti as the female, principle in creation.
On the Sankhya system are based the two philosophical
religions of Buddhism and Jainism in all their
main outlines. Their fundamental doctrine is that life
is nothing but suffering. The cause of suffering is the
desire, based on ignorance, to live and enjoy the world.
The aim of both is to redeem mankind from the misery
of mundane existence by the annihilation of desire, with
the aid of renunciation of the world and the practice of
unbounded kindness towards all creatures. These two
pessimistic religions are so extremely similar that the
Jainas, or adherents of Jina, were long looked upon as
a Buddhist sect. Research has, however, led to the discovery
that the founders of both systems were contemporaries,
the most eminent of the many teachers who
in the sixth century opposed the Brahman ceremonial
and caste pretensions in Northern Central India. Both
religions, while acknowledging the lower and ephemeral
gods of Brahmanism, deny, like the Sankhya, the existence
of an eternal supreme Deity. As they developed,
they diverged in various respects from the system to
which they owed their philosophical notions. Hence it
came about that Sankhya writers stoutly opposed some
of their teachings, particularly the Buddhist denial of
soul, the doctrine that all things have only a momentary
existence, and that salvation is an annihilation of self.
Here, however, it should be noted that Buddha^ himself
refused to decide the question whether nirvana is complete
extinction or an unending state of unconscious bliss.
396 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
The latter view was doubtless a concession to the
Vedantic conception of Brahma, in which the individual
soul is merged on attaining salvation.
The importance of these systems lies not in their
metaphysical speculations, which occupy but a subordinate
position, but in their high development of
moral principles, which are almost entirely neglected
in the orthodox systems of Indian philosophy. The fate
of the two religions has been strangely different. Jainism
has survived as an insignificant sect in India alone ;
Buddhism has long since vanished from the land of its
birth, but has become a world religion counting more
adherents than any other faith.
The Sankhya philosophy, with the addition of a
peculiar form of mental asceticism as the most effective
means of acquiring saving knowledge, appears to
have assumed definite shape in a manual at an earlier
period than any of the other orthodox systems. This is
the Yoga philosophy founded by Patanjali and expounded
in the Yoga Sutras, The priority of this textbook
is rendered highly probable by the fact that it is
the only philosophical Sutra work which contains no
polemics against the others. There seems, moreover, to
be no sufficient ground to doubt the correctness of the
native tradition identifying the founder of the Yoga
system with the grammarian Patanjali. The Yoga
Sutras therefore probably date from the second century
B.C. This work also goes by the name of Sankhya-pravachana,
the same as that given to the later Sankhya
Sutras, a sufficiently clear proof of its close connection
with Kapila's philosophy. In the Mahabharata the two
systems are actually spoken of as one and the same.
In order to make his system more acceptable, PatanTHE
YOGA SYSTEM 397
jali introduced into it the doctrine of a personal god,
but in so loose a way as not to affect the system as a
whole. Indeed, the parts of the Sutras dealing with the
person of God are not only unconnected with the other
parts of the treatise, but even contradict the foundations
of the system. For the final aim of man is here represented
as the absolute isolation (kaivafya) of the soul
from matter, just as in the Sankhya system, and not
union with or absorption in God. Nor are the individual
souls here derived from the u
special soul
"
or God,
but are like the latter without a beginning.
The really distinctive part of the system is the
establishment of the views prevailing in Patanjali's time
with regard to asceticism and the mysterious powers
to be acquired by its practice. Yoga, or "
yoking
"
the
mind, means mental concentration on a particular
object. The belief that fasting and other penances
produce supernatural powers goes back to remote prehistoric
times, and still prevails among savage races.
Bodily asceticism of this kind is known to the Vedas
under the name of tapas. From this, with the advance
of intellectual life in India, was developed the practice
of mental asceticism called yoga, which must have been
known and practised several centuries before Patanjali's
time. For recent investigations have shown that Buddhism
started not only from the theoretical Sankhya
but from the practical Yoga doctrine ; and the condition
of ecstatic abstraction was from the beginning held
in high esteem among the Buddhists. Patanjali only
elaborated the doctrine, describing at length the means
of attaining concentration and carrying it to the highest
pitch. In his system the methodical practice of Yoga
acquired a special importance ; for, in addition to con398
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
ferring supernatural powers, it here becomes the chief
means of salvation. His Sutras consist of four chapters
dealing with deep meditation (samddki), the means for
obtaining it {sddhana), the miraculous powers {vibhuti)
it confers, and the isolation (kaivalyd) of the redeemed
soul. The oldest and best commentary on this work
is that of Vyasa, dating from the seventh century A.D.
Many of the later Upanishads are largely concerned
with the Yoga doctrine. The lawbook of Manu in
Book VI. refers to various details of Yoga practice.
Indeed, it seems likely, owing to the theistic point of
view of that work, that its Sankhya notions were derived
from the Yoga system. The MahdbJidrata treats
of Yoga in considerable detail, especially in Book XII.
It is particularly prominent in the Bhagavadgltd, which
is even designated a yoga-qdstra. Belief in the efficacy
of Yoga still prevails in India, and its practice survives.
But its adherents, the Yogis, are at the present day
often nothing more than conjurers and jugglers.
The exercises of mental concentration are in the
later commentaries distinguished by the name of rdjayoga
or " chief Yoga." The external expedients are
called kriyd-yoga, or "
practical Yoga." The more intense
form of the latter, in later works called hathayoga,
or " forcible Yoga," and dealing for the most
part with suppression of the breath, is very often contrasted
with rdja-yoga.
Among the eight branches of Yoga practice the
sitting posture (dsana), as not only conducive to concentration,
but of therapeutic value, is considered important.
In describing its various forms later writers
positively revelled, eighty-four being frequently stated'
to be their normal number. In the Jiatha-yoga there
MlMAMSA AND VEDANTA 399
are also a number of other postures and contortions
of the limbs designated mudrd. The best-known mudrd,
called khecharl, consists in turning the tongue back
towards the throat and keeping the gaze fixed on a
point between the eyebrows. Such practices, in conjunction
with the suppression of breath, were capable
of producing a condition of trance. There is at least
the one well-authenticated case of a Yogi named Haridas
who in the thirties wandered about in Rajputana and
Lahore, allowing himself to be buried for money when
in the cataleptic condition. The burial of the Master
of Ballantrae by the Indian Secundra Dass in Stevenson's
novel was doubtless suggested by an account of this
ascetic.
In contrast with the two older and intimately connected
dualistic schools of the Sankhya and Yoga, there
arose about the beginning of our era the only two, even
of the six orthodox systems of philosophy, which were
theistic from the outset. One of them, being based on
the Vedas and the Brahmanas, is concerned with the
practical side of Vedic religion ; while the other, alone
among the philosophical systems, represents a methodical
development of the fundamental non-dualistic speculations
of the Upanishads. The former, which has only
been accounted a philosophical system at all because
of its close connection with the latter, is the Purvamimdmsd
or " First Inquiry," also called Karma-mlmdinsd
or (i Inquiry concerning Works," but usually simply
Mimdmsd. Founded by Jaimini, and set forth in the
Karma-mimdmsd Sutras, this system discusses the sacred
ceremonies and the rewards resulting from their performance.
Holding the Veda to be uncreated and
existent from all eternity, it lays special stress on the
400 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
proposition that articulate sounds are eternal, and on
the consequent doctrine that the connection of a word
with its sense is not due to convention, but is by nature
inherent in the word itself. Owing to its lack of philosophical
interest, this system has not as yet much
occupied the attention of European scholars.
The oldest commentary in existence on the Mimamsd
Sutras is the bhdshya of (^abara Svamin, which in its turn
was commented on about 700 A.D. by the great Mlmamsist
Kumarila in his Tantra-vdrttika and in his lokavdrttika,
the latter a metrical paraphrase of (Jabara's
exposition of the first aphorism of Patanjali. Among
the later commentaries on the Mimamsd Sutras the most
important is the J
r
aiminlya-nydya-mdld-vistara of Madhava
(fourteenth century).
Far more deserving of attention is the theoretical
system of the Uttara-mlmdmsdy or u Second Inquiry."
For it not only-systematises the doctrines of the Upanishads
therefore usually termed Veddnta, or " End of
the Veda " but also represents the philosophical views
of the Indian thinkers of to-day. In the words of
Professor Deussen, its relation to the earlier Upanishads
resembles that of Christian dogmatics to the New
Testament. Its fundamental doctrine, expressed in the
famous formula tat tvam asz,
" thou art that," is the
identity of the individual soul with God (brahma).
Hence it is also called the Brahma- or driraka-mimdmsdy
"
Inquiry concerning Brahma or the embodied
soul." The eternal and infinite Brahma not being made
up of parts or liable to change, the individual soul,
it is here laid down, cannot be a part or emanation
of it, but is the whole indivisible Brahma. As there
is no other existence but Brahma, the Vedanta is styled
THE VEDANTA SYSTEM 401
the advaita-vdda, or "doctrine of non-duality/' being,
in other words, an idealistic monism. The evidence of
experience, which shows a multiplicity of phenomena,
and the statements of the Veda, which teach a multiplicity
of souls, are brushed aside as the phantasms of
a dream which are only true till waking takes place.
The ultimate cause of all such false impressions is
avidyd or innate ignorance, which this, like the other
systems, simply postulates, but does not in any way
seek to account for. It is this ignorance which prevents
the soul from recognising that the empirical world is
mere mdyd or illusion. Thus to the Vedantist the universe
is like a mirage, which the soul under the influence
of desire {trishnd or " thirst ") 'fancies it perceives, just
as the panting hart sees before it sheets of water in
the fata morgana (picturesquely called mriga-trishnd or
"deer-thirst" in Sanskrit). The illusion vanishes as if
by magic, when the scales fall from the eyes, on the
acquisition of true knowledge. Then the semblance of
any distinction between the soul and God disappears,
and salvation (inoksha), the chief end of man, is attained.
Saving knowledge cannot of course be acquired by
worldly experience, but is revealed in the theoretical
part (jndna-kdnda) of the Vedas, that is to say, in the
Upanishads. By this correct knowledge the illusion
of the multiplicity of phenomena is dispelled, just as
the illusion of a snake when there is only a rope.
Two forms of knowledge are, however, distinguished in
the Vedanta, a higher {para) and a lower (apard). The
former is concerned with the higher and impersonal
Brahma (neuter), which is without form or attributes,
while the latter deals with the lower and personal Brahma
(masculine), who is the soul of the universe, the Lord
402 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
(i$vara) who has created the world and grants salvation.
The contradiction resulting from one and the same
thing having form and no form, attributes and no attributes,
is solved by the explanation that the lower
Brahma has no reality, but is merely an illusory form
of the higher and only Brahma, produced by ignorance.
The doctrines of the Vedanta are laid down in the
Brahma-sutras of Badarayana. This text -book, the
meaning of which is not intelligible without the aid of
a commentary, was expounded in his bhdshya by the
famous Vedantist philosopher (^ANKARA, whose name
is intimately connected with the revival of Brahmanism.
He was born in 788 A.D., became an ascetic in 820,
and probably lived to an advanced age. There is
every likelihood that his expositions agree in all essentials
with the meaning of the Brahma-sutras. The full elaboration
of the doctrine of Maya, or cosmic illusion,
is, however, due to him. An excellent epitome of the
teachings of the Vedanta, as set forth by Cankara, is
the Vedanta-sara of Sadananda Yoglndra. Its author
departs from (Jankara's views only in a few particulars,
which show an admixture of Sankhya doctrine.
Among the many commentaries on the Brahmasutras
subsequent to (Jankara, the most important is
that of Ramanuja, who lived in the earlier half of the
twelfth century. This writer gives expression to the
views of the Pancharatras or Bhagavatas, an old Vishnuite
sect, whose doctrine, closely allied to Christian
ideas, is expounded in the Bhagavadglta and the Bhdgavata-
purdna, as well as in the special text-books of the
sect. The tenets of the Bhagavatas, as set forth by Ramanuja,
diverge considerably from those of the Brahmasutras
on which he is commenting. For, according
VAICESHIKA AND NYAYA SYSTEMS 403
to him, individual souls are not identical with God ;
they suffer from innate unbelief, not ignorance, while
belief or the love of God (bhakti), not knowledge, is the
means of salvation or union with God.
The last two orthodox systems of philosophy, the
Vaiceshika and the Nyaya, form a closely-connected
pair, since a strict classification of ideas, as well as the
explanation of the origin of the world from atoms, is
cHmmon to both. Much the older of the two is the
Vaiceshika, which is already assailed in the Brahmasutras.
It is there described as undeserving of attention,
because it had no adherents. This was certainly not
the case in later times, when this system became very
popular. It received its name from the category of
"particularity" (yiqeshd) on which great stress is laid
in its theory of atoms. The memory of its founder is
only preserved in his nickname Kanada (also Kanabhuj
or Kana-bhaksha), which means " atom-eater."
The main importance of the system lies in the logical
categories which it set up and under which it classed
all phenomena. The six which it originally set up are
substance, quality, motion, generality, particularity, and
inherence. They are rigorously defined and further
subdivided. The most interesting is that of inherence or
inseparable connection (samavdya), which, being clearly
distinguished from that of accident or separable connection
(samyogd), is described as the relation between
a thing and its properties, the whole and its parts, genus
and species, motion and the object in motion. Later
was added a seventh, that of non-existence (abhdva),
which, by affording special facilities for the display of
subtlety, has had a momentous influence on Indian
logic. This category was further subdivided into prior
404 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
and posterior non-existence (which we should respectively
call future and past existence), mutual nonexistence
(as between a jar and cloth), and absolute
non-existence (as fire in water).
Though largely concerned with these categories, the
Vaiceshika system aimed at attaining a comprehensive
philosophic view in connection with them. Thus while
dealing with the category of "substance," it develops
its theory of the origin of the world from atoms. The
consideration of the category of "quality" similarly
leads to its treatment of psychology, which is remarkable
and has analogies with that of the Sankhya. Soul
is here regarded as without beginning or end, and allpervading,
subject to the limitations of neither time nor
space. Intimately connected with soul is "mind"
(inanas), the internal organ of thought, which alone
enables the soul to know not only external objects but
its own qualities. As this organ is, in contrast with
soul, an atom, it can only comprehend a single object
at any given moment. This is the explanation why the
soul cannot be conscious of all objects simultaneously.
The Nyaya system is only a development and complement
of that of Kanada, its metaphysics and psychology
being the same. Its specific character consists
in its being a very detailed and acute exposition of
formal logic. As such it has remained the foundation
of philosophical studies in India down to the present
day. Besides dealing fully with the means of knowledge,
which it states to be perception, inference, analogy, and
trustworthy evidence, it treats exhaustively of syllogisms
and fallacies. It is interesting to note that the Indian
mind here independently arrived at an exposition of the
syllogism as the form of deductive reasoning. The
ECLECTICISM 405
text-book of this system is the Nydya-siUra of Gotama.
The importance here attached to logic appears from the
very first aphorism, which enumerates sixteen logical
notions with the remark that salvation depends on a
correct knowledge of their nature.
Neither the Vaiqeshika nor the Nydya-siitras originally
accepted the existence of God ; and though both
schools later became theistic, they never went so far
as to assume a creator of matter. Their theology is
first found developed in Udayanacharya's Kusumdnjali,
which was written about 1200 A.D., and in works which
deal with the two systems conjointly. Here God is
regarded as a "special" soul, which differs from all
other individual eternal souls by exemption from all
qualities connected with transmigration, and by the
possession of the power and knowledge qualifying him
to be a regulator of the universe.
Of the eclectic movement combining Sankhya, Yoga,
and Vedanta doctrines, the oldest literary representative
is the Qvetdgvatara Upanishad. More famous is the
Bhagavadgitdy in which the Supreme Being incarnate as
Krishna expounds to Arjuna his doctrines in this sense.
The burden of his teaching is that the zealous performance
of his duty is a man's most important task, to whatever
caste he may belong. The beauty and the power
of the language in which this doctrine is inculcated, is
unsurpassed in any other work of Indian literature.
By the side of the orthodox systems and the two non-
Brahmanical religions, flourished the lokdyata (" directed
to the world of sense "), or materialistic school, usually
called that of the Charvakas from the name of the
founder of the doctrine. It was regarded as peculiarly
heretical, for it not only rejected the authority of the
4o6 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
Vedas and Brahmanic ceremonial, but denied the doctrines
of transmigration and salvation accepted by all
other systems. Materialistic teachings may be traced
even before the time of Buddha, and they have had many
secret followers in India down to the present day. The
system, however, seems never to have had more than
one text-book, the lost Sutras of Brihaspati, its mythical
founder. Our knowledge of it is derived partly from the
polemics of other schools, but especially from the Sarvadar^
ana-samgraha, or " Compendium of all the Philosophical
Systems," composed in the fourteenth century by
the well-known Vedantist Madhavacharya, brother of
Sayana. The strong scepticism of the Charvakas showed
itself in the rejection of all the means of knowledge
accepted by other schools, excepting perception. To
them matter was the only realitVj Soul they regarded as
nothing but the body with the attribute of intelligence.
They held it to be created when the body is formed by
the combination of elements, just as the power of intoxication
arises from the mixture of certain ingredients.
Hence with the annihilation of the body the soul also is
annihilated. Not transmigration, they affirm, but the
true nature of things, is the cause from which phenomena
proceed. The existence of all that transcends the senses
they deny, sometimes with an admixture of irony. Thus
the highest being, they say, is the king of the land, whose
existence is proved by the perception of the whole world ;
hell is earthly pain produced by earthly causes ; and
salvation is the dissolution of the body. Even in the
attribution of their text-book to Brihaspati, the name of
the preceptor of the gods, a touch of irony is to be detected.
The religion of the Brahmans receives a severe
handling. The Vedas, say the Charvakas, are only the
MATERIALIST SCHOOL OF CHARVAKA 407
incoherent rhapsodies of knaves, and are tainted with the
three blemishes of falsehood, self-contradiction, and tautology
; Vedic teachers are impostors, whose doctrines are
mutually destructive ; and the ritual of the Brahmans is
useful only as a means of livelihood. "
If," they ask, "an
animal sacrificed reaches heaven, why does the sacrificer
not rather offer his own father ?
"
On the moral side the system is pure hedonism.
For the only end of man is here stated to be sensual
pleasure, which is to be enjoyed by neglecting as far as
possible the pains connected with it, just as a man who
desires fish takes the scales and bones into the bargain.
" While life remains, let a man live happily, let him feed
on ghee even though he run into debt ; when once the
body becomes ashes, how can it ever return again ?
"
The author of the Sarvadarqana-samgrahay placing
himself with remarkable mental detachment in the position
of an adherent in each case, describes altogether
sixteen systems. The six which have not been sketched
above, besides being of little importance, are not purely
philosophic. Five of these are sectarian, one Vishnuite
and four Civite, all of them being strongly tinctured
with Sankhya and Vedanta doctrines. The sixth, the
system of Panini, is classed by Madhava among the
philosophies, simply because the Indian grammarians
accepted the Mlmamsa, dogma of the eternity of sound,
and philosophically developed the Yoga theory of the
sphuta, or the imperceptible and eternal element inherent
in every word as the vehicle of its sense.
27
CHAPTER XVI
SANSKRIT LITERATURE AND THE WEST
Want of space makes it impossible for me to give even
the briefest account of the numerous and, in many cases,
important legal and scientific works written in Sanskrit.
But I cannot conclude this survey of Sanskrit literature
as an embodiment of Indian culture without sketching
rapidly the influence which it has received from and
exercised upon the nations of the West. An adequate
treatment of this highly interesting theme cou4d only be
presented in a special volume.
The oldest trace of contact between the Indians and
the peoples of the West is to be found in the history of
Indian writing, which, as we have already seen (p. 16)
was derived from a Semitic source, probably as early as
800 B.C.
The Aryans having conquered Hindustan in prehistoric
times, began themselves to fall under foreign
domination from an early period. The extreme northwest
became subject to Persian sway from about 500 to
331 B.C. under the Achaemenid dynasty. Cyrus the First
made tributary the Indian tribes of the Gandharas and
Acvakas. The old Persian inscriptions of Behistun and
Persepolis show that his successor, Darius Hystaspis, ruled
over not only the Gandharians, but also the people of the
Indus. Herodotus also states that this monarch had
subjected the " Northern Indians." At the command of
408
THE GREEKS IN INDIA 409
the same Darius, a Greek named Skylax is said to have
travelled in India, and to have navigated the Indus in
509 B.C. From his account various Greek writers, among
them Herodotus, derived their information about India.
In the army which Xerxes led against Greece in 480 B.C.
there were divisions of Gandharians and Indians, whose
dress and equipment are described by Herodotus. That
historian also makes the statement that the satrapy of
India furnished the heaviest tribute in the Persian empire,
adding that the gold with which it was paid was brought
from a desert in the east, where it was dug up by ants
larger than foxes.
At the beginning of the fourth century B.C., the Greek
physician Ktesias, who resided at the court of Artaxerxes
II., learnt much from the Persians about India, and was
personally acquainted with wise Indians. Little useful
information can, however, be derived from the account
of India which he wrote after his return in 398 B.C., as it
has been very imperfectly preserved, and his reputation
for veracity did not stand high among his countrymen.
The destruction of the Persian empire by Alexander
the Great led to a new invasion of India, which fixes the
first absolutely certain date in Indian history. In 327 B.C.
Alexander passed over the Hindu Kush with an army of
120,000 infantry and 30,000 cavalry. After taking the
town of PushkalavatI (the Greek Peukelaotis) at the
confluence of the Kabul and Indus, and subduing the
Acvakas (variously called Assakanoi, Aspasioi, Hippasioi,
by Greek writers) on the north and the Gandharas on the
south of the Kabul River, he crossed the Indus early in
326. At Takshacila(Greek Taxiles), between the Indus and
the Jhelum (Hydaspes), the Greeks for the first time saw
Brahman Yogis, or " the wise men of the Indians," as
410 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
they called them, and were astonished at their asceticism
and strange doctrines.
Between the Jhelum and the Chenab (Akesines) lay
the kingdom of the Pauravas or Pauras, whose prince,
called Porus by the Greeks from the name of his people,
led out an army of 50,000 infantry, 4000 cavalry, 200
elephants, and 400 chariots to check the advance of the
invader. Then on the banks of. the Jhelum was fought
the great historic battle, in which Alexander, after a severe
struggle, finally won the day by superior numbers and
force of genius. He continued his victorious march
eastwards till he reached the Sutlej (Greek Zadadres).
But here his further progress towards the Ganges was
arrested by the opposition of his Macedonians, intimidated
by the accounts they heard of the great power of the
king of the Prasioi (Sanskrit Prachyas, or " Easterns ").
Hence, after appointing satraps of the Panjab and of
Sindh, he sailed down to the mouths of the Indus and
returned to Persia by Gedrosia. Of the writings of those
who accompanied Alexander, nothing has been preserved
except statements from them in later authors.
After Alexander's death the assassination of the old
king Porus by Eudemus, the satrap of the Panjab, led
to a rebellion in which the Indians cast off the Greek
yoke under the leadership of a young adventurer named
Chandragupta (the Sandrakottos or Sandrokyptos of the
Greeks). Having gained possession of the Indus territory
in 317, and dethroned the king of Pataliputra in 315 B.C.,
he became master of the whole Ganges Valley as well.
The Maurya dynasty, which he thus founded, lasted for
137 years (315-178 B.C.). His empire was the largest
hitherto known in India, as it embraced the whole
territory between the Himalaya and the Vindhya from
MEGASTHENES ON INDIA 411
the mouths of the Ganges to the Indus, including
Gujarat.
Seleucus, who had founded a kingdom in Media and
Persia, feeling himself unable to vanquish Chandragupta,
sent a Greek named Megasthenes to reside at his court at
Pataliputfa. This ambassador thus lived for several years
in the heart of India between 311 and 302 B.C., and wrote
a work entitled Ta Indika, which is particularly valuable
as the earliest direct record of his visit by a foreigner who
knew the country himself. Megasthenes furnishes particulars
about the strength of Chandragupta's army and
the administration of the state. He mentions forest
ascetics {Hylobioi), and distinguishes Brachmdnes and
Sarmanai as two classes of philosophers, meaning, doubtless,
Brahmans and Buddhists (gramanas). He tells us
that the Indians worshipped the rain-bringing Zeus
(Indra) as well as the Ganges, which must, therefore,
have already been a sacred river. By his description of
the god Dionysus, whom they worshipped in the mountains,
(Jiva must be intended, and by Herakles, adored
in the plains, especially among the (Jurasenas on the
Yamuna and in the city of Methora, no other can be
meant than Vishnu and his incarnation Krishna, the
chief city of whose tribe of Yadavas was Mathura
(Muttra). These statements seem to justify the conclusion
that (Jiva and Vishnu were already prominent as
highest gods, the former in the mountains, the latter in
the Ganges Valley. Krishna would also seem to have been
regarded as an Avatar of Vishnu, though it is to be noted
that Krishna is not yet mentioned in the old Buddhist
Sutras. We also learn from Megasthenes that the doctrine
of the four ages of the world (yugas) was fully
developed in India by his time.
412 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
Chandragupta's grandson, the famous Acoka, not only
maintained his national Indian empire, but extended it in
every direction. Having adopted Buddhism as the state
religion, he did much to spread its doctrines, especially
to Ceylon, which since then has remained the most
faithful guardian of Buddhist tradition.
After Acoka's death the Graeco-Bactrian princes began
about 200 B.C. to conquer Western India, and ruled
there for about eighty years. Euthydemos extended his
dominions to the Jhelum. His son Demetrios (early in the
second century B.C.) appears to have held sway over the
Lower Indus, Malava, Gujarat, and probably also Kashmir.
He is called "
King of the Indians," and was the first to
introduce a bilingual coinage by adding an Indian inscription
in Kharoshthl characters on the reverse to the Greek
on the obverse. Eukratides (190-160 B.C.), who rebelled
against Demetrios, subjected the Panjab as far east as
the Beas. After the reign of Heliokles (160-120 B.C.),
the Greek princes in India ceased to be connected with
Bactria. The most prominent among these Grseco-
Indians was Menander (c. 150 B.C.), who, under the name
of Milinda, is well known in Buddhist writings. The last
vestige of Greek domination in India disappeared about
20 B.C., having lasted nearly two centuries. It is a remarkable
fact that no Greek monumental inscriptions
have ever been found in India.
With the beginning of the Graeco-Indian period also
commenced the incursions of the Scythic tribes, who are
called Indo-Scythians by the Greeks, and by the Indians
^akas, the Persian designation of Scythians in general.
Of these so-called Scythians the Jats of the Panjab are
supposed to be the descendants. The rule of these (Jaka
kings, the earliest of whom is Maues or Moa (c. 120 B.C.),
LATER INVADERS 413
endured down to 178 A.D., or about three centuries.
Their memory is preserved in India by the (Jaka era,
which is still in use, and dates from 78 A.D., the
inaugural year of Kanishka, the only famous king of
this race. His dominions, which included Kanyakubja
(Kanauj) on the Ganges, extended beyond the confines
of India to parts of Central Asia. A zealous adherent of
Buddhism, he made Gandhara and Kashmir the chief
seat of that religion, and held the fourth Buddhist
council in the latter country.
About 20 B.C. the (^akas were followed into India by
the Kushanas, who were one of the five tribes of the
Yueh-chi from Central Asia, and who subsequently conquered
the whole of Northern India.
After having been again united into a single empire
almost as great as that of Chandragupta under the
national dynasty of the Guptas, from 319 to 480 A.D.,
Northern India, partly owing to the attacks of the
Hunas, was split up into several kingdoms, some under
the later Guptas, till 606 A.D., when Harshavardhana
of Kanauj gained paramount power over the whole of
Northern India. During his reign the poet Bana flourished,
and the celebrated Chinese pilgrim Hiouen Thsang
visited India.
With the Muhammadan conquest about 1000 A.D.
the country again fell under a foreign yoke. As after
Alexander's invasion, we have the good fortune to possess
in Alberunl's India (c. 1030 A.D.) the valuable work
of a cultivated foreigner, giving a detailed account of the
civilisation of India at this new era in its history.
This repeated contact of the Indians with foreign invaders
from the West naturally led to mutual influences
in various branches of literature.
414 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
With regard to the Epics, we find the statement of
the Greek rhetorician Dio Chrysostomos (50-117 A.D.)
that the Indians sang in their own language the poetry
of Homer, the sorrows of Priam, the laments of Andromache
and Hecuba, the valour of Achilles and Hector.
The similarity of some of the leading characters of the
Mahdbhdrata, to which the Greek writer evidently alludes,
caused him to suppose that the Indian epic was a translation
of the Iliad. There is, however, no connection of
of any kind between the two poems. Nor does Professor
Weber's assumption of Greek influence on the Rdmdyana
appear to have any sufficient basis (p. 307).
The view has been held that the worship of Krishna,
who, as we have seen, plays an important part in the
Mahdbhdrata, arose under the influence of Christianity,
with which it certainly has some rather striking points
of resemblance. This theory is, however, rendered improbable,
at least as far as the origin of the cult of
Krishna is concerned, by the conclusions at which we
have arrived regarding the age of the Mahdbhdrata (pp.
286-287), as well as by the statements of Megasthenes,
which indicate that Krishna was deified and worshipped
some centuries before the beginning of our era. We
know, moreover, from the Mahdbhdshya that the story of
Krishna was the subject of dramatic representations in
the second or, at latest, the first century before the birth
of Christ.
It is an interesting question whether the Indian drama
has any genetic connection with that of Greece. It
must be admitted that opportunities for such a connection
may have existed during the first three centuries
preceding our era. On his expedition to India, Alexander
was accompanied by numerous artists, among
GREEK AND INDIAN DRAMA 415
whom there may have been actors. Seleucus gave his
daughter in marriage to Chandragupta, and both that
ruler and Ptolemy II. maintained relations with the
court of Pataliputra by means of ambassadors. Greek
dynasties ruled in Western India for nearly two centuries.
Alexandria was connected by a lively commerce with
the town called by the Greeks Barygaza (now Broach),
at the mouth of the Narmada (Nerbudda) in Gujarat ;
with the latter town was united by a trade route the city
of UjjayinI (Greek Ozene), which in consequence reached
a high pitch of prosperity. Philostratus (second century
A.D.), not it is true a very trustworthy authority, states
in his Life of Apollonius of Tyana, who visited India
about 50 A.D., that Greek literature was held in high
esteem by the Brahmans. Indian inscriptions mention
Yavana or Greek girls sent to India as tribute, and
Sanskrit authors, especially Kalidasa, describe Indian
princes as waited on by them. Professor Weber has
even conjectured that the Indian god of love, Kama,
bears a dolphin {inakard) in his banner, like the Greek
Eros, through the influence of Greek courtesans.
The existence of such conditions has induced Professor
Weber to believe that the representations of
Greek plays, which must have taken place at the courts
of Greek princes in Bactria, in the Panjab, and in Gujarat,
suggested the drama to the Indians as a subject for imitation.
This theory is supported by the fact that the
curtain of the Indian stage is called yavanikd or the
" Greek partition." Weber at the same time admits that
there is no internal connection between the Indian and
the Greek drama.
Professor Windisch, however, went further, and maintained
such internal connection. It was, indeed, impos416
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
sible for him to point out any affinity to the Greek
tragedy, but he thought he could trace in the Mricchakatika
the influence of the new Attic comedy, which
reached its zenith with Menander about 300 B.C. The
points in which that play resembles this later Greek
comedy are fewer and slighter in other Sanskrit dramas,
and can easily be explained as independently developed
in India. The improbability of the theory is emphasised
by the still greater affinity of the Indian drama to that
of Shakespeare. It is doubtful whether Greek plays
were ever actually performed in India ; at any rate, no
references to such performances have been preserved.
The earliest Sanskrit plays extant are, moreover, separated
from the Greek period by at least four hundred
years. The Indian drama has had a thoroughly national
development, and even its origin, though obscure, easily
admits of an indigenous explanation. The name of the
curtain, yavanikd, may, indeed, be a reminiscence ot
Greek plays actually seen in India ; but it is uncertain
whether the Greek theatre had a curtain at all ; in any
case, it did not form the background of the stage.
It is a fact worth noting, that the beginning of one
of the most famous of modern European dramas has
been modelled on that of a celebrated Sanskrit play.
The prelude of ^akuntald suggested to Goethe the plan
of the prologue on the stage in Faust, where the stagemanager,
the merryandrew, and the poet converse
regarding the play about to be performed (cf. p. 351).
Forster's German translation of Kalidasa's masterpiece
appeared in 1791, and the profound impression it produced
on Goethe is proved by the well-known epigram
he composed on ^akuntald in the same year. The impression
was a lasting one ; for the theatre prologue
MIGRATION OF INDIAN FABLES 417
of Faust was not written till 1797, and as late as 1830
the poet thought of adapting the Indian play for the
Weimar stage.
If in epic and dramatic poetry hardly any definite
influences can be traced between India and the West,
how different is the case in the domain of fables and
fairy tales \ The story of the migration of these from
India certainly forms the most romantic chapter in the
literary history of the world.
We know that in the sixth century A.D. there existed
in India a Buddhist collection of fables, in which animals
play the part of human beings (cf. p. 369). By the
command of the Sassanian king, Khosru Anushlrvan
(531-579), this work was translated by a Persian
physician named Barzoi into Pehlevi. Both this version
and the unmodified original have been lost, but two
early and notable translations from the Pehlevi have
been preserved. The Syriac one was made about 570
A.D., and called Kalilag and Damnag. A manuscript of
it was found by chance in 1870, and, becoming known
to scholars by a wonderful chapter of lucky accidents,
was published in 1876. The Arabic translation from
the Pehlevi, entitled Kalllah and Dimnah, or " Fables of
Pilpay," was made in the eighth century by a Persian
convert to Islam, who died about 760 A.D. In this translation
a wicked king is represented to be reclaimed to
virtue by a Brahman philosopher named Bidbah, a word
which has been satisfactorily traced through Pehlevi
to the Sanskrit vidyapati,
" master of sciences,"
" chief
scholar." From this bidbah is derived the modern
Bidpai or Pilpay, which is thus not a proper name
at all.
This Arabic version is of great importance, as the
4i 8 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
source of other versions which exercised very great
influence in shaping the literature of the Middle Ages
in Europe. These versions of it were the later Syriac
(c. iooo A.D.), the Greek (1180), the Persian (c. 1130),
recast later (c. 1494) under the title of Anvdr-i-Suhaili,
or "Lights of Canopus," the old Spanish (1251), and the
Hebrew one made about 1250.
The fourth stratum of translation is represented by
John of Capua's rendering of the Hebrew version into
Latin [c. 1270), entitled Dii'ectorium Humance Vitcey which
was printed about 1480.
From John of Capua's work was made, at the instance
of Duke Eberhardt of Wurtemberg, the famous
German version, Das Buck der Byspel der alten Wysen, or
" Book of Apologues of the Ancient Sages," first printed
about 1481. The fact that four dated editions appeared
at Ulm between 1483 and 1485, and thirteen more down
to 1592, is a sufficiently eloquent proof of the importance
of this work as a means of instruction and amusement
during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Directorium
was also the source of the Italian version, printed
at Venice in 1552, from which came the English translation
of Sir Thomas North (1570). The latter was thus
separated from the Indian original by five intervening
translations and a thousand years of time.
It is interesting to note the changes which tales
undergo in the course of such wanderings. In the
second edition of his Fables (1678), La Fontaine acknowledges
his indebtedness for a large part of his work to
the Indian sage Pilpay. A well-known story in the
French writer is that of the milkmaid, who, while carrying
a pail of milk on her head to market, and building
all kinds of castles in the air with the future proceeds
SANSKRIT STORIES IN LA FONTAINE 419
of the sale of the milk, suddenly gives a jump of joy at
the prospect of her approaching fortune, and thereby
shatters the pail to pieces on the ground. This is only
a transformation of a story still preserved in *the Panchatantra.
Here it is a Brahman who, having filled an
alms-bowl with the remnants of some rice-pap he has
begged, hangs it up on a nail in the wall above his
bed. He dreams of the money he will procure by
selling the rice when a famine breaks out. Then he
will gradually acquire cattle, buy a fine house, and
marry a beautiful girl with a rich dowry. One day
when he calls to his wife to take away his son who is
playing about, and she does not hear, he will rise up
to give her a kick. As this thought passes through his
mind, his foot shatters the alms-bowl, the contents of
which are spilt all over him.
Another Panchatantra story recurring in La Fontaine
is that of the too avaricious jackal. Finding the dead
bodies of a boar and a hunter, besides the bow of the
latter, he resolves on devouring the bowstring first. As
soon as he begins to gnaw, the bow starts asunder,
pierces his head, and kills him. In La Fontaine the
jackal has become a wolf, and the latter is killed by
the arrow shot off as he touches the bow.
Nothing, perhaps, in the history of the migration
of Indian tales is more remarkable than the story of
Barlaam andJosaphat. At the court of Khalif Almansur
(753-774), under whom Kalllah and Dimnah was translated
into Arabic, there lived a Christian known as
John of Damascus, who wrote in Greek the story of
Barlaam and Josaphat as a manual of Christian theology.
This became one of the most popular books of the
Middle Ages, being translated into many Oriental as
420 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
well as European languages. It is enlivened by a
number of fables and parables, most of which have
been traced to Indian sources. The very hero of the
story, Prince Josaphat, has an Indian origin, being,
in fact, no other than Buddha. The name has been
shown to be a corruption of Bodhisattva, a well-known
designation of the Indian reformer. Josaphat rose to
the rank of a saint both in the Greek and the Roman
Church, his day in the former being August 26, in the
latter November 27. That the founder of an atheistic
Oriental religion should have developed into a Christian
saint is one of the most astounding facts in religious
history.
Though Europe was thus undoubtedly indebted to
India for its mediaeval literature of fairy tales and fables,
the Indian claim to priority of origin in ancient times is
somewhat Rubious. A certain number of apologues found
in the collections of ^Esop and Babrius are distinctly
related to Indian fables. The Indian claim is supported
by the argument that the relation of the jackal to the
lion is a natural one in the Indian fable, while the
connection of the fox and the lion in Greece has no
basis in fact. On the other side it has been urged
that animals and birds which are peculiar to India
play but a minor part in Indian fables, while there
exists a Greek representation of the ^Esopian fable of
the fox and the raven, dating from the sixth century
B.C. Weber and Benfey both conclude that the Indians
borrowed a few fables from the Greeks, admitting at
the same time that the Indians had independent fables
of their own before. Rudimentary fables are found
even in the Chhdndogya Upanishady and the transmigration
theory would have favoured the development of this
WESTWARD MIGRATION OF CHESS 421
form of tale ; indeed Buddha himself in the old Jdtaka
stories appears in the form of various animals.
Contemporaneously with the fable literature, the
most intellectual game the world has known began
its westward migration from India. Chess in Sanskrit
is called chatur-anga> or the " four-limbed army,"
because it represents a kriegspiel, in which two armies,
consisting of infantry, cavalry, chariots, and elephants,
each led by a king and his councillor, are opposed.
The earliest direct mention of the game in Sanskrit
literature is found in the works of Bana, and the Kdvydlamkdra
of Rudrata, a Kashmirian poet of the ninth
century, contains a metrical puzzle illustrating the
moves of the chariot, the elephant, and the horse.
Introduced into Persia in the sixth century, chess was
brought by the Arabs to Europe, where it was generally
known by 1100 A.D. It has left its maris on mediaeval
poetry, on the idioms of European languages
{e.g.
"
check," from the Persian shahy
"
king "), on the
science of arithmetic in the calculation of progressions
with the chessboard, and even in heraldry, where the
"rook" often figures in coats of arms. Beside the fable
literature of India, this Indian game served to while
away the tedious life of myriads during the Middle Ages
in Europe.
Turning to Philosophical Literature, we find that the
early Greek and Indian philosophers have many points
in common. Some of the leading doctrines of the
Eleatics, that God and the universe are one, that everything
existing in multiplicity has no reality, that thinking
and being are identical, are all to be found in the
philosophy of the Upanishads and the Vedanta system,
which is its outcome. Again, the doctrine of Empe422
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
docles, that nothing can arise which has not existed
before, and that nothing existing can be annihilated,
has its exact parallel in the characteristic doctrine of
the Sankhya system about the eternity and indestructibility
of matter. According to Greek tradition, Thales,
Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Democritus, and others undertook
journeys to Oriental countries in order to study
philosophy. Hence there is at least the historical possibility
of the Greeks having been influenced by Indian
thought through Persia.
Whatever may be the truth in the cases just mentioned,
the dependence of Pythagoras on Indian philosophy
and science certainly seems to have a high degree
of probability. Almost all the doctrines ascribed to him,
religious, philosophical, mathematical, were known in
India in the sixth century B.C. The coincidences are
so numerous that their cumulative force becomes considerable.
The transmigration theory, the assumption
of five elements, the Pythagorean theorem in geometry,
the prohibition as to eating beans, the religio-philosophical
character of the Pythagorean fraternity, and the
mystical speculations of the Pythagorean school, all
have their close parallels in ancient India. The doctrine
of metempsychosis in the case of Pythagoras appears
without any connection or explanatory background,
and was regarded by the Greeks as of foreign origin. He
could not have derived it from Egypt, as it was not
known to the ancient Egyptians. In spite, however, of
the later tradition, it seems impossible that Pythagoras
should have made his way to India at so early a date,
but he could quite well have met Indians in Persia.
Coming to later centuries, we find indications that the
Neo-Platonist philosophy may have been influenced by
INDIAN AND GREEK PHILOSOPHY 423
the Sankhya system, which flourished in the first centuries
of our era, and could easily have become known
at Alexandria owing to the lively intercourse between
that city and India at the time. From this source
Plotinus (204-269 A.D.), chief of the Neo-Platonists, may
have derived his doctrine that soul is free from suffering,
which belongs only to matter, his identification of soul
with light, and his illustrative use of the mirror, in
which the reflections of objects appear, for the purpose
of explaining the phenomena of consciousness.
The influence of the Yoga system on Plotinus is suggested
by his requirement that man should renounce the
world of sense and strive after truth by contemplation.
Connection with Sankhya ideas is still more likely
in the case of Plotinus'^ most eminent pupil, Porphyry
(232-304 A.D.), who lays particular stress on the difference
between soul and matter, on the omnipresence of
soul when freed from the bonds of matter, and on the
doctrine that the world has no beginning. It is also
noteworthy that he rejects sacrifice and prohibits the
killing of animals.
The influence of Indian philosophy on Christian
Gnosticism in the second and third centuries seems at
any rate undoubted. The Gnostic doctrine of the opposition
between soul and matter, of the personal existence
of intellect, will, and so forth, the identification of
soul and light, are derived from the Sankhya system.
The division, peculiar to several Gnostics, of men into
the three classes of pneumatikoi, psychikoi, and hylikoi, is
also based on the Sankhya doctrine of the three gunas.
Again, Bardesanes, a Gnostic of the Syrian school, who
obtained information about India from Indian philosophers,
assumed the existence of a subtle ethereal body
28
424 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
which is identical with the linga-qarlra of the Sankhya
system. Finally, the many heavens of the Gnostics are
evidently derived from the fantastic cosmogony of later
Buddhism.
With regard to the present century, the influence of
Indian thought on the pessimistic philosophy of Schopenhauer
and Von Hartmann is well known. How great
an impression the Upanishads produced on the former,
even in a second-hand Latin translation, may be inferred
from his writing that they were his consolation
in life and would be so in death.
In Science, too, the debt of Europe to India has been
considerable. There is, in the first place, the great fact
that the Indians invented the numerical figures used all
over the world. The influence which the decimal system
of reckoning dependent on those figures has had not only
on mathematics, but on the progress of civilisation in
general, can hardly be over-estimated. During the eighth
and ninth centuries the Indians became the teachers in
arithmetic and algebra of the Arabs, and through them of
the nations of the West. Thus, though we call the latter
science by an Arabic name, it is a gift we owe to India.
In Geometry the points of contact between the Culva
Sutras and the work of the Greeks are so considerable,
that, according to Cantor, the historian of mathematics,
borrowing must have taken place on one side or the
other. In the opinion of that authority, the (Julva Sutras
were influenced by the Alexandrian geometry of Hero
(215 B.C.), which, he thinks, came to India after 100 B.C.
The (^ulva Sutras are, however, probably far earlier than
that date, for they form an integral portion of the (Jrauta
Sutras, and their geometry is a part of the Brahmanical
theology, having taken its rise in India from practical
INDIAN AND GREEK SCIENCE 425
motives as much as the science of grammar. The prose
parts of the Yajurvedas and the Brahmanas constantly
speak of the arrangement of the sacrificial ground and
the construction of altars according to very strict rules,
the slightest deviation from which might cause the
greatest disaster. It is not likely that the exclusive Brahmans
should have been willing to borrow anything^
closely connected with their religion from foreigners.
Of Astronomy the ancient Indians had but slight
independent knowledge. It is probable that they derived
their early acquaintance with the twenty-eight divisions
of the moon's orbit from the Chaldeans through their
commercial relations with the Phoenicians. Indian
astronomy did not really begin to flourish till it was
affected by that of Greece ; it is indeed the one science
in which undoubtedly strong Greek influence can be
proved. The debt which the native astronomers always
acknowledge they owe to the Yavanas is sufficiently
obvious from the numerous Greek terms in Indian astronomical
writings. Thus, in Varaha Mihira's Hora-cdstra
the signs of the zodiac are enumerated either by Sanskrit
names translated from the Greek or by the original
Greek names, as Ara for Aresy Heli for Helios, Jyau for
Zeus. Many technical terms were directly borrowed from
Greek works, as kendra for kentron, jdmitra for diametron.
Some of the very names of the oldest astronomical
treatises of the Indians indicate their Western origin.
Thus the Romaka-siddhd7ita means the "Roman manual."
The title of Varaha Mihira's Hord-cdstra contains the
Greek word hord.
In a few respects, however, the Indians independently
advanced astronomical science further than the Greeks
themselves, and at a later period they in their turn
426 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
influenced the West even in astronomy. For in the
eighth and ninth centuries they became the teachers of
the Arabs in this science also. The siddhdntas (Arabic
Sind Hind)y the writings of Aryabhata (called Arjehlr),
and the Ahargana (Arkand), attributed to Brahmagupta,
were translated or adapted by the Arabs, and Khalifs of
Bagdad repeatedly summoned Indian astronomers to
their court to supervise this work. Through the Arabs,
Indian astronomy then migrated to Europe, which in
this case only received back in a roundabout way what
it had given long before. Thus the Sanskrit word uchcha,
"apex of a planet's orbit," was borrowed in the form
of aux (gen. aug-is) in Latin translations of Arabic
astronomers.
After Bhaskara (twelfth century), Hindu astronomy,
ceasing to make further progress, became once more
merged in the astrology from which it had sprung. It
was now the turn of the Arabs, and, by a strange inversion
of things, an Arabic writer of the ninth century who
had written on Indian astronomy and arithmetic, in this
period became an object of study to the Hindus. The
old Greek terms remained, but new Arabic ones were
added as the necessity for them arose.
The question as to whether Indian Medical Science
in its earlier period was affected by that of the Greeks
cannot yet be answered with certainty, the two systems
not having hitherto been compared with sufficient care.
Recently, however, some close parallels have been discovered
between the works of Hippocrates and Charaka
(according to a Chinese authority, the official physician
of King Kanishka), which render Greek influence before
the beginning of our era likely.
On the other hand, the effect of Hindu medical
SANSKRIT INFLUENCE IN EUROPE 427
science upon the Arabs after about 700 A.D. was considerable,
for the Khalifs of Bagdad caused several books
on the subject to be translated. The works of Charaka
and Sucruta (probably not later than the fourth century
A.D.) were rendered into Arabic at the close of the
eighth century, and are quoted as authorities by the celebrated
Arabic physician Al-Razi, who died in 932 A.D.
Arabic medicine in its turn became the chief authority,
down to the seventeenth century, of European physicians.
By the latter Indian medical authors must have
been thought highly of, for Charaka is repeatedly mentioned
in the Latin translations of the Arab writers
Avicenna (Ibn Slna), Rhazes (Al-Razi), and Serapion (Ibn
Sarafyun). In modern days European surgery has borrowed
the operation of rhinoplasty, or the formation of
artificial noses, from India, where Englishmen became
acquainted with the art in the last century.
We have already seen that the discovery of the
Sanskrit language and literature led, in the present
century, to the foundation of the two new sciences of
Comparative Mythology and Comparative Philology.
Through the latter it has even affected the practical
school-teaching of the classical languages in Europe.
The interest in Buddhism has already produced an
immense literature in Europe. Some of the finest lyrics
of Heine, and works like Sir Edwin Arnold's Light of
Asia, to mention only a few instances, have drawn their
inspiration from Sanskrit poetry. The intellectual debt
of Europe to Sanskrit literature has thus been undeniably
great ; it may perhaps become greater still in
the years that are to come.









Om Tat Sat
                                                        
(End) 

(My humble salutations to  Brahmsree Sreeman  Arthur A. Macdonell  and also my humble greatulness to  great Devotees , Philosophic Scholars  for the collection)