DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0029
INTRO DUCT I OX.
7
The absence of any historical record is the more striking, because
India possesses a written literature equal to, if not surpassing in
variety and extent, that possessed by any other nation, before the
invention, or at least before the adoption and use, of printing. The
Vedas themselves, with their Upanishads and Brahmanas, and the
commentaries on them, form a literature in themselves of vast extent,
and some parts of which are as old, possibly older, than any written
works that are now known to exist; and the Puranas, though com-
paratively modern, make up a body of doctrine mixed with mythology
and tradition such as few nations can boast of. Besides this, however,
are two great epics, surpassing in extent* if not in merit, those of any
ancient nation, and a drama of great beauty, written at periods ex-
tending through a long series of years. In addition to those we have
treatises on law, on grammar, on astronomy, on metaphysics and
mathematics, on almost every branch of mental science—a literature
extending in fact to some 10,000 or 11,000 works, but in all this not
one book that can be called historical. No man in India, so far as is
known, ever thought of recording the events of his own life or ot
repeating the previous experience of others, and it was only at some
time subsecpjent to the Christian Era that they ever thought of
establishing eras from which to date deeds or events.
All this is the more curious because in Ceylon we have, in the
'Mahawanso,' and other books of a like nature, a consecutive history
of that island, with dates which may be depended upon within very
narrow limits of error, for periods extending from ».c. 250 to the present
time. At the other extremity of India, we have also in the Raja
Tarangini of Kashmir, a work which Professor Wilson characterised
as "the only Sanscrit composition yet discovered to which the title
of History can with any propriety be applied." 1 As we at present,
however, possess it, it hardly helps us to any historical data earlier
than the Christian Era, and even after that its dates for some centuries
are by no means fixed and certain.
In India Proper, however, we have no such guides as even these,
but for written history are almost wholly dependent on the Puranas.
They do furnish us with one list of kings' names, with the length
of their reigns, so apparently truthful that they may, within narrow
limits, be depended upon. They are only, however, of one range
reader to grasp the main features of the i an Appendix especially devoted to their
story to such an extent as may enahle discussion. Unfortunately no l>ook exists
him to understand what follows. In order to which the reader could with advantage
to make it readable, all references and all be referred ; and without some such
l>roofs of disputed facts have been post- introductory notice of the political his-
I>oned. They will be found in the body tory and ethnography the artistic history
of the work, where they are more appro- would be nearly, if not wholly, unintcl-
l>i iate, and the data on which the principal i ligiblc.
disputed dates are fixed will be found in | 1 ' Asiatic Researches,' vol. xv. p. i.
7
The absence of any historical record is the more striking, because
India possesses a written literature equal to, if not surpassing in
variety and extent, that possessed by any other nation, before the
invention, or at least before the adoption and use, of printing. The
Vedas themselves, with their Upanishads and Brahmanas, and the
commentaries on them, form a literature in themselves of vast extent,
and some parts of which are as old, possibly older, than any written
works that are now known to exist; and the Puranas, though com-
paratively modern, make up a body of doctrine mixed with mythology
and tradition such as few nations can boast of. Besides this, however,
are two great epics, surpassing in extent* if not in merit, those of any
ancient nation, and a drama of great beauty, written at periods ex-
tending through a long series of years. In addition to those we have
treatises on law, on grammar, on astronomy, on metaphysics and
mathematics, on almost every branch of mental science—a literature
extending in fact to some 10,000 or 11,000 works, but in all this not
one book that can be called historical. No man in India, so far as is
known, ever thought of recording the events of his own life or ot
repeating the previous experience of others, and it was only at some
time subsecpjent to the Christian Era that they ever thought of
establishing eras from which to date deeds or events.
All this is the more curious because in Ceylon we have, in the
'Mahawanso,' and other books of a like nature, a consecutive history
of that island, with dates which may be depended upon within very
narrow limits of error, for periods extending from ».c. 250 to the present
time. At the other extremity of India, we have also in the Raja
Tarangini of Kashmir, a work which Professor Wilson characterised
as "the only Sanscrit composition yet discovered to which the title
of History can with any propriety be applied." 1 As we at present,
however, possess it, it hardly helps us to any historical data earlier
than the Christian Era, and even after that its dates for some centuries
are by no means fixed and certain.
In India Proper, however, we have no such guides as even these,
but for written history are almost wholly dependent on the Puranas.
They do furnish us with one list of kings' names, with the length
of their reigns, so apparently truthful that they may, within narrow
limits, be depended upon. They are only, however, of one range
reader to grasp the main features of the i an Appendix especially devoted to their
story to such an extent as may enahle discussion. Unfortunately no l>ook exists
him to understand what follows. In order to which the reader could with advantage
to make it readable, all references and all be referred ; and without some such
l>roofs of disputed facts have been post- introductory notice of the political his-
I>oned. They will be found in the body tory and ethnography the artistic history
of the work, where they are more appro- would be nearly, if not wholly, unintcl-
l>i iate, and the data on which the principal i ligiblc.
disputed dates are fixed will be found in | 1 ' Asiatic Researches,' vol. xv. p. i.