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^ ***TtH>Be wft^ z Iyam dhammalipi Devanam piyena piya^^ • ^'\i0^ ;i eva. (p. 752.) ^^^sxi^a rani ^^ asti ^ Bumouf, Lotus, p. 752 THE INTRODUCTION OF WRITING. 521 any further conclusions. Yavana is by no means the exclusive name of the Greeks or lonians. Professor Lassen has proved that it had a much wider meaning, and that it was even used of Semitic nations. There is nothing to prove that PAnini was later than Alex- ander, or that he was acquainted with Greek litera- ture. In the Lalita-vistara, where all possible alpha- bets are mentioned, nothing is said of a Yavanani or a Greek alphabet. The Sanskrit alphabet, though it has always been suspected to be derived from a Semitic source, has not certainly been traced back to a Greek source. It shows more similarity with the Aramaean than with any other variety of the Phoenician alpha- bet.^ Yavan&ni lipi most likely means that variety of the Semitic alphabet which, previous to Alexander, and previous to Pfi^ini, became the type of the Indian alphabet. But all this is merely conjectural. It is impossible to arrive at any certain interpretation of Yavanfi,ni, as used by Pdaini ; and it is much better to confess this, than to force the word into an argument for any preconceived notions as to the origin of the Indian alphabet. There is another word in P&nini which might seem to prove that, not only the art of writing, but written books were known at his time. This is grantha. Gran- tha occurs four times in our texts of P&nini.* In I. 3, ^ Lepsius, Zwei sprachvergleichende Abhaodlungen, p. 78., Schulze's conjecture about Mesnud. Weber, Indische Skizzen. W^ ^118. ^U^ II 522 THE INTRODUCTION OP WBTTING. 75. it is SO used as to apply to the Veda, In IV, 3, 87. ' it may refer to any work. In IV. 3, 116. it is applied to the work of any individual author. In VI. 3, 79. it I may refer to any work that is studied. I do not attri- bute much importance to the fact that I. 3. 75. and t IV. 3, 116. are marked as not explained in the Com- mentaries ; for I confess that in none of these four pas- I sages can I discover anything to prove that grantha [ must mean a written or a bound book. Grantha is derived from a root grathy which means nectere, serere. Grantha, therefore, like the later sandarbluZj would simply mean a composition.^ It corresponds etjrmo- logically with the Latin textus. Thus it is used by the Commentator to Nir. I. 20., where he says that former teachers handed down the hymns grandiato Wthatascha^ " according to their text and according to their meaning." In the later literature of India gi^antha was used for a volume, and in grantkakuA^ a library, we see clearly that it has that meaning. But in the early literature grantha does not mean pustaka, or book; it means simply a composition, as opposed to a traditional work. This distinction between traditional works and works composed by individual authors is of frequent occurrence in Pfi.nini, and we attempted, in a former part of this work, to draw some historical conclusions from this distinction. From IV. 3, 101. to 111. the grammarian gives rules how to derive the titles of works from the names of those by whom they were proclaimed (tena proktam). But in most cases these derivations are used by P&nini as intermediate links * Thus the Commentator to the Rig-veda, 1, 67, 4. explains chri- tanti by agnim uddisja stutir grathnanti, kurvantityarUiah. THE INTRODUCTION OP WBITING. 523 only, in order to form the names of Charanas who read and preserve these works. Never, he says (IV. 2, 66.), use the derivative, which would be the title of a work, in the case of h3nnns (chhandas) or Brd,hmanas. Do not call a work proclaimed by Eatha, Eatham, but only speak of Eathas, i. e. those who hand down the works proclaimed by Eatha. Another still more significant restriction is made by P&nini. With reference to modern works, he says, you may use the neuter in the singular or plural, instead of the plural of the masculine. The Br&hmanas taught by Y&jnavalkya may be spoken of as such. But the ancient Br4hmanas, first pro- claimed by BhaUava &c., can only be spoken of as "the Bh&Uavins" (Bhallavidse), because it is only in the tradition of his descendants that the works of Bhallava and other ancient sages may be said to live. However we examine the ancient Sanskrit phra- seology with regard to books and their authors, we invariably arrive at the same results. In the most ancient literature, the idea even of authorship is ex- cluded. Works are spoken of as revealed to and com- municated by certain sages, but not as composed by them. In the later literature of the Br&hmana and SAtra period the idea of authorship is admitted, but no trace is to be found anywhere of any books being committed to writing. It is possible I may have overlooked some words in the Br&hmanas and SAtras, which would prove the existence of written books previous to F&nini. If so, it is not from any wish to suppress them. I believe, indeed, that the Brd,hmanas were preserved by oral tradition only, but I should feel inclined to claim an acquaintance with the art of writing for the authors of the SAtras. And there is 624 THE INTRODUCTION OP WBITING. one word which seems to strengthen such a supposi- tion. We find that several of the Siitras are divided into chapters called patalas. This is a word never used for the subdivisions of the Br&hmanas. Its meaning is a covering, the surrounding skin or membrane ; it is also used for a tree. If so, it would seem to be almost synonymous with liber and ^i&k^s^ and it would mean hook^ after meaning originally a sheet of paper made of the surrounding bark of trees. If writing came in towards the latter half of the SAtra period, it would no doubt be applied at the same time to reducing the hymns and Brahmanas to a written form. Previously to that time, however, we are bound to maintain that the collection of the hymns, and the immense mass of the Br&hmana lite- rature, were preserved by means of oral tradition only. 525 CHAPTER IV. THE CHHAm)AS PERIOD. The three periods of Vedic literature which we have examined, the Siitra, Br&hmana, and Mantra periods, all point to some earlier age which gave birth to the poetry of the early Rishis. There was a time, doubt- less, when the songs which were collected with such careful zeal in the Mantra period, commented upon with such elaborate pedantry during the Br&hmana period, and examined and analysed with such minute exactness during the Siitra period, lived and were understood without any effort by a simple and pious race. There was a time when the sacrifices, which afterwards became so bewildering a system of cere- monies, were dictated by the free impulse of the human heart, by a yearning to render thanks to some Unknown Being, and to repay, in words or deeds, a debt of gratitude, accumulated from the first breath of life. There was a time when the poet was the leader, the king, and priest of his family or tribe, when his songs and sayings were listened to in an- xious silence and with implicit faith, when his prayers were repeated by crowds who looked up to their kings and priests, their leaders and judges, as men better, nobler, wiser than the rest, as beings nearer to the gods in proportion as they were raised above 526 THE CHHAKBAS PERIOD. the common level of mankind. These men themselves living a life of perfect freedom, speaking a language not yet broken by literary usage, and thinking thoughts unfettered as yet by traditional chains, were at once teachers, lawgivers, poets, and priests. There is no very deep wisdom in their teaching, their laws are simple, their poetry shows no very high flights of fancy, and their religion might be told in a few words. But what there is of their language, poetry, and religion has a charm which no other period of Indian literature possesses : it is spontaneous, ori- ginal, and truthful. We cannot say this of all the hymns: nay, the greater portion of what we now possess of Vedic poetry must, no doubt, be ascribed to a secondary period, the so- called Mantra period. But after we have discarded what bears the stamp of a later age, there remains enough to give us an idea of an earlier race of Vedic poets. It is true, no doubt, in one sense, that even those earliest specimens of Vedic poetry belong, as has been said by Bunsen, to the modem history of the human race.