Page:Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett - Comparative Literature (1886).djvu/320

 marked the rise of that ascetic spirit which Christian monasticism has made so familiar to Europe; and, long afterwards, came the Puránas, or "traditions of old." These writings, however, as distinct from the Vedas and Bráhmanas, are not sruti, or divinely inspired; they are only smriti—"things remembered"—that is, sacred traditions.

How did the Bráhmans manage to retain a monopoly of this politico-religious literature? How did they prevent any such popularisation of their legal knowledge as, for example, followed the publication of the XII. Tables at Rome? They prevented publication by preferring to hand down their learning by memory within the sacred circle of their caste, even though as early as 250 two alphabets or written characters were used in India. "Good Bráhmans had to learn the Veda by heart, besides many other books. This was the easier, as almost all their literature was in verse (slokas). In the very ancient times, just after the Vedic hymns, a pure style of prose, simple and compact, had grown up. But for more than two thousand years the Bráhmans have always composed in verse; and prose-writing has been a lost art in India."

The Bráhman period of Indian literature reaches backwards and forwards into very different social and linguistic conditions of Indian life in general and of the Bráhman priesthood in particular. In the earlier period the Bráhmans are struggling into independence from the control of the military class, and with difficulty establishing their priestly ceremonial over the local worships of the House-fathers. As yet "Sanskrit," as the peculiar language of the educated, is unknown; for the language destined to become the sacred language of the Brahmans is still the Aryan vernacular speech, the true maker of the "simple