Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/638

 614 SANSKRIT tences and periods; indeed, a period in San- skrit is next to an impossibility ; the formation and connection of its clauses is of the baldest simplicity. The excessive use of cumbrous compounds is also a very general fault in San- skrit construction, appearing in all styles of composition, but especially the more artificial ; to say, for instance, " water-play-delighted- maiden-bathing-fragrant (river-breezes) " for "made fragrant by the bathing of maidens delighted with sporting in the water," is a vir- tual abnegation of the privileges of an inflect- ed language, and a partial retrogradation to the stiff inexpressiveness of the Chinese. The construction of Sanskrit metre is based en- tirely upon quantity, as in Greek, with total disregard of accent. The most ancient metres are very simple and almost wholly iambic; much of the later versification is remarkable for its extreme complexity, elaborateness, and artificiality. LITERATURE. The most ancient literature of India, that of the Vedas, as form- ing a body of works of separate and peculiar interest, has been treated under INDIA, RELI- GIONS AND RELIGIOUS LITERATURE OF ; and, with the Vedas, the whole mass also of Vedic litera- ture, the oldest religious literature of the coun- try, and also the two long epics or Itihasas, the Matidbhdrata and the Rdmdyana. The prop- er Sanskrit literature counts by thousands its works still in existence, while titles and quoted fragments of hosts of others, not known to be preserved in their entirety, are on record. Most of these works are still in manuscript, and the largest collections of manuscripts out of India itself are those of the India office in London, the royal library at Berlin, and the Bodleian at Oxford. The period it covers stretches, if the Vedas be included, from at least 1500 B. 0. to our own day. Nearly all of it was composed after the language had ceased to be in the fullest sense a spoken ver- nacular ; hence a tinge of artificiality, growing deeper as more modern times are approached, rests upon it all. With insignificant excep- tions, it is all composed in metre, even works of law, of morality, of science; and, in great part, in the so-called fttka, a two-line stanza, each line made up of two eight-syllable feet, the movement being rudely iambic. Every department of knowledge and branch of in- quiry is represented in it, with the single ex- ception of history ; and the want of the his- torical element is perhaps the most striking general characteristic of the literature. The Hindoo mind, in utter opposition to the Egyp- tian and Chinese, has ever been little regard- ful of objective truth, careless of facts, disin- clined to observe and record, laying no stress on the events of outward life, heedless of their connection and succession ; hence the absence of a chronology in the literary as well as the political history of India, and the uncertainty of centuries resting upon the date of almost every work. Much of this mass of literary productions is of a character which has com- manded high and general admiration; but it exhibits the characteristic faults and deficien- cies of the oriental mind in no light degree. The want of history robs it of one great source of worth and interest; much of it is trivial and tedious; and to place even its master- pieces on a par with those of the classical languages would be highly presumptuous. It& interest as a record of the life of a great and highly endowed people, of our own blood, whose influence and institutions have affected all eastern Asia, is not easily overestimated. Of other epic or quasi-epic poems besides the Mahdbhdrata and the Rdmdyana, we may mention the Raghuvansa ("Race of Raghu"), Kumdra-SambM'ca ("Birth of the War God") r and Nalodaya, (" Rise of Nala "), all by Ka- lidasa; Magha's "Death of Sisupala;" and Marsha's Naishadhiya. In the lighter style of lyric and erotic poetry, which is abundantly represented, and by works of greatly differing merit, are the Ritutanhdra (" Seasons ") and Meghaddta ("Cloud Messenger") of Kalida- sa, and the Gita-Govinda of Jayadeva, de- scribing the adventures of the god Krishna among the shepherdesses, the companions of his youth, a favorite theme of Hindoo song. The " Centuries " of Bhartrihari, and other like works, are aphorismic, pearls of thought and style, intended for edification and instruc- tion. The same ends are served by the col- lections of fables, of which the most accepted have found their way all over the world ; the Panchatantra, through Persian and Arabic translations, has entered almost every western literature, as the fables of Bidpai or Pilpay. A somewhat later collection of the same mate- rials, the Hitopadesa (" Salutary Instruction "), is one of the most popular books of the San- skrit literature. The Sanskrit fable is much longer drawn than the western, and depends for its interest more on discourse, and less on situation and action. The Hindoo tales, in verse and in prose, are of comparatively small consequence in the literature ; the most noted collection is the Kathdsaritsdgara (" Ocean of Streams of Narration ") ; through the medium of Persian versions, they are regarded as form- ing the groundwork of the Arabic literature of like class, represented to us chiefly by the " Arabian Nights' Entertainments." The drama is a most interesting branch of Hindoo litera- ture ; no other ancient people, excepting the Greek, has brought forth independently any- thing so admirable in this department. The most celebrated dramas are the MrichhaJcati ("Toy Cart") of Sudraka, and the different works of Kalidasa, as the Sakuntald, the Ur- vasi, and "Malavika and Agnimitra," all of which have been edited and translated. The Sakuntald is one of the most perfect flowers of the Indian genius; and its selection by the en- lightened taste of Sir William Jones and his translation of it into English (1789), whence it passed at once into every language of Europe, was an important epoch in the early history