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 SANSKRIT 615 of Sanskrit study. The subjects of the drama are mainly legendary, their catastrophes al- ways happy. They are written in mixed prose and verse, and likewise in mixed Sanskrit and Prakrit; only the higher male characters speaking the cultivated or learned tongue, while the lower, and all the females, talk the vernacular dialect. The machinery of the Hindoo stage is not well understood, but it is believed to have been very simple. The grounds on which Kalidasa has been usually assigned to the 1st century B. C. are now ac- knowledged to be entirely futile, and the time of the bloom of dramatic composition is as un- certain as other such matters in Hindoo his- tory ; more probably it is at least two or three centuries after Christ, or even, as many schol- ars believe, as late as the llth century. (See KALIDASA.) The Puranas form a separate class of works, being the religious literature of the middle period, later than the Vedic, preceding the modern and comparatively in- significant tantras and shastras, all of which have been described in INDIA, RELIGIONS AND RELIGIOUS LITEKATUBE OF. The law books at- tach themselves to, and are a development of, a part of the Vedic literature, viz. : treatises prescribing the religious observances and rules of life of the orthodox Hindoo ; domestic and civil duties, offences and penalties, purification and penance, are their subjects. The oldest and most famous among them is the code as- scribed to the mythical sage Manu ; it has been often translated, and is a chief source of au- thentic knowledge respecting the elaborated system of Brahmanic polity. In treating of the scientific literature, the grammar, for its antiquity, originality, and profundity, is enti- tled to the first place. In its inception and method it is entirely peculiar, and it has car- ried phonetic and etymological analysis further than any but the best modern European sci- ence. Here, as more than once in other de- partments, the early works containing the be- ginnings of the science are lost ; the most ancient extant authority, Panini, is the su- preme one ; the immense grammatical literature is made up almost solely of commentaries and continuations of his work. Its age is uncer- tain, but it is usually assigned to the 3d or 4th century B. C. Its form is very peculiar; it carries brevity to the utmost extreme, far be- yond the limits of orderly arrangement and intelligibility, availing itself of a technical ter- minology almost mathematical ; the 4,000 con- cise rules which compose it are often compared to so many algebraic formulas. The same style is characteristic of some other depart- ments of the literature, and especially of the text books of the schools of philosophy. Phi- losophy is another highly important branch of Indian science, and has its roots in the very earliest literature. There are six chief sys- tems: the Mimdnsa of Jaimini and Veddnta of Badarayana, founding themselves more di- rectly on the Vedas, and so especially ortho- dox; the Nydya of Gautama and Vaisethika of Kanada, wearing an especially logical char- acter; and the SdnkJiya of Kapila and Yoga of- Patanjali, atheistic and theistic branches of a school named from the precision affected in the enunciation of its principles. The general character of these systems has been described in connection with the religions of India. The Buddhist Sanskrit literature is immense, and has been carried by the spread of the religion to many other countries of Asia, into whose languages it has been translated. The astro- nomical literature is later by some centuries than the Christian era, and nearly all there is of true science in the astronomy of the Hindoos was learned by them from the Greeks. They have made in arithmetic and algebra remarka- ble original progress ; and the Hindoo system of decimal notation has made its way, through the Arabs, to the exclusive use of modern en- lightened nations, our usual figures being by origin letters of the Sanskrit alphabet. The acquirements of the Hindoos as regards the interpretation of the symptoms of disease, and the application of medical and surgical reme- dies, are not insignificant, and their medical literature, which is as yet little known, is re- garded as well deserving study ; the most es- teemed author whose works are preserved is Susruta. Rhetoric, versification, and music are each represented in a department of the literature. Respecting the arts, whether the fine arts or the practical, little of value is known to exist. The best Sanskrit grammars are, in English, Williams's (3d ed., Oxford, 1864) and Max Mailer's (1870); in French, Op- pert's (Berlin, 1859); in German, Bopp's (4th ed., 1868), and, as a manual of reference for the advanced student, Benfey's (Leipsic, 1852). Wilson's lexicon (two editions, Calcutta, 1819 and 1832), an inferior work, but long indis- pensable to the student, is out of print and very dear ; a third edition was begun by Gold- stucker, but never finished. Westergaard's Radices Linguae Sanscritce is very valuable, and a necessary accompaniment of Wilson. Benfey has published a brief hand dictionary (London, 1866), and Monier Williams a very full and valuable lexicon in a single 4to volume (London, 1872). The great Sanskrit-German lexicon of Bohtlingk and Roth (St. Petersburg), an immense and admirable work, was com- pleted in 1875. Bopp's Glossarium Sanscritum (Berlin, 1847) serves the beginner in connection with the texts published by the same author, and contains all the roots and much linguistic information. A good and useful chrestomathy is still a desideratum; of Lassen's (Sanskrit and Latin, Bonn, 1838) a new edition has been issued by Gildemeister (Bonn, 1865); Boht- lingk's (St. Petersburg, 1845) lacks a glossary ; Benfey's (Leipsic, 1853-'4) is of small service to an unpractised scholar. Texts to be recom- mended to the beginner are Bopp's selections from the MahdbMrata, especially his Nalus (Berlin, 1832), or Williams's Nala (Oxford,