Sanskrit Language and Literature

The idea of time was expressed in the indicative primarily by the termination : the primary endings expressing present and future time, the secondary endings past (and also, to some extent, future) time. Past time was usually still further defined by the prefixing of a particle, a or a, before the verb (corresponding to the Greek and Armenian augment), e.g., dcidheimi "I place," adadheim "I placed"=Gk. tithemi, etithen. The active voice indicated that the action performed had reference to some person or thing other than the doer, the middle that the action had refer ence to the doer in some way or other: e.g., active tanduldn nenekti "he washes the rice" (French it lave), middle pant nenikte "he washes his hands" (il se lave les mains). As in Greek, the middle could also be used to express passive sense, but this use was later confined to the perfect and especially the aorist stems, while a special present stem (characterized by the suffix –yd– with middle terminations) was used for the present passive: e.g. labhate "he takes," labhyate "is taken." The expression of person was inherent in the verbal form, and pronouns were used only when emphasis was desired.

As with the nouns, there were two types of stems—the athe matic with variable accent and variable stem form to which the terminations were directly attached (type as-ti "he is"=Gk. esti, Lat. est), the thematic with invariable accent and stem between which and the termination the vowel a was inserted (type vdh-a-ti =Lat. veh-i-t). There was a growing tendency for verbs to be brought into this class from the other, since its conjugation was the more normal; thus yundk-ti (3rd plur. yuiij-anti) "joins," contrasted with the already thematic Lat. jung-i-t, became later yuiij-a-ti (3rd plur. yuiij-a-nti). This type almost alone survives in the modern languages.

This verbal system was greatly simplified in Classical Sanskrit. The injunctive mood almost, and the subjunctive entirely, dis appeared or were incorporated in the imperative. The aorist and perfect stems remained only in the indicative, and the aorist participle disappeared. The infinitive was reduced to one form only (the accusative of a noun in –tu–, corresponding in form to the Latin supine, e.g., jiiatum "to know"= [g]notum), and the absolutive to two, one for simple, one for compound verbs. This left the present stem predominant; and though the aorist and the perfect survived in the indicative, their meaning was scarcely, if at all, to be distinguished from that of the past tense of the present stem (i.e., the imperfect). Finally even in Sanskrit itself the imperfect tended to be replaced by the past participle used as a finite verb. Among the spoken languages in some areas the

aorist seems to have been developed further as a past tense, but as a whole the verb of the modern languages possesses a present system based on the Sanskrit present stem and a past system based on the Sanskrit past participle.

Syntax.---In its main lines the syntax of Sanskrit is Indo European, and the primary uses of its cases, moods and tenses can be paralleled from other Indo-European languages. Its most peculiar development was in the region of composition. Com pounds, usually of not more than two members, are common in the Vedic texts. Even in the Epic their extension is considerable, and compounds consisting of three or f our separate members are not rare. In the later, more artificial, language compounds may be met with which extend over a page or more.

Vocabulary.

Sanskrit shows a constant change and develop ment of vocabulary. Part of this is in the natural evolution of already existing material. The main constituent of the vocabulary of Vedic Sanskrit is Indo-European, but even here there are some words which are not Indo-European. One source of such words is undoubtedly the languages which the Aryans found in India; and recently J. Przyluski has demonstrated that some (such as bdwilt "arrow," mayfirah "peacock," karpdsam "cotton") were received from Mutzda or Austro-Asiatic languages. Another source for new words was found in the spoken Aryan languages: words taken from these were given a Sanskrit form. In this way even original Sanskrit words returned under a new form : we have already seen how vikrita–, having in the spoken language become vikata–, was readopted in that form in the literary tongue, and retained side by side with vikrita–.

The history of Sanskrit literature like the political history of ancient India suffers from the total want of anything like a fixed chronology. In its vast range there is scarcely a work of im portance the date of which can be fixed with absolute certainty. The original composition of most Sanskrit works can indeed be confidently assigned to certain general periods but as to many of them, there is reason to doubt whether they have come down to us in their original shape.

The history of Sanskrit literature readily divides itself into two main periods—the Vedic and the classical. These periods partly overlap, and some of the later Vedic works are included in that period on account of their subject matter, and archaic style, rather than for any claim to a higher antiquity than some of the oldest works of classical Sanskrit. The first period may be put at 1500-200 B.C. and the second 500 B.C.-A.D. I000.