ABSTRACT
W1:at is the contemporaneous literature of the Epic Age? And what is the contemporaneous literature .of the Philosophical or Rationalistic Age that followed ? The Brahmanas, the Aranyakas, and the Upanishads, which constantly refer to the actions of'the Kurus, the Panchalas, the Kosalas, and the Videhas Iz"'i.Jing itt the 'V"alley, of tile Gauges, form the literature of the Epic i\ge. The Sutras, which presuppose the rise of rationalism in
India, and which were composed when the Aryans had expanded allover India, form the literature of the Rationalistic Age,
About thirty years ago Professor Max lVI\illc-:.' published his great work on Sanscrit yterature, and gave reasons, which have since generally been accepted, for considering the mass of Surra literature as subsequent to the Brahmana literature. He showed thatl · the Sutra literature presupposed and quoted from the Brahmana literature, and the converse was never the case. He showed that the Brahrnana literature reflected an age of priestly supremacy and unquestioning obedience on the part of the people, which was anterior to the practical and' philosophical and sceptical age of the Sutras. He showed that the Brahmana literature down to the Upanishads was considered revealed in India, while all Sutra works were ascribed to human authors. And he enforced these arguments by a wealth of illustrations and a degree of erudition which left nothing to be desired.v
It is needless to say that \ve cannot enter into the
details of these learned discussions. True to the plan of the present work, we will make only a few remarks not 01) the literary, but on the Ilistorical bearings of the facts stated above. What ,is the historical import of this sequence in the different classes of Ancient Sanscrit literature? What is the historical reason of this sequence? Wl:y did the Ancient Hindus compose their works in one particular form, the Vedic hymns, for a number of centuries? Why ...did they gradually abandon that style of compssition, and write the prolix and dogmatic prose Brahrnanas, for some succeeding centuries? An-! why again' did they gradually change this for the concise aphorisms of the Sutras during the next few centuries? What 'is. there in the nature of things that would induce the Ancient Hindus to take up different styles of com-.position at different periods of their history,-as if to afford the future historian a clue to the dates of their v-ritings ?
