ABSTRACT
Ancient Hindu worlt~ are of a different character. If they are defective in some respects, as they undoubtedly arc. they are defective as accounts of "dynasties" of wars, of so-caned historical incidents. Or" the other har:d, they give us a full, connected, and clear aCCOI'I.Dt of the advancement of civilisation, of the progress of the human mind, such as we shall seek for in vain among the records of any other equally ancient nation. TbeIiteraturc of each period ir a perfect picture-a photograph, if we may so call it-of the Hindu civilisation of that period, And the works of successive periods form' a complete history of ancient Hindu civilisation for three thousand years, so full, so clear, that he who runs may read, -
Inscriptions on stone and .tablets, and writings on papyri are recorded with a design to commemorate passing events. The songs and hymns and religious effusions of a people are an unconscious and true reflecdon of its civilisation and its fhought, ' The earliest effusions of the .Hindus were not recorded in writing,- they are, therefore, full and unrestricted.e-they are a natural and true expression of the .nation'a thoughts and feelings. They were preserved, not 'on stone, but in the faithful memory of the people) who handed down the~t heritage from century to century with a scrupulous exactitude which, in modern days) would be considered' a miracle.
