Ancient India: Its Language and Religions

parts. New scholars original: "personalities" entered the field and brought forward a new set of questions. To solve these, a seemingly endless—and in many ways, still endless—supply of newly obtained material was available. This was the most significant addition to our understanding of world literature ever produced by any branch of Oriental studies: the scientific recovery of the Veda The Vedas are the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, composed in an archaic form of Sanskrit.

Given the situation, bringing the Veda into the realm of science can hardly be called a "discovery" in the usual sense. The existence and importance of this great work in Indian original: "Hindu" literature had long been recognized. At every turn, the Indian texts that had already been studied pointed back to the Veda as their ultimate source—even more clearly than Greek literature leads back to the poems of Homer. Furthermore, manuscripts of the Vedic texts were not only found in India; many had long been held in large numbers by the libraries of Europe. However, almost no attempt had been made to study them systematically to see if a solid scientific foundation could be found within that immense, chaotic mass of writing.

The Sanskrit used in the great epic poems, or by the poet Kalidasa A famous 4th- or 5th-century Sanskrit playwright and poet, often called the "Shakespeare of India", was understood well enough. However, the specific dialect in which the most important parts of the Veda were written was as unfamiliar as the language of the medieval Troubadours original: "Troubadours"; lyric poets of southern France in the 11th–13th centuries who wrote in Occitan, which differs significantly from modern French would be to someone who only speaks modern French. Even without a deep study, it was easy to see the built-in difficulties caused by the unusual nature of the text and its strange construction...