Customer Reviews

A History Of Sanskrit Literature

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I typed "Sanskrit Literature" into Amazon and found <a href="http://www.amazon.com/History-Sanskrit-Literature-Aurthur-Macdonnell/dp/1596053100/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243002397&sr=1-1">A History of Sanskrit Literature</a> by Aurthur A. Macdonnell. Even though this book was written in 1900 I thought it was great- if only because the age meant that the complexity level was low. There is no way around the statement that "Sanskrit literature is difficult to fully grasp." First of all- it goes way, way, way back- way beyond the Greek texts (or Persian texts), so we're talking about the common linguistic ancestor of English, Spanish, German, Greek, etc. Second of all, "Indians" were not that big into chronology or dating events, so it's hard to put one thing after the other "western history style." Third, there is no defined 'center' to the production of literature: these texts are generated all over the map- though north west India seems to be a focal point and finally, the texts are generated over thousands of years.

All that being said, MacDonnell does a more then capable job of putting me in the state of mind where I can order the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140449892/sr=1-2/qid=1243002783/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1243002783&sr=1-2&seller=">Rigveda</a> and know that I'm getting the foundational text in the field. I find it's pretty rewarding to read about this ancient culture that we have in common with everyone who speaks English, German, French, Spanish, Hindi, Parth, Urdu whatever. Unforutnately the Germans thought it was pretty cool too which is why we all cringe when we learn that this founding culture are often called "Aryans." Oops! Western Intellectual History gone wild.