Logo

Synopsis Vedic Grammar has never till now been treated separately and as a whole. Both in India and in the West the subject has hitherto been handled only in connexion with Classical Sanskrit. Hundreds of Panini’s Sutras deal with the language of the Vedas; but the account they give of it is anything but comprehensive. In the West, Benfey was the first, more than half a century ago (1852), to combine a description of the linguistic peculiarities of the Vedas with an account of the traditional matter of Panini; but as Vedic studies were at that time still in their infancy, only the Samaveda and about one-fourth of the Rgveda having as yet been published, the Vedic material utilized in his large grammar was necessarily very limited in extent. In Whitney’s work the language of the Vedas, which is much more fully represented, is treated in its historical connexion with Classical Sanskrit. Partly for this reason, his work does not supply a definite account of the grammar of the Samhitas as compared Brahmanas or to a particular Samhita is often not apparent. Professor Wackernagel’s grammar, which when finished will present the ancient language of India more completely than any other work on the subject, deals with the combined Vedic and post-Vedic material from the point of view of Comparative Philology. Different sections or individual points of Vedic grammar have been the subject of separately published treatises or of special articles scattered in various oriental and philological journals or other works of a miscellaneous character. It is advisable that all this as well as additional material should now be brought together so as to afford a general survey of the subject.