Sanskrit Grammar by William Dwight Whitney is a comprehensive guide to the Sanskrit language, tailored to both classical Sanskrit and the older dialects found in Vedic texts. Whitney's approach to this grammar is distinct from other existing models, aiming to present the language as it is used in literature and as understood by native grammarians.
The book meticulously covers the forms and constructions of Sanskrit, incorporating insights from Vedic texts and Brahmana works, both printed and in manuscript form. Whitney's work is grounded in the principles of linguistic science, treating Sanskrit as an accented language. This aspect is crucial, as the author delves into the nature of Sanskrit accent, exploring its changes in combination, inflection, and the tonal qualities of individual words. This emphasis on accent marks a significant departure from some traditional approaches, reflecting a modern linguistic perspective.
Whitney addresses the practical needs of learners by employing different font sizes, making the text more user-friendly for those aiming to master classical Sanskrit. Within the confines of the language itself, Whitney offers a historical treatment of linguistic facts, making this work an essential resource for both students and scholars of Sanskrit.
It was in June, 1875, as I chanced to be for a day or two in Leipzig, that I was unexpectedly invited to prepare the Sanskrit grammar for the Indo-European series projected by Messrs. Breitkopf and Hartel. After some consideration, and consultation with friends, I accepted the task, and have since devoted to it what time could be spared from regular duties, after the satisfaction of engagements earlier formed. If the delay seems a long one, it was nevertheless unavoidable; and I would gladly, in the interest of the work itself, have made it still longer. In every such case, it is necessary to make a compromise between measurably satisfying a present pressing need, and doing the subject fuller justice at the cost of more time; and it seemed as if the call for a Sanskrit grammar on a somewhat different plan from those already in use - excellent as some of these in many respects are was urgent enough to recommend a speedy completion of the work begun.
The objects had especially in view in the preparation of this grammar have been the following:
1. To make a presentation of the facts of the language primarily as they show themselves in use in the literature, and only secondarily as they are laid down by the native grammarians.
It seems desirable to give here such a sketch of the history of Indian literature as shall show the relation to one another of the different periods and forms of the language treated in the following grammar, and the position of the works there quoted.
The name "Sanskrit" (samskrta, 1087 d, adorned, elaborated, perfected), which is popularly applied to the whole ancient and sacred language of India, belongs more properly only to that dialect which, regulated and established by the labors of the native grammarians, has led for the last two thousand years or more an artificial life, like that of the Latin during most of the same period in Europe, as the written and spoken means of communication of the learned and priestly caste; and which even at the present day fills that office. It is thus distinguished, on the one hand, from the later and derived dialects as the Prakrit, forms of language which have datable monuments from as early as the third century before Christ, and which are represented by inscriptions and coins, by the speech of the uneducated characters in the Sanskrit dramas (see below), and by a limited literature; the Pali, a Prakritic dialect which became the sacred language of Buddhism in Farther India, and is still in service there as such; and yet later and more altered tongues forming the transition to the languages of modern India. And, on the other hand, it is distinguished, but very much less sharply and widely, from the older dialects or forms of speech presented in the canonical literature, the Veda and Brahmaņa.
This fact, of the fixation by learned treatment of an authorized mode of expression, which should thenceforth be used according to rule in the intercourse of the educated, is the cardinal one in Indian linguistic history; and as the native grammatical literature has determined the form of the language, so it has also to a large extent determined the grammatical treatment of the language by European scholars.
Much in the history of the learned movement is still obscure, and opinions are at variance even as to points of prime consequence. Only the concluding works in the development of the grammatical science have been preserved to us; and though they are evidently the perfected fruits of a long series of learned labors, the records of the latter are lost beyond recovery. The time and the place of the creation of Sanskrit are unknown; and as to its occasion, we have only our inferences and conjectures to rely upon. It seems, however, altogether likely that the grammatical sense of the ancient Hindus was awakened in great measure by their study of the traditional sacred texts, and by their com- parison of its different language with that of contemporary use. It is certain that the grammatical study of those texts (cakhas, liť'ly branches), phonetic and other, was zealously and effectively followed in the Brahmanic schools; this is attested by our possession of a number of phonetico-grammatical treatises, praticakhyas (prati cakham belonging to each several text), each having for subject one principal Vedic text, and noting all its peculiarities of form; these, both by the depth and exactness of their own researches and by the number of authorities which they quote, speak plainly of a lively scientific activity continued during a long time.
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