It was in the Pre-partition days (previous to 1947) when I was yet in the service of the D.A.-V. College, Lahore that I conceived a plan of writing a comparatively small book on the use and function of the Sanskrit Preposition. Little did I imagine then that it would assume the dimensions that it has. I set myself the task of studying the vast Sanskrit literature, both Vedic and Classical, in my quest of the appropriate uses of the Sanskrit Prepositions. I endeavoured to discover their true meanings with the help of the commentaries, wherever available, which I have quoted in this work in extenso. But I have not allowed my regard for the old commentators to prevail over my sense of judgment. I have on occasions discarded the meanings offered by them in favour of my suggestions, for which I have invariably given reasons. I have also gone into textual criticism, wherever it was called for.
Though an arduous task, I have never felt it as such. The study of the Sanskrit prepositions has been a fascinating one for me. Indeed the more I studied them, the more fascinated I was. I have roamed all these years in the realm of the Vedic literature, the Samhitas, the Brahmanas, the Sutras (Srauta, Grhya and Dharma). The language of these ancient works is rich with prepositions. The seers have a predilection for the use of the prepositions. They would use a single root and prefix to it a preposition to express an action or a modification of it. For each additional modification, they would have an additional preposition; thus a root carries sometimes as five prepositions. There is little like it in the later literature, many as termed classical. Prepositions there are, but they are few and far between. The wealth of meanings is missing here. Strikingness too is gone.
The Epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata match with the Vedic Texts in the use of the Sanskrit Prepositions. Here we find a copious use of the prepositions with an abounding variety of sense, almost as striking and charming as that met with in the Vedic literature. I have pored over the pages of the Epics for years and studied all available commentaries and embodied in this work the varying comments offered therein.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
Astrology (110)
Ayurveda (102)
Gita (70)
Hinduism (1221)
History (141)
Language & Literature (1616)
Learn Sanskrit (26)
Mahabharata (28)
Performing Art (63)
Philosophy (413)
Puranas (123)
Ramayana (50)
Sanskrit Grammar (240)
Sanskrit Text Book (33)
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