PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. In preparing this edition for the press, I am reminded how much this volume is indebted to the labours of the different authors whose works are quoted in it, viz., Burnouf, Lassen, Cowell, Campbell, Ellis, Caldwell, Clough, Turnour, Fausböll, Rajendralal Mitra, H. H. Wilson, Weber, Müller, Goldstücker, Roth, Benfey, Bopp, Kuhn, A. W. Schlegel, Pictet, Spiegel, Haug, Whitney, Windischmann, Langlois, Renan, Curzon, and Elphinstone. To these names I have now to add those of Messrs. Beames, Childers, D'Alwis, Aufrecht, Curtius, Vullers, Schleicher, Fick, Crawfurd, Huxley, and G. Rawlinson, from whose writings or communications I have derived valuable assistance in augmenting my materials, or revising different portions of the work. My obligations to these scholars are acknowledged in the text. The improvements which have been introduced in this edition are principally the following: the Comparative Tables of Words in pp. 15, ff.; 76, ff.; 221, ff.; 230, ff.; and 287, ff.; as well as the statements of Gathā and Vedic forms in pp. 117, ff., and 205, ff.; have been greatly enlarged. My conclusions regarding the value of affinity in language as a proof of affinity in race, and the effects of climate upon colour, have been so far modified that I no longer venture to pronounce positively that the Brahmanical Indians are of pure Indo-European descent; but leave it an open question whether the blood of their Arian ancestors may not on their immigration into India have been commingled with that of darker tribes previously in occupation of the country. In the Appendix, Note B, pp. 446, ff., reference is made to a recent paper by Prof. Kern, in which he alleges the insufficiency of the proofs heretofore adduced of the posteriority of the Atharvaveda to the Rigveda; and more detailed grounds in support of that opinion are adduced. Some remarks are also made in pp. 454, ff. on the views recently expressed by the same writer, and by Prof. Haug, on the antiquity of the caste-system. The Appendix and the Additional Notes contain further illustrations, or corrections, of various statements in the text. The volume has, further, been revised throughout; but, with the exception of the alterations which have been just specified, it remains essentially the same as before. EDINBURGH, 1871. J. M. PAGES. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE LANGUAGES OF NORTHERN INDIA: Sect. I. The North-Indian dialects, ancient and modern. Sect. II. The Prakrit dialects employed in the dramas. Views of the Indian grammarians on the relation of the Prakrits to Sanskrit, and on the other elements in their composition. Sect. V. The Pāli, and its relations to Sanskrit and Sect. VI. The dialects of the rock and pillar inscriptions Sect. VII. The dialect of the Buddhist Gāthās, and its relation to the Pāli: Summary of the results of this and Sect. VIII. On the original use of Sanskrit as a ver- nacular tongue; on the manner in which the Prākṛits arose out of it, and on the period of their formation: views of Professors Weber, Aufrecht, Lassen, and Benfey. 144-160. Sect. IX. Reasons for supposing that the Sanskrit was 161-214. Sect. X. Various stages of Sanskrit literature, and the different forms in which they exhibit the Sanskrit language: the later Vedic commentators: earlier ex- pounders the Nirukta: the Brahmanas: the Vedic hymns: imperfect comprehension of them in later times 215-357. CHAPTER II. AFFINITIES OF THE INDIANS WITH THE PERSIANS, GREEKS AND ROMANS, AND DERIVATION OF ALL THESE NATIONS FROM CENTRAL ASIA. 217-228. Sect. I. Introductory remarks on comparative philology: affinities of the Sanskrit and Persian with each other. 228-267. Sect. II. Detailed illustrations of the affinities of Sanskrit with the Zend, Greek, and Latin languages: the last. three languages not derived from Sanskrit. 267-278. Sect. III. That affinity in language affords some pre- sumption of affinity in race: modes in which a greater or less diversity of language and institutions would arise in different branches of the same stock: Central Asia the birth-place of the Aryas. 279-286. Sect. IV. Whether there is any objection arising from |