A History of Indian Literature

by Maurice Winternitz

Nearly seventy-five years ago Maurice Winternitz, the famous Austrian scholar and wrote the first volume of his A History of Indian Literature in German. This was followed by the second and third volumes after a few years. 

This English translation is based on the original German work and has been revised in the light of further researches on the subject by different scholars in India and elsewhere.

The volume is divided into two sections. Section I relates to Veda (the four Samhitas), Brahamanas, Aranyakas, Upanisads, Vedangas and the literature of the Ritual. It discusses some of the most complicated problems such as the Age of the Veda, etc. on which Vedic scholars have differed widely.

Section II relates to the study of two great Epics of India: The Ramayana and the Mahabharata. It carries out a general survey of the Puranic literature, and provides ample information about the Tantras too. The book presents a history of ancient culture of the Veda, the philosophical thought of Upanishads, the ethos of the epics and Puranas, the spiritual and material contents of the Tantra literature.