A History of Sanskrit Literature

by A. Berriedale Keith

Taken in conjunction with the author's Sanskrit Drama, this work covers the field of classical Sanskrit literature as opposed to the Vedic literature, the epics and the Puranas. To bring the subject-matter within the limits of a single volume has rendered it necessary to treat the scientific literature briefly, and to avoid discussions of its subject-matter, which appertains rather to the historian of grammar, philosophy, law, medicine, astronomy or mathematics, than to the literary historians.

The mode of treatment has rendered it possible, for the first time in any treatise in English on Sanskrit literature, to pay due attention to the literary qualities of the Kavya. It is in the great writers of Kavya alone, headed by Kalidasa that we find an in-depth feeling for life and nature matched with perfection of expression and rhythm. The Kavya literature includes some of the great poetry of the world.

The contents include:

• The Origin of Sanskrit
• The Origin and Development of Kavya Literature
• Kalidasa
• Bharavi
• Historical Kavya Lyric Poetry
• The Didactic Fables
• The Brhatkatha
• The Great Romances
• Theories of Poetry
• Lexicography and Matrices
• The Beginnings of Grammatical Study
• Dharmasastras
• The Science of Politics Philosophy and Religion
• Medicine
• Astronomy, Astrology and Mathematics and many more topics of vital interest.