Introduction to the Nirukta and the Literature Related to It

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Learned tradition in India ascribes: the 2 two {treatises united in this publication* to as high a place in the history of the interpretation of the sacred writings of the Hindus as Panini's does in the history of Grammar. SO far as the sources are known to me, this tradition cannot, it is true, be traced very far back, but in view of the unanimity of the testimonies, we have as little ground to call this tradition in question, as that concerning the author of the celebrated grammatical aphorisms. Both teachers, Yaska and Panini, appear on the stage separated by so great an interval from the strictly learned period of Indian literature, which begins with the decline and expulsion of Buddhism, that they are recognized unconditionally by these later arrangers and compilers of the learning of a bygone age, as authoritative.