A Comparative Study - Sanskrit Books

PREFACE vii
Preface
It has been very rightly said that choosing to work on ancient
India is like choosing to plunge into a fathomless ocean.
This is so because ancient Indian literature consisting of the
four Vedas (Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva); four upa-Vedas
(Dhanurveda, science of archery; Ayurveda, the science of
medicine; Gandharva Veda, science of music and dance; and
Sthapatyaveda, the science of architecture); six Vedangas
(limbs of the Vedas) i.e. Vyakarana (grammar), Jyotish
(astronomy), nirukt (etymology), Shiksa (pronunciation)
Chanda (meter) and Kalpa, Alankar the twelve Brahmanas
including Aitareya, Satapatha, Taittiriya, and Gopatha among
others; the Aranyakas; nearly a dozen Upanishads including
Chandogya, Kena, Prasna, Mundaka and Mandukyad Katha;
the six schools of philosophy (Nyaya, Poorva Mimamsa,
Vaisheshika, Sankhya, Yoga-Darshan and Uttara Mimamsa);
four Kalpa Sutras (Shrauta, Grihya, Dharma and Sulbh);
eighteen Puranas (Matsya, Markandeya, Bhagavata, Bhavishya,
Brahma, Brahmanda, Brahmavaivarta, Vayu, Vishnu, Varaha,
Vamana, Agni, Nardiya, Padma, Linga, Garuda, Kurma and
Skanda and equal number of Upa-Puranas (sub or auxiliary
Puranas); eighteen Smritis and the two epics (the Ramayana
and the Mahabharata) constitute a plethora of literature
which is so extensive, so diverse and so dense that it is beyond
the capacity of a single human being to comprehend, analyse
and interpret even a fragment of it. The contribution of
very accomplished scholars who have spent their whole lives
in trying to analyse and interpret it is no more than a mere
grain of sand in a vast desert or a drop of water in an ocean.
Then there are those who have remained engrossed only