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Where do you begin with a literature that stretches from remembered hymns to court drama, fables and astronomy?
Arthur Anthony Macdonell offers a clear path through ancient India's spoken and written heritage in A History of Sanskrit Literature. He begins with the Rigveda and the Vedic age, tracing hymns, ritual prose and early philosophy preserved through memory. From there, he leads you toward the great epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.
The journey continues through court poetry, Sanskrit drama, lyrics and tales before turning to grammar, law, philosophy, medicine and astronomy. Macdonell introduces Kalidasa and explains where famous works belong in this broad history. He gives dates where he can, acknowledges uncertainty, and offers frank judgments: praise for writing he admires, criticism for what he finds dull or overdone.
What you’ll discover
- A place to begin Find a chronological outline that helps you approach Sanskrit literature without knowing the language.
- From hymns to philosophy Follow Macdonell's account of the Rigveda, ritual writings and the early thought of the Upanishads.
- The great epic poems Discover where the Mahabharata and Ramayana stand within the wider story of Indian literature.
- Poetry shaped for courts Meet Kalidasa and explore a literary world of rich imagery, strict style and drama.
- Beyond poetry and stories See how grammar, law, medicine and astronomy extend the survey into other fields of learning.
Who will love it
For readers who want a firm outline of Indian literature before exploring its texts, and students who need names, dates and categories. For anyone drawn to Vedic hymns, epics, court poetry, drama, fables and philosophy.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- The Rigveda is the oldest voice
- Other Vedas turn hymns into ritual
- From ritual to the Upanishads
- The Mahabharata is a library in a poem
- The Ramayana and the Puranas
- Court poetry and the art of Kalidasa
- Sanskrit drama and its great playwrights
- Lyrics, fables and the tales that travelled
- Sciences, philosophy and what was missing
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- Audiobook
- 15 h 41 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 6 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Storia della letteratura sanscrita
by Arthur Anthony Macdonell · 1900
From Vedic hymns to fables and science, Macdonell maps ancient India's literature and shows why its texts matter.
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In short
Imagine a literature so old that its first hymns were kept alive by memory alone for centuries before anyone wrote them down. A History of Sanskrit Literature, by the Oxford scholar Arthur Anthony Macdonell, maps that world in a single volume.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
The Rigveda is the oldest voice
Macdonell starts with the Rigveda, the oldest surviving work of Indian literature. It holds just over a thousand hymns in ten books, sung by priestly families to gods such as Indra, Agni and Soma. Careful memory carried the text almost unchanged to the modern age.
He is candid about quality. Many hymns are repetitive requests for cattle, sons and victory. Yet some are fine poetry, like the dawn hymns, and one is the lament of a gambler who cannot leave the dice.
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What is A History of Sanskrit Literature about?
It is a survey of Sanskrit writing from the Vedic hymns through the epics, court poetry, drama, fables and the learned works on grammar, law, philosophy and science, arranged in order of time.
When was A History of Sanskrit Literature written?
Arthur Macdonell published it in 1900 as part of a series of short histories of the world's literatures. It reflects the scholarship of that time, and some of its dates have since been revised.
Who was Arthur Macdonell?
He was a Scottish-born Oxford professor of Sanskrit, who died in 1930. He also wrote a Vedic grammar, a Sanskrit dictionary and a well-known study of Vedic mythology.
The author
Arthur Anthony Macdonell
1854–1930 · British Sanskrit scholar
Arthur Anthony Macdonell (1854–1930) was a British scholar of Sanskrit, born in Muzaffarpur, India. He studied and taught at Oxford, where he was professor of Sanskrit from 1899 to 1926. He wrote A History of Sanskrit Literature, published in 1900, and books on Sanskrit grammar and Vedic mythology.
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