which, with the exception of the Egyptian monumental records and papyrus rolls, and the recently discovered Assyrian literature, is probably the oldest literary document in existence. But it seems impossible to fix, with anything approaching to certainty, any date for the composition of the hymns. In the first Hymn of Book I. ancient and recent or modern Ṛishis or seers are spoken of, and there is other internal evidence that some hymns are much older than others. Colebrooke came to the conclusion, from astronomical calculations, that a certain Vedic calendar was composed in the fourteenth century before the Christian era; from which it would follow, that as this calendar must have been prepared after the arrangement of the Ṛigveda and the inclusion of the most modern hymn, the date of the earliest hymn might be carried back, perhaps, some thousand years. The correctness of Colebrooke’s conclusions, however, has been questioned, and some recent scholars consider that his calculations are of a very vague character, and do not yield any such definite date. In the absence of any direct evidence, the opinions of scholars vary and must continue to vary with regard to the age of the Hymns of the Ṛigveda. “The reasons, however,” (to quote Professor Weber[1]) “by which we are fully justified in regarding the literature of India as the most ancient literature of which written records on an extensive scale have been handed down to us are these:— In the more ancient parts of the Ṛigveda Sanhitâ, we find the Indian race settled on the north-western borders of India, in the Panjáb, and even beyond the Panjáb, on the Kubhá, or Κωφήν, in Kabul. The gradual spread of the race from these seats towards the east, beyond the Sarasvatí and over Hindustán as far as the Ganges, can be traced in the later portions of the Vedic writings almost step by step. The writings of the following period, that of the epic, consist of accounts of the internal conflicts among the conquerors of Hindustán themselves, as, for
- ↑ The History of Indian Literature, by Albrecht Weber. Trübner’s Oriental Series, 1878.
