A History of Sanskrit Literature: Classical Period

Sanskrit is indeed the language not only of kavya or literature but of all the Indian sciences and excepting the Pali of the Hinayana Buddhists and the Prakrt of the jains, it is the only language in which the last 2 or 3 thousand years and it has united the culture of Indian and given it a synchronous form in spite of general differences of popular speech, racial and geographical, economical and other differences, It is the one ground that has made it possible to develop the idea of Hindu nationhood in which kinship of culture plays the most important part. Under the shadow of one Vedic religion there had indeed developed many subsidiary religions, Saiva, Vaisnava, Sakta, etc. and within each of these, there had been many sects and subsects which have often emphasised the domestic quarrel, but in spite of it all there is a unity of religions among the Hindus, for the mother of all religious and secular culture had been Sanskrit.

Maurice Winterintz' work in three volumes seems to be the most comprehensive treatment of Sanskrit Literature. Prof. S.N. Dasgupta was approached for English translation of its 3rd Volume, after Winternitz death. Later he was approached by Calcutta University to undertake his own work on the subjects that formed the content of Volume 3rd of Professor Winternitz' work. Volume I deals with Kavya and Alamkara and Volume II is expected to deal with other Technical Sciences.