A History of Indian Literature: Introduction, Veda, Epics, Puranas and Tantras, Volume 1

Nearly seventy-five years ago Morice Winternitz, the famous Austrian scholar and Professor of Indology and Ethnology at the German University of Prague (Czechoslovakia) wrote the first volume of his History of Indian Literature in German. This was followed by the second and the third volumes after a few years. About two decades after the publication of the first volume, the author revised it and this revised version was first translated into English by Mrs. Ketker. This present English translation is based on the original German work and has the subject by different scholars in India and elsewhere. The volume is divided into two sections. Section I relates to Veda (the four Samhitas), Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanisads, Vedangas and the literature of the ritual. It discusses some of the most complicated problems such as the age of the Veda etc. on which Vedic scholars have differed widely. Section II relates to the study of two great Epics of India: The Ramayana and the Mahabharata. It carries out a general survey of the Puranic literature, and provides ample information about the Tantras too. The book presents a history of ancient culture of the Veda, the philosophical thought of Upanisads, the ethos of the epics and Puranas, the spiritual and material contents of the Tantra literature.