Chapter I: Understanding Literary and Archaeological Sources

Questions:
Q1: What was the ancient way of different preserving the ancient text?
Answer: Ancient Indian manuscripts were often made with palm leafs. The leaf used
was either from the talipot palm or palmyra palm. Palm leaf manuscript had to be
stored very carefully as they were vulnerable to many natural hazard such as- heat,
insect, water, fungus, dust and fire as well as the danger of destruction by the human
hands.

There were special techniques for preserving and treating the old palm leaf
manuscript. First, the manuscript is fumigated and treated with insecticides. The
leaves are then cleaned using solvents such as- water, detergent or ethyl alcohol. Next,
any splits, broken or damaged portions are repaired. This can be done using special,
thin paper and water soluble mixture including polyvinyl acetate and methyl cellulose.
Once they are repaired completely, the leaves are then oiled to make them flexible and
polished gently with soft, dry cloth. They can then be restrung and covered attached.
The repaired manuscript has to be stored carefully so that it is protected from any
fresh damage.

The discovery, preservation and care of the ancient manuscript are the crucial points
for preserving the historical heritage.

Q2: On what basis we divide the Indian text in different category explain by giving
examples?

Answer: Ancient and early medieval Indian text can be divided into categories on the
basis of language, genre, content, age and tradition or class of the literature to which it
belongs. Language belonging to the same family have certain structural similarities
and a significant number of similar, related words. For instance, Hindi, Punjabi,
Bengali, Marathi, Assamese, Sindh, Gujarati, Oriya, Nepali and Kashmiri all belong to
the Indo-European family. So do Persian, Greek, Latin, German, French, Dutch,
Italian, Spanish, Armenian and other languages of Europe and Asia. The languages of
the Dravidian family- Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Tulu- are today largely
spoken in the South India. Exceptions include Brahui, which is spoken in the
Baluchistan area of Pakistan, Gondi in the central India and Malto in the rajmahal hills
in the eastern India. Santhali, Khasi, Mundari and some other languages of the eastern
India belong to the Austro-Asiatic family. Certain languages of the North-East, such as
Garo, Bodo, Manipuri and Lushai belong to the Tibetian-Burmese family. Andamese,
one of the languages spoken in the Andaman Island are apparently not related to any
of the known language family.

The oldest text of Indian subcontinent— the Vedas— are in Sanskrit. Sanskrit belongs
to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family so do the ancient Pali and
Prakrit. There are various dialect of Prakrit-e.g., Maharashtrian, Shauraseni, Magadhi.
Apabrahmsha is a term used for the development of Prakrit up to the end of 1st century
BCE. Among the Dravidian family, the Tamil is the oldest literature followed by
Kannada. Many of the other regional languages and dialect which we are familiar with
took shape in the c. 1000 to 1500.

Languages have histories and change with the time. The pre-classical Sanskrit of Rig
Veda is different from the classical Sanskrit of Kalidas’s poetry. The term ‘Classical
Sanskrit’ refers to the language which was codified by the 4th/5th century BCE
grammarian Paninin in his Asthadhyayi. Another important Sanskrit grammar is
Pantanjali’s Mahabhashya (2nd century CE). The oldest surviving Prakrit grammar is
Varuruchi’s Prakritprakasha, whose date is debated. The Tolkappiyam is the oldest
surviving Tamil grammar whose date goes back to the early century CE.