e years of his student life. The Guru, or
teacher, pronounces a group of words, and the pupils repeat after him.
After writing was introduced, the Brahmans were strictly forbidden to read
the Vedas, or to write them. Caesar says the same of the Druids. Even
Panini never alludes to written words or letters. None of the ordinary
modern words for book, paper, ink, or writing have been found in any
ancient Sanskrit work. No such words as _volumen_, volume; _liber_, or
inner bark of a tree; _byblos_, inner bark of papyrus; or book, that is
beech wood. But Buddha had learnt to write, as we find by a book
translated into Chinese A.D. 76. In this book Buddha instructs his
teacher; as in the "Gospel of the Infancy" Jesus explains to his teacher
the meaning of the Hebrew alphabet. So Buddha tells his teacher the names
of sixty-four alphabets. The first authentic inscription in India is of
Buddhist origin, belonging to the third century before Christ.

In the most ancient Vedic period the language had become complete. There
is no growing language in the Vedas.

In regard to the age of these Vedic writings, we will quote the words of
Max Mueller, at the conclusion of his admirable work on the "History of
Ancient Sanskrit Literature," from which most of this section has been
taken:--

"Oriental scholars are frequently suspected of a desire to make the
literature of the Eastern nations appear more ancient than it is. As to
myself, I can truly say that nothing would be to me a more welcome
discovery, nothing would remove so many doubts and difficulties, as
some suggestions as to the manner in which certain of the Vedic hymns
could have been added to the original collection during the Brahmana or
Sutra periods, or, if possible, by the writers of our MSS., of which
most are not older than the fifteenth century. But these MSS., though
so modern, are checked by the Anukramanis. Every hymn which stands in
our MSS. is counted in the Index of Saunaka, who is anterior to the
invasion of Alexander. The Sutras, belonging to the same period as
Saunaka, prove the previous existence of every chapter of the
Brahmanas; and I doubt whether there is a single hymn in the Sanhita
of the Rig-Veda which could not be checked by some passage of the
Brahmanas and Sutras. The chronological limits assigned to the Sutra
and Brahmana periods will seem to most Sanskrit scholars too narrow
rather than too wide