The Indian Heritage (An Anthology of Sanskrit Literature) (Fifth Edition) (A Rare Book) - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

Language: English
Pages: 495


Foreword

There are three outstanding features of India's cultural and social life. First, its fundamental unity in the midst of the baffling diversity; second, its capacity to absorb and adjust, and third, Its power to survive and consequent continuity.

The physical .and geographical entity known as India lies between the high Himalayas in the north and Cape Comorin (Kanya Kumari) in the south, and the two seas on the east and the west. Within this territory live today more than 360 millions of human beings who profess and follow all the known and existing religions of today, who speak, apart from the innumerable dialects, at least twelve well known languages, each of which has its own literary style and literature, whose mode of dress, life and food differ considerably from each other, and who, to a foreign observer, would appear to be altogether different from one another. Yet, in spite of all this truly baffling diversity, there is running behind and beneath it a fundamental unity which at once distinguishes an Indian from any foreigner and which, though not easily' explained or understood, is none the less real and living. That unity has remained intact and uninterrupted during the millennia of which any record is available.

This culture is a composite culture in the sense that, although in the ultimate analysis, it is Indian in origin and can be traced to Indian origin in the main, it has not hesitated to absorb whatever came in its way from other lands and other peoples in its long and chequered career. Thus, in the languages, in the religions, in the life, customs and traditions of the people, there has been a continuous flow and intake from outside. Whatever has come in its way has been absorbed and assimilated and

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