and a rhythmic one adopted in its stead, which is employed exclusively even for strictly scientific exposition.
During the classical epoch, Brahmanic culture was intro duced into and overspread the southern portion of the continent. This period, embracing in general secular subjects, achieved distinction in many branches of literature, in national as well as Court Epic, in lyric, especially didactic poetry, in the drama, in the fairy tales, fables and romances. Everywhere, we find much true beauty, which is however marred by obscurity of style and the ever increasing taint of artificiality* These works are in no way dominated by a sense of harmony and proportion. .The tendency has been towards exaggeration manifesting in all directions. Among these are ;—
(i) The almost incredible development of detail in
ritual observance ;
(ii) The extraordinary excesses of asceticism ; (iii) The grotesque representations of mythology in art ; (iv) The frequent employment of vast numbers in description ;
(v) The immense bulk of the epics ; (vi) The unparalleled conciseness of one of the forms of
prose ;
(vii) The huge compounds employed in later prose romances.
The total lack of historical sense is so characteristic that there appears an entire lack of chronology. Two causes account for this :—
(i) Early India wrote no history, because it never made any. Ancient India never went through a struggle for life like the Greeks and the Romans in themer a simple and compact prose had gradually been developed, but in the latter this form is abandoneden the apparent simplicity" says Colebrooke, " vanishes in the perplexity of structure. The endless pursuit of exceptions and limitations so disjoins the general precepts, that the reader cannot keep in view their intended