VEDIC GRAMMAR

Vedic grammar has never till now been treated separately and as a whole. Both in India and in the West the subject has hitherto been handled only in connexion with Classical Sanskrit. Hundreds of Panini's Sutras deal with the language of the Vedas; but the account they give of it is anything but comprehensive. In the West, Benfey was the first, more than half a century ago (1852), to combine a description of the linguistic peculiarities of the Vedas with an account of the traditional matter of Panini; but as Vedic studies were at that time still in their infancy, only the Samaveda and about one-fourth of the Rgveda having as yet been published, the Vedic material utilized in his large grammar was necessarily very limited in extent. In Whitney's work' the language of the Vedas, which is much more fully represented, is treated in its historical connexion with Classical Sanskrit. v