Oriental and Linguistic Studies ...: The Veda. The Avesta. The science of language |
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Common terms and phrases
already ancient antiquity Aryan Atharvan August Schleicher Avesta Avestan language Brâhmanas Brahmanic ceremonial character claim connection course culture derived dialect divine doctrine English essay existence expression fact force German give Goldstücker grammar Greek guage hand Hindu human hymns idea Indian Indo-European Indo-European languages Indra interpretation Iran Iranian knowledge labors later Latin learning less linguistic linguistic science literature Maruts Max Müller means ment method mind modern nature Oppert origin of language Pârsî passages peculiar period Persian philologist phonetic possession present primitive produced Professor Müller question race reason regard relations religion religious respecting Rig-Veda roots sacred Sanskrit Schleicher scholars science of language Semitic sound speak speech Steinthal theory thing tion tongues tradition translation true truth utterance Varuna Veda Vedic Vedic religion Vendidad verses whole words Yajur-Veda Zend Zoroaster Zoroastrian
Popular passages
Page 1 - The dissimilarity existing between the two, in respect to the stock of words of which each is made up, is, to say the least, not less marked. Not single words alone, but whole classes of derivations, and roots, with the families that are formed from them, which the Veda exhibits in frequent and familiar use, are wholly wanting, or have left but faint traces, in the classical dialect ; and this to such an extent as seems to demand, if the two be actually related to one another directly as mother and...
Page 135 - Indra speaks : — 4. The sacred songs are mine, (mine are) the prayers ; sweet are the libations ! My strength rises, my thunderbolt is hurled forth. They call for me, the prayers yearn for me. Here are my horses, they carry me towards them.
Page 13 - Atharva is the multitude of incantations which it contains ; these are pronounced either by the person who is himself to be benefited, or more often by the sorcerer for him, and are directed to the procuring of the greatest variety of desirable ends...
Page 242 - ... which the type or species to which it belongs was called into being, that conquers in the great struggle for life. So it is in thought and language. Not every random perception is raised to the dignity of a general notion, but only the constantly recurring, the strongest, the most useful ; and out of the endless number of general notions that suggest themselves to the observing and gathering mind, those only survive and receive definite phonetic expression which are absolutely requisite for carrying...
Page 87 - The main stream of the Aryan nations has always flowed towards the northwest. No historian can tell us by what impulse those adventurous Nomads were driven on...
Page 275 - ... proportion to the labour expended ; the greater part of what is said and written upon it is mere windy talk, the assertion of subjective views which commend themselves to no mind save the one that produces them, and which are apt to be offered with a confidence, and defended with a tenacity, that are in inverse ratio to their acceptableness. This has given the whole question a bad repute among sober-minded philologists
Page 1 - The language of the Vedas is an older dialect, varying very considerably, both in its grammatical and lexical character, from the classical Sanskrit. Its grammatical peculiarities run through all departments : euphonic rules, word-formation and composition, declension, conjugation, syntax...
Page 372 - By a university we mean, of course, a highest institution of learning, according to that ideal which is more nearly realized in Germany than elsewhere ; a body of eminent teachers, with such external apparatus, of trustees, buildings, collections, and the like, as is needed to give their work its highest efficiency ; teachers who are also investigators, actively engaged in the pursuit of knowledge, for its own sake and for the sake of its communication to others ; men whose business is equally the...
Page 335 - Modern science, on the contrary, claims to be proving, by the most careful and exhaustive study of man and his works, that our race began its existence on earth at the bottom of the scale...
Page 127 - I mean by translation, not a mere rendering of the hymns of the Rig-veda into English, French, or German, but a full account of the reasons which justify the translator in assigning such a power to such a word, and such a meaning to such a sentence.