A History of Civilization in Ancient India: Vol. II

A CHANGE came over the spirit of the Hindu world in the third period, and the change is reflected in the Sûtra literature of India. The Vindhya range was the extreme southern limit of the Hindu world in the Epic Period; but now the Hindus crossed that chain of mountains, and penetrated beyond the wastes and jungles of Central India and founded powerful Hindu kingdoms on the banks of the Godâvarî, and the Krishnâ, extending to the blue waters of the ocean. In the east the kingdom of Magadha ro$e to power and greatness, and threw out colonies into Bengal and Orissa, and in the west the kingdom of Saurâshtra extended its limits to the Arabian Sea. This expansion of the Hindu world had its effect on the Hindu mind; Hindus became more practical and more venturesome, and their ideas became more expanded. Whatever literature was handed down from ancient times was put in a condensed, prac-tical shape, and new discoveries m every department of ed to be revealed, no such claim is put forward for the Sûtras, which are admitted to be human compositions. The so-called reveakd literature of India closes therefore with the Upanishads, which form the last portions of the Brâhmanas.