THE SANSKRIT LANGUAGE.--ITS RELATIONS TO CERTAIN MODERN LANGUAGES OF INDIA; TO THE SLAVONIC AND LITHUANIC OF EUROPE.--INFERENCES.-- BRAHMINISM OF THE PURANAS--OF THE INSTITUTES OF MENU.--EXTRACT.--OF THE VEDAS.--EXTRACT.--INFERENCES.--THE HINDÚS.--SIKHS.--BILUCHI.-- AFGHANS.--WANDERING TRIBES.--MISCELLANEOUS POPULATIONS.--CEYLON.-- BUDDHISM.--DEVIL-WORSHIP.--VADDAHS. The language called _Sanskrit_ has a peculiar alphabet. It has long been written, and embodies an important literature. It has been well studied; and its ethnological affinities are understood. They are at least as remarkable as any other of its characters. Like most other tongues, it falls into dialects; just like the ancient Greek. Like the Doric, Æolic, and Ionic, these dialects were spoken over distant countries, and cultivated at different periods. Like them, too, each is characterized by its peculiar literature. The Sanskrit itself, in its oldest form, is the _Vedaic_ dialect of the religious hymns called _Vedas_--of great, but of exaggerated, antiquity. Another form of equal antiquity is the language of the Persepolitan and other arrow-headed inscriptions. These are of a known antiquity, and range from the time of Cambyses to that of Artaxerxes. By _old_ is meant _old in structure_, _i.e._, betraying by its archaic forms, an early stage of development. It is by no means _old_ in chronology. In the way of chronology, the English of Shakespeare is older than the German of Goethe; yet the German of Goethe is the older tongue, because it retains more old inflections. The third form is called _Pali_. In this is written the oldest Indian inscription; one containing the name of Antiochus, one of Alexander's successors. It is also the dialect of the chief Buddhist works. A fourth form is the _Bactrian_. This occurs in the coins of Macedonian and other Indianized kings of Bactria, and is best studied in the "Ariana Antiqua," of Wilson. A fifth is the _Zend_ of the Zendavesta, the Scriptures of the followers of Zoroaster. Others are called _Pracrit_. Some of the Sanskrit works are dramatic. In the modern comedies of Italy we find certain characters speaking the provincial dialects of Naples, Bologna, and other districts. The same took place here. In the Sanskrit plays we find deflexions from the standard language, put into the mouths of some of the subordinate characters. It is believed that these Pracrits represented certain local dialects, as opposed to the purer and more classical Sanskrit.