PREFACE
The discovery of the Sanskrit language by European scholars at the end of the eighteenth century was the starting point from which developed the study of the comparative philology of the Indo-European languages and eventually the whole science of modern | linguistics. In spite of this there does not exist in English any book presenting a systematic account of Sanskrit in its relation to the other Indo-European languages. One may even go further and say that there is no work in any language which adequately fulfils this purpose. Wackernagel's great work, begun sixty years ago, still remains to be completed, although, with the recent appearance of a further instalment, its completion has been brought nearer. Thumb’s Handbuch des Sanskrit which was of service to many generations of students is now very much dated, and always fell between the two stools of trying to be an elementary text-book of Sanskrit and a treatise on its comparative grammar at the same time.
On account of its antiquity and well-preserved structure Sanskrit is of unique importance for the study of Indo-European, and an up-to-date account of its comparative grammar is necessary, not only to students of Sanskrit itself, but also to those interested in any branch of Indo-European philology. Consequently when I was asked to contribute a book on Sanskrit to the series The Great Languages , it was clear that by concentrating on the study of Sanskrit from this point of view the greatest need would be met. This is particularly true since for the history of Indo-Aryan inside India, from Sanskrit down to modern times, students already have at their disposal the excellent work of Jules Bloch.
Providing a reliable account of Sanskrit in its relation to Indo-European is at the present moment not altogether a simple matter. Forty years ago there existed a generally agreed doc- trine of Indo-European theory which had been systematically presented in the early years of the century in Brugmann's Grundriss, At that time it would merely have been a question
