Here is a key to unlock the oldest treasury of mankind's wisdom: Vedic literature -- not just the metrical language of its hymns, but also the prose pieces of the Brahmanas/Brah-mana-like writings: whether from the Atharva or the Yujurveda. Setting forth a comprehensive phonetic survey of Vedic sounds, the author: an eminent Orientalist of yester years, offers lucid explanatory accounts of Vedic sandhi-system (euphonic combination), declension, conjugation, indeclinable words, nominal stem formation and, finally, of its syntax -- with numerous illustrations. At the base of Macdonell's Grammar is the first ever, yet the most authentic, linguistic material of the Rigveda -- supplemented, though, it is from other Samhitas as well. Also marked here are the grammatical forms of the Brahmanas where they differ from those of the later-day classical Sanskrit.

Now 'reprinted' afresh in an innovative format, this book has sustained its decades-long worldwide importance as an undisputed, systematically organised aid to the study of Vedic literature. And, for sure, retains its indispensablity to scholars even today!