Page:A Short History of Aryan Medical Science.djvu/23

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Chap. I.]
OF THE HINDOOS.
15

copper, iron, lead, tin, and zinc ; as well as many chlorides, nitrates, sulphates, and carbonates.

The sage Panini was the first to teach the formative principles of words, and his system of Grammar, called Ashtadhyayi — the first in the world — is the admiration of Western and Eastern scholars. Lexicography was known to the Aryans long before its acquaintance was made by any other nation in the world. In the Vedic Literature it is treated under the head of Nighantu.

Music appears to have been cultivated to the highest pitch of perfection by the Aryans, who were the first to invent the Gamut. Their music is systematic and refined.

India is the home of architectural beauty. Domes, cupolas, minarets, and many ingenious works of architecture which have stood the tempest of time, testify to this fact in silent eloquence ; and the ancient Greeks, who are praised for their skill in this particular art, owed not a little to the Hindoos. Dr W. W. Hunter supposes that Alexander the Great left artists in India to copy the Indian style of architecture, who imported it into their mother country.

Dhanur-Veda is an old science which treats