I bought this one the month it came out because I have no self-control when it comes the books...and then of course I found a copy floating around the internet.

I'm surprised I haven't seen it here yet, please correct me immediately if I'm wrong and I'll annihilate this post!

The author is a big name in the field, and this work has been expected for years. Unlike many other Sanskritists, he has studied Kannada, so his understanding of Indian cultures is more nuanced and grounded (so many people ignore south India....)

In this book, he addresses questions of the rise of Sanskrit as a language of "secular" court culture in India, its prevalence even among newcomers to India and among anti-Vedic Buddhists, and the subsequent rise of vernacular literatures. Many comparisons with Europe and Latin are made.

It seems to me that he applies the term "death" to Sanskrit literature prematurely (I'm not sure if the language is alive now, but it was alive in a sense 100 years ago), but those are complex details.

Enjoy.

Sanskrit