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| | History of Writing and the Great Religions |
 | | In any case, in 283 BCE, the royal library of Alexandria Egypt was founded (shortly after the death of Alexander the Great), the first attempt at a ``universal library.'' It began collecting books in Greek, Egyptian, Hebrew, Aramaic, Persian, Latin and even some Buddhist literature from India, presumably in Sanskrit. |
 | | Thus, practical writing (and reading) methods were probably widespread among the Chinese noble class by about 800 BCE and in the Middle East and Southern Asia by about 200 BCE. |
 | | So none of the great Indian religious texts (Vedas or sutras) were likely written down until AFTER 200 BCE, although the Vedas were composed around 1500-1000 BCE, the Baghavad Gita about 400 BCE, Panini's grammar of Sanskrit, 400 BCE and the early Buddhist sutras about 400 BCE. |
| www.cs.indiana.edu /~port/teach/relg/writing.history.html (1402 words) |
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