Collége Royal de France à l'ouverture du Cours de Langue et de Littérature Sanscrite, par M. de Chèzy, Paris, 1815, 8vo.

A CATALOGUE OF SANSCRIT WORKS, AND TRANSLATIONS.

SACRED WRITINGS *.

1. ON THE VEDAS IN GENERAL.

THE whole circle of Hindoo knowledge and science is divided into eighteen parts, of which the first four are the Vedas, from Ved or Bed, the law.—Bed, Beid, Bedam, Bedang, Bedaos, Vedam, Vidya, etc., according to the different modes of writing and pronunciation observed by Europeans in India. These are regarded as an immediate revelation from heaven; and as containing the true knowledge of God, of his religion, and of his worship, disposed into one harmonious composition. Next to the Vedas rank four Upavedas, which comprise the knowledge of medicine, music, and other arts; after these follow six Vedangas, which relate to pronunciation, grammar, prosody, religious rites and ceremonies, etc.; and finally, four Upangas, which treat of logic, philosophy, jurisprudence, and history.

Each Veda consists of two parts; the Mantras, consisting of prayers, hymns, and invocations; and the Brahmanas, comprising precepts which inculcate re

The usual division of these works into prose and verse is not observed here, because even the first are written in metre, and the poetical form of the latter does not seem to give a sufficient reason for dividing them.

ligious duties; maxims explaining these precepts; and theological arguments. The complete collection of the hymns, prayers, and invocations, belonging to one Veda, is called its Sanhita. The Sanhitas with their various commentaries are subdivided into Sahas, that is, branches of the Vedas. The theology of the Indian scripture, comprehending the argumentative portion, entitled Vedanta, is contained in tracts called Upanishads; that is, the sacred science, the knowledge of God.

The Vedas are undoubtedly the most ancient compositions in the whole range of Sanscrit literature. Their obscurity, and the obsolete dialect in which they are written, are such as to render the reading of them difficult even to a Brahman. Ramachandra explains, in his treatise on the grammar of Pánini called Pracriya Caumudi, the anomalies of the dialect in which the Vedas are composed. See Q. Craufurd's Researches on Ancient and Modern India, vol. ii, p. 171.

Sir William Jones fixes the date of the Vedas at 1500 years before the birth of Christ; but colonel Kennedy remarks, in his Researches into the Nature and Affinity of Ancient and Hindoo Mythology, that Sir William Jones was misled in his notions of Indian

y When the study of the Indian scriptures was more general than at present, especially among the Brámanas of Canyacuhja, learned priests derived titles from the number of Vedas with which they were conversant. Since every priest was bound to study one Veda, no title was derived from the fulfilment of that duty; but a person who had studied two Vedas, was surnamed Dwivedi; one, who was conversant with three, Trivedi; and one, versed in four, Chaturvedi : as the mythological poems were only figuratively called a Veda, no distinction appears to have been derived from a knowledge of them, in addition to the four scriptures. The titles above-mentioned have become the surnames of families among the Brahmans of Canoj, and are corrupted, by vulgar pronunciation, into Dobé, Tiwáré, and Chaubé. Colebrooke, in Asiatic Researches, vol. viii, p. 381.

chronology, by taking the religious personages which occur in the Hindoo sacred books for real historic characters, and by attempting to define the exact age at which they are supposed to have lived". The same author observes, that the sacred books of the Hindoos afford no data from which the period of their composition may be determined, even by approximation; the writers apparently never having intended them to be the subject of chronological computation. The first historical era is that of Vicràmiditya (fiftysix years B. C.), preceded by a period of three thousand years, in which the Hindoos pretend to no "continuous accounts either religious, traditional, or historical." This three thousand years is a chasm which cannot be filled up. Various other circumstances, however, conspire to prove the antiquity and authenticity of the Hindoo scriptures; and particularly an unvaried uniformity of conception, and a total absence of all foreign modes of thinking and extraneous interpolations. The descriptions which the Vedas contain of manners, customs, and faith, are too accurate to be spurious; and, as Mr. Colebrooke says, no system of forgery would be equal to the task of fabricating large works to agree with the very numerous citations pervading thousands of volumes, in every branch of literature, dispersed among the various nations of Hindoos inhabiting India. Colonel Kennedy believes the period at which they began to be composed to have been at least one thousand one hundred, or one thousand two hundred years B. C.; and Mr. Colebrooke, in pronouncing them to be genuine, adds, “I mean to say that they are the same compositions which, under the same title of Veda, have been

» Researches into the Nature and Affinity of Hindoo Mythology, by lieut.-col. Vans Kennedy, London, 1831, 4to. p. 494.

revered by Hindoos for hundreds, if not thousands of years "."

The original Veda is believed by the Brahmans, the most learned of the Indian philosophers, to have been revealed by Brahma; and to have been preserved by tradition, until it was collected and arranged into books and chapters by the sage Dwápáyana, who thence obtained the surname of Vyasa, or Veda vyasa, the compiler of the Vedas. See Colebrooke in the Asiat. Research. vol. viii, p. 378, etc. 8vo. ed. Hamilton makes this Vyasa to have lived in the eleventh century after Christ. Ritter, the latest writer on this subject, who certainly has examined with much attention all the authorities on the subject, and who betrays his inclination to place the date of the Vedas as low as possible, admits that they are certainly the most ancient writings in the whole range of Hindoo literature; 66 as it would not," he observes, "be easy to find an Indian work in which they are not mentioned." He supposes they were either collected or composed one thousand four hundred, or one thousand six hundred years before the Christian era ".

But another strong argument for the high antiquity of the Vedas, is, that in the greater part of them the common sloka is not to be found, but a more ancient iambic metre of eight syllables, which may be justly regarded as the more simple and ancient, and indeed

a See Colebrooke on the Vedas, in Asiatic Researches, vol. viii. the main authority on this subject. This treatise of Colebrooke is noticed in the Edinburgh Review, vol. xii, p. 47; it is there said that "from its subject it is the most curious, and from the ability, candour, and research displayed by its author, the most entitled to approbation of any paper that has appeared in the Asiatic Researches."

b Ritter, Geschichte der Philosophie, tom. i, p. 70, etc. Much information, research, and close reasoning, will be found in the part of Ritter's work here referred to, which has been published since the work of Adelung.

as the true origin of the usual sloka of sixteen syllables. See Asiatic Researches, vol. xiv, p. 1.

The very existence of the Vedas was formerly regarded as a fable; and even Paulinus a S. Bartholomæo, in his Systema Brahman. p. 281, derides the English and French for supposing them real compositions.

It was not only a question whether the Vedas were extant; but whether, if portions were still preserved, any person would be found capable of understanding their obsolete dialect. It was also doubted, whether, supposing a Brahman really possessed these Indian scriptures, his religious prejudices would not prevent his imparting the sacred knowledge to any but a regenerate Hindoo".

These doubts were not removed until colonel Polier obtained from Jypoor a transcript of what purported to be a complete collection of the Vedas. This is now deposited in the British Museum, bound in eleven large folio volumes. Europe, therefore, propably possesses a complete collection of these important documents in the original language. They still, however, remain untranslated; and, from their vast extent, the greater part of them will probably always remain sod. See Asiatic Researches, vol. i, p. 347, and vol. viii, p. 497.

Ample information respecting the Vedas in general

c Colebrooke, in Asiatic Researches, vol. viii, p. 377.

d Mr. Wilson, in his interesting Memorial to Convocation, as candidate for the Boden professorship, which chair he has, to the honour of the university, been since elected to fill, says, “I have much at heart the printing of the text, with a translation of the Ritual of the Vedas. I have made some progress in one of them, the Rig Veda, but the execution of this and my other projects, will essentially depend upon my being enabled shortly to resign all public employment, and to devote the remaining portion of my life, as I could be well content to do, to the cultivation of Sanscrit literature,"