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the sole interpreters of them. Some endeavours to obtain information on those subjects, had not only proved fruitless, but had even tended to encrease the distrust of the Brahmins, and with that, their caution and reserve. Mr. Hastings on being appointed Governor-General of the British possessions in India, made it an object of his particular attention, to remove their fears. He wished to obtain precise information of their institutions. He was not excited to this by mere curiosity, but, by the more laudable motive of acquiring means for better discharging the duties of his important station, in promoting the welfare of the people at large. He enjoyed the advantage of knowing the Persian and Hindustanee languages; and in the course of some personal conferences with the principal Brahmins, he succeeded in gaining their approbation to what he proposed. A compilation of a code of Hindū laws, by Pundits convened for the purpose; a Persian version of it made under their inspection; a translation from that

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into English, by Mr. Halhed, and one of
the Bhagvat-Geeta, from the Sanscrit lan-
guage, by Mr. (now Dr.) C. Wilkins, were
all executed and published under his patron-
age.*
The work thus begun by Mr. Hast-
ings, was successfully prosecuted under
the auspices of the late Sir William Jones,
who had early been distinguished at Ox-
ford, not only for his taste and knowledge
in Greek and Roman literature, but also
for his knowledge of the languages and
history of the East. To attain the objects
proposed, it was necessary for him to call
to his aid the united efforts of all who were
qualified and disposed to join with him in
his labours. He therefore devised an in-
stitution, declared to be on the plan of the
Royal Society of London. This institution,
sanctioned by government, met for the first
time in January, 1784, when it was resolv-
ed, as a just tribute of respect to the Go-

*The Bhagvat-Geeta is the first work, I believe, that was ever translated from Sanscrit into any European language.

Ternor-Get. of the le

having des

sons to the the instit

of conduct
plitares of:

Was unani
cire Att
he in his c
the subjects
the mode of

the Presiden
year, relati
done and wi
future inquir
be able to ex
began assidu
and from his

ing language
space of time

*See Asiatic

ciety at Calcutta.

ON ANCIENT INDIA.

23

vernor-General, to solicit his acceptance of the title of President; but Mr. Hastings, having desired leave to resign his pretensions to the person whose genius had planned the institution, and who was the most capable of conducting it to the attainment of the great purposes of its formation, Sir William Jones was unanimously requested to accept that office. At the next meeting of the Society, he in his capacity of President, unfolded the subjects proposed for its inquiries; and the mode of pronouncing a discourse by the President at the first meeting in each year, relative to what had already been done and what was proposed as subjects of future inquiry, has been continued.* To be able to execute what he had in view, he began assiduously to study the Sanscrit, and from his extraordinary facility in learning languages, he in an astonishingly short space of time, attained a complete know

* See Asiatic Researches, or Transactions of the Society at Calcutta.

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ledge of it.* Aided by the Governor-General, but above all by his own conciliatory manners, and the opinion universally entertained of the purity of his conduct and intentions, the Pundits at last, instead of withholding information from him, became assiduous in assisting him. Hence he finally procured an acquaintance with those writings which had hitherto been so carefully concealed from the public.

* Lord Teignmouth, author of his Memoirs, informs us, that in a note, in Jones's hand-writing, found amongst his papers, twenty-eight languages are mentioned as having been studied by him.

Eight (says he) critically: English, French, Italian, Latin, Greek, Arabic, Persian, Sanscrit.

66

(6 Eight studied less perfectly, but all intelligible with a dictionary.

"Twelve least perfectly, but all attainable;" and amongst these we find the Tibetian, Pâli, Phalavi, Deri, Syriac, Ethiopic, Coptic, and Chinese.

Dr. Wilkins himself, so celebrated an orientalist, calls Jones the Oracle of Oriental learning.-See Preface to a Sanscrit Grammar, published by Dr. Wilkins in London, 1808.

The C....
Dons in I
act of t!
sies betw..
partin, a
of contract
courts m

William J.

of those las and Arabic, plished, b...able Pundi

man, and a Caim. Tu persons wh the one in

are strongl

respect for h
In the be
before his de
of the Ordin
Indian system

*See Memoir

liam Jones, vol.

ON ANCIENT INDIA.

25

The Courts of Law in the British dominions in India, were commanded, by an act of the legislature, to decide controversies between Hindu and Mohammedan parties, according to their respective laws of contracts and of succession. That the courts might be competent to do so, Sir William Jones undertook to form a digest of those laws, from the original Sanscrit and Arabic, which he accordingly accomplished, being assisted therein by a venerable Pundit named Trivédi Servoru Sarman, and a learned Musalman, Maulavi Casim. Two notes written to him by those persons when the work was terminated, the one in Sanscrit, the other in Arabic, are strongly expressive of their profound respect for him.*

In the beginning of 1794, very shortly before his death, he published a translation of the Ordinances of Menu, comprising the Indian system of duties, religious and civil.

* See Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Sir William Jones, vol. ii. p. 307.

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