PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. THE increasing interest felt in India and Indian litera ture has led to such a demand for the present work, that it was found necessary to begin printing a second edition almost immediately after the issue of the first. I have, therefore, been unable to avail myself of the suggestions contained in the Reviews which have hitherto appeared. Nevertheless, a few unimportant alterations have been made in the present edition; and through the kindness of Professor W. D. Whitney, who lost no time in sending me some valuable notes, I have been able to improve the chapter on Astronomy at p. 180. Being on the eve of quitting England for a visit to the principal seats of learning in India, I have for obvious reasons deferred addressing myself to the fuller treatment of those portions of Sanskrit literature of which I have merely given a summary in Lecture XV. India, with all its immutability, is now making such rapid strides in education, that a Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford, if he is to keep himself up to the level of advancing knowledge and attainments, ought to communicate personally with some of those remarkable native Pandits whose intellects have been developed at our great Indian Colleges and Universities, and who owe their eminence in various branches of learning to the advantages they have enjoyed under our Government. In undertaking so long a journey my only motives are a sense of what is due from me to the Boden Chair, a desire to extend my sphere of work, a craving for trustworthy information on many obscure portions of Indian religious literature not yet examined by European scholars, and a hope that on my return, should health and strength be spared to me, I may have increased my powers of usefulness within my own province, and be enabled to contribute more than I have yet effected towards making England and India better known to each other, or at least towards making Oxford an attractive centre of Indian studies, and its lecturerooms, museums, and libraries sources of accurate knowledge on Indian subjects. Oxford, October 1875. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. THE HE present volume1 attempts to supply a want, the existence of which has been impressed upon my mind by an inquiry often addressed to me as Boden Professor: Is it possible to obtain from any one book a good general idea of the character and contents of Sanskrit literature? Its pages are also intended to subserve a further object. They aim at imparting to educated Englishmen, by means of translations and explanations of portions of the sacred and philosophical literature of India, an insight into the mind, habits of thought, and customs of the Hindus, as well as a correct knowledge of a system of belief and practice which has constantly prevailed for at least three thousand years, and still continues The volume is founded on my official lectures. to exist as one of the principal religions of the NonChristian world1. It cannot indeed be right, nor is it even possible for educated Englishmen to remain any longer ignorant of the literary productions, laws, institutions, religious creed, and moral precepts of their Hindu fellow-creatures and fellow-subjects. The East and West are every day being drawn nearer to each other, and British India, in particular, is now brought so close to us by steam, electricity, and the Suez Canal, that the condition of the Hindu community-mental, moral, and physical-forces itself peremptorily on our attention. Nor is it any longer justifiable to plead the difficulty of obtaining accurate official information as an excuse for ignorance. Our Government has for a long period addressed itself most energetically to the investigation of every detail capable of throwing light on the past and present history of the Queen's Indian dominions. A Literary survey of the whole of India has been recently organized for the purpose of ascertaining what Sanskrit MSS., worthy of preservation, exist in public and 1 See the caution, last line of p. xxxi, and p. 2. Although European nations have changed their religions during the past eighteen centuries, the Hindūs have not done so, except very partially. Islam converted a certain number by force of arms in the eighth and following centuries, and Christian truth is at last creeping onwards and winning its way by its own inherent energy in the nineteenth; but the religious creeds, rites, customs, and habits of thought of the Hindus generally have altered little since the days of Manu, five hundred years B. C. Of course they have experienced accretions, but many of the same caste observances and rules of conduct (ācāra, vyavahāra, see p. 217) are still in force; some of the same laws of inheritance (dāya, p. 270) hold good; even a beggar will sometimes ask for alms in words prescribed by the ancient lawgiver (bhikshām dehi, Manu II. 49, Kulluka); and to this day, if a pupil absents himself from an Indian college, he sometimes excuses himself by saying that he has a prayas-citta to perform (see p. 278, and Trübner's Report of Professor Stenzler's Speech at the London Oriental Congress). private libraries. Competent scholars have been appointed to the task, and the result of their labours, so far as they have hitherto extended, has been published. Simultaneously, an Archæological survey has been ably conducted under the superintendance of Major-General A. Cunningham, and we have most interesting results published and distributed by the Indian Governments in the shape of four large volumes, filled with illustrations, the last issued being the Report for the year 1871-72. An Ethnological survey has also been set on foot in Bengal, and a magnificent volume with portraits from photographs of numerous aboriginal tribes, called Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, by Colonel Dalton, was published at Calcutta in 1872. This was preceded by a valuable guide to the Ethnology of India, written by Sir George Campbell. Even an Industrial survey has been partially carried out under the able direction of Dr. Forbes Watson, who proposes that a new Museum and Indian Institute shall be built and attached to the India Office. Moreover, Sir George Campbell caused to be prepared, printed, and published, during his recent administration in Bengal, comparative tables of specimens of all the languages of India-Aryan, Drāviḍian, and aboriginal-the practical benefit of which requires no demonstration on my part. But there are other official publications still more accessible to every Englishman who will take the trouble of applying to the proper authorities. Those whose horizon of Eastern knowledge has hitherto been hopelessly clouded, so as to shut out every country beyond the Holy Land, have now a clear prospect opened out towards India. They have only to study the Report of the Moral and Material Progress and Condition of India during 1872-73, published by the India Office, and edited by Mr. C. R. Markham. At the risk of being thought impertinent, I must crave permission to |