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a long time, I know; but those who find fault with me for the delay, should remember that few scholars, if any, have worked for others more than I have done in copying and editing Sanskrit texts,

these MSS. Thus after verse 3 of the introduction one MS. reads sa prâha nripatim râgan, sâyanâryo mamânugah, sarvam vetty esha vedânâm vyâkhyâtritvena yugyatâm. The same MS., after verse 4, adds: ityukto mâdhavâryena vîrabukkamahîpatih, anvasât sâyânâkâryam vedârthasya prakâsane.

I had for a time some hope that MSS. written in Grantha or other South-Indian alphabets might have preserved an independent text of Sâyana, but from some specimens of a Grantha MS. collated for me by Mr. Eggeling, I do not think that even this hope is meant to be realised. The MS. in question contains a few independent various readings, such as are found in all MSS., and owe their origin clearly to the jottings of individual students. When at the end of verse 6, I found the independent reading, vyutpannas tâvatâ sarvâ riko vyâkhyâtum arhati, I expected that other various readings of the same character might follow. But after a few additions in the beginning, and those clearly taken from other parts of Sâyana's commentary, nothing of real importance could be gleaned from that MS. I may mention as more important specimens of marginal notes that, before the first punah kîdrisam, on page 44, line 24, this MS. reads: athavâ yagñasya devam iti sambandhah, yagñasya prakâsakam ityarthah, purohitam iti prithagviseshanam. And again, page 44, line 26, before punah kîdrisam, this MS. adds: athavâ ritvigam ritvigvid (vad) yagñanirvâhakam hotâram devânâm âhvâtâram; tatha ratnadhâtamam. In the same line, after ratnânâm, we read ramanîyadhanânâm vâ, taken from page 46, line 2. Various readings like these, however, occur on the first sheets only, soon after the MS. follows the usual and recognized text. For the later Ashtakas, where all the MSS. are very deficient, and where an independent authority would be of real use, no Grantha MS. has as yet been discovered.

and that after all one cannot give up the whole of one's life to the collation of Oriental MSS. and the correction of proof-sheets. The two concluding volumes have long been ready for Press, and as soon as I can find leisure, they too shall be printed and published.

In now venturing to publish the first volume of my translation of the Rig-veda, I am fully aware that the fate which awaits it will be very different from that of my edition of the text and commentary. It is a mere contribution towards a better understanding of the Vedic hymns, and though I hope it may give in the main a right rendering of the sense of the Vedic poets, I feel convinced that on many points my translation is liable to correction, and will sooner or later be replaced by a more satisfactory one. It is difficult to explain to those who have not themselves worked at the Veda, how it is that, though we may understand almost every word, yet we find it so difficult to lay hold of a whole chain of connected thought, and to discover expressions that will not throw a wrong shade on the original features of the ancient words of the Veda. We have, on the one hand, to avoid giving to our translations too modern a character, or paraphrasing instead of translating; while, on the other, we cannot retain expressions which, if literally rendered in English or any modern tongue, would have an air of quaintness or absurdity totally foreign to the intention of the ancient poets. There

are, as all Vedic scholars know, whole verses which, as yet, yield no sense whatever. There are words the meaning of which we can only guess. Here, no doubt, a continued study will remove some of our difficulties, and many a passage that is now dark, will receive light hereafter from a happy combination. Much has already been achieved by the efforts of European scholars, but much more remains to be done; and our only chance of seeing any rapid progress made lies, I believe, in communicating freely what every one has found out by himself, and not minding if others point out to us that we have overlooked the very passage that would at once have solved our difficulties, that our conjectures were unnecessary, and our emendations wrong. True and honest scholars whose conscience tells them that they have done their best, and who care for the subject on which they are engaged more than for the praise of benevolent or the blame of malignant critics, ought not to take any notice of merely frivolous censure. There are mistakes, no doubt, of which we ought to be ashamed, and for which the only amende honorable we can make is to openly confess and retract them. But there are others, particularly in a subject like Vedic interpretation, which we should forgive, as we wish to be forgiven. This can be done without lowering the standard of true scholarship or vitiating the healthy tone of scientific morality. Kindness and gentleness are not

and that after all one cannot give up t of one's life to the collation of Oriental M the correction of proof-sheets. The two co. volumes have long been ready for Press, soon as I can find leisure, they too shall be and published.

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