Page:Calcutta Review Vol. II (Oct. - Dec. 1844).pdf/354

Rh Kalapa, Mugdhabodha, and the Ratnamala, are in general use; Lexicology, or that branch of study by which, simultaneously with the study of grammar, a knowledge of single words classified under heads of objects, qualities, actions, with their synonyms, is acquired, the words being first committed to memory from the Amarakosha, the great standard work on the subject, without the meaning, and afterwards explained by the teacher; Poetry and the Drama, on which the works in most common use are the Bhatti Kavya or the life and actions of Ram—the Raghu Kavya, also on the history of Ram—Magha Kavya, on the war between the and Krishna—Naishada Kavya, on the loves of  and —Bharavi Kavya, on the war between  and —, the well known drama, so elegantly translated by the celebrated orientalist, Sir ; Rhetoric, the Chando Manyan, Kavya Chandrika, Sahitya Darpana, Kavya Prakasa and other similar works on prosody and poetical composition. It is proper, however, to add that all these branches of general literature are not taught by every teacher. Some teach only one; and others two or more; the mere grammarian ranking in the lowest scale of learned men, and raising his reputation and emoluments in proportion to the number of the other branches which he adds to his acquirements.

The department next in dignity to general literature is that of Law. The teachers of law must, in all cases, be conversant with the grammar and lexicology of the Sanskrit language, and prepared to give instructions in them; and some are also acquainted more or less familiarly with the poetical, dramatic, and rhetorical writings. Every teacher of law “receives students at the earliest stage, and instructs them according to the extent of his own acquirements in general literature, and when he has reached that limit, he carries them on to the study of law. The majority of law students, however, begin and end their studies in general literature, to whatever extent they desire to proceed, with a professor of that branch of learning, and afterwards resort to a teacher of law, for instruction in his peculiar department.” On the subject of law, the Daya Bhaga, the Mitakshara, and other standard works, are more or less studied. But the great work is the compilation of on every branch of Hindu law, comprised in twenty-eight books, which, besides the prescriptions of religion, treat of the rules of inheritance, contract, &c. It consists, according to Mr., of “texts collected from the institutes attributed to ancient legislators, with a glossary explanatory of the sense, and reconciling seeming contradictions.” Of the twenty-eight books, as Mr. Adam assures us, “those are almost exclusively read which pre-