Page:The Indian Antiquary, Vol. 4-1875.djvu/301

 28tf THEIXDIA^' MY. [SmUfSDt. 1ST"" handed down orally from month to mouth, uutU, Beconliijg to tbu beat opinion** about four hundred years before the Christian era, the necessity of a written medium made itself falt,4W the reten- tion of tho Accumulating mass of coimnoutary iho power of an Fan tern mnmory. That any indigenous ulphubct mm uhdHiraLcd in . - ■ — .-i r t ■: i nor can b# bclkved ; wu [ fall beek uu the theory that a ton oftbl Phmnidan alphabet was adopted an J adapted, and wc know us a fuel Uud mob on oiplmltct exiats in the Inscriptions of king Aioka two and a half oentorics before IThriBt. .Professor Williams has done good service in cnahllii!: thn extant and nature of thin groat trea- sure to bv a/ i •nd in a popular form. It is a surprising fact t hut this groat literature in it* long solitary course, tiko the Nile, should hare received no afllucnia, did yet, by eomo univoijul law of iiiidk-ctuul life, should have- developed Into tho known forms of dogma, tegraad, philosophy, epos, and dnuua, Had the soldier* of Alexander the Great not mutn " Punjab tho result uugbt have been different, Br. Lcggc ia doing the eatun groat work with tho (!hine*o classics, which haw main- tained from the earliest period a similar Etiolation : and thus thn motprinlfl bava been slowly cylloctrag which will enable the on-coming gti.i gmppln on tliuuiimijarativ.' method with the great problem of the growth of thought and wisdom in .'■W world, as evidenced in the* literary re- mains of the great Aryun. mi so- called lie*, which have fturrivtd tho wreck of «ge». It id admitted by the author that much hat dmtr» hy ftchnhm* fivpri ; '"Union* in Eun,ijHJiiii luuguages of isolated work.", Midi an tho Vcdie hymns, tho law-books, the dramatic works, tho Pur Alias, and ilir oplct: they am too numerous to require more than a passing allusion. lay vary an widenes* or scope, hut thorn has never hitherto " otiflted any one work of moderate dimensions, like the present* accessible to general readers— ciuujhxwI by any OHO SaiuricfUi scholar with Uie direct aim uf giving Englishmen, who are not necessarily Sanskritists a continuous sketch of the chief department* «f Sanskrit literature, Vedic and post-Vedic. with accompany nig truncation* of select passages, to serve aa examples far comparison with the literary product sous of other countries. "• Such was tho author** avowed object, and woeon sider that bo • - ftfiwt |>raiw k, Ixtwsrar, due,* 1 wn tho tutW. *«to Mr»- Mai!Jt»Jit'« vadu»bL» onuijiikliim Ancient an 4 ifrii' anil ttulii,£ lull.— ill*. nw u, Varans (n. I ft), t,, tedr*. to Agm, to Stem rtto,LK»| to UlbM luL J7--I,, ,,, Vitna fttiu ba» eminently succeeded. Xut only is such a conspectus of thn knowledge and literature of the Hindu* valuable us throwing light upon tlie feel- iugi and customs nf this great people, hut it has ■ual advantage of enabling the gei scholar to compare the out-turn of tha Hindu mind uini tosto with the fiimHar prodn other natives at the respective epoch*. Tho author mentions ihnt bo liQi enough for a aecond vulume, Eh has wisely restricted himself within rea- sonable limits, as he wishes to popularh" subject. He has given us specimens of each of the gnat brnnchea of litemturv, uud :' i seek Ebt more know where to find it Throughout these pog Hud a healthy catholic spirit on the religious aspect of the qucstioni no sickly or faint-hearted deprocui of the truth and excellence of thn faith adopted by civilized Kurope for many com :' ail ample acknowledgment of tho strong points of other religion* oj juutriv* at an earlier epoch, - jlm refutation of the diihanc- noiiim that all that is grjud iuctluai and dogma* aprong into existence all one moment— »t tho time or tlin Ulirifttion era. It u on* of the speciaJ advnutji^es of having a long series of pruduotions of many i to bo able to note how tha innate longiug after goodness in tho human race strOTQ to tnnko it-self known in wpito nf surround' ing diiadvantageous circumstauoea. 1: is imposeibb that wo can do mora heads or a book wbinh ia in itself an epitome of tho breatarci of thn most learned natMmoftim Kust. whora, Uko orerything ohm, literature won a gigiuu.: I- teak. It Bpeakfl vrdumea for the liberality of the Muhammudau rulers of India that such a mass of literature r.liould haTo escaped tho rarages of time and bigotry: the il rub nuns have been fortunate to have sarod to much, while tins Alexandrian Library per and so much ortbe truasurcs of Greece and I is found minting. Beginning with tho iW4#,ourautluir gives »peci- mens in blank verso of hymns to tin- groat tiodn u Xiiturc.t which occupKxl Hk> thoughts ol our Arysn Ibromtborc. Not as yet had the i* or Vishnu been worked out,— those debauched conceptions were thn fruit of a Inter ago. Tho elements and the drad wore tho nui prlnuevol worship. Hymns of praise and thanks, rituals to appea iniliate, were the halting maehii^n ut una«sisted men, the first, grupi men nftL -r God, who «pok»- to them not lr, tattoo • Mao'lalaX.. .ciaj™,. ai, £3): two hymn*, mn on the oaatioa (tt. I*. X ' onthsuiuUriffj.hlfJl V [ I j|, ri Biwtiaea ,«»fc« of the Mi .63/ ; *ad Uw hyaia to Kifht 1$?. V. X- UtT).