Essays Analytical, Critical And Philological On Subjects Connected With Sanskrit Literature

By far the greater number of the articles comprised in these three volumes were written between thirty and forty years ago, several even at a much earlier date, when the study of Sanskrit literature had hardly found more than a few followers yet in Europe. To any one, then, who would compare the present state of research in the field of Indian philology and antiquities with its condition at that early period, in which most of these Essays and Translations originated, it may appear a matter of less surprise that there should be found in them some views and statements at variance with the results of modern science, than that there should be so few of them. The cultivation of Sanskrit by the Scholars of the Continent is no pretended nor unprofitable pursuitthey have not engaged in it merely to acquire the repute of mastering a venerable and difficult language, or to familiarise themselves with a new branch of literature for their private gratification, but they have come forward to exhibit public proofs of their proficiency, and have enriched the community of letters with the spoils of individual research.