122 Beames — On the edition of Chand. [Jtrans, 



The Secretary read the following extract of a letter from J. Beames, 

 Esq., C. S. 



" As some misapprehension seems to exist as to the nature of the task 

 now heing carried on in respect to Chand's poem, I beg to state as follows : 

 " I have undertaken merely to supervise the production of a printed 

 text of Chand from a good and complete MS. I do not undertake to correct 

 what seem to he errors in the MS., because when more is known about the 

 poem, it may turn out that what we now think errors, are really correct. 



" The object of the Society, I take it, is merely to put into the hands of 

 scholars the poem itself as it stands. It is not now accessible to the public 

 at large, because it is only in MS., but when it is in print, hundreds of scholars 

 in various places can work at it, and their labours will, I hope, result eventually 

 in a correct text. Many hundred years have elapsed since the text of Homer 

 and Virgil were first put into print, yet scholars have not yet left off altering 

 and improving the text. I think it would be almost dishonest in me to 

 tamper with the text of the MS., by so doing I should perhaps mislead all 

 future generations of scholars by giving currency to what my own im- 

 perfect knowledge deems right, instead of what the poet really wrote. 



" The two points open to discussion at present are the division of the 

 words and the metres. 



" On the first of these points I would only say that the division I have 

 made is not intended to be an ex-cathedra declaration that I am right. It 

 is merely a suggestion. In a large majority of cases there can be no doubt, 

 in doubtful passages future scholars are at liberty to alter as they please. The 

 question will probably be a debatable one for centuries to come. 



" As to the metres, I could easily by doubling single letters, reducing 

 double letters to single, and otherwise hocussing the text, bring the metres 

 into accordance with the modern rules of Hindi prosody. But this I will 

 not do, it is not fair. I put before the world the exact spelling of my MS. 

 and scholars can manipulate it as they like. What the world wants, is not 

 Prithiraja Easo by Beames, but Prithiraja Raso by Chand. 



" Having thus clearly stated my ' platform,' I beg to retire from the 

 controversy for which I have neither time nor taste. If critics like to pull 

 the text to pieces, they can, it matters nothing to me. It is not I who wrote 

 the poem, but Chand, I am a mere printer's devil putting what Chand wrote 

 into type, and if scholars find fault with Chand, they may cudgel him to 

 their heart's content, it is no affair of mine." 



Also a letter from the Secretary to the Government of India, Foreign 

 Department, conveying the thanks of the Viceroy and Governor-General in 

 Council to the Society for their offer of cordial co-operation and assistance 

 in furthering the Scientific objects of the Yarkand Mission, and stating that 



