102 Deatli of Professor Lassen. [Jfne, 



Lassen retired to Germany in early youth, and passed the best part of his life 

 as Professor of Sanskrit in the University of Bonn. He attained distinction, 

 as a Sanskrit scholar more than half a centiu-y ago, and was elected an 

 honorary member of this Society in 1831. With the characteristic leaning 

 of the scholars of his adopted comitry, he first directed his attention to 

 Hindu Philosophy, and, in 1832, published a Latin translation of the 

 Sankhya Karika, which, though not so rigoroiisly exact as the English 

 version subsequently prepared by Colebrooke, was still a work of great 

 merit, and it brought him to prominent notice as an able, clear-headed, 

 and pains-taking student of the Sanskrit language. In 1835, he published 

 a Latin translation of the renovra.ed pastoral of Jayadeva, the Gitagovinda. 

 He had, in this undertaking the advantage of Sir William Jones' English 

 translation and the ductility of the Latin language — so much more allied 

 in idiom to the Sanskrit than the English — in his favour ; nevertheless high 

 praise was due to him for the ability and scholarship with which hp did 

 such ample justice to the poetical imagery and richness of the original. 

 The work is peculiarly oriental in its tone, feeling, form, and expression, 

 and calculated to tax to the utmost the capacity of European translators. 

 To English readers Dr. Arnold's new metrical version will convey an idea 

 of Avhat the true character is of this " Indian Song of Songs," and how 

 widely it differs from Western imagery and thought. In 1836, Professor 

 Lassen published two works, one on some Persepolitan inscriptions, and 

 the other a commentary on the Pentapotamia Indica ; both replete with 

 the results of great learning and persevering research. The work on in- 

 scriptions entailed enormous labour, as it was one of the earliest attempts at 

 deciphering Persian cuneiform writing, but it was eminently successful. 

 These were followed, in 1837, by an essay on the Prakrit dialects, the Insti- 

 tutiones Linguce Fralcriticae, which first afforded to European scholars a 

 clear insight into the natiire and character of those ancient vernaculars. 

 Nothing has since been published to supersede that learned essay. His 

 essay on the " Coins of the Indo-Scythian Kings," which brought together in 

 a systematic form the numismatic researches of our James Prinsep, and 

 enriched them with the results of his own enquiry and study, was a work of 

 great interest, and the Society published an English translation of it by the 

 late Dr. Roer, in our Journal for 1842-3. A Sanskrit Anthology for school 

 use, an essay on the Vendidad, and a valuable dissertation on the island of 

 Taprobane, were also among the several works which he published during 

 the first half of this century, and which secured for him a high and honor- 

 able place among the laboiu'ers in the vast field of oriental research. He 

 was also a frequent contributor to oriental periodicals, and editor of the 

 Zeltschrift f'.ir die Ktonde des Morgenlcmdes for several years. The most 

 important work, however, which he published and which will make his name 



