1872.] Annual Report. 13 



not be got up with sufiicient rapidity. It was felt also that in many cases 

 years must be spent before a perfectly satisfactory translation could be finished 

 Accordingly in 1851, it was resolved, that " whilst it was of the highest 

 importance that translations should be made in India, it was not expedient 

 to hmit the publication of volumes in the Bibliotheca Indica to works which 

 the editor may be prepared at once to translate." The principle of getting 

 works of various kinds printed under the editorship of one person, was 

 likewise abandoned ; and oriental scholars, both in and out of India, were 

 invited to contribute to the series. These changes were attended by the 

 most satisfactory results. The invitation of the Society was readily respond- 

 ed to, and several gentlemen of distinguished oriental acquirements under- 

 took to edit works to which they had paid particular attention, and were 

 especially fitted to do them justice. 



Of the 86 works which have been undertaken from time to time, 61 are 

 Sanskrit, 10 Arabic, 14 Persian, and 1 Pali ; eighteen of these being trans- 

 lations into English. Sixty-four of these have already been completed ; and 

 twenty-two are in progress. They have been selected, in most instances, at 

 the recommendation of distinguished European orientalists, such as Pro- 

 fessors Max Midler, Weber, Kuhn, and others ; and careful attention has been 

 paid in every instance to secure old and the most approved MSS. for colla- 

 tion, so as to render the publications of the Society in every way worthy of 

 the patronage of the Grovernment under which they are issued, and indis- 

 pensable appendages to every oriental library of any pretension. 



That the works have been, generally speaking, carefully edited, the Council 

 have every reason to be satisfied ; the names of the editors employed, it is be- 

 Heved, will afford ample guarantee on that point. Among them the Council 

 have great pleasure in noticing particularly those of the late Drs. Roer and Bal- 

 lantyne, Professor Yon Kremer of Alexandria, Drs. Sprenger and Hall, Professor 

 Co well. Col. Lees, Mr. Blochmann, Professor Mahes'achandra Nyayaratna, 

 and Babu Rajendralila Mitra, as the services they have rendered to the 

 series, entitle them to the most cordial acknowledgments of the Society. 



The late Hon'ble Court of Directors, when sanctioning the oriental 

 grant, drew the attention of the Society particularly to the Vedas, as they 

 constitute the most ancient religious records of the Hindus ; and the Council 

 are glad to notice that of the different works that have been published, or 

 are now in course of publication, twenty-two are portions of those scriptures. 

 "When the series was first started, the Saiihita of the Rig Veda was selected as 

 the oldest and most important among them ; but after the publication of four 

 fasciculi, information was received that Drs. Wilson and Max Miiller were en- 

 gaged in bringing out a complete edition of that work, together with a trans- 

 lation, under the auspices of the Court of Directors, and it became necessary 

 to discontinue the Calcutta edition. The Black Yajur Veda was, thereupon, 



