510 On the Use of the Siddhdntas [Oct. 



best suited to Hindu taste. And what can be more flattering to the 

 vanity of the Hindu nation, or more grateful to their feelings and pre- 

 judices as men, than to see their own great and revered masters quoted 

 by us with respect, to prove and illustrate the truths we propound. At 

 the presidencies, and even at many large stations, we may prosecute 

 with success a scheme for educating the people, by at once teaching 

 them English, or by other means equally directly attacking all that is 

 false and absurd in their belief. At these places, all the causes above 

 enumerated concur to prevent the failure of such a scheme. But this 

 plan of educating the mass of the people in the interior of India, 

 where English can never be of any practical avail to any but a very 

 few, is perfectly visionary ; to hope to educate them by translations in 

 the Roman character, is little less so. Even translations into their 

 own language and in their own character are frequently, as above men- 

 tioned, wholly unintelligible to the best educated natives. I could 

 quote many proofs of this, but the mention would be invidious ; the 

 obvious cause of failure in all these cases is, that in these schemes we 

 make no account of men's passions and weaknesses and pi*ejudices, and 

 have neglected to consult their tastes and present state of knowledge. 

 By pursuing the course I now advocate we sail with the current, favor- 

 able gales vastly accelerating our progress ; by directly attacking on 

 the other hand the strongest prejudices of our nature, as is done in the 

 other case, we struggle with an adverse stream, and with baffling 

 winds, and will be found to have struggled comparatively in vain. 



12th. May I quote my own experience in proof of what is here ad- 

 vanced ? Since I entered the country, I have been, I hope, a warm and 

 zealous friend of the cause of education, and have always bestowed 

 much time and much labour upon the superintendence of such schools 

 as have been located within the sphere of my influence. The school- 

 books used, have been those printed at the Presidencies of Calcutta and 

 Bombay. 



But about two years ago, wishing to know how the joshis, generally 

 so ignorant, succeeded in predicting eclipses, I went through the Tithi 

 Chintamani, and Graha Laghava. Finding them to contain only un- 

 intelligible and abbreviated formula, I was referred to the Siddhantas. 

 These I had great difficulty in procuring, and still greater in procuring 

 men capable of explaining their contents. By perseverance I have suc- 

 ceeded in gaining a limited acquaintance with their first principles. 

 During the last four or five months, I have availed myself largely of 

 these Siddhantas in teaching not only the boys of the Sehore school, 

 but also adults, the joshis and brahmans of the town. I beg leave to 

 assure you, that in this short time I have succeeded in communicating 



