1837.] A Grammar of the Sindhi language. 347 



III. — A Grammar of the Sindhi language, dedicated to the Right Honor- 

 able Sir Robert Grant, Governor of Bombay. By W. H. Wathen, 

 Esq. 



It has been often paradoxically asserted, that those who have the 

 most to do, contrive also to have the most leisure. The maxim will 

 admit of as easy illustration in India as elsewhere, and may be support- 

 ed by the highest examples, if it be conceded that the office of Secretary, 

 or Minister, to an Indian Government requires a full allotment of time, 

 an ample share of mental and mechanical exertion ; for the Secre- 

 tariat of either Presidency may be regarded as the fountain head of 

 authorship on all Indian subjects, literary, political or historical. "We 

 need not recapitulate digests of law, Hindu and Musulman ; narratives 

 of campaigns ; schemes of fiscal administration, which may naturally 

 enough emanate from such sources ; but in pure literature, editorship 

 of oriental publications, and translations therefrom, our Secretaries 

 have ever occupied the foremost rank. 



The present production of the Chief Secretary at Bombay is only a 

 fresh instance of the talent and industry which in India is sure to 

 win the reward of high appointment ; but it is deserving of more than 

 usual encomium, being a work of sheer labour and troublesome 

 compilation, unsweetened with the associations of the annalist 

 depicting events on which the fate of empires rested ; — unenlivened 

 by the ingenuities of antiquarian speculation or the romance of 

 mythologic fiction. His has been a dry labour of utility, not of love, 

 " to facilitate the intercourse of Europeans with the inhabitants of 

 Sindh and the adventurous merchants of Shikdrpur and Multdn." It 

 is a sequel to the famous Indus-navigation treaty ; — one better calcu- 

 lated to effect a mutual understanding than the diplomatist's negocia- 

 tion with its uncompromising tariff ! That it serves as a faithful 

 interpreter, we have at this moment the best testimony to offer in 

 a letter from an officer now travelling on the Indus, who says, " The 

 Sindhi grammar does not contain a mistake, and I have never found 

 myself at a loss, with a knowledge of its contents." It may seem 

 extraordinary that such a work should have been wholly compiled at 

 a distance from, and by one who has, we believe, never visited, the 

 country ; but this is explained by the constant resort of the Sindhis to 

 Bombay, where for the last 20 or 30 years at least 10,000 persons, the 

 greater part of the population of Tatta, have become domiciled, speak- 

 ing and writing their own tongue. 



The Sindhi language is spoken " through the whole province of 

 Sindh, and is said to L>j understood us far north as the territories of 



