1835.] Asiatic Society. 237 



Government might be induced to reconsider the effect of such a measure. He 

 however now held in his hand a copy of the order to the Printers, directing them 

 to discontinue all the works in hand (with one exception), and to dismiss the 

 establishment hitherto entertained for the transcription and collation of MSS., 

 and for the correction of the Sanscrit and Arabic Press. 



The principal Sanscrit works thus consigned to sudden destruction were : 



1st. The Mahdbh&rata, expected to form five quarto volumes, and printed nearly 

 to the middle of the 2nd volume, 1400 pp., or little more than one-third of the 

 work. 



2nd. The Rdjatarangini, comprising one quarto volume of 620 pages, of which 

 about 200 remain to be printed. 



3rd. The Naishada ; of this 600 pages or rather more than one-third have been 

 executed. 



4th. The Susruta, to occupy 2 vols, royal octavo. Of these 714 pages, forming 

 the first volume, and three-fourths of the second, are already printed. 



5th. The Sarirak vidya, a translation of an English work on Anatomy into 

 Sanscrit, of which 20 pages remain unprinted. 



Of Arabic works, the order of Government will extend to 



6th. The Fatdwa Alemgiri, of which one-half of the sixth and last volume, only, 

 is deficient. (The Committee of Education have however recommended this work 

 to be completed.) 



7th. The Khazdnat al Urn, a valuable expose" of European mathematics in 

 Persian, of which 500 pages are printed, and 106 remain. 



8th, The In&ya, of which the last two volumes are printed, and 450 pages of the 

 second volume. 150 pages of the latter, and the whole of the first volume (of 

 which a correct manuscript has with great difficulty been obtained), remain to be 

 printed. 



9th. A treatise on Algebra by Dr. Mill, proceeding on the basis of a translation of 

 Bridge's Treatise, but much modified and enlarged ; with an Appendix on the 

 application of analysis to geometry and trigonometry. The two first parts to the 

 end of plane trigonometry are finished : but a continuation of the Appendix to 

 spherics remains to be passed through the press. 



Many other works might be enumerated, particularly the translations into Ara- 

 bicotHuTTON'sMathematics, Hooper's Vademecum, and Crocker's Land Sur- 

 veying, by Dr. John Tytler, which are left in an unfinished state. But prospective- 

 ly, the interdiction extends to all the Oriental classics selectedby the late Committee 

 and by Mr. Wilson as eminently fit to be preserved in a printedform. The Rama- 

 yana, and some of the Puranas ; the Mugdhabodha, with commentary, and other 

 works on Grammar ; various standard treatises on Law, Rhetoric, and Logic ; and 

 eventually, the Vedas themselves : — also the standard Bauddha works in Sanscrit 

 brought to light by Mr. Hodgson* ; the Surya Siddhanta, and the works of Bha's- 

 kar A'cha'rya, urgently recommended for publication by Mr. Wilkinson ; and a 

 vast number of others which might have been gradually undertaken as the means 

 of the Committee should permit. 



Without entering into any discussion as to the propriety of the measure as 

 regarded the great object of Education, he deemed it his duty as Secretary to bring 

 to the notice of the Society a resolution fraught with such destructive results to 

 the ancient literature of the country, and opposed so sternly to the interests and 

 objects of the Asiatic Society, which seemed called upon not only to remonstrate, 

 but in every way to exert its influence to save the venerable fabric of Indian 

 literature from such a catastrophe, and to rescue our national character from 

 the stigma of so unjust, unpopular, and impolitic an act, which was not 



* A friend has pointed out to me the following passage of a letter published by Lieut. Webb in a 

 Calcutta periodical in the year 1823. 



" You are yet all in the dark, and will remain so, until you have explored the grand libraries. 

 ofPatan, a city in Rajputana — and Jesselmere, a town north-west of Joudpur — and Cambay; 

 together with the travelling libraries of the Jain bishops. These contain tens of thousands of 

 volumes, and I have endeavoured to open the eyes of some scholars here on the subject. At 

 Jesselmere are the original books of Bhauda (Buddha), the Sybilline volumes which none dare 

 even handle. Until all these have been examined, let us declare our ignorance of Hindu literature, 

 for we have only gleaned in the field contaminated by conquest, and where no genuine record 

 could be hoped for." 



