1842.] General Meeting of the Asiatic Society of Paris. 427 



publish a translation of the Sama Veda, which in the ceremonies of the 

 Brahmans, seems to occupy a similar place as the Mass in those of the 

 Catholics. Mr. Wilson prepares for the same Society the texts of the 

 prayers and hymns of the Yadyur-Veda. These hymns composent 

 the real body of the Vedas ; they are, to say so, of a primitive formation, 

 and give the first seeds by which the Indian race since that time has 

 exercised such a great influence upon the progress of the human mind. 

 Much later were added to the Vedas a certain number of Upanishads, 

 which are in fact like so many appendices, some of them being com- 

 mentaries of the hymns, while others contain a systematic explanation 

 of the doctrines of the Vedas, the first result of the tendency of the 

 human mind to reduce religious tradition to a system. You are aware, 

 that Mr. Poley some years ago commenced a lithographed edition of the 

 Upanishads, which he was unable to complete on account of his depar- 

 ture to London ; but he is determined to resume his labours, and now 

 advertises an edition of Vishadaranyaka, one of the Upanishads of the 

 Yadyur-Veda. The print of this work is also commenced at the expence 

 of the Oriental Text Society. 



The Indian drama, to which so much attention has been attracted by 

 the labours of Jones and Chezy, and especially of Wilson, has occasioned 

 some publications. Prema-chunder, Professor of the Sanscrit College 

 at Calcutta, has published a new edition of the Sakontala, which con- 

 tains no other additions to the text than a Sanscrit translation of the 

 passages written in Pracrit, and appears to be destined for the natives 

 of Bengal. To judge by the adoption of Bengalee characters, Mr. Bceth- 

 lingk at Bonn, promises a new edition of the same drama according to 

 the manuscripts of London, which considerably differ, and this in impor- 

 tant passages from the text of Chezy. This translation is to be accom- 

 panied with a Latin translation and notes. Another drama ascribed, 

 but probably erroneously as so many other poems, to Kalidasa, the 

 author of the Sakontola, has been published at Bonn by M. Tullberg ; 

 viz. the Malavica and Agnimitra. 20 Text and variation only as yet ap- 

 peared, but M. Kullberg promises likewise a Latin translation and notes. 

 A third work, attributed to Kalidasa, the Meghaduta, of which Mr. 

 Wilson had already published an edition, and a very elegant English 



20. Malavica et Agnimitra, edidit Fr. O. Tullberg, Fascicular prior textum San- 

 scritumtenens. Bonn, 1840, in 4to. 



3 L 



