1 837.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 711 



Translation. 



1. The honorable Company, generous, pursuing a course of inte- 

 grity, very dexterous, learned, compassionate, and exalted, skilled in the 

 velocities and motion of fire, air and water (the laws of the elements), 

 npver relaxing from their determination, — deeply conversant in their own 

 religion, with equity protecting their subjects and enjoying their trust, 

 — moving forward to aid the aggrieved who come to them for help, may 

 they long live the protectors of the world ! 



2. By their own mighty power to maintain the rule of Aryavartta 

 and all India have they deputed thousands of men, eminent either in 

 commerce, in religion, in the administration of justice, or in war who arriv- 

 ing with full knowledge of their respective grades, have performed and 

 do perform their several duties with regularity. 



3. Among these, the names of Jones, Colebrooke, Sutherland, 

 Carey, Wilson, Macnaghten, and Mill, (have been conspicuous) for 

 their acquirements in the Sanscrit language. Of how many highly in- 

 structive and entertaining books, by their individual talents in forming a 

 complete analysis, have they reproduced the facsimiles in various other 

 languages ! 



4. In the midst of these, preeminent stands the name of Jones the 

 minister of justice, the cheerful, the very clever, justly endued with the 

 title of Judge. Through the celebrity of his knowledge he has become the 

 theme of conversation among the learned. Having perused the shastras, 

 by skill he translated into his native tongue the famous drama of the birth 

 of India's king. He first arranged in alphabetical order for the benefit 

 of Sanskrit students the Cosha (or dictionary of Amera Singh). 



5. The name of Colebrooke has acquired an inheritance of renown by 

 his ' laws of inheritance.' He translated the text books of civil and criminal 

 justice : he first brought together and employed many pandits in printing 

 and disseminating Sanskrit books at a cheap price in this country. 



6. Carey introduced the puranas to the people of England in their 

 native tongue ; and translating the holy books of his own religion into 

 Sanskrit, engaged systematically in their promulgation. 



7. Wilson collected the literary stores of dramatic and other poetry, 

 and made them known by translation, as well as the dictionary, the systems 

 of philosophy, and the puranas. 



8. Macnaghten, celebrated in grammar, in legal opinions, having tho- 

 roughly examined the judicial authorities prevalent in different parts of 

 the country, has arranged and published the results in English. 



9. But who among all these has been capable of producing a continuous 

 poem in the Sanskrit language, save Mill? — He indeed indites verse in 

 which the best pandits can descry no faults. Of the works of prosody he is 

 a master, so skilled in regular and irregular metre, in the correct and har- 

 monious combinations of letters that rumour proclaims Ka'li'da'sa is once 

 more l>orn to the world ! 



1 0. In the Vedanta, the Sankhya, the Patanjala and the Buddhist (schools 

 of philosophy) deeply versed : in the holy vedas, in the law, and astro- 

 nomical shastras equally learned, such smoothly flowing verses can Mill 

 alone indite. In the literature of Babel* and Persia with all their vari- 

 ous characters, a scholar : — religious, mild, strict, affable, taking pleasure in 

 conversation with all learned men, — such is his mind! 



11. The work written by the celebrated Ka'lioa'sa, the Kumdra Sam. 

 bhava, has this equally eminent poet reproduced in the selfsame measure in 

 his own language in a manner altogether new ! What more need be said of 

 him but that with due observance of regular and irregular metre, and of 

 all the rules of the ancient authors he has composed the Christa Gita to 

 delight and instruct the minds of multitudes ! 



* Babel is, I fancy, a corruption of Bible, but it may be read and it is equally 

 applicable in the sense I have given.— Ed. 



