July, 1846.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 



lix 



1. Oriental Publications 500 



2. Museum (Zoological) 350 



3. Economic Geology 350 



4. Secretary's office and Library 350 



5. Journals, Researches and Printing 350 



6. Contingencies 100 



pe 



Mensem 



(Signed) 



Total Rs. 2,000 



or 24,000 per annum 

 J. H^eberlin, Chairman. 

 R. W. G. Frith. 

 John McQueen. 

 J. Ward. 

 G. T. Marshall, Member and Sec. 



It was resolved that the report be received and adopted generally. 

 With regard to the suggestion relative to assigning a definite sum to the 

 expenses of each department, it was proposed by G. A. Bushby, Esq. 

 seconded by B. Colvin, Esq. and unanimously resolved — 



That the Sub-Committee be requested to receive from the heads of 

 the various departments under the Society, a report of the manner of 

 application, as respects the sums assigned to them, in their several sec- 

 tions, leaving the Sub-Committee to consider and report on them to 

 the Society. 



Read the subjoined proposal by Dr. Hseberlin on the propriety of 

 publishing the Smritis, among the Society's Oriental collection. 

 Proposal to print the Smritis. 



Next to the Vedas, the ancient Smritis, or Dharma Shastras, deserve the atten- 

 tion of the learned. The treatises, now extant under that name, are generally 

 ascribed to the sages, who throughout the Hindu Literature, in ancient and modern 

 times, are not only represented as the progenitors of the Hindu race, but who from 

 the beginning of the people appear to have directed the social and religious, as well 

 as the political developments of the national mind. 



Most of the writers of the Smritis are likewise mentioned as the authors of con- 

 siderable portions of the Vedas ; and both classes of their writings bear the clearest 

 traces of antiquity on their foreheads. The very high antiquity of the Smritis, as 

 a whole, considering that many of them must have been composed at least 3,000 years 

 ago, would claim, on this very account, our best attention. 



But when it is considered that on the foundation of these treatises is laid the 

 entire, most complicated and most astonishing system of Hinduism, which has out- 



