1847.] On the History and Literature of the Veda. 813 



which extends to 144 pp. only, is well worth translating, and 1 trust 

 this may be undertaken under the Society's auspices. It should prove 

 interesting not only to the general student of Indian antiquity, but still 

 more so to that enquiring class of Hindu youth, who, with as yet but 

 imperfect appliances, and under incompetent guides, have been direct- 

 ing their attention, though but uncritically, to the earlier doctrines of 

 their religion. 



Dr. Roth appears to have spent some time at Paris, London and 

 Oxford in the examination and study of the MSS. connected with 

 his researches. The short treatises under review are only, it is to be 

 hoped, the first fruits of his studies. In his dedication to Professor 

 Wilson, and in his first treatise, he alludes to his intention to publish 

 the Nirukta. He appears to have a further work in view, but speaks 

 doubtingly of the prospects of its completion, in these words : " The 

 labour, however, which I propose to myself as the compensating fruit 

 of these exertions, an Archseology and Mythology of the Veda, is, for 

 the present, rather a wish than a possibility." 



Dr. Roth himself however is not the only new labourer whom we 

 have to welcome to this field of exertion. In a note at p. 22, he men- 

 tions his friend Dr. C. Rieu of Geneva, as having under preparation an 

 edition of the Aitareya Brahmana. In p. 25 he mentions Dr. Trithen 

 in London as engaged in the same studies. At page 4 allusion is made 

 to an edition of the Sanhita of the Samaveda, promised by Dr. Theodore 

 Benfey, who has already published an article on India in Ersch and 

 Gruber's German Cyclopaedia, which is referred to with indications 

 of approbation by M. Burnouf, in his introduction a l'histoire du 

 Buddhisme Indian, passim. Allusion is made by Dr. Roth at the close 

 of his first lecture to the edition of the Rigveda which Professor Wilson 

 has in preparation. It does not appear, however, when this important 

 work is to be looked for. 



I. — The Hymn Collections. 



Delivered at the meeting of Orientalists at Darmstadt, at the sitting 

 of 2d October, 1845. 



You have permitted me, Gentlemen, to speak on a branch of In- 

 dian literature which, if any can, asserts a claim to general interest, 

 and the cultivation of which demands the union of various powers, but 



5 n 2 



