486 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [No. 6. 



Jairaani's Purva Mimansa Sutras with Savara's commmentary, and Madhava's 

 Nyaya Mala Vistara perhaps also the Tantra Varttika of Kumarila. These 

 works are of the highest importance for the history and further elucidation 

 of the doctrines of the Vedas, and much information may especially be 

 derived from them concerning ceremonies. 



Kumarila abounds with interesting details of Indian antiquity and the 

 reviving critical knowledge of Indian philosophy which has exhausted its 

 ingenuity in the Vedas. The difficulty in his undertaking is, as usual, the 

 expense, no bookseller being disposed without a subscription to enter upon 

 so great an undertaking. And still all these works are of the greatest import- 

 ance for our oriental researches. Do you think, the undertaking would 

 meet with any support in India ? The printing of Madhavas Nyaya Mala 

 Vistara, of which interesting extracts are given in his introduction to the Rig 

 Veda, will be immediately commenced, and the continuation of his labours 

 will depend upon the success of this work. If the Asiatic Society would 

 patronize the undertaking in the same way as they have done Dr. Weber's, 

 a great service would be done to all of us. I saw Burnouf in Paris. He is 

 engaged in completing the second volume of his Buddhism. I am sorry to 

 say, his health is not as good as one would wish for the interests of science. 

 Very great expectations are entertained of his history of southern Buddhism. 

 Nothing else is doing in Paris for the Sanscrit, with the exception of Langlois' 

 translation of the Rig Veda, of which the second volume is out already. 

 Professor Wilson's translation of the same work has far advanced in print- 

 ing. Here, in England, all oriental interest is concentrated in the decypher- 

 ing of the Babylonian and Assyrian inscriptions by Major Rawiinson. He is 

 now publishing the results of his labours, and is a man upon whom one can 

 place reliance. Bournouf had likewise made many researches on this subject, 

 but has given them up on discovering, that the language is Semitic, which 

 is not his especial line of study. Many of the geographical names which 

 Rawiinson now reads, had been discovered by Burnouf already two years 

 ago, without, however, his publishing them. In Berlin the work of Professor 

 Lepzsius on Egypt, of which the first volume has appeared, creates great sensa- 

 tion. He is now occupied with a phonetic work which is to form the basis 

 of a general system to represent by writing the sounds of Oriental languages, 

 and the adoption of which would much advance Oriental science. We may 

 come at last to an understanding on this subject, if each of us would agree to 

 give up individual habits and customs. In India especially, I should think, 

 the want of a systematic and general representation of Oriental words must 

 be felt, and it would be a great thing, if after so many abortive attempts a 

 general alphabet could be at last adopted. 1 will send you the work as soon 



