Report on the " Vedas" 507 



Before I can, however, enter upon the proposition of a plan, accord- 

 ing to which, I believe, we may commence the printing of the Vedas, 

 it is imperative upon me to advert to some of the difficulties, connected 

 with this work, as its success depends upon a correct estimate of the 

 nature of these difficulties. For this purpose I beg to lay before you 

 the accompanying letters, in which these difficulties are represented 

 in a very strong light, and seemingly, for the present at least, unsur- 

 mountable. I believe, however, that all the impediments may be over- 

 come, and as readily now as at any future time. 



The difficulties are chiefly of two kinds, the collection of the Vedas 

 and the understanding of the language of the same, as this last is 

 essential to the correctness of the text. 



Permit me to solicit your attention first to the former difficulty. 



It has been insisted on in the letters before you, or I should not have 

 ventured to detain you so long on this subject, that the language of the 

 Vedas is antiquated and obsolete, and for this reason not intelligible 

 without the assistance of Pundits who have studied the Vedas at Bena- 

 res. I will not urge against this assertion, that some literary under- 

 takings have beeu successfully completed of infinitely greater difficulty 

 than the present, for instance to give a near and illustrious example, 

 that the characters of the legends on the Bactrian coins, for which there 

 was no living interpreter, have been deciphered, that the language of 

 these legends, of which there are no other documents, and which has 

 long ago died away, has been fully understood by study, perseverance 

 and genius ; but I would urge with regard to the Vedas themselves facts 

 which cannot be controverted, that parts of these Vedas have been 

 published, and with eminent success, without the assistance of any 

 Pundit, by European scholars ; I mean the Sanhita of the Samaveda, 

 by the Rev. Mr. Stephenson, and part of the Sanhita of the Rigveda by 

 the late Professor Rosen in London, the text in both cases accompanied 

 by a translation. This success ought then to be a guarantee of our own 

 success, if we have only perseverance enough, and use the means at our 

 command. 



These means are first, the very works just mentioned, by which the 

 study and understanding of the Vedas is considerably facilitated, especi- 

 ally by Rosen's work, which is a mine of information with regard to the 

 correct interpretation of the Vedas. In his notes all obsolete forms of 



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