Report on the " Vedas." 515 



your address with regard to my Dictionary. I beg to assure you that 

 nothing would afford me more satisfaction than to meet the wishes of 

 those learned gentlemen. I shall do myself the pleasure of forwarding 

 to you after our holidays, two sets of my Lexicon, (of which five 

 volumes have already been issued from the press,) and hope you will 

 have the goodness to despatch them with my compliments, for the 

 acceptance of those two gentlemen. 



I take this opportunity to inform you that Dr. H. H. Wilson wrot? 

 to me, that the emperor of Russia had agreed to pay the expense of 

 printing a complete edition of the Rig Veda with the commentary of 

 Sayana Acharya, and that the first book of the Sanhita of the Rig Veda 

 has already been published with an English translation, by a gentleman 

 at Bombay. I bave also seen the text of the Sama Veda Sanhita, with 

 a translation of it, by Dr. Stevenson of Bombay, printed for the Orien- 

 tal Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. 

 I have the honor to be, 

 Sir, 

 Your most Obedt. Servt. 



Radhakant. 



Calcutta, 29tk Feb. 1847. 



To Dr. W. B. O'Shaughnessy. 



Sen. Sec. Asiatic Society. 



Sir, — With reference to the question whether the Vedas sbould be 

 printed under the superintendence of Pundits of this country or of 

 Benares, I beg to state that Pandits from Benares ought to be pre- 

 ferred to those of this country, for the following reasons : — 



1st. The Pundits of Benares make the Vedas the special subject of 

 their studies, and are consequently the fittest persons to edit them. 



2nd. The ancient dialect in which the Vedas are composed, is 

 extremely difficult and obscure. It is impossible to find two consecu- 

 tive lines of a Vedaic Sanhita, in which there is not some obsolete word, 

 some antiquated form of construction or some unusual inflexion ; so 

 that without a knowledge of the Niructa and Bhasya, no Pundit how- 

 ever well versed in modern Sanscrita literature can understand the San- 

 hitas. 



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