136 Note on the Studies in the Sanscrit College. [No. 158. 



The next three years are devoted to Smriti, or law. The books read 

 are Manu, the Mitakshara, Daibhaga, Dattika Mimansa, Dattaka 

 Chandrika, Udraha-tattiva, Shuddhi-tattiva, Dayakrama, Sangraha, 

 and Dhaiva-tattiva. The whole of these last, with the exception of 

 Manu are committed to memory ; besides this they are in the habit 

 of learning by heart the greater part of a dictionary, called the Amara- 

 kosha (immortal treasure,) which contains the various synonyms of 

 nouns current in the Sanskrit language, which, with regard to re- 

 markable objects, as the sun, the ocean, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, a 

 lotus, a serpent, &c. &c. are unusually numerous. 



No student can be received after fourteen years of age in the 

 Sanskrit College, and the whole time of study spent there is twelve 

 years ! 



There are also a number of verses or slokas handed down tradi- 

 tionally from father to son, generally expressive of some pithy sen- 

 timent. It is pretty certain that they are not to be found in any 

 book ; of these, five hundred were known by one individual. Many of the 

 Pandits during the whole of the above course of study have never read 

 the Hetopadesa, one of the most curious books in the language, as 

 being the only one written in prose ; all the immense ocean of San- 

 skrit literature is in verse — even an unprinted novel, containing the 

 history of an heavenly Apsara, who loved a prince named Chandra piri, 

 is in verse: the love of the Apsara reminds us of that of Aurora to Titho- 

 nus, or Venus to Anchises. The ponderous tomes of the Mahabharata 

 are often totally neglected by the Pandits, although that poem is called 

 the "fifth Veda" from its sacred character and great antiquity. This 

 poem and that of the Ramayana, which Sir William Jones termed 

 the two epic poems of the Hindus, are thus quite cast out of the circle 

 of the Sanskrit College reading. 



As Sanskrit scholars in Europe might feel interest in the above abstract, I pub- 

 lish it as communicated by a member of our Society, W. Seton Karr, Esq. C. S., 

 who originally suggested to me the obtaining a statement of the sort for the 

 Journal. |Ti 



