256 DR J. MUIE'S account OF THE 



said that the second chapter of the first book " refute la fausse idee que les 

 faux Veds donnent de la Divinite." The " Faux Veds" are also spoken of again. 

 In page 22, Mr Ellis remarks, that the Sanskrit portion of the particular MS. to 

 which he is there referring contains many alterations and variations of reading 

 in the same hand, either inserted in the margin or interlined. These various 

 readings sometimes correct, sometimes alter the sense, and are such as an author 

 only would make in an original work. In page 30 Mr Ellis writes thus, in 

 regard to the author of these works : " There prevails among the more respectable 

 native Christians of Pondicherry an opinion, on what authority founded I know 

 not, that these books were written by Robertus de Nobilibus* This personage, 

 of the Society of Jesus, and the founder of the Madura Mission, long the most 

 flourishing of any that ever existed in India, is well known, both by Hindus and 

 Christians, under the Sanskrit title of Tatwa-bodha-swami, as the author of 

 many excellent works in Tamil on polemical theology." Both of his works, 

 entitled " Atma-nirnaya-vivecam," and " Punarjanma akshepa," "in style and 

 substance greatly resemble the controversial part of the pseudo-Vedas ; but these 

 are open attacks on what the author considered false doctrines and superstitions, 

 and no attempt is made to veil their manifest tendency. The style adopted by 

 RoBERTUS DE NoBiLiBUS is remarkable for a profuse intermixture of Sanskrit 

 terms ; these, to express doctrinal notions and abstract ideas, he compounds and 

 recompounds with a facility of invention that indicates an intimate knowledge of 

 the language whence they are derived ; and there can be no doubt, therefore, that 

 he was fully qualified to be the author of these writings. If this should be the 

 fact, considering the high character he bears, and the nature of his known works, 

 I am inclined to attribute to him the composition only, not the forgery, f of the 

 pseudo-Vedas." Mr Ellis supposes that, after the substance of these works had 

 been composed by Robertus de Nobilibus, they were re-arranged, furnished 

 with introductions and titles, copied in the Eoman character, and translated into 

 French, by some other person. But whoever may have put these so-called Vedas 

 into their existing shape, there appears to be no doubt whatever that they were 

 originally composed by a European missionary. And even if we were to suppose 

 that they were composed by a native scholar under a missionary's superintendence, 

 this fact alone would more than suffice to prove that the existence of the Sanskrit 

 language and literature was well known to the members of the Roman missions 

 at the early period in question. 



The systematic and continuous study of Sanskrit by Europeans dates, how- 



* Robert de Nobilis, a near relation of Pope Marcellus II., and nephew of Cardinal Bel- 

 LA.RM1N, founded tlie Madura Mission about the year 1620. 



■j- Dr Mill does not agree with Mr Ellis in exonerating Robertus de Nobilibus fi'om all 

 share in the forgery, inasmuch as he (or the original author, whoever he was) puts Christian senti- 

 ments into the mouth of Hindu sages. — Preface to " Christa Sangita," p. vii. 



