1868.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society* 49 



translator and an active member of the Society, but they differ so 

 much from the MS. that I have not the slightest suspicion of any of 

 those gentlemen being the author of it. Wilkins published his trans- 

 lation of the Bhagavadgita from the Sanskrit in 1785, and it would be 

 absurd to suppose that he would do the same work over again, and 

 that very imperfectly, from the Persian version, in 1812. 



The question may be asked, are the scraps of the private letter noticed 

 above portions of aletter which had been addressed to the translator or were 

 they mere scraps of waste paper which he took up to write a note upon ? 

 Ordinarily people so use unimportant letters addressed to themselves, but 

 seldom think of picking up other people's letters for such a purpose, 

 Arguing on this theory, the name of the author of our MS. would be 



N. B. Hal (?) Now, in the list of members of the Society from 1810 



to 1816, the only name which has the initials N. B. is Edmonstone of 

 the Civil Service, but none beginning with H. The second scrap sug- 

 gests Halhed, the author of the Gentoo Code who had N. B. (Natha- 

 nial Brassy) for his initials, but his name does not appear in the 

 Society's lists for the second decade of this century, and I cannot as- 

 certain if he was alive, and if so, in India at the time when the trans- 

 lation was prepared. His Gentoo Code was published in 1776, from 

 which time to 1816 is a long period for a European to remain in this 

 country. But from the dedication of his work to Warren Hastings, 

 Halhed appears to have been very young in 1775 — for he says in it : " I 

 find myself involuntarily held forth to the public as an author, almost 

 as soon as I have commenced to be a man." Supposing that he was then 

 23 or 24 years old, he would be about 60 when the translation was un- 

 dertaken. This would not be too advanced an age for a European to 

 indulge in light literary recreation. But judging by the directions in 

 the address of the second letter he must have been then in England, 

 whence his MS. was subsequently brought out to India. The use of 

 the East India Company's foolscap paper suggests the probability of 

 the work having been written in India, and if so it must have 

 been by a son or a relative of his. I learn from Mr. Bayley that a 

 Mr. N. J. Halhed entered the Civil Service in 1804. " In 1807 he was 

 an assistant to the Judge and Magistrate of Meerut ; in 1808 Assistant 

 to the Magistrate of the 24-Pergunnahs ; and in 1812, Assistant Judge 

 of Burdwan, where he remained till 1814. He then went to Pooree, in 



