1833.] 



Asiatic Society of Bengal, 



237 



His next essay was the " enumeration of Indian classes," or (as we 

 commonly term them) castes— in the 5th volume of the Researches ; 

 an able and excellent elucidation of a subject of no common interest. 

 And this, after some less important contributions, was followed by the 

 essays on the Religious Ceremonies of the Hindus, and on the San- 

 skrit and Prakrit languages, which appear in that volume and in the 7th 

 —essays which would be of themselves sufficient to place the author 

 in the highest rank of oriental scholars, — and which must long con- 

 tinue to form the best text books of those who wish to investigate the 

 depths of Indian literature and religion. 



The translation of one of the more recent inscriptions on the Delhi 

 lat, which appears also in the 7th volume of the Researches, is chiefly 

 interesting as being the commencement of the author's more extensive 

 researches into monuments of the same kind in our later volumes; he 

 was among the first to point out the great importance to the knowledge 

 of ancient India of a pursuit, the enlargement of which is daily in- 

 creasing our stock of historical information. The " account of certain 

 Muhammadan sects" in the same volume contains some valuable par- 

 ticulars respecting the origin of the curious race so well known in the 

 west of India under the name of Bohras ; and proves that in the midst 

 of his accurate study of the more secluded literature and monuments 

 of the Hindus,— the author was versed also in the learned records of 

 Western Asia. 



The dissertation which bears, perhaps most of all, the stamp of the 

 profound Sanskrit learning of the author, is that on the Vedas in our 

 8th volume; a work which, though necessarily leaving much undone 

 that is yet required towards furnishing a complete analytical index to 

 those records of the ruder language, and oldest worship of the Hindus, 

 — has found none to second, much less to complete, or to supersede the 

 masterly outline of their contents which is here presented to the in- 

 quiring student. In this, as in the other essays of Mr. Colebrooke, — 

 the reader feels that it is not a mere philologist, or collector of ancient 

 records that he is consulting,— but one whose critical sagacity weighs 

 well the value, the age, and the import of every authority that he alleges : 

 and whose statements in consequence, may be received with the most 

 entire respect and confidence. 



The later volumes of the Researches are adorned not only by the ela- 

 borate " Observations on the Jains" in which very respectable classical 

 erudition is brought to aid profound Indian research, — and the learn- 

 ed and interesting Essay on Sanskrit and Prakrit poetry,— but by the 



