1836,] 



Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 



445 



on the religion of Zoroaster. Still move may be expected from, the translation 

 of that singularly curious work, the Dabistan, which is about to appear. The 

 curiosity of the public respecting the Parsis, however, is far from being satisfied, 

 as is evident from the inquiries which frequently reach this place both from 

 London and Paris. We need a more exact translation of the books which they 

 esteem sacred, than that which is furnished by Anquetil du Perron. Such a 

 translation has been promised by Professor Burnouf, whose attainments in 

 oriental literature, and ardour in oriental study, afford good ground for hope that 

 our wishes respecting it will be realized. Should he fail, the attempt may be 

 be made in Bombay, where there are still a very few Zand scholars among 

 the Zoioastrians to be found, and whose assistance, as well as that to be 

 furnished by the translations into Gujurathi, may be procured*. We re- 

 quire information particularly on their popular superstitions, and domestic 

 manners and customs, and general habits, as exhibited to the native com- 

 munity, and which, there is reason to believe,, differ not a little from those 

 generally observed by their European acquaintances, and for which they have re- 

 ceived, in the opinion of the most intelligent of their own number, a more than 

 quantum sufficit of credit. It was with the view of adding my mite to the infor- 

 mation possessed on these topics, and not because I conceived it possessed of any 

 intrinsic merit, that I lately presented the Society with a translation of their Ge- 

 neral Siroze. There are extant narratives of their settlement and history in In» 

 dia, versions of which should be presented to the Oriental Translation Fund. At 

 a late meeting of the Committee of Correspondence of the Royal Asiatic Society, 

 some of the more liberal natives in Bombay, were invited to form themselves into 

 an association, with the view of aiding in collecting information on some of the to- 

 pics to which I have now adverted. Little, I fear, can be expected from them, with 

 out the co-operation of European scholars, or without the proposal to them of spe- 

 cial queries calculated to direct them in their communications. I am decidedly of 

 opinion that it would be of advantage to both parties, were some of them asso- 

 ciated with ourselves and I would fondly hope that should any of them, pos- 

 sessed of competent attainments and zeal, and a respectable character and influ- 

 ence, ask membership of our body, it should be readily accorded. 



There is no institution which has furnished more able and interesting illustra- 

 tions connected with the Musalmans than our Society. The question, so interest- 

 ing in the history of the errors of the human mind, was Muhammad an impostor 

 or an enthusiast, has been discussed by our late President Colonel Vans Kenne- 

 dy ; and though many may dissent, as I myself do, from the conclusion at which 

 he arrives, the ingenuity with which he conducts his argument, and the varied 

 learning which he displays must be readily acknowledged. The same distinguish- 

 ed orientalist has furnished us with the most correct estimate of the literature of the 

 Musalmans in Persia, which is extant ; and has given us a minute and precise 

 abstract of the Muhammadan Municipal Law, with a constant reference to acknow- 

 ledged authorities, and with an arrangement particularly luminous, being suggest- 

 ed by that of Blackstone in his Commentaries on the Laws of England. His 

 paper furnishes an important aid to the understanding of the state of Government, 

 and society in general, in Muhammadan countries. The points at issue between 

 the Shias and Sunnis, and which have been, and still are, the cause of the greatest 

 distractions and animosities among the Moslems, are well illustrated by the trans, 



* Six Fargards of the Vandidad can also be procured in Sanskrita. 



