4J8 



Proceedings of Societies. 



(Oct. 



Though on the Hindu religion and literature in general, our publications con- 

 tain rather scanty observations, some of our members have added greatly to the 

 information communicated by the distinguished literati of the other side of India, 

 and of Europe. Our Society was the first bod} to submit to the public a proposal 

 for a union for the promotion of translations from the Sanskrita. Its claim to 

 tbis honour, it is right again to re-assert, It will be established by a reference to 

 a letter addressed to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, in 180G, by Sir James Mack- 

 intosh, and published as an appendix to the first volume of our Transactions*. 

 Such translations were practically encouraged by the Society itself, in the case 

 of the Lil'uvati, a treatise on Arithmetic and Geometry by Bhaskara Acharya, 

 and the Prabodh Chaudrodaya, a curious allegorical play illustrative of the opi- 

 nions of the Yedantikas, and both published by the late Dr. John Taylor. The 

 first general account, of any considerable size, of the Hindu Pantheon, is by one 

 of our members, Major Edward Moor. In Colonel Kennedy's Ancient and 

 Hindu Mythology, we have a work, than which none more important, if we refer 

 either to original quotations from the Shdstras, or learned disquisitions, has yet 

 appeared. I make this remark with the more freedom, that circumstances called 

 me, on the publication of the work, to animadvert on the estimate which it forms 

 of the moral character of Bruhmanism in a manner which gave the learned author 

 offence. In the Essay on the Vedanta by the same gentleman, we have the best 

 account of that very curious system of speculation, considered in a philosophical 

 point of view, which has yet appeared, — an account which proves it to be a system 

 of spiritual pantheism, and as such entirely different, except in occasional expres- 

 sion, from that of the Mystics of Europe, to which it had been maintained to be 

 similar by Sir William Jones, and other writersf. It was in this place that the 

 first defence, by a Native, of both the exoteric and esoteric systems of Hinduism, 

 in reply to those who seek to propagate the principles of our Holy Faith, appeared ; 

 and it was here that a rejoinder, embracing briefly the consideration of both these 

 subjects, was published. About two years ago, a portion of the Rigveda, 

 the most considerable which has yet been printed, was published in San- 

 s/crita, Marathi, and English, by one of our members. A translation of the whole 

 of this work, to which I believe Prof. H. H. Wilson has turned his attention, and 

 of the Bhagawata Pur ana, which, though it cannot claim an antiquity much ex- 

 ceeding that of six hundred years, is certainly the greatest practical authority at 

 present, at least in the West of India, are greatly to be desired. On the different 

 sects of the Hindus, and on their provincial superstitions, much light has yet to be 

 cast. On the North of this Presidency, we have theVaishnavas ; in our immediate 

 neighbourhood, the Smartas ; and in the South, the Shaivas or Lingavants, in 



* Page 310. 



+ In the works of the M y sties, and of the pious writers, to whom Sir William Jones 

 alludes in the course of his reasonings, there are figures of speech, and other expressions, 

 very similar to those used by the Vedantists. Others, still more strikingly similar, could 

 easily be produced. I give one from the Poems of Richard Baxter. 



" But O ! how wisely hast thou made the twist ! 



To love thee and myself do well consist. 



Love is the closure of connaturals ; 



The soul's return to its originals : 



As every brook is toward the ocean bent : 



And all things to their proper element : 



And as the inclination of the sight, 



How small soever is unto the light ; 



