1862.] 
Ravana's Commentary on the Rig Veda. 
129 
Havana's Commentary on the Rig Veda, by Fiiz-Edward Hall, 
Esquire, I). 0. L. 
To tlte Secretary to the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 
Bombay, April 11, 1882 
Sir, — Accompanying this note I send, for the Journal, some ex¬ 
tracts from a commentary on the Rig-cede, by one Ravana. Time 
fails me to put into presentable shape for the press a translation of 
them, and remarks thereon, which I had hoped to communicate with 
the Sanskrit. 
The extracts are contained in the Paramarth a-prap &, a volume of 
scholia, by Surya Pandit, on the Bkagaoadgitd , Some account of 
Surya, who lived in the first half of the sixteenth century, will be 
found in iny Contribution towards an Index tv the Bibliography of 
the Indian Philosophical Systems, pp. 119, 120.* I have indicated 
numerically, by mandnla , sukta, and rich, the passages of the Rig- 
veda which are expounded. 
That a Ravana wrote annotations on some portion of the Veda, is 
hinted by Mallari. See the Graha-lagkaoa > &c., Calcutta edition, 
p. 5. At Ajmere, at Gwalior, and elsewhere, pandits have, again and 
again, assured me of their having seen, and even of their having 
possessed, the whole of Havana's commentaries on the Rig-veda and 
Yajur-oeda. And 1 hesitate to conclude, that herein they were cre- 
tizing ; as I am unable to conceive why they should have wished to 
deceive me. 
On the authority of the Bhava-prahma, by Bhava Mis'ra, son of 
Latakana Mis'ra, some Ravana or other composed a Kumara-tantra. 
A work of like title, Bhava alleges, is ascribed to Sanatkum6ra. 
Your obedient servant, 
Fitz-Edward Hall. 
. » 
* The extracts, now given, were originally printed in a preface to this work 
which was subsequently cancelled. 
