ON ETHNOLOGY. 
329 
of the sacred writings of the Hindiis is indispensable for a true appre¬ 
ciation of the whole intellectual development of this people, everybody 
admits, for the Veda bears the same relation to Indian antiquities as the 
Old Testament to the Jewish, the New Testament to the Christian, and 
the Koran to the Mahomeclan history. The religion, worship and man¬ 
ners, poetry and philosophy of the Hindus, derive their source in common 
from the Veda, the monument of a religion, which, by its origin, belongs to 
the jnost ancient, and by its effects to the most important of all the Religions 
with which Divine Providence decreed to begin the great work of tlie°edu- 
cation of the human race. It has often been regretted, that while so many 
editions of dramatic works like Sakontala, of codes of law like Manu, 
of philosophical systems like the P'eddnta, have been published, almost 
nothing has yet been done for the Veda. Colebronke's excellent article on 
the Vedas, or the sacred writings of the Hindus, remained for a long time 
our only source of information upon this subject, and it is possible that the 
opinions of this learned orientalist, while they excited a great degree of 
interest, discouraged .it the same time further inquiries. ColebrooL, who 
is^ the first authority on Indi-an literature, says at the end of his essay, 
" The ancient dialect In which the Vedas are composed, and especially that 
of the three first Vedas, is extremely difficult and obscure; and though 
curious, us the parent of a more polished and refined language (the classical 
Sanscrit), its difficulties imibt long cominue to prevent such an examination 
of the whole Vedas as would be requisite for extracting all that is remark¬ 
able and important in those voluminous works.” 
But Dr. Rosen, convinced of the necessity of arriving at a complete know¬ 
ledge and jierfeci understanding of the Vedas, undertook to prepare an edi- 
tion of the whole Jiigvcda, and thus withdraw those manuscripts from that oh- 
scurity to which they might otherwise have been consigned for a much longer 
time in the liliraries of Kiighiud. The KTgveda is doubtlesg the most import¬ 
ant of the Vedas, because it presents to us the oldpuems in their original form, 
and as they were conceived by tlie old inspired Risliis ; while the other two, 
the Sdma and Yajuneda, contain only isolated Iragraents of similar poems, 
digested and amplified in accordance to the requirements of the Indian cere- 
niouiul. As to the fourth, theit belongs to a posterior period, 
and contains also for a great part hymns of the Uigveda. it cannot be 
sufficiently regretted that the premature death of Dr. Rosen interrupted 
this meriturioHs undertaking, when scarcely the first of the ten books of the 
Rigveda was printed. Afterwards it was more the result of circumstances 
than tiie fault of Sanscrit scholars, that an edition of this work has re- 
niained till now iincontinucd. 1 am liapny however to announce on this 
public occasion, that all thu material difficulties of such an undertaking have 
now bceri removed by the lilieraltty of tho Hon. Court of Directors of the 
Bast India Company, who have but recently, upon the recommendation of 
our distinguished president, granted a considerable sum for the publication 
of this work, and have enabled me to rc.^!ize a plan for which I had col¬ 
lected during several years all the materials which are to be found in the public 
and private libraries of Germany, France and England, without seeing any 
chance of printing so voluminous a work. This very day the first sheet of 
the text and commctiiary of the Rigveda has issued from the University 
press of Oxford, and I have the pleasure of laying before the committee the 
first copies of it. 
In the hymns of the Rigveda, as I just mentioned, we see the Brahmini- 
cal tribes advancing step by step along the rivers of the Panjdb into the 
