The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-17
MAX MULLER'S "RIG-vEDA." ."

length been published in London by Trubner
~ Go. The SATURDAY Becje,0 gives the fol-
lowing notice of the work.
The popular expositor of the Science of
Language here returns to his first field that
in which his earliest honors were gained. and
in which also he laid the foundations of that
general knowledge of the structure and con-
nection of languages for which he is now
famous.
The hymns of the 'Big-Veda," if not the
oldest, are certainly among the oldest, writ
ings known to mankind. The era of their
production cannot be settled, and it is pro-
bable, nay, almost certain, that their COM
position was the work of long periods. per
haps even of many centuries. Thus much
at least is known of their antiquity that
five or six centuries before the Christian
era their language and their grammar
had become 50 obsolete that critical
treatises known by the title Of pyatjaadhyas,
were required to explain and illustrate their
construction and Specification. They thus 90
back to, or may even precede, the very dawn
of history and SO they present to us some of
the earliest outpourings of the human mind
Since the period of the pyutig0kbyas their
contents have been guarded with the most
scrupulous care, and ''the text of the Veda is
better authenticated and supported by a more
perfect dpDdrdtJlS cliticUS than the text of
any Greek or Latin author. The Importance.
then, of these productions, as illustrating the
early history of man, the development of
thought, and the formation and affinity of
languages, cannot be oveuated.
But what are the Vedas. and the Rig-Veda
In particular? The ordinary answer is 'Ihe
sacred books of the Brahmins,' and this is
true; but how much does it cover? The
Nedas are four in number, but the Rig is the
great original, the fountain from which the
contents of the others have been drawn and
moulded into different forms for liturgical
and sacritcial purposes. The Vedas, then,
are the sacred books of the Brahmins: but it
must not therefore be concluded they are the
Scriptures of the Hndoos. their laws and
authorities i'll matters of religion SO distant
is the period when these hymns were COM
posed, manifold have been the changes
which have come over Hindoo thought and
feeling, that though some faint traces may be
found i'll them of institutions which now
exist and of ceremonies still observed, the
Hindoo religion of the present time contains
but very little that can be referred to those
writings which are cOnfessedly its basis.
1t is not difficult to trace the
progress Of this divergence, through a sue
cessiOn of different schools Of thought, and
through various classes of writings From
age to age the differences have grown wider
and wider until at length ii has come to this
pass, that the great objects of Hindu worship
though verses from these ancient books are
still used at sacrifices and in ceremonies,
they are recited by priests who have learned
them orally, or from ritualistic manuals, but
who have no real understanding Of their lam |
gUage and meaning, and no knowledge of the !
books from which they are derived. Some |
few learned Brahmins are to be found here |
and there, who have made the Nedas their |
study, and have acquired a more OF less ex- |
tensive knowledge of their language and inn |
port; but they are few and far between, bear |
ing perhaps a not much greater proportion to |
the whole than Sansluit scholars do to the |
educated classes of England.
These facts lead us up to the otherwise |
startling statement that the Vedas are now
more generally and far better understood in
Europe than they are in India. A brief CON
sideration of the circumstances by which this
result has been achieved will sufficiently ac-
count for it. When a knowledge Of the San
skirt language, and of the vast literary trea.
sures which it contains, first broke upon the
mind of Europe towards the close of the last
century great were the expectations excited,
and active were the efforts made to obtain
copies of the Vedas-those books which in
quiring philosophers hoped would unveil many
of the mysteries of religion, and prove the
futility of much that was commonly believed
But they were not easily obtained
the few Brahmins who had a knowledge
of them had also a reverence for them, a
reverence which was only exceeded by the
awe of those who, being ignorant of their
contents, looked upon them with superstitiouS
fear, and dreaded the imprecations passed
upon the man who should disclose them
Some time thus elapsed before copies were
obtained and such was the mystery attaching
to them that one of the Jesuit missionaries
in India endeavored to improve the op-
pOrtunity, and pave the way for Chris
tianity, by forging a Sansllrit work to
which he gave the name of the second or
Yaiur-Veda and which, being translated into
French, under the title LBzOlp PcdaD1, de-
ceived- Voltaire Colebrooke, a Company's
civilian, one of the earliest but one of the
most profound Sansllrt scholars that Europe
has produced, first gave an insight into their
nature by an essay which he published in the
AStdtic Researches. In 1888 Rosen published
the text, with a translation of the first of the
eight books of the Rig-Neda, and few years
afterwards the Court of Directors undertook
the publication of the whole text of the Rig,
together with the commentary of Sayana, its
greatest native exponent. The preparation
of this work was entrusted to Dr. Max Muller,
and in 1S49 he brought out the first portion,
a portly quarto volume; three others have fol
lowed. and two more remain to be published
Ample materials have thus been suppliedforthe
study of this important work, and it may be
fairly said that knowledge has advanced as
rapidly as the materials for study has been
supplied.
Soon hfter the first volume of the text was
pnblished the late Professor Wilson under
took the work of translation, and in 1890 his
first volume appeared. At the time OF ms
death three volumes had been published, and
n fourth has since been brought out edited