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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1877.
enabled at once to refer to the vocabulary, where wherefore he reduced it to four thousand. It is he finds the meaning of the root and all the this second abridgment by Sumati which mortals derivatives from it that occur in the poem, read, whilst the gods, Gandharvas, &c. read the together with occasional footnotes pointing out original code consisting of a hundred thousand cognate words in PAli, Hindustani, Gothic, slokas, which begins with the sloka : This uni. German, Persian, Latin, Greek, Russian, Welsh, verse was muvolved in darkness and could nowhere &c. Then, an index is prefixed to the Vocabulary, be discovered; then the holy self-existing spirit in which the words are arranged in alphabetical appeared with four faces. From this beginning, order, the root of each being set against it. The chapter follows chapter in regular succession. *Sketch of Sanskrit Grammar is derived from There the ninth chapter is headed : Of Judicial Wilson's Grammar, and is in the briefest form Procedure.' Of this chapter N & rada, the divine possible, consisting of eight pages of text and sage, made a general abstract in form of short seven folding sheets of tables of declensions of rules (sútras)." And this abstract is the work now nouns, numerals, pronouns, and conjugations of translated. But of course the divine sage' had verbs,--arranged in such a form as to be most nothing to do with its authorship, for even this useful to the learner.
epitome ascribed to him quotes N &ra da as well The system of transliteration differs from that as Manu as authorities; who the real author commonly used in employing a dot over the letter of it may have been, it is impossible to say, but to indicate the long sounds of a, i, and , in repre- in all probability, as Dr. Jolly conjectures, the senting the short i by, byr, by 1, 2by n", metrical version we now have is the work of some
T by 8, 7 by . We hardly think the additional learned Brahman, who perhaps reduced some older simplicity of this is sufficient to justify a depar- law-book into this shape. Its age he discusses at ture from the usual system,
more length, and, in agreement with Aurel Mayr
and Stenzler, he comes to the conclusion that NÁRADIYA DHARMASASTRA, or the INSTITUTES of NÄRADA. Translated for the first time from the unpublished
while the codes of Manu and Y & ja valky a Sanskrit original by Dr. Julius Jolly, With a preface, must be placed among the earliest law-books, that notes chiefly critical, an index of quotatioos from N Arada in the principal Indian Digests, and general Index. (pp.
of Narada cannot be attributed to an earlier XXXV. and 144, 12mo.) London: Trübner & Co. 1876. date than the fifth or sixth century--and perhaps
The title-page of this little volume very correctly it belongs even to a somewhat later age. describes its contents: the appendix, containing The Narad asmriti is perhaps, as described by the index of quotations and critical notes, occupies Dr. Jolly, "the most luminous, complete and sys22 pages at the end of the translation. The pre- tematic" of Hindu law-books, conveying "a more face is a very thoughtfully written introduction, correct and more favourable impression of native containing, in the limited space of twenty-seven Hindu legislation than either the code u Manu or pages, a vast amount of condensed information Jagannatha's Digest, the two most widely-spread and criticism.
works on Hinda law in general, could give," and The Ndradiya Dharmasastra or Ndradasmriti, like its translation must be welcome to all connected other works of the sort, begins with a fabulous with Indian jurisprudence in any form, as well as account of itself. Abridged it runs thus :- to Sansksit scholars. With the exception of an "Manu Prajapati composed, for the bene
occasional stiffness and want of idiomatic expresfit of all beings, a book fonnded upon custom sion, it is clearly rendered in a scholarly fashion. and law, which consisted of twenty-four divisions, We trust the reception of this little volume will vis. the creation of the world, a classification of be such as to encourage the author to attempt beings, an enumeration of the countries assigned some of the mediæval law treatises. to them, the characteristics of a judicial assembly, &c. &c. ... It contained a hundred thousand AITIHASIKA ROHASAYA, by R&m Das Sen. slokas. Prajapati having composed this book, Babu Râm Dâs Sen of Berhampur is known to which was arranged in a thousand chapters, de- some of our native scholars as the author of livered it to the divine sage N& rada. He then essays on some of the principal Indian poets. read it and thought by himself: "This book This second volume of his, which he styles Hiscannot be easily studied by human beings on ac- torical Essays, treats on a variety of subjects, such count of its length. Therefore he abridged it in as The Vedas,' Buddhism,' Jainism, the Pali twelve thousand blokas and delivered it to Su- language and literature, the Agra of Salivabana, mati, the son of Bhrigu. He too read it, and the Hindu Drama,' &o. It is to be regretted he bethought himself, what human capacity had been does not issue these interesting studies in an Engbrought to through the successive lossening of life;'lish dress, in which they would be welcomed.
• This verse corresponde with Slokas 5 and 6 of Manu, where the opening Slokas 1-4 are apparently a later addition.
