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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1879.
" Who of the fruit of life can share,
Yet scorn to drink of the grape's sweet dew? Then drain a cup to thy mistress fair,
Freshly fresh and newly new ! She who has stolen my heart away
Heightens her beauty's rosy hue, Decketh herself in rich array,
Freshly fresh and newly new! "Balmy breath of the Western gale,
Waft to her ears my love-song true; Tell her poor love-lorn Hafiz' tale,
Freshly fresh and newly new !" The Original pieces' hardly lie in our line; they sparkle with wit and fun, and with all classes of readers will only add to the relish with which Professor Palmer's spirited little volume will be read and enjoyed by all who can obtain it.
THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST, Vol. I.: The UPANISHADS translated by F. MAX MÜLLER. Part i.--The Khåndogya Upanishad, the Talavakira-Upanishad, the Aitareya Aranyaka, the Kaushitaki-BrAhmana-Upani. shad, and the VAgasaneyi-SamhitA-Upanishad. (Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1879.)
We have now at length in three volumes (of which the first is that named above, and the others are on Indian laws by Dr. Bühler, and on Confucianism by Dr. Legge), the first instalment of a series of translations of Oriental works of which Prof. Max Müller announced the intended pub. lication, under his own Editorship, in October 1876. The following are the names of the Indian books (excepting the Buddhistic ones) which are now mentioned in the general Preface. (pp. xlv, xlvi) as selected for translation and publication. These are the Hymns of the Rig-veda, the Sata. patha-brahmana, the Upanishads, the Grihya. stras of Hiranyákesin and others, the Sútras of Åpastamba, Gautama, Baudhayana, Vasishtha, Vishnu, &c. the Laws of Manu, Yajñavalkya, &c. the Bhagavad-gitá, the Vayu-purdna.
The translation of the Hymns of the Rig-veda is to be undertaken by the editor himself, who in his original program writes as follows (Pref. p. xliv):-"From among the Sacred Books of the Brahmans I hope to give a translation of the Hynins of the Rig-veda. While I shall continue my translation of selected hymns of that Veda, a traduction raisonnée which is intended for Sans. krit scholars only, on the same principles which I have followed in the first volume', explaining every word and sentence that seems to require elucidation, and carefully examining the opinions of previous commentators, both Native and European, I intend to contribute a freer translation
of the hymns to this Series, with a few explanatory notes only, such as are absolutely necessary to enable readers who are unacquainted with Sanskrit to understand the thoughts of the Vedic poets."
This announcement is highly satisfactory. For, although all who read German can already refer to the two recent translations of Ludwig and Grassmann,-not to speak of the smaller collection of Geldner and Kaegi,--yet all these scholars differ in many renderings. Such as they are, Prof. Müller will have the benefit of their views on the sense of different passages, and we may hope that by the labours of so able and experienced & scholar as he is, the interpretation of the hymns will make a further step in advance.
The greater part of Prof. Max Müller's "Preface to the Sacred Books of the East," contained in this volume, is occupied with remarks upon three points; the first warns his readers that those who have been led to believe that the Vedas of the ancient Brahmans, the Avesta of the Zoroastrians, the Tripitaka of the Buddhists, the Kings of Confucius, or the Koran of Mohammed are books full of primeval wisdom and religious enthusiasm, or at least of sound and simple moral teaching, will be disappointed on consulting these volumes," p. ix. "Scholars also who have devoted their life either to the editing of the original texts or to the careful interpretation of some of the sacred books, are more inclined, after they have disinterred from a heap of rubbish some soli. tary fragments of pure gold, to exhibit these treasures only than to display all the refuse from which they had to extract them." (p. x.) He afterwards goes on to say :-"The time has come when the study of the ancient religions of man. kind must be approached in a different, in a less enthusiastic, and more discriminating, in fact, in a more scholarlike spirit." For although the religions of antiquity must always be approached in a loving spirit," "true love does not ignore all faults and failings: on the contrary, it scans them keenly, though only in order to be able to understand, to explain, and thus to excuse them."
As these ancient sacred books have, besides what deserves our admiration, much that is of a different character, we must not, in order to form a just conception of their contents, be satisfied with extracts, but have before us complete and faithful translations of these books. "No one," the writer proceeds to say, "who collects and publishes such extracts can resist, no one at all events, so far as I know, has ever resisted, the temptation of giving what is beautiful, or it may Hymns to the Maruts or the Storm-Gods. London, 1869.
Rig-veda-sanhita, The Sacred Hymns of the Brah. mans, translated and explained by F. Max Müller. Vol. i.:
