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OCTOBER, 1879.]
fail also to set us thinking." The Preface to the Sacred Books is followed (pp. lvii ff) by an Introduction to the Upanishads, which first relates the translation into Persian of the Upanishads by, or under the orders of, Dârâ Shukoh, eldest son of Shah Jehan; the translation of that version into Latin by Anquetil du Perron; and the careful study of this Latin translation by the German philosopher Schopenhauer, who, we are told, made no secret of the fact that "his own philosophy is powerfully impregnated by the fundamental doctrines of the Upanishads." Translated extracts from the works of that writer are given to show his appreciation of the Upanishads. An account is then given of the work of Rammohun Roy," the reformer and reviver of the ancient religion of the Brahmans. A man who in his youth could write a book 'Against the Idolatry of all Religions,' and who afterwards expressed in so many exact words his 'belief in the divine authority of Christ," was not likely to retain anything of the sacred literature of his own religion, unless he had perceived in it the same divine authority which he recognised in the teaching of Christ. He rejected the Purdnas, he would not have been swayed in his convictions by the authority of the Laws of Manu, or even by the sacredness of the Vedas.... But he discovered in the Upanishads and in the so-called Vedanta something different from all the rest, something that ought not to be thrown away, something that, if rightly understood, might supply the right native soil in which alone the seeds of true religion, aye of true Christianity, might spring up again, and prosper in India, as they had once sprung up and prospered from out the philosophies of Origen or Synesius." "The death of that really great and good man," Prof. Max Müller adds, in page lxiv, during his stay in England in 1833, was one of the severest blows that have fallen on the prospects of India. But his work has not been in vain." The religious movements which have followed his death are then adverted to. After sections on the "Position of the Upanishads in Vedic Literature" (where Prof. Max Müller tells us that, his own "real love for Sanskrit literature was first kindled by the Upanishade;") on the "Different Classes of Upanishads," on the "Critical treatment" of their text, and "Works on the Upanishads"-the titles of which I need not enumerate, the author furnishes us with introductory remarks on the Chhandogya and Talavakara Upanishads, the Aitareya Aranyaka, the Kaushitaki
BOOK NOTICES.
2 Born 1774, died at 2-30 A.M., on Friday, 28th Septem
ber 1833.
3 Last Days of Bammohun Roy, by Mary Carpenter, 1866, p. 135,
297
Brahmana-Upanishad, and the Vdjasaneyi-Samhit Upanishad, the translations of which, with notes, fill the rest of his volume. Of the Upanishads translated by Dr. Roer in the Bibliotheca Indica Vol. XV. (Nos. 41 and 50) (1853) the Taittiriya, Svetasvatara, Katha, Prasna, Mundakya, and Mandukya are absent from this volume. Translations of these will, no doubt, sooner or later, be issued by Prof. Max Müller as part of his series. The Brihad-aranyaka Upanishad, also translated by Dr. Roer in the Bibliotheca Indicu, (1856) forms part of the Satapatha-Brahmana, a translation of which forms part of Prof. Max Müller's program.
The well known ability and scholarship of the translator, as well his careful study of the subject, as evinced by the tenor of his remarks, which have been quoted in this paper, afford a sufficient guarantee for the general accuracy of his renderings, though in the case of such occasionally obscure and difficult works as the Upanishads, the opinions even of competent scholars cannot always be expected to coincide. That such diversity of opinion is to be looked for is remarked by Prof. Max Müller himself in his Introduction to the Kaushitaki Upanishad, where he says of Prof. Cowell's translation of that tract; "I have had the great advantage of being able to consult for the Kaushitaki Upanishad, not only the text and commentary as edited by Prof. Cowell, but also his excellent translation."
If I differ from him in some points, this is but natural, considering the character of the text and the many difficulties that have still to be solved, before we can hope to arrive at a full understanding of these ancient philosophical treaties.
I do not pretend to have examined Prof. Max Müller's translations; but I give a specimen from Chhandogya Upanishad iii. 14, followed by the translation of the same passage by Dr. Rajendralâl Mittra in the Bibliotheca Indica for comparison: Prof. Müller's version:
"1. All this is Brahman (n). Let a man meditate on that (visible world) as beginning, ending, and breathing in it (the Brahman).
"Now man is a creature of will. According to what his will is in this world, so will he be when he has departed this life. Let him therefore have this will and belief:
2. "The intelligent, whose body is spirit, whose form is light, whose thoughts are true, whose nature is like ether (omnipresent and invisible), from whom all works, all desires, all sweet odours
Prof. Müller says in a note; "jalan" [the word rendered beginning, ending, and breathing is explained by ja, boru, la, absorbed, and an breathing. It is an artificial term, but fully recognized by the Vedanta School, and always explained in this manner.
