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DECEMBER, 1894.]
which we place in the third or last section. In this case our excuse must be the English saying, "the line must be drawn somewhere," and also the fact, that this order, with the restrictions just made, remains still the best and, in any case, the most convenient that can be imagined.
BULLETIN OF THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA.
853
I do not pretend to be any more complete in this Report than I was in the preceding ones. Indian studies extend now over so vast a dominion, India itself has for some years taken so active a part in them, that it is impossible to procure, still less to take notice of, everything that is of any importance. With a few exceptions, where I merely mention the books, I shall only speak of such works as I have been able to personally examine. Even for these I shall try to be brief, whenever I am obliged to recur to matters already treated in this Review, to avoid making too many repetitions.
I. Veda and Brahmanism. Professor Max Müller has quickly carried to a successful completion the 2nd Edition of the text of the Hymns of the Rig Veda with the commentary of Sayana, for which he found in India not only a generous Maecenas, the Maharaja of Vijanagram, but also additional manuscript materials.
After this renewed inquiry and revision, both carried on, as before, with admirable fullness and care, the traditional text of the hymns may be considered as established definitively, and the restoration of the text of the commentary of Sâyana has not much to expect from future discoveries. This edition, however, does not yet render it unnecessary to recur to the old one. The Indices are not included. But this is an omission of secondary importance, which, no doubt, will soon be supplied, and we may now consider as completed this great and noble work, with which the name of Prof. Max Müller will remain connected as long as Oriental studies are held in esteem, and when certain unpleasant differences, to which it has given rise, will long be forgotten. Not many scholars will be found in a single century who have been so lucky.
Almost at the same time a native edition of the Rig Veda and its commentary was published at Bombay. This edition is not, like other publications of the same kind recently made in India, a mere reprint. It is founded on an independent collation of excellent MSS. It has thus a value of its own, which Prof. Max Müller has readily acknowledged, and it does the greatest honour to the Theosophical Society of Bombay, which has borne the expense and which, in this instance, has been working to better account than its sisters of Madras and Calcutta, Dr. P. Peterson, in editing parts of the text and commentary of the Rigveda, had particularly in view educational wants. Nevertheless, he has not considered himself relieved of the responsibility of a serious editor. His texts are his own, as he has taken the trouble to establish them anew on the foundation of MSS. Their contents are as follows: (1) a selection of hymns accompanied by the commentary of Sayana and critical notes; (2) the preface of Sayana and critical notes; (3) Hymus from the Seventh Mandala with extracts from the Pada text with the commentary of Sayana and critical notes. The latest of these different parts is the translation of the Preface of Sayana. It is an excellent introduction to the study of the style of the commentators, by means of an elaborate and extensive specimen. The translation itself is a mixture of literal version and more free paraphrase; it makes us catch the progress of the living thought and the manner of composition peculiar to this sort of writings. Considering the aim of the book, I only regret that Dr. Peterson has not added the exact references to the quotations of Sâyana, and that he has refrained from all comparison with parallel passages from the Preface to the com
2 Four vols., quarto, 1890-92.
Rigveda Samhita, with la Commentary by SAyanAcharya, edited by Rajârâm Shastri Bodas and Shivaram Shastri Gore, 8 vols. octavo, Bombay: 1889-90.
P. Paterson, Hymns from the Rigveda, edited with Sâyana's Commentary, Notes and a Translation, Bombay: 1888. Handbook to the study of the Rig Veda, Part I. Introductory, Bombay: 1890-Part II. The Seventh Mandala with the Commentary of Sayana, Bombay: 1892. These three volumns form Nos. XXXVI., XLI. and XLIII. of the Bombay Sanskrit Series.
