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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1894.
this volume because written in the same spirit and with the same method, and which the author would have made more telling against M. Henry, if he had not added a translation of his own to his criticisms. I shall have to speak further on of the work of M. Henry. Meanwhile I shall only say for the benefit of those readers who are not specialists, that they need not take alarm at all the accusations of "wrong meaning" and "opposite meaning" which are brought against this translation of M. Henry; this only means that M. Henry translates differently from M. Regnaud, on which we must congratulate M. Henry. No one knows better than he that his translation is and could be a simply tentative one, and that it is laid before us only as such in a spirit of genuine modesty.
But we do not mean to say that M. Regnand's work contains nothing of value. Far from it. M. Regnaud is a worker and investigator. If as a student of language he is combated by the students of language, if as a philologist by the philologists, no one will deny him an active and original mind, a vigorous style of argument, and great keenness of observation. A fixed idea is quite compatible with the latter gift, and often sharpens it. In the negative part of his book, where he detects the weak places in his opponents' armour, the want of strength in such and such an argument, the uncertainty of some meaning which has been provisionally accepted in default of a better, and still more, in the few parts of his book which are not directly concerned with his main thesis, we find a good number of just and useful observations. But I was called on to speak of this thesis, or rather system in this place, and I am compelled to pronounce completely against it. Under its spell, he has rid himself gradually of some useful checks possessed by Vedic philology, and in the end bas thrown overboard all philological principles whatever. He has thus given himself free elbow room. But such a method avenges itself, it has led him into a perfect cloud-land, and I fear he will remain there. For if I have spent such time over his works, I scarcely dare hope to convince him. It was because a protest was needful, sinco there may be some simple-minded people on whom these essays will have an influence, and because, in the second place, it was needful, by shewing what the method of M. Regnaud is, to put an end to the belief that he carries on the tradition of Bergaigne, with whom for years he has had nothing in common, and lastly because it seemed necessary, against all hope, to make a final attempt to deal with his speculations. I do not think that, in the future, I shall have the same patience. M. Regnaud imagines that, since Indianists do not discuss his works, this is for the purpose of suppressing them by a conspiracy of silence. By no means. It is simply because there are certain topics which, like the squaring of the circle, do not admit of discussion. How is discussion possible, when there is no kind of agreement ? M. Regnaud then must acquiesce; his writings are now addressed only to a circle of kindred spirits. He tells us of a school which is being formed about him. Frankly speaking, I wish it may be very small; otherwise we might expect to see some strange things.
Prof. Hillebrandt has finished, in the Bibliotheca Indica, his edition of the text of the ritual And liturgical hand-book of the Kaushitakins, one of the sukhús or branches of the Rigveda, the Srauta sútra of Sankhayany, and has begun the commentary of Anartiya.60 M. Sabbathier has given us a good study on the Agnishtoma, the simplest form of the soma sacrifices in the forn of a translation with explanations of the fifth chapter of the erauta siltra of Asvaldyana.61
On the Yajurveda I have few works to mention. The edition of the Taittiriya Samhita continued in the Bibliotheca Indica by Mahebachandra Nyayaratna, has advanced since my last report by two parts only.63 After nine years the fifth book is finished, and there are seven books.
*Alfred Hillebrandt, The Sankhiyana Srauta satra, together with the Commentary of Varaulattauta Anartiyi. Vol. I. Tout of the Sútra, Critical Notes, Indicon, Calcutta, 1888, seven parts. Vol. II. The Commentary of Varadattasuta Anartiya, Parts i.-iv. Calcutta, 1889-1892.
61 P. Sabbathier, Études de liturgie vedique. L'Agnishtoma d' après le Srauta-sdtra d'Asvaldyana (Journal Asiatique, Jan-Feb-Mar. 1890).
The white of the Black Yajurveda, with the Commentary of Madhava Acharya, Parts XXV., XXIV Calcutta, 1890-1892.
