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THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST.
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work before it was too late. In the meantime it has become quite clear, chiefly through the labours of Ludwig and Bergaigne, that, before any new translation of the Rig-veda is undertaken, we must have a translation of the Yagur-veda, which contains the key to many allusionssto ceremonial subjects occurring in the Rig-veda. Such a translation of the hymns of the Yagur-veda has long been promised by Professor Weber; while a translation of the Brâhmana of that Veda has been undertaken by Professor Eggeling, and will appear in our Series of Sacred Books. Though I feel deeply sensible therefore of the compliment paid to me by so many scholars in asking me to publish a new translation of the Rig-veda, I think they will agree with me that the time for a new translation has hardly come, while I may add that there are others quite as competent as myself for undertaking so laborious a task.
I felt at the same time that there was other work connected with the Vedas which would at present be far more useful, and I therefore undertook a translation of the Upanishads, works which, in the actual state of Sanskrit scholarship, seem to me to deserve the most careful study, as embodying, if I am not mistaken, the first germs of Buddhism in its historical development out of Brahmanism. It required, no doubt, some courage to begin the Series of the Sacred Books of the East with the Upanishads, partly on account of their obscurity and the repellent character of some of them, partly on account of the many difficulties which still beset a translation of these works, particularly in the Aranyaka portions, which had deterred all former translators. If, as has been pointed out, my translation often differs so widely from previous translations as to seem hardly based on the same
