Proceedings of the Seventeenth Anniversary Meeting of the Society, held on the 9th of May, 1840 : the Right Hon. C.W. Williams Wynn, M.P., President, in the chair.
- Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland
- Date:
- [1840]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Proceedings of the Seventeenth Anniversary Meeting of the Society, held on the 9th of May, 1840 : the Right Hon. C.W. Williams Wynn, M.P., President, in the chair. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![1840.] The Committee have published since the last anniversary of the Society^ the following works:— 1. Practical Philosophy of the Muhammadan People; being a transla- tion of the Akhlak-i-Jalaly ; by W. F. Thompson, Esq. 2. The second volume of Professor Flugel’s edition and translation of the great Bibliographical Dictionary of Haji Khalfa. 3. The first volume of Professor Garcin de Tassy’s Histoire de la Litte- rature Hindoui et Hindustani. 4. The second livraison of M. Quatremere's translation of Makrizi's Histoire des Sultans Mamlouks. 5. Professor Wilson's translation from the Sanskrit of the Vishnu Purana. The importance of the Dictionary of Haji Khalfa is well known by Oriental scholars ; and the value of the work of Makrizi, as the record of a dynasty full of interest to the investigator into the History of Egypt, is also justly appreciated. Elaborate and favourable criticisms have appeared of the works of Mr. Thompson and ^M. Garcin de Tassy, evidencing the attention they have attracted from reviewers, and the increasing desire of the reading public to become intimately acquainted with the literature of the East. The last work enumerated, the Vishnu Purana, must be especially gratifying to the inquirer into the curious and intricate mythology of the Hindus, and into the sectarial divisions of Hinduism. Professor Wilson’s translation occupies no fewer than 665 pages in quarto, including numerous notes and elucidations; and is followed by an extensive index of names of divinities, heroes, sages, and places, affording a valuable key to the mythology of the Puranas, as well as to the Hindu myths in general. In the Preface to this work the learned translator has devoted forty pages to a succinct account of the whole eighteen Puranas. His analyses of two of these, the Brahma Purana and the Padma Purana, have already appeared in the fifth volume of the Journal of the Society; and it must be earnestly wished that Professor Wilson’s health and leisure mav enable him to accom- plish the laborious task he has proposed to himself of placing, in the course of time, before Oriental scholars, similar analyses of the whole series of these voluminous writings. The Preface to the Vishnu Purana contains also the result of much patient investigation into the cosmogony and doctrines of the Vedas and Puranas, and into the historical traditions derived from these ancient Hindu Scriptures, from w'hich may be deduced many authentic data of the con- dition and progress of the civilization of mankind in very remote ages. The Vishnu Purana must, therefore, be considered a most valuable addition to the treasures of Hindu literature which have been opened to Europeans by means of the Oriental Translation Fund and the exertions of its Committee. Amongst these treasures are to be found several other works of the highest interest relating to the same subjects ; namely, the Raghuvansa, the Harivansa, the Rig-Veda, the Kumara Sambhava, and the Sankhya Karika, all translated from the Sanskrit, and affording the most](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22394254_0013.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
