TRÜBNER’S ORIENTAL SERIES. · 2

Dr. Bühler, Inspector of Schools in India, writes:—“I am extremely glad to learn that you are about to publish an English translation of Professor A. Weber’s ‘History of Indian Literature.’ When I was Professor of Oriental Languages in Elphinstone College, I frequently felt the want of such a work to which I could refer the students. I trust that the work which you are now publishing will become a class-book in all the Indian colleges, as it is the first and only scientific one which deals with the whole field of Vedic, Sanskrit, and Prakrit literature.”

Professor Cowell, of Cambridge, writes:—“The English translation of Professor A. Weber’s ‘History of Indian Literature’ will be of the greatest use to those who wish to take a comprehensive survey of all that the Hindoo mind has achieved. It will be especially useful to the students in our Indian colleges and universities. I used to long for such a book when I was teaching in Calcutta. Hindu students are intensely interested in the history of Sanskrit literature, and this volume will supply them with all they want on the subject. I hope it will be made a text-book wherever Sanskrit and English are taught.”

Professor Whitney, Yale College, Newhaven, Conn., U.S.A., writes:—“I am the more interested in your enterprise of the publication of Weber’s Sanskrit Literature in an English version, as I was one of the class to whom the work was originally given in the form of academic lectures. At their first appearance they were by far the most learned and able treatment of their subject; and with their recent additions they still maintain decidedly the same rank. Wherever the language, and institutions, and history of India are studied, they must be used and referred to as authority.”

Post 8vo, cloth, pp. xii.-198, accompanied by Two Language Maps, price 12s.

A SKETCH OF THE MODERN LANGUAGES OF THE EAST INDIES.

By ROBERT N. CUST.

The Author has attempted to fill up a vacuum, the inconvenience of which pressed itself on his notice. Much had been written about the languages of the East Indies, but the extent of our present knowledge had not even been brought to a focus. Information on particular subjects was only to be obtained or looked for by consulting a specialist, and then hunting down the numbers of a serial or the chapters of a volume not always to be found. It occurred to him that it might be of use to others to publish in an arranged form the notes which he had collected for his own edification. Thus the work has grown upon him.

“The book before us is then valuable contribution to philological science. It passes under review a vast number of languages, and it gives, or professes to give, in every case the sum and substance of the opinions and judgments of the best-informed writers.”—Saturday Review.

Second Corrected Edition, post 8vo, pp. xii.-116, cloth, price 5s.

THE BIRTH OF THE WAR-GOD.

A Poem. By KALIDASA.

Translated from the Sanskrit into English Verse by Ralph T. H. Griffith, M.A.

“Mr. Griffith’s very spirited rendering of the Kumárasambhava, first published twenty-six years ago, is well known to most who are at all interested in Indian literature or enjoy the tenderness of feeling and rich creative imagination of its author.”—Indian Antiquary.

“We are very glad to welcome a second edition of Professor Griffith’s admirable translation of the well-known Sanskrit poem, the Kumárasambhava. Few translations deserve a second edition better.”—Athenæum.

Post 8vo, cloth, pp. 432, price 16s.

A CLASSICAL DICTIONARY OF HINDU MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION, GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY, AND LITERATURE.

By JOHN DOWSON, M.R.A.S.,

Late Professor of Hindustani, Staff College.

In this work an endeavour has been made to supply the long-felt want of a Hindu Classical Dictionary. The late Professor Wilson projected such a work, and forty years ago announced his intention of preparing it for the Oriental Translation Fund, but he never accomplished his design. The main portion of this work consists of mythology, but religion is bound up with mythology, and in many points the two are quite inseparable. Of history, in the true sense, Sanskrit possesses nothing, or next to nothing, but what little has been discovered here finds its place. The chief geographical names of the old writers also have received notice, and their localities and identifications are described so far as present knowledge extends. Lastly, short descriptions have been given of the most frequently mentioned Sanskrit books, but only of such books as are likely to be found named in the works of English writers.

This work will be a book of reference for all concerned in the government of the Hindus, but it will be more especially useful to young Civil Servants and to masters and students in the universities, colleges, and schools in India.

“It is no slight gain when such subjects are treated fairly and fully in a moderate space; and we need only add that the few wants which we may hope to see supplied in new editions detract but little from the general excellence of Mr. Dowson’s work.”—Saturday Review.

Post 8vo, with View of Mecca, pp. cxii.-172, cloth, price 9s.

SELECTIONS FROM THE KORAN.

By EDWARD WILLIAM LANE,

Hon. Doctor of Literature, Leyden; Correspondent of the Institute of France; Hon. Member of the German Oriental Society, the Royal Asiatic Society, &c.; Translator of “The Thousand and One Nights;” Author of an “Arabic-English Lexicon,” &c.

A New Edition, Revised and Enlarged, with an Introduction by Stanley Lane Poole.

Extract from Preface.

There has always been a wish to know something about the sacred book of the Mohammadans, and it was with the design of satisfying this wish, whilst avoiding the weariness and the disgust which a complete perusal of the Koran must produce, that Mr. Lane arranged the “Selections” which were published in 1843.... It has proved of considerable service to students of Arabic, who have found it the most accurate rendering in existence of a large part of the Koran; and even native Muslims of India, ignorant of Arabic, have used Lane’s “Selections” as their Bible.

“Mr. Poole is both a generous and a learned biographer.... Mr. Poole tells us the facts... so far as it is possible for industry and criticism to ascertain them, and for literary skill to present them in a condensed and readable form.”—Englishman, Calcutta.

Post 8vo, pp. xliv.-376, cloth, price 14s.