TRÜBNER’S ORIENTAL SERIES. · 1

Messrs. TRÜBNER & CO. beg to call attention to their ORIENTAL SERIES, in which will be collected, as far as possible, all extant information and research upon the History, Religions, Languages, Literature, &c., of Ancient India, China, and the East in general.

The Oriental Series will be on a comprehensive design, and no labour or expense will be spared to render the undertaking worthy of its subject. Messrs. Trübner & Co. have already secured the services of eminent Eastern students and writers; and while the labour proposed must necessarily prove vast, they intend to accomplish it by working with many able hands over the whole field, under careful and well-organised Editorship.

THE FOLLOWING WORKS ARE NOW READY:— Second Edition, post 8vo, cloth, pp. xvi.—427, price 16s.

ESSAYS ON THE SACRED LANGUAGE, WRITINGS, AND RELIGION OF THE PARSIS.

By MARTIN HAUG, Ph.D.,

Late of the Universities of Tübingen, Göttingen, and Bonn; Superintendent of Sanskrit Studies, and Professor of Sanskrit in the Poona College; Honorary Member of the Bombay Branch Royal Asiatic Society, &c.

Edited by Dr. E. W. WEST.

I. History of the Researches into the Sacred Writings and Religion of the Parsis, from the Earliest Times down to the Present.

II. Languages of the Parsi Scriptures.

III. The Zend-Avesta, or the Scripture of the Parsis.

IV. The Zoroastrian Religion, as to its Origin and Development.

The Author of these Essays intended, after his return from India, to expand them into a comprehensive work on the Zoroastrian religion; but this design, postponed from time to time, was finally frustrated by his untimely death. That he was not spared to publish all his varied knowledge on this subject must remain for ever a matter of regret to the student of Iranian antiquities. In other hands, the changes that could be introduced into this Second Edition were obviously limited to such additions and alterations as the lapse of time and the progress of Zoroastrian studies have rendered necessary.

In the First Essay, the history of the European researches has been extended to the present time; but for the sake of brevity several writings have been passed over unnoticed, among the more valuable of which those of Professor Hübschmann may be specially mentioned. Some account has also been given of the progress of Zoroastrian studies among the Parsis themselves.

In the Second Essay, additional information has been given about the Pahlavi language and literature; but the technical portion of the Avesta Grammar has been reserved for separate publication, being better adapted for students than for the general reader.

Some additions have been made to the Third Essay, with the view of bringing together, from other sources, all the author’s translations from the Avesta, except those portions of the Gâthas which he did not include in the First Edition, and which it would be hazardous for an Editor to revise. Further details have also been given regarding the contents of the Nasks.

Several additional translations having been found among the author’s papers, too late for insertion in the Third Essay, have been added in an Appendix, after careful revision, together with his notes descriptive of the mode of performing a few of the Zoroastrian ceremonies.

The Author’s principal object in publishing these Essays originally, was to present in a readable form all the materials for judging impartially of the scriptures and religion of the Parsis. The same object has been kept in view while preparing this Second Edition, giving a large quantity of such materials, collected from a variety of sources, which may now be left to the reader’s impartial judgment.

The value of this Second Edition is greatly enhanced by the addition of many posthumous papers, discovered by the Editor, Dr. E. West, at Munich. They consist of further translations from the Zend and Pahlavi of the Zend-Avesta, and also of numerous detailed notes descriptive of some of the Parsi ceremonies.

Post 8vo, cloth, pp. viii.-176, price 7s. 6d.

TEXTS FROM THE BUDDHIST CANON

COMMONLY KNOWN AS “DHAMMAPADA.”

With Accompanying Narratives.

Translated from the Chinese by S. BEAL, B.A., Professor of Chinese, University College, London.

Among the great body of books comprising the Chinese Buddhist Canon, presented by the Japanese Government to the Library of the India Office, Mr. Beal discovered a work bearing the title of “Law Verses, or Scriptural Texts,” which on examination was seen to resemble the Pali version of Dhammapada in many particulars. It was further discovered that the original recension of the Pali Text found its way into China in the Third Century (A.D.), where the work of translation was finished, and afterwards thirteen additional sections added. The Dhammapada, as hitherto known by the Pali Text Edition, as edited by Fausböll, by Max Müller’s English, and Albrecht Weber’s German translations, consists only of twenty-six chapters or sections, whilst the Chinese version, or rather recension, as now translated by Mr. Beal, consists of thirty-nine sections. The students of Pali who possess Fausböll’s Text, or either of the above-named translations, will therefore needs want Mr. Beal’s English rendering of the Chinese version; the thirteen above-named additional sections not being accessible to them in any other form; for, even if they understand Chinese, the Chinese original would be unobtainable by them.

“Mr. Beal, by making it accessible in an English dress, has added to the great services he has already rendered to the comparative study of religious history.”—Academy.

“Valuable as exhibiting the doctrine of the Buddhists in its purest, least adulterated, form, it brings the modern reader face to face with that simple creed and rule of conduct which won its way over the minds of myriads, and which is now nominally professed by 145 millions, who have overlaid its austere simplicity with innumerable ceremonies, forgotten its maxims, perverted its teaching, and so inverted its leading principle that a religion whose founder denied a God, now worships that founder as a god himself.”—Scotsman.

Post 8vo, cloth, pp. xxiii.-360, price 18s.

THE HISTORY OF INDIAN LITERATURE.

By ALBRECHT WEBER.

Translated from the Second German Edition by John Mann, M.A., and Théodor Zachariae, Ph.D., with the sanction of the Author.