Religious Sects of The Hindus

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On account of the variety of manuscript Sources in Persian, Sanskrit, Bengali and different dialects of Hindi, from which the author gleaned the materials for his Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus, thorough consistency and uniformity in the transliteration of Indian names would have been beyond what could be expected by anyone ever so slightly acquainted with the various graphical, and still more phonetical, changes to which Sanskrit words are liable when passing into the vernacular idioms of modern India.

Some care has, therefore, been bestowed in the present edition upon introducing such accuracy in the spelling of Indian words, both ancient and modern, as shall enable the student to trace without difficulty their original forms. In cases of slight, but unavoidable discrepancies, occas-sioned, it is feared, in not a few instances by the want of ready communication between the editor and the printer, the reader is referred to the Index. However desirable, too, it would have been to verify the many quotations contained in the Notes, this has been found practicable only so far as some access to the printed literature of India enabled the editor to trace them. With regard to those of them which he has failed to verify he must plead as his excuse that he undertook and carried on the work of editing with but little time to spare from his other avocations. The verifications which he has succeeded in tracing, and the references and few other additions he has thought necessary to make, are enclosed in brackets []; and he hopes that the volume may not be the less welcome both to the student of Hindu literature and antiquities, and to everyone to whom the improvement of the religious condition of the Hindus is at heart.

Born Sep. 26, 1786: educated in Soho Square, London, and at St. Thomas's Hospital: arrived in Calcutta in 1808, in the medical service of the E.I.Co.: was at once attached to the Mint at Calcutta, for his knowledge of chemistry and Assay: was Secretary to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1811-33, with short intervals. He studied Sanskrit steadily and translated the Meghaduta of Kalidasa in 1813. In 1816 he was appointed Assay-master of the Calcutta mint, and he held the appointment until he left India in 1832. He published the Theatre of the Hindus and Sanskrit-English Dictionary (two editions), besides contributing to Asiatic Researches, the Journals of the Asiatic, Medical and Physical Societies, and other Oriental Literature. He wrote an Historical Account of the Burmese War: catalogued Col. Colin Mackenzie's MSS: was Secretary to the Committee of Public Instruction, introducing the study of European Science and English Literature into native education: and was visitor to the Sanskrit College. He became Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1833, Hon. MA. at Exter College; Librarian of the India House in 1836, Examiner at Haileybury, and Director, of the RoyalAşındı Society from 1837 till his death: FRS/18 He continued his labours on Indian subjects publbhmg the Vishnu Purana; Lectures on the Religious and Philosophical Systems of the Hindus, 1840; a Sanskrit grammar, the the Ariana Antiqua; a new edition of Mill's History of British-India, a translation of Rig- Veda; a Glossary of Indian Terms, and an edition of Macnaghten's Hindu Law: the greatest Sanskrit scholar of his time, combining a variety of attainments as general linguist, historian, chemist, accountant, numismatist, actor and musician: died May 8, 1860.

In the year 1813 Horace Hayman Wilson, then Assistant Surgeon in the service of the East India Company, published his translation of the Meghaduta, the first fruits of his literary labours in the mine of Sanskrit Literature. During the nineteen following years, while engaged in various official capacities, chietly at Calcutta and Banaras, and from the time of his return to England in 1832 till his death (on the 8th of May 1860) he continued to pursue his studies and researches on the literature, history, antiquities and religious systems of the Hindus with in- defatigable industry. Ever zealously availing himself of the opportunities which were afforded him by his long residence in India and subsequently by his easy access to the rich stores of Manuscripts, accur.ulated both at the East India House and the Bodleian Library, for extending, deepening, and consolidating his investigations in Indian lore, he produced a large number of works of various extent, which for usefulness, depth of learning, and wide range of research show him to have been the worthy successor of Sir W. JONES and H. T. COLEBROOKE. The just appreciation of his merits, contained in the sketches of his life, character and labours, in the Annual Report of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1860, and in the "Rapport" of the Societe Asia- tique for the same year, re-echoes but the meed of admiration and gratitude with which every student of Sanskrit acknow- ledges the obligations he owes to WILSON's works. Many of these however, ranging as they do over a period of nearly half a century, were originally published in periodicals and transactions of oriental Societies not generally accessible, or have otherwise become scarce, while they still are the standard, and in some instances the only.authority on the various topics of which the treat.

The first portion of Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus, appeared in the Asiatic Researches for 1828, and the second in the volume for 1832.

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