CLASS III.-INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES. B. SANSCRIT FAMILY. SANSCRIT. SPECIMEN, FROM Sr. JOHN, CHAP. I. 0.1 to 14. १२ प्रथमे जासीद्दाक्यं अथ वाक्यमासीत् सहेश्वरेण । अथ तद्वाक्यमासीदीश्वरं । इदमासीत्युपमे सहेश्वरेण । सर्वाणि ३ ४ तेनाक्रियन्त ते च तं नाकारि एकमेव यदुकारि । तस्मिन् जीवनमासीत् अथ तज्जीवनमासीदालाके! मनुष्याणां । ५ ६ अथ आलोकस्तिमिरे बुभौ तिमिरस्तु तवाग्रहीत् । अभून्मृनुष्यः प्रेरित ईश्वरावाना योहन इति । सु आगच्छत् ७ t साक्ष्याय यत् साक्ष्ययेद्ध्यालाकं यत् सर्व्वे प्रतीयुस्तेन । नासीत् सु आलोकः किन्तु यत् साक्ष्ययेदुध्यालेाकं । ९ १० स आसीदालाकः सत्यो यु चालाकयति सर्व्वमनुष्यं आगच्छन् जगति । जगत्यासीत् जगच्च तेनाजायत जगच ११ १२ तन्नाज्ञासीत्। उपात्मीयमागच्छत् आलीया तत्र जगृहुः । यावन्तस्तु जगृहुस्तुं अददनेभ्यः पराक्रममीश्वरस्य १३ पुत्रा भवितुं तेभ्यः प्रत्ययये! नाम्नि तस्य । ये नरकेभ्येा न विच्छया शरीरस्य नापीळ्या मनुष्यस्य किन्त्वीश्वरा१४ जनिषत । वाक्यञ्च मांसमुजायत अवसवास्मासु अथापश्यामे माहात्म्यं तस्य माहात्म्यं यथा पितुरेकजातस्य पूर्णस्य कृपया सत्यतया च। I. GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENT AND STATISTICS. SANSCRIT, the ancient and classical language of India, is still cultivated by the learned throughout a country comprising upwards of 1,250,000 English square miles, equal to about a third part of the entire area of Europe. Among the 170,000,000 inhabitants of this extensive region, Mohammedanism and various other forms of religion exist; but the predominant creed is Brahminism, which is professed by seven-eighths of the people. The ancient Brahminical writings called the Vedas inculcate the existence of one Supreme Being; but the government of the universe is said to be delegated to 333,000,000 subaltern deities, and the mass of the people are practically gross idolaters. Brahminism is pre-eminently a religion of forms and ceremonies: fatiguing pilgrimages, rigorous fastings, and many cruel observances, amounting even to the wilful sacrifice of life, are frequently exacted from its votaries. II. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LANGUAGE. The origin of this language is lost in remote antiquity. We possess no authentic records of the peopling of India, called in the Vedas "Indu," the beloved land of Indra, nor of the early history of its inhabitants. It is, however, generally believed that, many centuries anterior to the Christian era, a people of Japhetic origin settled in India, and brought with them their own language, with which the language of the aborigines of the country, or at least of the northern provinces, became gradually blended. This language was the Sanscrit, and philological evidences have of late years been adduced in abundance to prove its close connection, if not its original identity, with the Zend, the language of ancient Bactria, thus pointing pretty clearly to the origin of the early settlers. Sanscrit was a refined and polished tongue during many ages when Europe was plunged in barbarism; and the philosophy, science, and erudition of the Brahmins, inscribed in their rich and flexible language on the fragile leaves of the palm tree, were, from generation to generation, religiously concealed in temples from the gaze of the Western world. The successes of the British in India during the last century led to the examination of these monuments of ancient lore; and the language in which they were written. then began to be studied by Europeans. From this period a new era commenced in philological science. It was found that many hypotheses, which had long engaged the attention and baffled the penetration of philologists, could be conducted to a safe and triumphant issue by means of the important link in the chain of causes and effects afforded by the Sanscrit language. The same grammatical principles upon which the Sanscrit is based were proved to pervade the Greek, the Latin, the German, the Icelandic, and in fact all the languages constituting what has been appropriately designated the Indo-European class; while the fifteen hundred radical monosyllables, by means of which all Sanscrit words are constructed, were traced, with precisely similar significations, and to the amount of one thousand, among the elements of the Indo-European languages; for these numerous languages, as Eichhorn has well remarked, exhibit the fragments of a grand edifice, of which the whole is to be seen entire only on the banks of the Ganges. The very name of the Sanscrit language (derived from the preposition sam, equivalent to the Greek σuv, s euphonic, and krita, passive participle of kri, to make) denotes its completeness; and Sir William Jones, in comparing it with the two learned languages of Europe, attested its superiority over both, for it is, as he said, "more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either." It is, in short, the most perfect and most beautiful language in existence. Its nouns, like the Greek, admit of three numbers (singular, dual, and plural), and of three genders; the cases resemble those of the Latin and Greek in power, but including the vocative they reach the number of eight, the two additional cases that do not occur in the sister languages being the Instrumental, which has the sense of by or with, and the Locative, which conveys the meaning of in or on. In point of inflection, the Sanscrit cases of nouns present the type of the Greek and Latin declensions. So in the conjugation of Sanscrit verbs, affinities are everywhere to be traced with the Greek, Latin, and Germanic languages, but more especially with the Greek. The resemblance between Greek and Sanscrit is particularly striking in the formation of the tenses, and in the use of the augment and reduplication. Like the Greek, the Sanscrit possesses three voices, active, middle, and passive; but as in Greek, so in Sanscrit, the distinction between the active and middle forms is often lost sight of, and in many verbs can scarcely be said to exist. All traces of this middle voice have disappeared in Latin and in all the other languages of this class, except the Zend and the Gothic. Sanscrit verbs have five moods-indicative, potential, imperative, precative, and conditional. The indicative has six tenses; namely, three preterites (corresponding in form with the Greek imperfect, aorist, and perfect), two futures, which, like the two futures of the Greek verb, seem to be used indiscriminately; and one present. All the other moods in Zend and Sanscrit possess but one tense. In the Vedas, however, the most ancient documents of the Sanscrit language, there are indications that the other moods originally possessed more than one tense; and hence Bopp infers, that "what the Indo-European languages in their development of the moods have in excess over the Sanscrit and Zend, dates, at least in its origin, from the period of the unity of the language." A remarkable analogy has been noticed by Burnouf and others between the Sanscrit infinitive and the Latin supine in tum; and a great number of instances, in which this similarity is perfect, are adduced by Schlegel in the Indische Bibliothek (e. g. Sans. sthâtum, Lat. statum; Sans. dátum, Lat. datum); and the original identity of the two forms is proved by the fact, first remarked by Bopp, that, in the more ancient monuments of the Latin language, the supine in tum is used where, according to later use, the infinitive is employed. In Sanscrit, as in Greek, Latin, and all the Germanic languages, prepositions are extensively used in forming compound verbs. In all those languages the verbs thus compounded sometimes retain simply the signification of the original verbal root; in other instances they express the combined sense of the two elements of which they are composed; and in other cases they present a meaning differing widely from what their composition would have led us to expect. Without being so intimately connected with the Sanscrit as the Greek, Latin, and Germanic languages, the Lithuanian, Lettish, Old Prussic, and Sclavonic dialects bear testimony in their words and structure of a common origin. One general and invariable characteristic which (with the exception of the Celtic family) runs through every language of the Indo-European class is, that in the first and second personal pronouns there is no distinction of gender, and that the nominative case singular of the first personal pronoun is derived from a root very different to that whence the oblique cases proceed. One of the principal links of resemblance, according to Bopp, between the Lithuanian and the Sanscrit is the omission of the letter n in both languages, whenever it occurs as the final radical of certain words: this he attributes to the influence of the laws of euphony. Klaproth, not content with recognising the astonishing affinities of the Indo-European languages, has extended his researches over a yet wider field of survey, and has formed an extensive vocabulary, in which he exhibits a multitude of words which are found in Sanscrit, and which are also preserved in the Finnish, Samojede, and Turkish languages; but aware of the difficulty of explaining this phenomenon, he confines himself to the mere statement of its existence. III.-ALPHABETICAL SYSTEM. The artificial system upon which the Sanscrit alphabet is arranged is explained, page 8. The alphabetical characters usually employed in writing Sanscrit are said to have a divine origin, and are called Devanagari, signifying the alphabet of "the city of the gods," from nagara a city, and deva (divus) a god. No grammarians have ever equalled or even rivalled the Indian in the study of the laws of euphony. The permutations to which Sanscrit letters are subjected in conformity with these laws are particularly numerous. These permutations extend even to syntax, and words merely in sequence have an influence over each other in the change of final, and sometimes even of initial, letters. Compared with the alphabetical sounds of other languages, it has been found that, taking articulation for articulation, and value for value, there are ten sounds less in Russian than in Sanscrit, twelve less in Greek, fifteen in German, and eighteen less in Latin. IV. SANSCRIT VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES. It seems to have been by the special interposition of Providence that the means of effecting a translation of the Scriptures into Sanscrit were provided at the precise period when the first attempt was made to commence this important work. Only a few years previous to the arrival of the venerable Carey in India, Sanscrit was almost inaccessible to Europeans. Sir William Jones, by large pecuniary payments which would have been beyond the means of the missionary, secured the services of a pundit in elucidating the principles of the language; and the works afterwards prepared by this celebrated orientalist, and by others who followed in the same track, removed the apparently insuperable difficulties which had placed the Sanscrit language beyond the reach of ordinary students. The care of Providence in providing means for printing the Scriptures in the languages of India is also remarkable, for no Sanscrit work had ever been committed to the press until a few years prior to the translation of the Scriptures into that language, when Dr. Wilkins succeeded in constructing a fount of types in Indian characters. A native, formerly in his service, communicated the invention to the missionaries at Serampore, and with his aid types were cast for printing the Scriptures in no less than twelve of the alphabets used in various parts of India. The Sanscrit New Testament was commenced in 1803, and finished at press in 1808; the edition consisted of 600 copies. The printing of this edition was commenced in 1806, and in the same year the Rev. David Brown, provost of the College of Fort William, sent a specimen of it to the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society in London. In his accompanying letter he remarked respecting this version, that "the Sanscrit answers to Greek as face answers to face in a glass; the translation will be perfect while it is almost verbal. You will find the verb in the corresponding mood and tense, the noun and adjective in the corresponding case and gender. The idiom and government are the same: when the Greek is absolute, so is the Sanscrit; and in many instances the primitives or roots are the same." Dr. Carey tells us that he translated this version immediately from the Greek, and that he afterwards in conjunction with Dr. Marshman, compared each sentence with the Greek text. All his other translations were in the first place written out roughly for him by native pundits, and then submitted to him for correction and revisal, but he dictated the Sanscrit himself to an amanuensis. Dr. Carey had made some progress in the translation of the Old Testament into Sanscrit, when the disastrous fire at Serampore in 1812 interrupted his labours. In this fire a dictionary of the Sanscrit and various Indian dialects, laboriously compiled by Dr. Carey, was consumed, and likewise the Sanscrit MSS. of the Second Book of Samuel and of the First of Kings. In the year 1815 Dr. Yates arrived in India, and was associated with Dr. Carey in the work of translating the ScripThe proofs of the Sanscrit Old Testament, then passing through the press, were all examined by him, and compared with the Hebrew, and he subsequently in concert with Dr. Carey, subjected them to a second revisal. The Old Testament was issued in portions at different periods in the following order: tures. A.D. 1811-600 copies of the Sanscrit Pentateuch. 1815-1000 copies of the Historical Books in Sanscrit. 1822-1000 copies of the Prophetic Books. In 1820, a second edition of the New Testament was undertaken at Serampore, the former edition having been completely exhausted. As numerous applications for copies of the Sanscrit Scriptures had been made by the literati of India, especially by those in the western provinces, this edition was extended to 2000 copies. In 1827 a second edition of the Old Testament, to consist of 2000 copies, was in the press, but various circumstances retarded its completion; and in 1834, the date of the Tenth Memoir of Serampore Translations, the impression had been struck off only as far as the First Book of Kings. In determining the value of Dr. Carey's Sanscrit version, it must be remembered that it was undertaken at a period when the language had been little studied by Europeans, and when no printed copies of the standard works were in existence. Yet, notwithstanding the disadvantages under which he laboured, Dr. Carey seldom fails in point of fidelity or correctness. His defects, it has been well remarked, are mainly to be attributed to "the principle which appears to have influenced all the Serampore versions-that of translating as closely to the letter of the text as possible; a rigour of fidelity that cannot fail to cramp and distort the style of the translator." The inelegance and harshness of Dr. Carey's diction rendered his version unpopular with the learned men of India, and the desirableness of obtaining a new and more polished translation of the Scriptures soon became apparent. In 1835 a statement to this effect was laid before the Committee of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. The committee entered into communication on the subject with the Bishop of Calcutta, and with Dr. Mill, then principal of Bishop's College, and authorised them to take such measures as they might deem proper for effecting a new version of the Scriptures into Sanscrit. Dr. Mill had previously paved the way for this important undertaking by publishing a Sanscrit Glossary of theological terms; yet, with the exception of a truly classical work prepared by that eminent scholar, and entitled the Christa-Sangítá, or the Sacred History of our Lord Jesus Christ, no attempt appears to have been made under the patronage of the Society to carry the proposed version into execution. Two editions of the Sermon on the Mount in Sanscrit verse, which originally appeared as the twelfth canto of the second book of the Christa-Sangítá, were afterwards published, the one in Devanagari, and the other in Bengalee letters. Eventually, the translation was undertaken by Dr. Yates, formerly the associate of Dr. Carey, and upon whom the mantle of the venerable translator seemed to have fallen. Yielding to the entreaties of missionaries in Calcutta and Northern India, and to the appeals of the people, he began the work in 1840 by the publication of 2500 copies of the Psalms in Sanscrit verse. It is said of this work that each stanza, and sometimes each line, contains a complete sense; and that the padas, or half lines, are like so many steps, leading the mind forward, and affording resting places, till the whole is comprehended. SPECIMEN, FROM DR. CAREY'S VERSION. ST. JOHN, CHAP. I. v. 1 to 14. आदौ वाद आसीत् स च वाद ईश्वरेण सार्द्धमासीत् स वादः स्वयमीश्वर एव । स आदाव् ईश्वरेण सहासीत् । ३ ४ तेन सर्व्वं वस्तु ससृजे सर्वेषु सृष्टवस्तुषु किमपि वस्तु तेनासृष्टं नास्ति । स जीवनस्याकरः तच्च जीवनं मनुष्याणां 4 ज्योतिः; तज्ज्योतिरन्धकारे प्रचकाशे किन्त्वन्धकारस्तत्र जग्राह । ६ ७ । योहन् नामक एको मनुज ईश्वरेण प्रेषयाञ्चक्रे । तदद्वारा यथा सर्व्वे विश्वसन्ति तदर्थं स तज्ज्योतिषि प्रमाणं दातुं t साक्षिस्वरूपो भूत्वागमत् स स्वयं तज्ज्योतिर्न किन्तु तज्ज्योतिषि प्रमाणं दातुमागमत् । य आगत्य जगति सर्व्वमनुजेभ्यो ९ १० दीप्रिं ददाति तदेव सत्यज्योतिः । यो जगदसृजत् तन्मध्यएव स आसीत् किन्तु जगतो लोकास्तं नाजानन् । निजा११ १२ धिकारं स आगच्छत् किन्तु प्रजास्तं नागृह्णन् । तथापि ये ये तमगृह्णन् अर्थात् तस्य नाम्नि व्यश्वसन् तेभ्य ईश्वरस्य पुत्ता १३ भवितुम् अधिकारम् अददात् । तेषां जनिः शोणितान शारीरिकाभिलाषात्र मानवानाम् इच्छातो न किन्त्वीश्वरादभवत्। स वादो मनुष्परूपेणावतीर्य्यं सत्यतानुग्रहाभ्यां परिपूर्णः सन् सार्द्धम् अस्माभिर्न्यवसत् ततः पितुरद्वितीयपुत्तस्य योग्यो यो महिमा तं महिमानं तस्थापश्याम । ৭४ In In 1843 the Bible Translation Society granted £500 towards the translation of the entire Scriptures into Sanscrit under the superintendence of Dr. Yates, and a similar sum was contributed for the same purpose by the American and Foreign Bible Society. Thus encouraged, Dr. Yates proceeded rapidly with the work. In 1844 the Gospels were completed; and in 1846, 3000 copies of the Proverbs had been printed, and an edition of 2500 copies of the New Testament was in the press. this version of the New Testament a metrical rendering is given of the quotations from the poetical parts of the Old Testament, by which means they are more readily distinguished from the other parts of the text. Dr. Yates was successfully prosecuting the translation of the Old Testament, when his career of usefulness was suddenly interrupted by death. A short time previous to his decease, foreseeing his approaching end, he had expressed himself in the following terms in a letter addressed to his assistant, the Rev. Mr. Wenger:-"I think I may, in reference to your life and mine, use the language of John,—' You must increase, but I must decrease.' May I only live to see you as far advanced in the Sanscrit as you now are in the Bengalee, and I shall die in peace, rejoicing in the goodness of God in raising up one after another to carry on his work." Immediately after the removal of this devoted translator (1845), on examining the state of the version, it was found that the books of Genesis, Psalms, Proverbs, and Isaiah, had all passed through the press, and that the rest of the Pentateuch and the books of Job, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, and Daniel had been prepared in MS. The missionaries then agreed that "the pundit who had long been engaged in writing the rough draft of the version should proceed in his work, and that Mr. Wenger should, by studying the language prepare himself for revising and publishing the work." This plan has since been pursued at Calcutta. The second volume of the |
