Vedic India as embodied principally in the Rig-Veda / [Zénaïde A. Ragozin].

  • Ragozin, Zénaïde A. (Zénaïde Alexeïevna), 1835-1924.
Date:
[1895]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vedic India as embodied principally in the Rig-Veda / [Zénaïde A. Ragozin]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    any mixture of fable. As nothing is so hard to get in all the huge mass of Sanskrit writing as a crumb of real history, he made inquiries, having a strong inducement, as he says himself, in his desire to learn anything that might in any way be connected with the administration of justice. But he could not make much of the information that was given him, except that those books were not histories but abounded with fables, and consisted of conversations, in prose and verse, on an infinite variety of subjects, and in various dialects of India, “ from which he naturally concluded that they were some sort of dialogues on moral and literary topics,” until a more than usually observant and intelligent Brahman, he goes on to re- late, “ removed all his doubts and gave him no less del ight than surprise by telling him that the English had compositions of the same sort, which were pub- licly represented at Calcutta and bore the name, as he had been informed, of plays. . . Naturally, Sir William asked which was the most popular of these Natakas or dramas, and was answered “The Ring OF SHAKUNTALA.” Whereupon, he proceeds to tell, “ I soon procured a correct copy, and, assisted by my teacher, began with translating it verbally into Latin, which bears so great a resemblance to Sanskrit that it is more convenient than any modern language for a scrupulous interlineary version. I then turned it word for word into English, and afterwards, without adding or suppressing any material sentence, disengaged it from the stiffness of a foreign idiom, and prepared the faithful translation of the Indian drama, which I now present to the public.” 8. Thus, out of something very like a grammar exercise, came a revelation of beauty and high art, the unpretending form of which enhanced its effect