Volume 1

Indian antiquities: or, dissertations relative to the antient geographical divisions, the pure system of primeval theology, the grand code of civil laws, the original form of government, the widely-extended commerce, and the various profound literature of Hindostan: compared, throughout, with the religion, laws, government, and literature, of Persia, Egypt, and Greece. The whole intended as introductory to the history of Hindostan. Upon a comprehensive scale / [Thomas Maurice].

  • Maurice, Thomas, 1754-1824.
Date:
1800-12 [vol. I, 1806]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Indian antiquities: or, dissertations relative to the antient geographical divisions, the pure system of primeval theology, the grand code of civil laws, the original form of government, the widely-extended commerce, and the various profound literature of Hindostan: compared, throughout, with the religion, laws, government, and literature, of Persia, Egypt, and Greece. The whole intended as introductory to the history of Hindostan. Upon a comprehensive scale / [Thomas Maurice]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    me From the most respectable quarters: and, indeed, as a proof that the distinguished body of men, to whom it was addressed, thought that the author had exerted laborious assi- duity in the investigation of the obscure sub- ject which he professed to elucidate, an imme- diate answer was returned, and forty sets of the * History subscribed for. I frankly own to the candid reader that I knew not, at the time, the full extent and mag- nitude of the undertaking in which I had em- barked. At my very entrance into the grand historic field, through the whole ample circuit of which it became necessary for me to range, a field over-run with exotic and luxuriant ve- getation, such a prospect unfolded itself, as, I confess, at once disheartened and terrified me. Such a variety of complicated and profound subjects pressed for discussion, before the way could be sufiiciently cleared for an entrance upon the immediate path of History; so deeply were the wild fables of Indian Mythology blended with the authentic annals of regular History; that the proper execution of the ar- duous work seemed to demand the exertion of abilities, as well as the command of for- tune, to which I could by no means lay claim. It soon occurred to me, that, instead of the solitary