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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    of the various books, charts, and engravings, necessary for the composition or elucidation of my work, a considerable part of a small fortune, which fell to me by the untimely death of a near and beloved relative, and, as I was settled in the country, remote from the convenience of a public library, and was con- stantly in want of many expensive publica- tions in regard to India, which, indeed, from tlieir recent date no public library could furnisb, I continued to accumulate expenses of this kind, till a sense of prudence com- pelled me to resort to the bookseller to know the result of the distribution of my proposals and the publication of my advertisements. Let it for ever repress the ardour of romantic ambition and the enthusiastic dreams of authors unknown to’ fame, and unprotected by patrons invested with the ensigns of power and stationed at the helm of political emi- nence, that, in the course of twelve months, THE History of Hindostan, a work sanc- tioned by the approbation of the East-India Company in England and Sir AVilliam Jones in India, was able to obtain only a dozen subscribers! — It was not^ however, a little flattering to the author, that amongst that number of unsolicited subscribers w'as the