the students of England and of Europe.
That there were literary treasures to be discovered in India, that the
Brahmans were the depositaries of ancient wisdom, was known through
the labours of some of the most eminent servants of the East India
Company. It had been known even before, through the interesting
communications of Roman Catholic missionaries in India, that the
manuscripts themselves, at least those of the Veda, were not
forthcoming. Even as late as the times of Sir W. Jones, Colebrooke,
and Professor Wilson, the Brahmans were most unwilling to part with
MSS. of the Veda, except the Upanishads. Professor Wilson told me that
once, when examining the library of a native Rajah, he came across
some MSS. of the Rig-veda, and began turning them over; but "I
observed," he said, "the ominous and threatening looks of some of the
Brahmans present, and thought it wiser to beat a retreat." Dr. Mill
had known of a gentleman who had a very sacred hymn of the Veda, the
Gayatri, printed at Calcutta. The Brahmans were furious at this
profanation, and when the gentleman died soon after, they looked upon
his premature death as the vengeance of the offended gods.
Colebrooke, however, was allowed to possess himself of several most
valuable Vedic MSS., and he found Brahmans quite ready to read with
him, not only the classical texts, but also portions of the Veda.
"They do not even," he writes, "conceal from us the most sacred texts
of the Veda." His own essays on the Veda appeared in the _Asiatic
Researches_ as early as 1801. But people went on dreaming about the
Veda, instead of reading Colebrooke's essays.

It was curious, however, that at the time when I prepared my edition
of the Rig-veda, Vedic scholarship was at a very low ebb in Bengal
itself, and there were few Brahmans there who knew the whole of the
Rig-veda by heart, as they still did in the South of India.
Manuscripts were never considered in India as of very high authority;
they were always over-ruled by the oral traditions of certain schools.
However, such manuscripts, good and bad, but mostly bad, existed, and
after a time some of them reached England, France, and even Germany.
Portions of those in Berlin and Paris I had copied and collated, so
that I could show Bunsen the very book which he had been in search of
in his youth. This opened his heart to me as well as the doors of his
house. "I am glad," he said, "to have lived to see the Veda. Whatever
you want, let m