sued with more ardour, perhaps with more success, but for
the constant interruption of more imperative professional and literary
avocations. In itself the Sanscrit is an inexhaustible subject of
interest; in its grammatical structure more regular, artificial, and
copious than the most perfect of the western languages; in its origin,
the parent from which the older Greek, the Latin and the Teutonic
tongues seem to branch out and develop themselves upon distinct and
discernible principles.

I ventured to communicate to the Members of the University who
attended my lectures, my discoveries, as it were, in the unknown
region of Indian poetry, and to introduce translations of such
passages as appeared to me of peculiar singularity or beauty. Though I
was still moving in the leading-strings of my learned guides, I had
obtained sufficient acquaintance with the language to compare their
interpretations with the original text. I afterwards embodied some
parts of my lectures in an article in the Quarterly Review, in order
to contribute as far as was in my power to open this new and almost
untrodden field of literature to the English reader.

Still I should not have presumed to form these translations into a
separate work, nor acceded to the proposal of the publisher of the
present volume, who has himself deserved so well of the students of
oriental lore by his excellent translation, or rather recomposition of
Adelung's "Historical Sketch of Sanscrit Literature," but for the
encouragement and assistance of Mr. Wilson, now, the University may be
proud to say, the Boden Professor of Sanscrit at Oxford. To his most
friendly care in revising these sheets, I owe the correction of many
errors; and Sanscrit scholars will find in the notes some observations
on the text, which will contribute to elucidate the poem of Nala.
Under the sanction of Mr. Wilson's revision, I may venture to hope
that the translation is, at least, an accurate version of the
original; and I cannot too strongly express my gratitude for the
labour which Mr. Wilson has been so kind as to expend on my imperfect
and unpretending work.

The versification, or rather the metrical system, which I have
adopted, is an experiment, how far a successful one must be judged by
others. The original verse in which the vast epics of Vyasa and
Valmiki are composed is called the Sloka, which is thus described by
Schlegel in his Indische Bibliothek, p. 36: "The oldest, most simple,