s by judicious supervision. All
our great Sanskrit scholars, from Sir William Jones to H.H. Wilson,
have fully acknowledged their obligations to their native assistants.
They used to work in Calcutta, Benares, and Bombay with a pandit at
each elbow, instead of the grammar and the dictionary which European
scholars have to consult at every difficult passage. Whenever an
English Sahib undertook to edit or translate a Sanskrit text, these
pandits had to copy and to collate MSS., to make a verbal index, to
produce parallel passages from other writers, and, in many cases, to
supply a translation into Hindustani, Bengali, or into their own
peculiar English. In fact, if it had not been for the assistance thus
fully and freely rendered by native scholars, Sanskrit scholarship
would never have made the rapid progress which, during less than a
century, it has made, not only in India, but in almost every country
of Europe.

[Footnote 45: 'Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion
of the Parsees.' By Martin Haug, Dr. Phil. Bombay, 1862.]

With this example to follow, it is curious that hardly any attempt
should have been made by English residents, particularly in the Bombay
Presidency, to avail themselves of the assistance of the Parsis for
the purpose of mastering the ancient language and literature of the
worshippers of Ormuzd. If it is remembered that, next to Sanskrit,
there is no more ancient language than Zend--and that, next to the
Veda, there is, among the Aryan nations, no more primitive religious
code than the Zend-Avesta, it is surprising that so little should have
been done by the members of the Indian Civil Service in this important
branch of study. It is well known that such was the enthusiasm kindled
in the heart of Anquetil Duperron by the sight of a facsimile of a
page of the Zend-Avesta, that in order to secure a passage to India,
he enlisted as a private soldier, and spent six years (1754-1761) in
different parts of Western India, trying to collect MSS. of the sacred
writings of Zoroaster, and to acquire from the Dustoors a knowledge of
their contents. His example was followed, though in a less adventurous
spirit, by Rask, a learned Dane, who after collecting at Bombay many
valuable MSS. for the Danish Government, wrote in 1826 his essay 'On
the Age and Genuineness of the Zend Language.' Another Dane, at
present one of the most learned Zend scholars in Europe, Westergaard,
likewise proceeded to Indi