press, a Treatise on the Functional and Structural Changes of the Liver in the Progress of Disease, with numerous Cases, exhibiting the Provision, Symptoms, Progress, and Treatment of Hepatic Disease in India. We are informed that the first volume of the long-expected edition of Cowper, by Dr. Southey, containing a new Life of the Poet, will appear early in October, enriched with superb engravings. The Rev. Hobart Caunter, B.D., author of the "Oriental Annual," is engaged upon a new Series of the "Romance of History," which will contain the romantic annals of India. The interesting Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa, of Nathaniel Isaac, Esq. are nearly ready. The English Boy at the Cape, an Anglo-African Story, by the author of " Keeper's Travels," is nearly ready. Lieut. Holman will next month publish the fourth and concluding volume of his singular and highly interesting Voyages and Travels round the World. LONDON. NEW PUBLICATIONS. Illustrations of the Botany and other Branches of the Natural History of the Himalaya Mountains, and of the Flora of Cashmere. By J. Forbes Royle, Esq., F.L.S., &c. Part VII. Imp. 4to, with coloured plates. 20s. Scenes and Characteristics of Hindostan, with Sketches of Anglo-Indian Society. By Miss Emma Roberts. 3 vols. post 8vo. 27s. Considerations respecting the Trade with China. By Joseph Thompson, late of the East-India House. Post 8vo. 5s. Some Considerations on the Political State of the Intermediate Countries between Persia and India, with Reference to the Project of Russia marching an Army through them. By E. Stirling, Esq., Bengal Civil Service. 8vo. 4s. A Summer Ramble in Syria, with a Tartar Trip from Aleppo to Stamboul, in 1834. By the Rev. Vere Monro. 2 vols. 8vo., with plates. 24s. Wanderings and Adventures in the Interior of Southern Africa; with an Appendix containing some Account of the recent Irruption of the Caffres. By Andrew Steedman. 2 vols. 8vo., with a Map and Engravings. 24s. Greece and the Levant; or a Diary of a Summer's Excursion in 1834. By the Rev. Richard Burgess, B. D. 2 vols. fcap. 8vo. 14s. The State and Position of Western Australia, commonly called the Swan River Settlement. By Capt. F. C. Irwin, late Commandant of the Troops, and Acting Governor of the Colony. 8vo. 4s. 6d. The Means of Ameliorating India, deduced from Personal Observations; more especially the useful Employment of British Subjects and Capital in that Country. By Archibald Graham, Surgeon, Bombay Establishment. 18mo. 2s. The History of the Assassins; derived from Oriental Sources. Translated from the Original German of the Chevalier Joseph Von Hammer, by Oswald C. Wood, M.D. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. Researches and Missionary Labours of the Rev. Joseph Wolff. 8vo. 12s. Tales of the Ramadhan. By J. A. St. John, Esq., Author of "Egypt and Mohammed Ali," &c. 3 vols. post 8vo. 31s. 6d. Memoirs of the Life of the Right Hon. Sir James Mackintosh. Edited by his Son, R. J. Mackintosh, Esq. 2 vols. 8vo., with Portraits. 32s. Nala and Damayanti; an Episode from the Mahábharata, translated from the Original Sanscrit into English Metre, with Notes, Mythological and Explanatory. By the Rev. H. H. Milman, M.A. Imp. 8vo. 12s. A Synopsis of the East-Indian Scrophularincæ, contained in the Collections presented by the EastIndia Company to the Linnæan Society of London, and in those of Mr. Royle and others; with some General Observations on the Affinities and Subdivisions of the Order. By George Bentham, F.L.S. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Some Account of the Writings and Opinions of Clement of Alexandria. By John, Bishop of Lincoln. 8vo. 12s. Voyage of the United States' Frigate " Potomac,' during the Circumnavigation of the Globe, in the Years 1831, 1832, 1833, and 1834; including a particular Account of the Engagement at Quallah Battoo, on the Coast of Sumatra, with the Official Documents relating to the same. By J. N. Reynolds. 8vo. 21s. Portrait of Gen. Sir H. Fane, G.C.B., Commander-in-chief in India, engraved by Hodgetts from a Likeness by Jagger. Prints, 15s. Proofs, 21s. Portrait of the Rev. Charles Gutzlaff, the Chinese Missionary, in the Dress of a Fokien Sailor; engraved by Lane, after the interesting Picture painted at Canton, by Chinnery. Prints, 7s. 6d. Proofs, 12s. A Map of the Island of Mauritius, with Tables of the Heights of the Mountains, Returns of the Produce at fixed Periods since 1812, and a Census of the Population. By Major F. A. Mackenzie Fraser. 10s. 6d. coloured, 7s. 6d. plain. London Catalogue of Books, with their Sizes, Prices, and Publishers; containing the Books published in London, and those altered in size or price, since the year 1814 to December 1834. 8vo. 16s. Imported from the East. Defence of Transportation, in Reply to the Remarks of the Archbishop of Dublin, in his Second Letter to Earl Grey. By Col. George Arthur, Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land. 6s. Ross's Hobart Town Almanac and Van Diemen's Land Annual for 1835; containing the best and most authentic Account of the Colony. 8s. MR. MILMAN'S "NALA AND DAMAYANTI."* THE neglect of Oriental, and especially Sanscrit literature, in Europe, is currently imputed to indifference and want of patronage. This, however, is stopping at an intermediate point; public indifference must have an adequate cause; and it is notorious that very few promising attempts have been made to enable European nations to appreciate properly the value of that which they are accused of heedlessly rejecting. In the endeavour to naturalize amongst us a foreign literature, contained in a language difficult of acquirement, and therefore at first accessible only through the medium of translations, much must depend upon the manner in which such translations are performed. It is a very general error, which prevails even amongst the intellectual class, to suppose that nothing more is required in a literary translator than a critical knowledge of the two languages. A mere competency to render the sense of one tongue into another, even a perfect skill in the grammatical niceties and idiomatical peculiarities of the foreign tongue, cannot ensure that entire transfusion of the author's sense and spirit into the other, which is meant by translation, even in prose writings, and how hard the task in poetry! Qualities of a higher order, of a more intellectual character, must be superadded,-a faculty of penetrating the mind of the author, and of re-investing his thoughts in congenial language, -of seizing the expression as well as the features of the original ;-a faculty, in short, of operating a species of metempsychosis, in which the outward crust alone is changed, the soul, the divine emanation, the atma, the self, remaining the same.† If we consider how few of the interpreters of Sanscrit literature have been endowed with these two distinct, yet equally indispensable qualifications, its neglect in Europe will cease to be a problem. Sir William Jones, who was almost the first to commence the study of Sanscrit, is almost the last who combined the requisite qualifications of a translator. To the transient popularity which his elegant versions and attractive disquisitions gave to Hindu literature, may be, in a great measure, attributed its cultivation, limited as it is, in Europe; and, in testimony of there being no inherent repugnance to it, even in England, we may appeal to the high public estimation of Mr. H. H. Wilson's translations,+-the only person, as Mr. Milman justly observes, who, since Sir Wm. Jones, "has united a poetical genius with deep Sanscrit scholarship,”—and to that gentleman's elevation to a professor's chair at Oxford, of which university he was not an alumnus, by a kind of popular election. There is an objection made to the cultivation of Indian literature like that which, in this economical age, is levelled against the study of the classics in * Nala and Damayanti, and other Poems. Translated from the Sanscrit into English Verse, with Mythological and Critical Notes. By the Rev. HENRY HART MILMAN, M.A., late Professor of Poetry in the University of Oxford, &c. Oxford, 1835. Talboys. † M. Schlegel has, with some show of justice, reproached us with adopting, in respect to translations from the Oriental languages, the manufacturing principle of our country. The Megha Duta, or Cloud Messenger; and the Specimens of the Hindu Theatre. Asiat.Jour.N.S. VOL. 18. No.71. ·U our universities and public schools; namely, that it is useless. But the argument by which Sir James Mackintosh has so irresistibly refuted the latter, may be, in a considerable degree, applied to the former objection, with this important addition, that, not only will the study of Hindu literature reinforce the practical lessons of moral philosophy inculcated by the Greek and Roman authors, but it will disclose an entirely new class of productions of the mind,—an immense stock of fresh materials for thought. Of the writings of the Hindus,—that is, their poetry, epic and dramatic, their philosophy, their metaphysics, their law, we have now specimens in our own language sufficient to show that they have nothing in common with Western literature, except an accidental conformity, arising from circumstances which exert an influence over the human understanding, which is universal and uniform. To argue that the study of Sanscrit literature ought to be discouraged because it can teach us nothing, is, therefore, illogical, because the essential member of the syllogism is wanting; and to proscribe it, and even the Sanscrit language itself, with a view to their ultimate extinction, which is the aim of certain apostles of the new light, is a barbarous policy, which transcends in enormity that of Omar, who was excusable in comparison with those who would destroy as useless a literature of which, perhaps, not a thousandth part has been yet explored. These considerations,-namely, that the Hindu literature deserves to be cultivated, that there is no inaptitude in European minds to relish it, and that the real cause of its neglect and unpopularity is to be traced to the want of competent translators to pioneer the way,—make us rejoice to see so able a labourer in this vineyard as Mr. Milman. This gentleman has given a simple and candid account of the manner in which he was led to the study of Sanscrit poetry. Having, in his capacity of Professor of Poetry at Oxford, exhausted the subject he had chosen for his terminal course, and being at a loss for materials, he was led to consult European publications on Indian poetry, especially those of the Schlegels, Bopp, and De Chézy. "I was struck," says Mr. Milman, "with the singularity, and captivated by the extreme beauty, as it appeared to me, of some of the extracts, especially those from the great epic poems, the Mahabharat and the Ramáyúna, in their Homeric simplicity, so totally opposite to the ordinary notions entertained of all Eastern poetry." He attempted the "wonderful and mysterious language," in which these remarkable works are enshrined; the study grew upon him; his discoveries in the "unknown region of Indian poetry" were communicated to the University; translation was attempted, and the public have thus been put in possession of some of the most beautiful and characteristic specimens of ancient Hindu epic poetry in our language. The versification, or rather the metrical system, which I have adopted (Mr. Milman observes), 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, and most generally adopted mea sure is the Sloka; a distich of two sixteen-syllable lines, divided at the eighth syllable." According to our prosodial marks, the following is the scheme : : The first four syllables are bound by no rule; the second half, on the contrary, is unalterably fixed, excepting that the last syllable has the common licence of termination. In the second half verse, I do not remember a single instance of deviation from this, though sometimes, but very seldom, the first half verse ends with another quadrisyllable foot. In the first translations which I attempted, a few passages from the Bhagavat-Gita, I adhered as nearly as possible to the measure of the original; in the Nala, in order to give the narrative a more easy and trochaic flow, I omitted one syllable, and in some degree changed the structure of the verse. Nala and Damayanti is an episode of the Mahábhárata. The sage Vrihadasva relates the story to King Yudhishthira, in order to console. him under the miseries to which he was exposed by bad success in play, the terms of the game condemning him, as loser, to wander with his brothers for twelve years in the forest. The adventures of Nala showed how that king, having been equally unfortunate with the dice,—both being akshapujah, 'dice-loving,'-had suffered still greater toil and misery, and yet in the end recovered his kingdom. Nala was the son of Virasena, and raja of Nishadha; he was gifted with every virtue, skilled in taming steeds, deep-read in the Vélas, and "a present Manu." In Vidarbha (Nagpore or Berar) lived king Bhima, "terrible in strength, and blest with all virtues," but who was childless, and pined for children. A brahmin, on whom he conferred gifts, bestowed upon Bhima three sons and a daughter; Damayanti, the latter, was of surpassing charms. Damayanti with her beauty with her brilliance, brightness, grace, Never mid the gods immortal-never mid the Yaksha race, Nor 'mong men, was maid so lovely-ever heard of, ever seen, As the soul-disturbing maiden-that disturbed the souls of gods. Nala was "peerless among earthly men," and, being praised in each other's hearing, Nala and Damayanti "all unseen began to love." Wandering, "impatient his deep love to bear," in a grove, Nala caught a swan (hansa, by some rendered goose '!), which, in human language, goose'!), promised the king, as the price of liberty, that it would so praise him to Damayanti, that "never should the maiden think of mortal man but him." The swans, departing, sped to Vidarbha, where the royal beauty sate amidst her maids. Struck with the graceful forms of the birds, the damsels chased them through the forest, when the swan selected by Damayanti, accosting her in human speech, extolled the merits of King Nala, adding, If the peerless wed the peerless-blessed must the union be. The maiden entrusted a message of consent to the bird, who flew to Nishada," and to Nala told it all." Damayanti, ever after—she the swan's sweet speech had heard — Wan was all her soft complexion-and with passion heart-possessed,* Told how pined his gentle daughter-for the sovereign of men. The princesses of India seem to have enjoyed the singular privilege of selecting their future husbands from the assembled suitors invited to a grand festival. This was termed the swayembara, or 'self-election.' In Menu, the privilege of choosing her own husband is conceded only to a damsel who has patiently waited three years, after she is marriageable, her father's selection of a fit bridegroom; it seems also, as Mr. Milman observes, to have belonged to the lower classes. But this is not the only point in which ancient manners are found not to be perfectly congruous with the Dherma Sástra. Bhima summoned all the "chiefs of the earth" to his daughter's swayembara, who, with rich garlands and with troops, flocked to his court: Elephants, and steeds, and chariots-swarmed along the sounding land. At this moment, two of the divine munis or rishis, Narada and Parvata, ascended from the earth to the palace of the cloud-compelling Indra, god of the firmament, and hearing of the approaching festival, all the immortals exclaimed, in sudden rapture, that they would join the concourse of kings who were competitors for the hand of Damayanti. Descending through the blue air, they beheld Nala, "in transcendant beauty, equal to the god of love." They made themselves known to him, and commissioned him to announce to Damayanti that Indra, Agni (the god of fire), Varuna (the god of water), and Yama (the god of Hell), had come down to seek her hand, and that one of them she must choose for her lord. Nala desired to excuse himself from going on this errand, observing, How can man, himself enamoured-for another plead his cause? But the gods held him to his pledge, that "he would do their bidding." Indra procured the king instant access to the bower of Damayanti : There he saw Vidarbha's maiden-girt with all her virgin bands; In her glowing beauty shining—all excelling in her form; * Literally, " her mind (or thought) possessed by the heart-sleeper," i.c. love reposing or dwelling in the heart: a very poetical image. |