INSTITUTES OF HINDU LAW: OR, THE ORDINANCES OF MENU, ACCORDING TO THE GLOSS OF CULLÚCA. COMPRISING THE INDIAN SYSTEM OF DUTIES, RELIGIOUS AND CIVIL. VERBALLY TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL, WITH A PREFACE, BY SIR WILLIAM JONES. A NEW EDITION, COLLATED WITH THE SANSCRIT TEXT, AND ELUCIDATED WITH NOTES, BY GRAVES CHAMNEY HAUGHTON, M.A. F.R.S. &c. &c. LONDON: PRINTED FOR RIVINGTONS AND COCHRAN, IN THE STRAND. MDCCCXXV. KONINKL. BIBLIOTHEEK TESHAGE. 82.812. ΤΟ THE KING. SIRE: A COURSE of events, unparalleled in the history of mankind, has placed, among the subjects of the British Empire, a people renowned from the remotest antiquity for wisdom, civilization, and steadfast adherence to their peculiar religious opinions. The INSTITUTES OF MENU are not only revered by this unvarying race of men, as they were by their primeval forefathers, but have moreover contributed to preserve, in pristine force, opinions, usages, and manners, which, by a law that reverses in the moral, what is observed in the material world, have only grown the stronger by the use of ages. Security of life and property, and toleration of opinions, which are dearer to them than both these objects, are all that is asked by this blameless race of men, in return for willing obedience and devoted attachment to British rule. That an expectation, so reasonable in itself, and so much in harmony with the spirit of your Majesty's reign, will not be disappointed, could scarcely have received a more gracious assurance, than is derived from the permission, vouchsafed by your Majesty, to place your August Name at the head of this ancient Code of Hindu Laws. That your Majesty may long continue to extend the influence of your happy reign over the British Empire and its Dependencies, is the earnest prayer of ADVERTISEMENT. HAVING been for some time engaged in preparing the Institutes of Menu for publication in the Sanscrit language, it appeared to me, that as Sir WILLIAM JONES'S translation had been long out of print, a new edition would not only be acceptable to the publick at large, but more especially to those engaged in the study of the Sanscrit language, as the great difficulty of the original text made some help of the kind indispensable. In consequence the version of the learned translator has been carefully revised and compared; and as variations, though of trifling importance, have been discovered, they have been carefully recorded at the end of the work. The discrepancies in question may have arisen from some variety in the readings of the manuscripts consulted by Sir WILLIAM JONES. It appeared, however, advisable to take some notice of those which seemed of most importance to the Sanscrit student. The learned translator intended, as he has stated in his Preface, to mark by Italick letters all that he a 2 had |