A Practical Grammar of the Sanskrit Language Arranged with Reference to the Classical Languages of Europe for the Use of English Students. 2. Ed

The separation of words by the free use of the Viráma, and the employment of a dot underneath to mark the division, whenever the blending of vowels or the association of crude bases in a compound make junction unavoidable, may offend the eye of the Oriental scholar, if habituated to the Indian system of writing; but the beginner can scarcely be expected to know which is the final and which the initial letter of words thus joined together. Why, therefore, refuse him a clue to guide him in his search for the word in the dictionary? and why, by uniting those parts of a sentence which admit of separation, superadd an unnecessary source of perplexity to the necessary difficulty, unknown in other languages, resulting from the blending of vowels and the composition of words? may be quite true that, according to native authorities, the Viráma ought only to be employed when no Sandhi takes place; and that, according to the strict interpretation of the word Sandhi, actual contact ought to ensue whenever a law of euphony comes into operation. But does euphonic connexion necessarily imply contact? and may not words be mutually affected by euphonic laws, without being actually joined together?

The system of uniting words which are really distinct may commend itself to the natives of Hindústán, as tending to reduce the labour of writing; but in Europe, where abundant punctuation is deemed essential to facilitate reading, the absence of spaces must always be regarded as productive of unnecessary hindrance. The student has already sufficient obstacles to surmount in the Deva-nágarí character and the rules for the permutation of letters. The changes required by these rules will cause no embarrassment, provided separation be permitted, in accordance with the European method. Thus the Latin scholar, if acquainted with the laws of permutation, would not be embarrassed by the sentence Uby ad Dianæ venerir itav at sinistram

(euphonically changed from ubi ad Dianæ veneris ito ad sinistram); but he would, to say the least, be unnecessarily hindered if this permuted sentence were linked together into two words, thus - Ubyaddianæ veneriritavatsinistram. Nor is it easy to understand why the slight spaces between the words in the first case should be deemed incompatible with the operation of euphonic laws. If such separation, therefore, is only to be effected in Sanskrit by extending the legitimate functions of the Viráma, the facilities afforded by modern typography ought to leave us free to do so. The only cases in which it is undesirable to separate distinct words, acted on by Sandhi, are when two vowels blend into one, and when final u and i are changed into their corresponding semivowels y and y.

In regard to the general scope of the book, it remains to state that my aim has been to minister to the wants of the earliest as well as the more advanced student. I have therefore employed types of two different sizes. The larger attracts the eye to those parts of the subject to which the attention of the beginner may advantageously be confined. The smaller generally contains such matter as offers no claim to immediate consideration.

Under the conviction that the study of Sanskrit ought to possess charms for the classical scholar, independently of its wonderful literature, I have taken pains to introduce in small type the most striking comparisons between this language and Latin and Greek. I am bound to acknowledge that I have drawn nearly all the materials for this important addition to the book from the English translation of Bopp's Comparative Grammar, by my friend and colleague Professor Eastwick.

One point more remains to be noticed. The want of an Index was felt to be a serious defect in my first Grammar. This omission is now supplied. Two full Indices have been appended to the present work, the one English, and the

other Sanskrit. The latter will enable the student to turn at once to any noun, verb, affix, idiom or peculiar formation explained in the foregoing pages.

In conclusion, I desire to take this opportunity of expressing to the Delegates of the Oxford University Press my grateful and respectful sense of the advantages the volume derives from their favour and patronage *.

M. W.

EAST-INDIA COLLEGE, HAILEYBURY,
January 1857.

* Not the least of these advantages has been the use of a press which, in its appointments and general efficiency, stands unrivalled. The judgment and accuracy with which the most intricate parts of my MS. have been printed, have excited a thankfulness in my mind, which those only can understand who know the toil of correcting the press, when much Oriental type is interspersed with the Roman, and when a multitude of minute diacritical points, dots, and accents have to be employed to represent the Deva-nágarí letters. If many errors are discovered in the following pages, they must be laid at my own door; and I have nothing to urge in palliation, excepting that I have spared no pains to avoid inaccuracies, and that the work of one man, however careful and laborious, cannot be expected to be free from the imperfection incidental to all human performances.