Ancient India: Its Language and Religions

THE STUDY OF SANSKRIT.

...translated into English. The project met with little success, primarily because no European could be found who could translate directly from Sanskrit. A translation first had to be made from Sanskrit into Persian, and then from Persian into English.* The need to gain direct access to the Sanskrit language was, therefore, unquestionable. The task was not easy, though it was still quite different from the seemingly impossible feats of linguistic original: "philological" skill required to decipher hieroglyphic and cuneiform inscriptions.

Knowledge and use of Sanskrit in India had survived through an unbroken tradition.† There were countless pandits Hindu scholars or experts in Sanskrit and law who knew Sanskrit as well as the scholars of the Middle Ages knew Latin, and who were highly qualified to teach the language. It was easy to overcome the opposing Brahmanical relating to the Brahmans, the highest Hindu priestly caste prejudices. However, mastering the obstacles that arose from the incredibly complex and convoluted original: "perverted" grammatical system‡ of the Hindus presented greater difficulties, which could only be overcome with patience and enthusiasm.

Just as these difficulties were being realized, Sir William Jones arrived in India. He immediately became the central figure of the movement. He founded the Asiatic Society and provided the drive for a revised version of the Hindu laws regarding contracts and inheritance...

• Published in 1776, under the title, "A Code of Gentoo Law." "Gentoo" was an archaic term used by Europeans for Hindus.
  † This remains the case today. See Max Müller's "India: What Can It Teach Us?" page 78 and the following pages original: "et seq.".
  ‡ The original complaint by Paulinus of St. Bartholomew original: "Paulinus a S. Bartholomaeo", a missionary in India around the time of Jones, is well known: "The devil, with a phenomenal display of ingenuity and craft, had incited the Brahmanical sages to invent a language so rich and so complex that its mysteries might be concealed not only from the general public, but even from the very scholars who studied it."