DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9550#0052
and contradictory. Upwards of two thousand years
ago, the great Byas, reflecting on the perpetual difficulty
arising from these sources, composed with great dis-
crimination a complete and compendious abstract of
the whole, and also reconciled those texts which ap-
peared to stand at variance. This work he termed
The Vedant, which, compounded of two Sungscrit
words, signifies The Resolution of all the Veds. It has
continued to be most highly revered by all Hindoos,,
and in place of the more diffuse arguments of the Veds,
is always referred to as equal authority. But from its
being concealed within the dark curtain of the Sungscrit
language, and the Brahmins permitting themselves alone
to interpret, or even to touch any book of the kind, the
Vedant, although perpetually quoted, is little known to
the public : and the practice of few Hindoos indeed
bears the least accordance with its precepts!
In pursuance of my vindication, I have to the best
of my abilities translated this hitherto unknown work,
as well as an abridgment thereof, into the Hindoostane
and Bengalee languages, and distributed them, free o
cost, among my own countrymen, as widely as circum
stances have possibly allowed. The present is an
endeavour to render an abridgment of the same int
English, by which I expect to prove to my European
friends, that the superstitious practices which defor
the Hindoo religion have nothing to do with the pur
spirit of its dictates !
I have observed, that both in their writings and con
versation, many Europeans feel a wish to palliate an
ago, the great Byas, reflecting on the perpetual difficulty
arising from these sources, composed with great dis-
crimination a complete and compendious abstract of
the whole, and also reconciled those texts which ap-
peared to stand at variance. This work he termed
The Vedant, which, compounded of two Sungscrit
words, signifies The Resolution of all the Veds. It has
continued to be most highly revered by all Hindoos,,
and in place of the more diffuse arguments of the Veds,
is always referred to as equal authority. But from its
being concealed within the dark curtain of the Sungscrit
language, and the Brahmins permitting themselves alone
to interpret, or even to touch any book of the kind, the
Vedant, although perpetually quoted, is little known to
the public : and the practice of few Hindoos indeed
bears the least accordance with its precepts!
In pursuance of my vindication, I have to the best
of my abilities translated this hitherto unknown work,
as well as an abridgment thereof, into the Hindoostane
and Bengalee languages, and distributed them, free o
cost, among my own countrymen, as widely as circum
stances have possibly allowed. The present is an
endeavour to render an abridgment of the same int
English, by which I expect to prove to my European
friends, that the superstitious practices which defor
the Hindoo religion have nothing to do with the pur
spirit of its dictates !
I have observed, that both in their writings and con
versation, many Europeans feel a wish to palliate an