mayan with ease he should not attempt the other books now named. All these works have been carefully edited by learned natives.
if however, after reading the Lila he wishes to acquire a knowledge of the poetical dialect without studying the braminical works now named, the student may with advantage peruse the Vedanta Rasayan or Summary of the Gospels, a Telugu poem of considerable merit,[1] which is illustrated by a commentary written in the same language by a learned Jangam.
But as the Vedanta Rasayan can only be read after we have made a very considerable progress in Telugu, the reader may, if he prefers modern composition, read the Dwipada version of the Gospel of St. Luke, which I understand is about to be printed. The style herein adopted is generally an imitation of that used in the Lila, but the narrative is sedulously written in the plainest and most literal style. Many phrases are borrowed from the Vedanta Rasayan, and from the Tamil Gospels.
The books I first named (all of which are short and plain, and some are very popular) are selected out of many which appear equally easy. But a few of those are objectionable as not calculated to interest or benefit the beginner: who in time will meet with many useful volumes which I now leave unmentioned.
The course of study now recommended, is different from that which learned Bramins would point out. They would wholly reject the books first named: and though they may concur in recommending the Ramayan and the works named in conjunction with it (of course rejecting the Vedanta Rasayanam) they would urge us to read the Bhagavat, and some other favourite works named at close of this grammar. But they seldom reflect that much which is quite easy to them, is disheartening to a foreigner who is far from familiar with the Sanscrit dialect, who does not understand the mythology, and who cannot enter into the beauties of mysticism. The wild superstitious fables which delight the taste of a Hindu often excite unmingled disgust in the minds of our countrymen: and as all aliment to be nutritious must be in a measure agreeable, I have in the present list, first recommended those popular poems which may most agreeably conduct us to the higher portions of Telugu literature.
If, in the arrangement of this grammar I have considerably deviated from the course laid down in the older works it is because the great object kept in view has been, to facilitate self instruction and to render the reader independent of oral explanations: this I hope will be the result of the adjustment now made. “Every man” says Parkhurst (in the preface to his Greek Grammar) “who has thought much upon such a curious and ex-
- ↑ See Journal above-mentioned, for Jan. 1840, pages 155 and 173.
