Page:The religions of India.djvu/5

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

TRUBNER'8 ORIENTAL SERIES.

"A knowledge of the commonplace, at least, of Oriental literature, philo- sophy, and religion is as necessary to the general reader of the present day as an acquaintance with the Latin and Greek classics was a generation or so ago. Immense strides have been made within the present century in these branches of learning; Sanskrit has been brought within the range of accurate philology, and its invaluable ancient literature thoroughly investigated ; the language and sacred books of the Zoroastrians have been laid bare ; Egyptian, Assyrian, and other records of the remote past have been deciphered, and a group of scholars speak of still more recondite Accadian and Hittite monu- ments ; but the results of all the scholarship that has been devoted to these subjects have been almost inaccessible to the public because they were con- tained for the most part in learned or expensive works, or scattered through- out the numbers of scientific periodicals. Messrs. Trubner & Co., in a spirit of enterprise which does them infinite credit, have determined to supply the constantly-increasing want, and to give in a popular, or, at least, a compre- hensive form, all this mass of knowledge to the world." — Times. NEARLY BEADY, Post 8vo, pp. 568, with Map, cloth, price i6s. THE INDIAN EMPIRE : ITS HISTORY, PEOPLE, AND PRODUCTS. Being a revised form of the article "India," in the "Imperial Gazetteer," remodelled into chapters, brought x^ to date, and incorporating the general results of the Census of 1881. By W. W. HUNTEE, CLE., LL.D., Director-General of Statistics to the Government of India. "The article 'India,' in Volume IV., is the touchstone of the work, and proves clearly enough the sterling metal of which it is wrought. It represents the essence of the 100 volumes which contain the results of the statistical survey conducted bv Dr. Himter throughout each of the 240 districts of India. It is, moreover, the only attempt that has ever been made to show how the Indian people have been built up, and the evidence from the original materials has been for the first time sifted and examined by the light of the local research in which the author was for so long engaged."— Tij/ies.