I can hardly hope that my work will find acceptance with Pandits and Indian scholars inasmuch as I venture to deviate both widely and frequently from Sâyaṇa whom they have been taught to regard as infallible. No arguments are likely to shake this belief. Nothing short of a course of study similar to that to which the leaders of the modern school of Vedic interpretation have devoted half their lives will enable them to see with our eyes and accept our views. I trust, however, that they will at any rate give the leaders and the followers of this modern school credit for deep devotion to ancient Indian literature and due admiration of the great Indian scholars who have expounded it; and will acknowledge that these modern scholars—however mistaken their views may appear to be—are labouring sincerely and solely to discover and declare the spirit and the truth of the most ancient and venerated literary records that are the heritage of Aryan man.
R. T. H. GRIFFITH.
Kotagiri, Nilgiri:
May 25th, 1889.
Note.
This second edition of my translation is in the main a reprint in compacter and cheaper form, with some corrections and other improvements in text and commentary, of the original four-volume edition.
R. T. H. G.
- Kotagiri:
15th October, 1896.
