Sanskrit Bible History (3)

**List: Sanskrit Ministry the Bible ( the Bible ) Sanskrit... "IV.--SANSCRIT VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES.    It seems to have been by the special interposition of Providence that the means of effecting a translation of the Scriptures into Sanscrit were provided at the precise period when the first attempt was made to commence this important work.   Only a few years previous to the arrival of the [respect]able Carey in India, Sanscrit was almost inaccessible to Europeans.   Sir William Jones, by large pecuniary payments which would have been beyond the means of the my., secured the services of a pundit in elucidating the principles of the language; and the works afterwards prepared by this celebrated orientalist, and by others who followed in the same track, removed the apparently insuperable difficulties which had placed the Sanscrit language beyond the reach of ordinary students.   The care of Provi- dence in providing means for printing the Scriptures in the languages of India is also remarkable, for no Sanscrit work had ever been committed to the press until a few years prior to the translation of the Scriptures into that language, when Dr. Wilkins succeeded in constructing a fount of types in Indian characters.   A native, formerly in his service, communicated the invention to the mies. at Serampore, and with his aid types were cast for printing the Scriptures in no less than twelve of the alphabets used in various parts of India.   The Sanscrit New Testament was commenced in 1803, and finished at press in 1808; the edition consisted of 600 copies.   The printing of this edition was com- menced in 1806, and in the same year the Rev. David Brown, provost of the College of Fort William, sent a specimen of it to the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society in London.   In his accompanying letter he remarked respecting this version, that "the Sanscrit answers to Greek as face answers to face in a glass; the translation will be perfect while it is almost verbal.   You will find the verb in the corresponding mood and tense, the noun and adjective in the corresponding case and gender.   The idiom and government are the same: when the Greek is absolute, so is the Sanscrit; and in many instances the primitives or roots are the same."   Dr. Carey tells us that he translated this version immediately from the Greek, and that he afterwards in conjunction with Dr. Marshman, com- pared each sentence with the Greek text.   All his other translations were in the first place written out roughly for him by native pundits, and then submitted to him for correction and revisal, but he dictated the Sanscrit himself to an amanuensis.    Dr. Carey had made some progress in the translation of the Old Testament into Sanscrit, when the disastrous fire at Serampore in 1812 interrupted his labours.   In this fire a dictionary of the Sans- crit and various Indian dialects, laboriously compiled by Dr. Carey, was consumed, and likewise the Sanscrit MSS. of the Second Book of Samuel and of the First of Kings.   In the year 1815 Dr. Yates arrived in India, and was associated with Dr. Carey in the work of translating the Scrip- tures.   The proofs of the Sanscrit Old Testament, then passing through the press, were all examined by him, and compared with the Hebrew, and he subsequently in concert with Dr. Carey, subjected them to a second revisal.   The Old Testament was issued in portions at different periods in the following order:-- A.D. 1811-- 600 copies of the Sanscrit Pentateuch.         1815--1000 copies of the Historical Books in Sanscrit.         1818--1000 copies of the Hagiographa.         1822--1000 copies of the Prophetic Books.    In 1820, a second edition of the New Testament was undertaken at Serampore, the former edition having been completely exhausted.   As numerous applications for copies of the Sanscrit Scriptures had been made by the literati of India, especially by those in the western provinces, this edition was extended to 2000 copies.   In 1827 a second edition of the Old Testament, to consist of 2000 copies, was in the press, but various circumstances retarded its completion; and in 1834, the date of the Tenth Memoir of Serampore Translations, the impression had been struck off only as far as the First Book of Kings.    In determining the value of Dr. Carey's Sanscrit version, it must be remembered that it was undertaken at a period when the language had been little studied by Europeans, and when no printed copies of the standard works were in existence.   Yet, notwithstanding the disadvantages under which he laboured, Dr. Carey seldom fails in point of fidelity or correctness.   His defects, it has been well remarked, are mainly to be attributed to "the principle which appears to have influenced all the Serampore versions--that of translating as closely to the letter of the text as possible; a rigour of fidelity that cannot fail to cramp and distort the style of the translator."   The inelegance and harsh- ness of Dr. Carey's diction rendered his version unpopular with the learned men of India, and the desirableness of obtaining a new and more polished translation of the Scriptures soon became apparent. In 1835 a statement to this effect was laid before the Committee of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge.   The committee entered into communication on the subject with the Bishop of Calcutta, and with Dr. Mill, then principal of Bishop's College, and authorised them to take such measures as they might deem proper for effecting a new version of the Scriptures into Sanscrit. Dr. Mill had previously paved the way for this important undertaking by publishing a Sanscrit Glossary of theological terms; yet, with the exception of a truly classical work prepared by that eminent scholar, and entitled the Christa-Sangítá, or the Sacred History of our Lord Jesus Christ, no attempt appears to have been made under the patronage of the Society to carry the proposed version into execution.   Two editions of the Sermon on the Mount in Sanscrit verse, which originally appeared as the twelfth canto of the second book of the Christa-Sangítá, were afterwards published, the one in Devanagari, and the other in Bengalee letters."--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition)   Samuel Bagster   [Info only] SANSCRIT.   DR. CAREY'S VERSION.--1860   S. Bagster   [Info only: Devanagari Character   n.d. John 1:1-14 unknown.]

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