Page 22 - Samaveda (English)

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Professorship was founded

. . .

The main object was really a

missionary one, as I have shown in the Preface of this volume.”

(p. xi)

The object, Professor Williams explains in the Preface to

his Dictionary (p. ix): “I must draw attention to the fact that I am

only the second occupant of the Boden Chair, and that its founder,

Colonel Boden, stated most explicitly in his will (dated August

15, 1811) that the special object of his munificent bequest was to

promote the translation of the Scriptures (that is, the Bible) into

Sanskrit, so as

‘to enable his countrymen to proceed in the

conversion of the natives of India to the Christian Religion’.

“Surely then it need not be thought surprising, if

following in the footsteps of my veneratedmaster, I have made

it the chief aim of my professional life to provide facilities for

the translation of our sacred Scriptures into Sanskrit, and

for the promotion of a better knowledge of the religions and

customs of India as the best way to a knowledge of the religious

needs of our great Eastern Dependency (India). My very first

public lecture delivered after my election (to the Boden Chair)

in 1860 was on ‘The Study of Sanskrit in Relation to

Missionary Work in India’ (published in 1861)”.

(pp. xxi)

For any student of Veda, specially in India, in fact

anywhere, it is difficult to overlook the words of Monier Williams

in the Preface and Introduction to his Dictionary of Sanskrit, for

the reason that

from translation of Christian Scriptures into

Sanskrit with a missionary motive, the translation of Sanskrit

Scriptures into English was but the next and ‘logical’ step

with that same missionary motive of conversion, one to extol,

the other to denigrate:

One example, of extolment, is the following translation

of the Bible, ‘The Gospel according to John’:

Yohana-likhita

¨

Susamv

å

da

¨

;

∫

shvarasya v

å

kyam Yishor mahatvam avat

å

ra kath

å

ca.

Jesus here is presented as anAvatara, someone a very God

for the traditional Hindu, although the Gospel does not mention

the incarnation at all. (The translation of The Bible in Sanskrit by

J.Wenger is available on the internet.)

( xxvi )

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