A History of Indian Literature v1.c7.s2.11

v1.c7.s2.11

¹ The alleged translation of the Yajurveda which appeared in the year 1778 in French under the title "Ezour-vedam" and in 1779 also in German, is a falsification, a pious fraud, which used to be ascribed to the missionary *Roberto de' Nobili*. But *W. Caland, Th. Zachariæ* (GGA 1921, p. 157), and others deny, that he was the author of the fraud. Voltaire received this alleged translation from the hands of an official returning from Pondicherry and presented it to the Royal Library in Paris, in 1761. *Voltaire* regarded the book as an old commentary on the Veda, which had been translated by a venerable centenarian Brahman into French, and he frequently refers to the "Ezour-Veda" as an authority for Indian antiquities. Already in the year 1782 *Sonnerat* declared the book to be a falsification. (A. W. Schlegel, Indische Bibliothek, II, p. 50 ff.)