A History of Indian Literature v1.c7.s2.5

v1.c7.s2.5

At the same time, however, the English too had begun to concern themselves about the language and literature of the Indians. It was no less a person than Warren Hastings, the actual founder of British rule in India, from whom emanated the first fruitful stimulus for the study of Indian literature, which has never since been interrupted. He had recognised, what the English since then have never forgotten, that the sovereignty of England in India would be secure only if the rulers understood how to treat the social and religious prejudices of the natives with all possible consideration. At his instigation therefore a resolution was incorporated in the law which was to regulate the Government of India, to the effect that native scholars should attend the legal proceedings in order to make it possible for the English judges in India to consider the statutes of Indian law-books at the formulation of the verdicts. And when, in the year 1773, Warren Hastings was nominated as the Governor-General of Bengal and entrusted with the highest powers over the whole of the English possessions in India, he had a work compiled by a number of Brahmans, versed in the law, out of the ancient Indian law books, under the title of "Vivādārṇavasetu" ("Bridge over the Ocean of Disputes") containing everything important about the Indian law of inheritance, family law, and such like. When the work was finished, no one could be found who was capable of translating it directly from Sanskrit into English. It therefore had to be translated from Sanskrit into Persian, from which it was translated into English by Nathaniel Brassey Halhed. This translation was printed at the expense of the East India Company in the year 1776 under the title "A Code of Gentoo¹ Law."