xxii others who know English, have recourse to the English translations and digests. But no such means are available to the numerous native judges, pleaders, and suitors who do not know that language, and are not furnished with translations or proper treatises in the vernacular.” They are therefore entirely dependant on the Pandits, the venality of many of whom has disparaged the character of that body (though some were and are indeed most upright as well as learned) to such a degree that we should be justified in adopting the language of Sir William Jones already cited. Add to this, it happens in many cases tflot in consequence of the Mofussil pleaders having no means of knowing the law except from the mouths of Pandits, no question touching the Hindu law has been raised until they have come in appeal before the Sudder Dewanny Adawlut, where the pleaders, familiar with the law tracts in English, have raised law points and then the cases either result in nonsuit or are remanded to be tried de novo, and thus the parties are fruitlessly burthened with costs of the two Courts. This evil has been very little or very partially remedied by the English translations and digests of the Hindu law, they being of use to those only who know English, and who, compared with the mass of judicial officers and legal practitioners in the Mofussil, are insignificant in number; consequently without a good digest in the English language, combined with a corresponding one in the vernacular of the country, the evil cannot be removed, nor the desideratum felt by Sir William Jones and others supplied. It was a matter of great regret that no such endeavour had hitherto been made. The Government have enacted that the cases of the Hindus regarding inheritance, &c. shall be decided according to their law, but have afforded no means of making a proper use or checking the abuse of that law. This was remarked to the author by one of the most intelligent judges of the Sudder, now no more, who at the same time requested him to translate into Bengalee and Urdu the Principles of Hindu Law by Sir William Macnaghten. That work was thereupon minutely gone through, with a view to determine if a translation of it would be sufficient for the purpose, when it was judged that the work itself required some additions to bo made to it and some portions to be rectified to render it complete and more useful. The translation and publication of the Diyabhāga and Mitäksharif on inheritance and the Dattaka-mămănsti and Dattakd-chandrika were considered likely to be more expensive and tedious than useful at present, inasmuch as considerable parts thereof are composed of arguments tending to establish the authors' own opinions and to refute those of others. It would moreover be very difficult for such as would not thoroughly study and digest them readily to discover the principle or decision regarding any point; for it is not rarely the case with those works that in one place a principle appears to be laid down as decisive, but in another (perhaps at the distance of many pages) will be seen a passage which refutes and explodes the former and establishes.
- The law tracts hitherto written in Bengalee are four in number ; but they are deficient in many respects and therefore of very little utility: they vanished as soon as they appeared, having never been brought into use. The first of these isoentitled the Vyavakàra-ratnamà là written by Lakhyí AVáráyan Nyàyalankára in the form of questions and answers with the authorities in Sanscrit. This work contains a succinct view of tho law of inheritance according to the doctrines of Jimtotavāhana, contrasted with those of the Métákshardt, together with a short treatise on adoption. The next is the compilation by Rámjivan Tarkalank&ra. It is a collection of the doctrines of the Doyabhāga and other works. These two works are mentioned in a letter from the Bongal Government to the Court of Directors under date the 22nd of February 1827, as being among the works encouraged and patronised by the Government. The third was written by Gangdi Kishore Bhattaichowa of Bahord. It treats of inheritance, impurity, and expiation, but superficially and imperfectly. The fourth is a little pamphlet written by Abhoydcharan Tarkapanchánana, a well known logieian. This book
contains only the abstract principles of the Dayābhāya.
