Excerpt from A Code of Gentoo Laws, or Ordinations of the Pundits: From a Persian Translation, Made From the Original, Written in the Shanscrit Language

The profeflhrs of the ordinances here collected, {till lpeak the original language in which they were com poled, and which is entirely unknown to the bulk of the people, who have fettled upon thole profeffors fe veral great endowments and benefacti'ons in all parts of Hindollan, and pay them befides a degree of per fonal refpeét little lhort of idolatry, in return for the advantages fuppofed to be derived from their fiudies. A fet of the molt experienced of thefe' lawyers was fe Iected from every part of Bengal for the' purpofe of compiling the prefent work, which they picked out fentence by fentence from various originals in the Shanfcrit language, neither adding to, nor diminilhing any part of the antient text. The articles thus collect ed were next trauflated literally int'o Perfian, under the infpeétion of one of their own body; and from that tranfiation were rendered into Englilh' with an equal attention to the clol'enels and fidelity of the verfion. Leis ltudious of elegance than of accuracy, the tran; llator thought it more excufable to tire the reader with the flatnels of a literal interpretation, than to miflead him by a vague and devious paraphrafe; lo that the entire order of the book, the leverai divifio'ns of its contents, and the whole turn of the phrafe, is in everypart the immediate product of the Etamins. The Englifh dialect in which it is here offered to the public, and that only, is not the performance of a Gentoo. From hence therefore may be formed a precife idea of the culioms and manners of thefe people, which, to their great injury; have long been mifreprelented in the Weliem world. From hence alfo materials may be collected towards the legal accomplilhment of a new fyliem of government in Bengal, wherein the Britilh laws may, in fome degree, be foftened and tempered by a moderate attention to the peculiar and national prejudices of, the Hindoo; fome of whofe inliitutes, however fanciful and injudicious, may perhaps be pre. Ferable to any which could be fubllituted in their room. They are interwoven with the religion of the country, and are therefore revered as of the highelt authority.

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