First edition. 8vo. Bound in contemporary tree calf, raised bands with six gilt compartments to spine, five encasing gilt feathers with as foliate border and one with a red morocco title label. All edges yellow. A fine copy. Very slight rubbing to the corners. Internally clean and very fresh, with a light marginal ink smudge on page 98-99. An exceptionally well preserved copy.

An exceptional copy of the first printing of the Hitopadesha, preceding the first Indian Sanskrit edition by some seventeen years.
Wilkins was a pioneering Sanskrit scholar, entering the service of the East India Company as a writer in 1770. In his service he proved adept in the vernacular Hindu and Bengali languages, as well as in Persian. In 1778, after assisting in the publication of Halhed's Grammar Of The Bengali Language, Wilkins took up the study of Sanskrit, the classical source of most modern Indian languages.
By 1783, Wilkins's work for the East India Company was interfering with his studies, and took a toll on his health. This led to an intervention by the Governor-General of Bengal, Warren Hastings, who would become his patron.
In Hastings, Wilkins had found a generous and enthusiastic patron. It was arranged that Wilkins could move to Benares and, freed from administrative duties, he began translating the portion of the Mahabharata known as the Bhagavad G t from Sanskrit into English. Having published his translation of the Bhagavad Gita in 1785, he set about translating the Hitopadesha into English from the original Sanskrit by Pandit Narayana. He also helped to design printing methods to create Bengali publications, the first typeset book in the language.
The Hitopadesha had long been a favourite among scholars of the British Raj and was considered a foundational Hindu text and a masterpiece of Sanskrit literatre. It is a collection of animal fables and moral tales designed to instruct on worldly wisdom, statecraft, and morality and is divided into four sections: Winning Friends, Losing Friends, Waging War and Making Peace. Wilkins's translations were fundamental to furthering the study of ancient Hindu philosophy through out the Western World and lead to his election to the Royal Society in 1788.

Stock ID: 46731