About this Book
A Collection of Proverbs, Bengali and Sanscrit, with their Translation and Application in English by Rev William Morton; Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1832. First edition. 8vo, viii, 160pp.
The very first edition of the first ever compilation of sayings and proverbs in colloquial and written contemporary Bengali and Sanskrit languages. This precedes the 1891 publication Handbook of Proverbs: English and Bengali by Upendro Krishna Bonerjea and the subsequent monumental collection of Bengali proverbs published by Sushil Kumar De in 1943. This 1832 edition, penned by revered William Morton, contains 873 Bengali and Sanskrit proverbs with English translations and explanatory notes. Rev William Morton, was an Irish Missionary in India who was particularly in a mission to educate the native population in Christianity, working for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Cossipore, and for a while also in Chinsura. In 1826 he was apppointed as Professor and Chaplain of Calcutta Grammar-School. He had health problems and was temporarily sent to Mauritius and in 1832 to the Seychelles (said to be the first missionary to visit the islands). He moved back to Chinsurah immediately after and published this milestone book in Bengali literature, folklore and linguistics.
Condition-Original cloth, worn and stained, spine covered and repaired with a strip of lighter brown cloth. A few pages have minor tears at the gutter, minimal soiling present in a few pages. Overall, a nice copy!
