Dharmadipika: A Guide to Hinduism

When the Religious Instruction Committee of the Benares Hindu University laid down, some years ago, a syllabus for a course of lectures on Hindu Religion, it became necessary to select and collect sacred texts from the Hindu Scriptures relating to the several heads and sub-heads of that syllabus. These sacred texts are now printed with their English translation under the title of Dharma-Dipika (A Gide to Hinduism). They have been divided into two parts. The first part contains texts to be usd in the lectures to the Intermediate classes, and the second part contains texts for use in the B.A. and B.Sc. classes. The sole object in printing these texts in book-form is that the students may read them before they come to the class to hear the lectures and be thus able to follow those lectures more intelligently, and also put questions to the lecturer on the subjects dealt with in the texts.

The general reader will be disappointed to find nothing original or systematically arranged and explained in the book. No pretence is made on that account. The book is simply a collection of a few important texts culled from well known sources giving the prominent ideas on the subjects to be dealt with in the prescribed course of lectures.

As no English translation of Sanskrit texts can claim to be thoroughly exact or perfectly idiomatic, the compiler cannot but confess that his renderings into English are imperfect in many respects. For the translation of the Bhagwad-Gita texts the English rendering of Swami Swarupanand has been adopted with the permission of the managers of the Prabuddha-bharata Press. Help has been taken from the English translations of various scholars to whom the compiler is much indebted. For such inaccuracies as may be discovered he is solely responsible. Attempt will be made to make the compilation more accurate and satisfactory in translation, arrangement of texts and general get-up next time in the light of kind suggestions and friendly criticisms which are sincerely sought and cordially invited and without which a work of this nature can never be thorough and complete.

When the compiler undertook to collect these texts and make their translation he had the invaluable help and guidance of the late Professor P.N. Patan.kar M.A. who unfortunately did not live to see the work completed. Pandit Sri Krishna Joshi B.A., LL.B. his successor has given considerable help to the compiler in seeing the compilation through the press and in rendering into Sanskrit the list of the contents which gives a synopsis of this compilation.

**Contents and Sample Pages**