A View of the History, Literature, and
Religion of the Hindoos:
Including a Minute Description of their Manners and Customs,
and Translations from Their Principal Works
In Two Volumes.
By W. Ward.
The Second Edition,
Carefully Abridged, and Greatly Improved.
Volume II.
Serampore: Printed at the Mission Press,
1815.
William Ward (1769-1823), a colleague of William Carey's in Serampore, was both a Baptist minister and a printer by trade. Originally from Derby, England, Ward had been a printer apprentice and editor of several newspapers including Derby Mercury and Hull Advertiser. In 1793, Ward met Carey prior to Carey's departure for India, and Carey remarked to Ward, "If the Lord bless us, we shall want a person of your business to enable us to print the Scriptures; I hope you will come after us" (Memoir of the Rev. William Ward, p. 5). For a brief biographical entry on Ward, click here [William Cathcart, ed., The Baptist Encyclopedia, 2 vols., rev. ed. (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1883), II:1210].
Ward preached at the Cannon Street Church, Birmingham, England, where he became associated with Rev. Samuel Pearce (biography, p. 1, biography, p. 2), one of the founders of the Baptist Missionary Society. On May 25, 1799, under the auspices of the Society, Ward and Joshua Marshman, along with several other Britishers, left England for India on the American vessel Criterion. Arriving in Calcutta on October 11 without British passports, the group proceeded to the Danish settlement of Serampore where the Governor, Colonel Bie, issued Ward a Danish passport to visit Carey at Kidderpore. Carey joined Ward and Marshman in Serampore, arriving on January 10, 1800. In missiological history, Carey, Marshman, and Ward became known as the Serampore Trio.
In 1800 at the Serampore Press, Ward printed Carey's newly-translated Bengali New Testament, which included 800 pages in octavo format. At the time of his death from cholera in 1823, Ward had fulfilled his purpose of going to India to "publish among the heathen, the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Memoir of the Rev. William Ward, p. 35), for he had completed the publication of twenty versions of the Bible into various languages.
A prolific author in addition to his printing and preaching, Ward published the four volume, Account of the Writings, Religion, and Manners of the Hindoos (1811) from which the 800+ page, second edition came in 1815 (vol. II) and 1818 (vol. I) under the title A View of the History, Literature and Mythology of the Hindoos: Including a Minute Description of Their Manners and Customs, and Translations from Their Principal Works. Ward also published a volume on the biographical accounts of four converted Hindoos, a funeral sermon for the wife of Dr. Nathaniel Wallich, a biographical sketch of his late friend, the Rev. Andrew Fuller (biography, p. 1, biography, p. 2, biography, p. 3), Farewell Letters to a Few Friends in Britain and America upon Returning to Bengal in 1821, a memoir of Krishna Pal, and a set of daily meditations on selected Scripture texts (click here for bibliography).
Between 1819 and 1821, Ward toured Great Britain, Holland, and the United States for the purpose of raising support for Serampore College. Drawing large and interested crowds in the United States, he raised $26,000 for the College (Memoir of the Rev. William Ward, pp. 12-13). Undoubtedly, Ward drew upon his extensive knowledge of Hindu culture and religion to evoke Western interest in the Serampore Christian mission.
A View of the History, Literature and Mythology of the Hindoos: Including a Minute Description of Their Manners and Customs, and Translations from Their Principal Works is a lengthy description of Hindu history, culture, literature, and religion. In vol. II, Ward offers details of the Hindu religion, including his eighty page introductory essay.
Book Spines, Vols. I-II | Book Spine Vol. II | Title Page, Vol. II |
Table of Contents, Vol. II
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8
"Introductory Remarks on the Hindoo Religion," pp. i - lxxx [1 - 80]
i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x
xi xii xiii xiv xv xvi xvii xviii xix xx
xxi xxii xxiii xxiv xxv xxvi xxvii xxviii xxix xxx
xxxi xxxii xxxiii xxxiv xxxv xxxvi xxxvii xxxviii xxxix xl
xli xlii xliii xliv xlv xlvi xlvii xlviii xlix l
li lii liii liv lv lvi lvii lviii lix lx
lxi lxii lxiii lxiv lxv lxvi lxvii lxiii lxix lxx
lxxi lxxii lxxiii lxxiv lxxv lxxvi lxxvii lxxviii lxxix lxxx
[As Ward describes above on pp. liii-lv, the practice of burying widows alive appears in Quarterly Papers, No. 22 (April 1827) in News from Afar or Missionary Varieties; Chiefly Relating to The Baptist Missionary Society, 4th ed. (London: Printed and Published for the Society, 1830), pp. 85-86. Page 85 Page 86]
"Burning of Widows alive" (pp. 298-312) [Suttee]
298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305
"Voluntary Suicide" and "Drowning in the Ganges" (pp. 313-317)
"Dying under the wheels of Jugunnathu's car" (pp. 317-318)
"Infanticide, still very prevalent" (pp. 318-321)
"Ascetics devoured in forests by wild beasts" and
"Perishing in cold regions"(p. 321)
Estimates of Hindoos who perish annually (pp. 322-324)
"Ceremonies performed on visiting holy places (pp. 324-325)
Created: May 31, 2001 Updated: April 8, 2005