It is recorded that Núshírván, the most powerful monarch of his age, sent a high officer of state to procure a translation of the original of this work. It is further stated that when, after years of toil and difficulty, the translation was obtained, it was deposited in the cabinet of the king’s most precious treasures, and was regarded as a model of wisdom and didactic philosophy.

The light of knowledge is now, however, so universally diffused, that, but for your Majesty’s gracious condescension, the translation of the same book into English would be a work of too little merit or importance to deserve notice.

In one point of view, however, the gracious permission to dedicate this translation to your Majesty, may be regarded as likely to have important results, as it may lead other and more worthy laborers to open up to the English public a Literature, which delights and guides the immense population of your Majesty’s Empire in the East, and which still remains to a great extent unknown and unexplored in Europe.

Every fresh proof, indeed, of the interest which your Majesty takes in matters relating to India, will undoubtedly be received by the inhabitants of that vast country with grateful feelings; and that such feelings may long be perpetuated and augmented, is the prayer of,