c. 1760.—"Vedam—s.m. Hist. Superst. C'est un livre pour qui les Brames ou Nations idolâtres de l'Indostan ont la plus grande vénération ... en effet, on assure que le Vedam est écrit dans une langue beaucoup plus ancienne que le Sanskrit, qui est la langue savante, connue des bramines. Le mot Vedam signifie science."—Encylopédie, xxx. 32. This information was taken from a letter by Père Calmette, S.J. (see Lett. Edif.), who anticipated Max Müller's chronological system of Vedic literature, in his statement that some parts of the Veda are at least 500 years later than others.
1765.—"If we compare the great purity and chaste manners of the Shastah ([Shaster]), with the great absurdities and impurities of the Viedam, we need not hesitate to pronounce the latter a corruption of the former."—J. Z. Holwell, Interesting Hist. Events, &c., 2nd ed. i. 12. This gentleman also talks of the Bhades and the Viedam in the same line without a notion that the word was the same (see ibid. Pt. ii. 15, 1767).
c. 1770.—"The Bramin, bursting into tears, promised to pardon him on condition that he should swear never to translate the Bedas or sacred volumes.... From the Ganges to the Indus the Vedam is universally received as the book that contains the principles of religion."—Raynal, tr. 1777, i. 41-42.
c. 1774.—"Si crede poi como infallibile che dai quattro suddette Bed, che in Malabar chiamano Vedam, Bramah medesimo ne retirasse sei Sastrah, cioè scienze."—Della Tomba, 102.
1777.—"The word Vēd, or Vēdă, signifies Knowledge or Science. The sacred writings of the Hindoos are so distinguished, of which there are four books."—C. Wilkins, in his Hĕĕtopădēs, 298.
1778.—"The natives of Bengal derive their religion from a Code called the Shaster, which they assert to be the genuine scripture of Bramah, in preference to the Vedam."—Orme, ed. 1803, ii. 5.
1778.—
"Ein indischer Brahman, geboren auf der Flur,
Der nichts gelesen als den Weda der Natur."
Rückert, Weisheit der Bramanen, i. 1.