ABSTRACT
An early indication of William Waterfield's abilities as a linguist and translator was his performance at Haileybury College, where he was awarded prizes in Hindi and Bengali. He arrived in India in 1852, as a member of the Bengal civil service, and began work at the departments of revenue and survey; his diaries of the time record his early interest and successes in the study of Sanskrit. In 1859 he was appointed first assistant to the accountant-general for India, and continued to work in the financial department in Madras, Calcutta and Bombay until 1864. An earlier work, Indian Ballads, consists mainly of translations from or versions of Sanskrit texts: two of these, 'The Pilgrim's Return from Haridwara' and 'The Song of Kalindi', are included, together with another ballad, 'To the Kalki Tree'.
