CHAPTER IX.
The Tibetan Grammar and Dictionary are published at Government expense—Mr. Prinsep’s letter to Government—Prince Eszterházy to Mr. Prinsep—Mr. Döbrentei of Pest to the same.
Csoma’s principal effort was now directed towards the issuing of his Grammar and Dictionary from the press. This was finally accomplished in January 1834, and the fact was notified to Mr. Macnaughtan, the Secretary to Government, on the 5th of that month by Mr. Prinsep giving a detailed account of all the circumstances connected with these works. In that letter is found a summary of the pecuniary aid which the author had received from the Indian Government for the previous fourteen years, that is, since the 14th of October 1820, when, on his arrival at Teheran, Csoma applied to Major, afterwards Sir Henry Willock, for help and protection. This the recipient gratefully acknowledges in the Preface to the Tibetan Dictionary. The flattering distinction which Csoma had just obtained from the Asiatic Society by being elected an Honorary member, was doubtless highly gratifying to such highly sensitive feelings as his; but his systematic silence and reserve in regard to everything that concerned himself deprive us of the opportunity of being partakers of such pleasures as occasionally cheered his toilsome career. We miss also many details of events and incidents such as always constitute an attractive charm in a biographical sketch like the present.
The above-mentioned letter of Mr. Prinsep’s, announcing [[120]]to Government the completion of Csoma’s works, reflects honour, not only on the achievements of the indefatigable scholar, but also on the authorities for their long-continued generosity. It likewise does credit to Mr. Prinsep himself from the graphic description his report contains of the various details and of the difficulties that had to be overcome.
“I have the honour to report,” says Mr. Prinsep, “that the work sanctioned by Government has been completed, and beg to forward a copy for the inspection, and I trust approbation, of the Governor-General.
“The original estimate supposed that both the Dictionary and the Grammar might occupy 600 pages, which Mr. Pearce of the Baptist Mission Press undertook to print at 8 rupees per page, casting a new fount of type for the purpose.
“It will be seen by the bill that the actual expense of printing has fallen within that sum, the number of pages being 588, and the cost Rs.4985, As.4. There is, however, a separate charge for lithographing 40 pages of alphabetical matter, which it was found indispensable to execute in this manner, to furnish a proper model of the Tibetan characters, which were not very well formed in the Serampore fount, whence the types were cast for the body of the work. Mr. Tassin (as will be seen by his note) has charged 32 rupees per page for drawing and printing, which, for 500 copies of each, appears very reasonable, the cost of striking off being one half of the amount.
“The whole cost of the two volumes, therefore, including stitching and covering the copies, has been Rs.6412, As.4, for which, if it meet with the sanction of his Lordship in Council, I have to request an assignment on the Treasury.
“From the delay of constructing new type, and the repeated corrections which were required to ensure accuracy in the Tibetan portion of the text, the time occupied [[121]]in passing the work through the press has been prolonged to two years, in lieu of one, as stipulated by the author. Mr. Csoma has, however, with unwearied patience and application, devoted himself, to the revision of the proofs through this lengthened period, and he is now rewarded with the satisfaction of seeing his labours ushered to the world in so creditable a manner, only through the liberal patronage of Government. He has expressed his acknowledgments publicly, in the preface to both volumes, but his extreme modesty will neither permit him to address his patrons in his own name, nor will it permit me, while writing on his behalf, to indulge in any eulogium on his learning and accuracy. He is contented to leave the merits of his Dictionary and Grammar to be appreciated by the learned and by posterity.
“I must, however, venture to break the silence he would enjoin, for the purpose of representing the pecuniary situation of Mr. Csoma, and the claims which he has hitherto allowed to lie dormant.
“The Right Honourable the Governor-General in Council was pleased to authorise an allowance of 50 rupees a month to the Hungarian student in June 1827 for the prosecution of his Tibetan researches. On his arrival in Calcutta this allowance was increased[1] to 100 rupees, with an anticipation of its continuance at that rate for two years, after which a report was to be made of the progress of his labours.
“With exception, however, of the first two months (July and August), Mr. Csoma has never drawn any part of this allowance, and he has continued to live upon the slender savings he had previously to that date lodged with the treasurer of the Asiatic Society, which are now in consequence nearly exhausted.
“It may, perhaps, be known to Government that Prince Eszterházy and some Hungarian Nobles remitted a donation of £142 through the Secretary of the Austrian [[122]]Legation in London, the Baron Neumann, to Mr. Csoma in 1832. This money was unfortunately lodged by my predecessor in Messrs. Alexander & Co.’s house,[2] and was consequently lost by their failure. Mr. Csoma has frequently alluded to this loss, with an apparent impression that the honour of the British nation is concerned in replacing this sum, intrusted as it was to its care by a foreign power for a specific object: not that he himself had contemplated applying for it to his own support, this he had from the first refused, but that he desired to expend it in purchasing Sanskrit manuscripts for the learned institutions of his country, and otherwise prosecuting the researches he would now pursue relatively to the connection of the Hungarian with the ancient languages of India.
“It would therefore be more agreeable to Mr. Csoma to receive a part of the remuneration to which he is now entitled in the shape of a compensation for the loss sustained by the failure of his agents. Of any further receipt of money he expresses indifference, and he protests that he will remit whatever sum may be granted him direct to Hungary to found scholarships, &c. Still I imagine the Government will not allow the peculiar sentiments of the meritorious scholar to interfere with his just expectations, although the form of donation may be varied to make it more acceptable to him. I beg leave, therefore, to recommend that the former rate of salary, 50 rupees a month, should be made good up to the 31st December 1834,—
Rupees. Being 3 years 4 months at 50 rupees 2000 And that the sum lost by the failure be replaced, viz. 1400 Making a total of 3400
which is little more than would have been granted by the 100 rupees salary for two years and a reduction afterwards to 50 rupees.
“I venture humbly to make these suggestions, leaving [[123]]the Government to determine as to their propriety, and as to the continuance of its patronage to Mr. Csoma during the travels he now projects into Tirhut, Nepal, and Ladak for the further prosecution of his studies, particularly in the Sanskrit literature of the ninth and tenth centuries. The very moderate scale of his habits and wants cannot be placed in a more conspicuous point of view, than by summing up the money upon which he has lived during the last fourteen years. The marginal statement[3] shows that in this period he has received 4226 rupees, of which he has expended 4000 rupees, being little more than 20 rupees per mensem for food, travelling, clothes, and wages of servants and pandits, while in Tibet.
“The Dictionary and Grammar now submitted form but a small part of the works Mr. Csoma has executed while in Calcutta. A catalogue and analysis of the voluminous manuscripts received from Mr. B. H. Hodgson of Nepal, and a valuable and most extensive polyglot vocabulary[4] (of which M. Rémusat attempted a small portion in Paris from Chinese works), and several minor translations are deposited with the Asiatic Society. The vocabulary would merit well to be printed, but the expense would be considerable, and the author is averse to the further detention, which its publication would entail on him at the present moment.
“It remains for me to request the orders of Government as to the distribution of the five hundred copies of the Grammar and Dictionary.
“The author solicits for himself one hundred copies that he may send them to the Universities of Austria, Italy, and Germany. [[124]]
“The Asiatic Society will in the same way, if permitted, undertake to distribute to the learned societies of England, France, and other countries with which it is in literary communication; it would, of course, make known that the presentation was made on the part of the Government of India, under whose auspices the works have appeared.
“A portion may be sent to the Society’s booksellers in Calcutta and London for sale, and perhaps the Government may desire to forward fifty copies or more to the Honourable the Court of Directors.
“Copies may also be properly deposited in the libraries of the colleges in the several Presidencies of the Indian Government.
“For all the details of these arrangements, I beg leave, on the part of the Asiatic Society, to tender my services, happy in having already been able to assist in the publication of a work which I feel confident will do honour to the author, and the Government of India as his patrons.”
| Rupees. | |
| Being 3 years 4 months at 50 rupees | 2000 |
| And that the sum lost by the failure be replaced, viz. | 1400 |
| Making a total of | 3400 |
The epitaph engraved on the tombstone at Darjeeling, referring to these works, truly says that “these are his best and real monuments.”
Jäschke, whose dictionary is based on Csoma’s, acknowledges that it is the work of an “original investigator, and the fruit of almost unparalleled determination and patience.”
The Dictionary was ready some months before the Grammar. It contains 345 quarto pages; the Grammar is smaller, of 204 pages, with 40 pages of lithography.
In the preface to the first-named book Mr. Csoma states the scope of his work, with the plan he was induced to follow in its preparation, and explains his views as to the remarkable similarity of linguistic structure he had discovered between the Indian, including the Sanskrit languages, and his mother tongue, the Hungarian. This we find mentioned already in his letter to Captain Kennedy [[125]]in 1825. It is presumed that Csoma’s suggestion will hardly find favour with many philologists, because the scientific theories of the present day have established distinctive lines of demarcation between the Arian and Turanian group of languages, the Hungarian being assigned to the latter; yet Csoma gave reasons for maintaining such opinion, and adduces examples for its support.[5]
“The Tibetan Dictionary now presented to the world,” says Mr. Csoma, “is indebted for its appearance to the liberality of the two successive Governors-General, Lord Amherst and Lord William Cavendish Bentinck. It is with profound respect that he offers his performance as a small tribute of grateful acknowledgment for favours conferred upon him, not only by Government, but by the liberal assistance and kindness of several English gentlemen whose names are already familiar to the readers of these memoirs. Besides the names of his English friends and others already mentioned, he does not forget two humble citizens who had been kind to him, namely, a merchant at Aleppo, a native of Bohemia, Ignatz Pohle, and Joseph Schaefer of Tyrol, a blacksmith at Alexandria, in Egypt.
“He begs to inform the public that he has not been sent by any Government to gather political information, neither can he be counted of the number of those wealthy European gentlemen who travel at their own expense for their pleasure or curiosity, but is only a poor student, who was very desirous to see the different countries of Asia, as the scene of so many memorable transactions of former ages, to observe the manners of several people, and to learn their languages.”
“Though the study of the Tibetan language,” proceeds Csoma, “did not form part of my original plan, but was only suggested after I had been by Providence led into Tibet, and had enjoyed an opportunity, through Mr. [[126]]Moorcroft’s liberal assistance, of learning of what sort and origin the Tibetan literature was, I cheerfully engaged in the study of it, hoping that it might serve me as a vehicle to my immediate purpose, namely, my researches respecting the origin and language of the Hungarians. The result of my investigation is that the literature of Tibet is entirely of Indian origin, the immense volumes, on different branches of science, being exact and faithful translations from Sanskrit works. Many of these works have again been translated from Tibetan into Mongol, Mantchu, and Chinese languages, so that by this means the Tibetan became in Chinese Tartary the language of the learned, as the Latin is in Europe.
“After thus being familiarised with the language and general contents of the Buddhistic works of Tibet, the author thought himself happy in having found an easy access to the whole Sanskrit literature. To his own nation he felt a pride in announcing that the study of Sanskrit would be more satisfactory to it than to any other people in Europe.
“The Hungarians,” he declares, “would find a fund of information from the study of the Sanskrit respecting their origin, manners, customs, and language, since the structure of the Sanskrit, and also of other Indian dialects, is most analogous. As an example of this close analogy, in Hungarian postpositions are used instead of prepositions; by a simple syllabic addition to the verbal root, and without any auxiliary verb, the several kinds of verbs, namely, the active, passive, causal, desiderative, frequentative, and reciprocal, are formed in the same manner as in Sanskrit.”
The author further informs us that the Grammar and Dictionary had been compiled from authentic sources, with the assistance of an intelligent Lama of Zanskar, who resided with Csoma at the Monastery of Kanum from 1827 to 1830. His name is mentioned on the title-page as: Bandé Sangs-RGyas PHun-Tsogs. [[127]]
At first, the author had naturally to contend with many difficulties, as, beyond the “Alphabetum Tibetanum” of Father Giorgi, he had no elementary works to assist him, and his teacher the Lama, “at whose feet,” as Pavie says, “the pupil of Blumenbach, and a graduate of the University of Göttingen, learned how to spell Tibetan like a child,” knew no other tongue but his own.
Sanskrit terms seldom occur in Tibetan books, Csoma tells us, with the exception of a few proper names of men, places, precious stones, flowers, and plants; but the technical terms in the arts and sciences found in Sanskrit have been rendered by their precise syllabic equivalents in Tibetan, according to a system framed expressly for the purpose, by the pandits who engaged in the translation of the sacred works of the Buddhists into Tibetan, as may be seen in several vocabularies of Sanskrit and Tibetan terms,[6] of which a large one has been translated into English, and presented to the Asiatic Society by Csoma; the same, he afterwards found, had been previously made known to the learned of Europe by Monsieur Abel Rémusat, as stated above.
The Grammar was the second of Csoma’s great works, published a few months after the Dictionary. Some of the remarks prefacing it will be read with interest.
“Tibet being the headquarters of Buddhism in the present age, the elementary works herewith published,” says Csoma, “may serve as a key to unlock the immense volumes, faithful translations of the Sanskrit text, which are still to be found in that country, on the manners, customs, opinions, knowledge, ignorance, superstitions, hopes and fears of great part of Asia, especially India, in former ages.
“It is not uninteresting to observe the coincidence of time with respect to the great exertions made by several princes on behalf of the literature of the three [[128]]great religions, Christianity, Islamism, and Buddhism, in the Latin, in the Arabic, and in the Sanskrit languages, the epoch being the eighth and ninth centuries of our era—in Germany and France by Charlemagne; at Baghdad by the Khalifs Al-Mansur, Harun al-Rashid and Al Mamun; in India by the kings of Magadha; in Tibet by Khrisrong De’hu tsan, Khri De’srong tsan, and Ralpachen; in China by the Emperors of the Thang dynasty. But whilst learning has continually decreased among the Buddhists and Mohammedans, it has developed immensely in countries professing the religion of Christ, and the two rival religions are studied in their original languages by the learned of Europe.
“The students of Tibetan have been most rare, if they existed at all. Isolated among inaccessible mountains, the convents of Tibet have remained unregarded and almost unvisited by the scholar and traveller; nor was it until within these few years conjectured, that in the undisturbed shelter of this region, in a climate proof against decay and the destructive influences of the tropical plains, were to be found, in complete preservation the volumes of the Buddhist faith in their original Sanskrit, as well as in faithful translations, which might be sought for in vain on the continent of India.
“I hope that my sojourn in this inhospitable country, for the express purpose of mastering its language and examining its literary stores, will not have been time unprofitably spent, and that the Grammar and Dictionary may attest the sincerity of my endeavours to attain the object I have determined to prosecute.
“The structure of the Tibetan language is very simple. There is only one general form for all sorts of declinable words. In the verbs there is no variation in respect to person or number. The orthography is uniform throughout Tibet, but the pronunciation differs, especially with reference to the compound consonants. [[129]]
“My selection of the English language,” remarks Csoma, “as the medium of the introduction of my labours, will sufficiently evince to the learned of Europe at large the obligations I consider myself under to the English nation.”
We have two more letters which reflect on the events of this epoch in Csoma’s life—one from Prince Eszterházy, the Austrian Ambassador at the Court of St. James’s, and the other from Mr. Döbrentei, secretary to the Hungarian Literary Society at Pest; both are addressed to Mr. Prinsep, expressive of acknowledgments for the kindness and protection shown to their distinguished countryman.
The Prince’s letter is dated the 4th of August 1835, and will be read with interest. One more act of generosity of the Indian Government towards Csoma de Körös is acknowledged here by the Ambassador, and it is but justice that the same should be recorded.
The Prince writes:—
“Sir,—In reply to the letter you addressed to me of the 25th January last, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the two boxes, containing each twenty-five copies of the Tibetan Dictionary and Grammar, prepared for publication by the Hungarian traveller, Mr. Alexander Csoma de Körös, and printed at the expense of the British Indian Government under the auspices of the Asiatic Society.
“These fifty copies being destined by Mr. Körösi to be presented to the different public institutions of His Imperial Majesty’s dominions, I lose no time in assuring you that the learned author’s intentions shall be faithfully fulfilled.
“The enclosed letters and the Oriental works you have sent to the Aulic Councillor von Hammer have also been forwarded to their destination.
“I have not failed to inform my Government of the [[130]]liberality with which the Indian Government has replaced the sum of 300 ducats transmitted through this Embassy to Mr. Csoma de Körös, which had been lost by the failure of Messrs. Alexander & Co.; and anticipating its intentions, I seize with great pleasure this opportunity to express to you, and through you to the Indian Government, as well as to the Asiatic Society, the high sense I entertain of the kind protection afforded to my learned countryman in His Britannic Majesty’s dominions in India.
“Allow me to offer my sincerest thanks for such generous conduct.—I have the honour to be, sir, your most obedient servant,
(Sgd.) “Eszterházy.”
Mr. Döbrentei’s letter to Mr. Prinsep is dated the 30th of September 1835, and, like the preceding, is extant among the papers in the Library of the Asiatic Society in Calcutta. Döbrentei states that Mr. Prinsep’s letter excited the greatest attention when its contents were made known to the meeting of the Literary Society at Pest, because there was no reliable news of Csoma since he wrote from Teheran to his friends at Nagy Enyed in 1820. Mr. Döbrentei expresses gratitude for the protection his countryman enjoyed in India, and mentions the willingness on the part of Hungarians to send pecuniary aid to him if required. [[131]]
[2] It was remitted through them, and never drawn out of their hands. [↑]
| Rupees. | |
| From Mr. Willock | 300 |
| From Dr. Moorcroft | 300 |
| From Government, 14th June 1827 to 30th June 1830 | 2926 |
| Two months at 100 rupees per month | 200 |
| For travelling expenses | 500 |
| Total | 4226 |