The greater simplicity of the Persian versions in the trilingual inscriptions, suggested less difficulties to overcome and led him to pursue the same lines by which Grotefend had previously obtained success.
Sir Henry Rawlinson was able to carry forward the decipherment of cuneiform much farther than Grotefend, owing partly to the better knowledge of the ancient languages of Persia attained at this time, and partly to the fact that he had escaped the mistakes which obstructed Grotefend in his later decipherments of cuneiform.
It will be remembered that Grotefend discovered the true values of twelve of the forty-eight letters of the Persian alphabet. Further than this he did not go. He made the mistake of supposing all the vowel sounds were expressed in this system, which is not the case.
With some of the consonants, the vowel sound is inherent and is not written with an independent sign. This mistake prevented his further progress; but his success had pointed the way, and a host of eager and able scholars at once entered this new field of oriental philology.
The most promising direction seemed to be the Zend, the so called language in which the sacred books of the Parsees was written. Of this, but one or two fragments known to be genuine were at this time to be found in the libraries of Europe; one in the Bodleian Library, chained to the wall, and here and there a few stray leaves of Zend manuscript in other collections.
In the year 1771 a work had been deposited by its author, Anquetil Duperron, which he claimed to be a translation from the original Zend-Avesta, with copy of the texts.
The work had been pronounced a forgery by certain distinguished scholars; but the well known scholarship of its author held the judgments of other learned philologists in abeyance.
The story of this effort is of romantic interest. While a youth, preparing for priesthood in the seminaries of Paris, he became so absorbed in the study of language, that he gave himself entirely to these pursuits, abandoning his intentions of the study of theology.
While thus engaged, some stray leaves of a Zend manuscript came into his hands, which so filled his mind with a desire to read the language of the Parsees that he determined to do so.
At this time the conflicting interests of the English and French in India reached a crisis. Enlisting as a private soldier in the French army, he was about to sail for India when the officers of the institute to which he was attached, affected by his zeal for learning, obtained from the Minister of War a free passage for him to Pondicherry, with a seat during the voyage at the captain’s table and a salary to be paid him on his arrival in India while he carried on his studies.