Eötvös continues to communicate other details on the strength of his information, and concludes:
“A great trial, however, was in store for Csoma in his new sphere of action at Calcutta. After having communicated the result of his labours to others, and heard from them that the Tibetan language, to the study of which he had sacrificed the best part of his life, was but a corrupt dialect of the Sanskrit, his heart was filled with undescribable anguish, and the strong man, who suffered so many privations cheerfully and without complaining, was prostrated on a bed of sickness by this new discovery.”
It will be our duty to show that these allegations have no foundation whatever in fact. The same must be said of what we read further on in Eötvös’s speech, namely, “that Csoma had prepared his extracts from Tibetan works in Latin.”
Baron Hügel, we know, was in Calcutta in 1835. Csoma’s Dictionary and Grammar were published in 1834; if, therefore, Baron Hügel had thought of it, he might easily have gathered correct information regarding the progress of Oriental literature. Csoma’s merits were then fully acknowledged by the Government and by the learned world.
The statement that Csoma spent eleven years in a Buddhistic monastery at Kanaur is quite inaccurate, as appears from the following data:—
In the monastery at Yangla in Zanskar, Csoma lived from 20th June 1823 to 22d October 1824.
In the monastery at Pukdal or Pukhtar, also in Zanskar, he remained from 12th August 1825 to November 1826.
At Kanum, in Upper Besarh, also written Bussahir, Besahir, from August 1827 to October 1830.
It is also an error to say that Tibetan is a subordinate dialect of Sanskrit. It belongs to the Chinese group of languages. This has been pointed out already by Giorgi, [[19]]about the middle of the last century, in his work the “Alphabetum Tibetanum,”[3] and this was precisely the book which Moorcroft gave into the hands of the Hungarian traveller in 1823, from which Csoma obtained his first glimpses of that language.
Csoma arrived in Calcutta at the end of April 1831. In his letter to Captain Kennedy, which will be found further on, dated 25th January 1825, para. 17, we find in regard to the Tibetan works and literature the following remark: “They ALL are taken from Indian Sanskrit, and were translated into Tibetan.” This disposes of the charge against Csoma and his alleged ignorance as to the linguistic relationship between Tibetan and Sanskrit, the discovery of which, eight years later, is said to have caused him a “dangerous illness in Calcutta.”