Government orders respecting Csoma’s stipend—Report as to his Tibetan studies in the past and plans for the future.
Csoma’s first letter to Captain Kennedy was dated the 28th of January 1825. Owing to the distance and other incidental delays, it was not till the month of May following that an answer to it, from the Calcutta Government, reached Sabathú. This decided Csoma’s fate. The Government granted a regular stipend of fifty rupees a month, which enabled him to prosecute the Tibetan studies, and, as regards his own position, to perpetuate his name in the domain of science and literary research.
In the second letter, addressed to Captain Kennedy, Csoma made known in detail all he had already learnt of the language of Tibet, and of the religion of Buddha, and explained his future plans, particularly in paragraphs 27 and 28. He gave a promise that he would devote himself entirely to that special study; he kept to the determination, and spent some of the best years of his life (between 1825 and 1834) in the attainment of his object. When once his task was finished, he remarked with melancholy emphasis to Dr. Gerard, as they met at the Buddhist monastery, he would then be “the happiest man on earth, and could die with pleasure, seeing that he had redeemed his pledge.” On examining what Csoma has written, we nowhere find the slightest trace to justify the assumption that he believed in any particular resemblance between the Tibetan language and his native tongue. This, therefore, could not be the reason that urged him to study it. Except in the case of one Tibetan word,—[[40]]khyöd, anglice, you; in Hungarian, kend, kegyelmed,—we find no other marked out by Csoma for comparison as to any supposed similarity between these two languages. There were, however, weighty motives which induced him to devote himself to the literature of Tibet. The first was doubtless the wish of a grateful heart to do some service, if he could, to his English patrons. He felt that already, at the University of Göttingen, he was supported from the scholarship founded by English benevolence; and it was there, we may add also, that he first began to study English under Professor Fiorillo. When Csoma set out on his venturesome journey, he always found help and patronage, when in need, from Englishmen; and now again, when at Sabathú, he saw clearly that without English protection and liberality he could never hope to succeed.
Secondly. He believed, no doubt, to be some day in a position to furnish a key to the learned of Europe for further exploration of an almost terra incognita, and this, indeed, he subsequently accomplished. Moreover, he hoped to promote his original objects, if, fortified with newly-acquired knowledge, he could reach Lassa, where the library of the Grand Lama would be accessible to him, and where he would be in a position to explore thoroughly those Tibetan works which elsewhere he sought for in vain, and which, according to his information and belief, contained the early history of the Mongols and the Huns.
The Tibetan tongue, moreover, is the most generally known among nations professing the Buddhist faith.[1] It is the channel of communication between the educated and influential classes in the state and society, especially where the Dalai Lama of Lassa is the acknowledged head of the faith. This, therefore, is evidently the channel through which the civilisation of the West could most easily penetrate into those distant regions.
Csoma’s second letter is dated the 25th of May 1825. In the previous one, we possess already a sketch of his [[41]]personal history and earlier studies. Many interesting points are touched upon in his second letter, throwing a light on the discoveries and progress of that department of Oriental literature which Csoma was exploring. Paragraphs 29, 32, and 34 will be especially interesting to his countrymen, even at the present day, and the letter will not, it is hoped, be unacceptable to the general reader as well, who will generously make allowance for the somewhat imperfect English of the writer.
“Sir,—I beg to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of a letter to the address of the Governor-General’s Acting Agent at Delhi, C. Elliott, Esq., dated Fort William, 25th March 1825, communicated to me by you, containing the Government’s orders respecting my further proceedings; and since his Lordship in Council has vouchsafed to absolve me from the suspicion I imagined I was under at my arrival at this place, and to approve my research for Tibetan language and literature, and to grant me generously pecuniary aid, I accept with the highest respect and acknowledgment the offered assistance, and in obedience to Government’s request for a summary report of the contents of the Tibetan works in my possession, I have the honour to state as follows:—
2. “I am very sensible that during the last six months I could make no further progress in the Tibetan, being separated from that intelligent Lama, by whom, while in Zanskar, I was assisted, through Mr. Moorcroft’s liberality to him, in my literary pursuit, he remaining behind for the arrangement of his affairs, and afterwards not following me. In this manner, left alone, as I have not yet the practice of Tibetan writing, and sometimes, in dubious cases, I ought to consult an intelligent man for that language, I was not able to arrange the collected materials as I had planned.
3. “At my first application to this language I proposed in myself to collect whatever is required for the preparation of a grammar, a vocabulary, and a general account of [[42]]Tibetan learning and literature. How far I succeeded in my purpose, I beg leave first to give a short enumeration of the materials which I have now in my possession; secondly, of the insight I acquired into the Tibetan; and, lastly, of my intention for the future. Then, firstly,
4. “It was by the medium of the Persian language that I learned so much from the Tibetan, that, after my return to Ladak, I could communicate my ideas to the Lama, and engage him to assist me in my undertaking. He writes very well both the capital and the small characters, is acquainted with the grammatical structure of the Tibetan language, with arithmetic, rhetoric, poesy, and dialectic. Medicine, astronomy, and astrology are his professions; about twenty years ago, in searching after knowledge, he visited in six years many parts of Tibet, Teshi Lhunpo, Lassa, Bootan, &c., and also Nepal. He knows the whole system of their religion, has a general knowledge of everything that is contained in their books, and of customs, manners, economy, and of the polite language used among the nobility, and in the sacred volumes; speaking respectfully to superiors. He acquired a great deal of geography and history respecting the Tibetan countries. He is now about fifty-two years old; he is not a resident in a monastery, having married about twelve years ago the widow of the Yangla Raja. He is the chief physician of Ladak, and sometimes the chief secretary employed by Government in writing to Teshi Lhunpo, and Lassa.
5. “It was this man I spoke of who, in the course of three months after my arrival at that place, wrote down, at my request, some thousand words arranged after certain heads, and since he had many books with him containing collections of words, and could easily procure others from the neighbouring monasteries, he gave me such account of technical terms used in arts and sciences, that I acquired sufficient information to be interested in the Tibetan literature, and to pursue in certain order the study I was engaged in. [[43]]
6. “In the first place, he enumerated the names or attributes of the Supreme Intelligence, the first person in the Tibetan Trinity, in more than one hundred and ten terms, which frequently occur in their religious books, and are highly expressive of the Supreme Being respecting His perfections, and are the same as we have in our own theological systems, or in the works of the ancient Greek and Roman poets. There are, besides many others, seven chief emanations or incarnations (Nirmankaya, in Sanskrit) of this Supreme Being, called commonly Buddhas, of whom Sakya (who has more than twelve names, is addressed in the sacred volumes frequently as Gotama, principally by Brahmins), which is a very ancient family name of his ancestors, was the last in appearing in the world, and probably was the same with the most ancient Zoroaster, and must have lived some centuries before the age of Ninus, the great king of Assyria. Champa (the Clemency), Maitreya in Sanskrit, is to come hereafter.
7. “The Lama proceeded afterwards on the Second Person of the Trinity, which is called the ‘Chief of Morality,’ and gave me thirty names of the moral doctrine, upon which there are many treatises in the sacred volumes.
8. “The Third Person of the Trinity is called ‘the Chief Collector or Promoter of Virtue’ (the Holy Ghost, agreeably to our faith); such promoters of virtue are all the teachers of moral doctrine or religion. Among these the most perfect are styled in Tibetan ‘Byang-chhub Sems-d’pah’; in Sanskrit, Bodhisatva, a saint. They are represented to be of ten different degrees of perfection; to be immortal; free from passive metempsychosis; and to possess great powers or faculties of mind for the promotion of universal happiness in the world. There are many appellative or common names, as also proper or peculiar ones, to express such imagined or supposed beings, which all have the signification of excellent qualities or virtues. There is also a list of other saints of inferior abilities. [[44]]
9. “After these follows a full register of all the gods, goddesses, and their families, heroes, good and bad spirits in the upper and lower regions, with names of their habitations, of their offices, &c. There are many appellative names for the expression of a god or angel; also many attributes or names of every peculiar divinity in their mythology. The Brahma of the Indians (Uranos, Cœlum of the Greeks and Romans) in the Tibetan has more than twenty names. Vishnoo (Chronos, Saturn), twenty-five, among which is Narayana, the most beloved son; Titan, his brother, has ten. For Iswar or Iswara (Zeus, Jupiter), thirty; and so on for Indra and the other imagined guardians of the ten corners of the world. For the Rirap (Sumeru, Olympus) and the whole system of the ancient mythology there are hundreds of names; also for the phenomena or meteors in the atmosphere; among the planets, the sun has more than one hundred and twenty names or attributes; and so on; the others also have many appellations, which in poetical works and astronomy are often introduced. There is also an exact description of the twelve zodiacal signs, of twenty-eight constellations, and of everything belonging to astronomy. Further—
10. “He has given a complete account of the human body, specifying every member, articulation, fluid substances and distempers thereof, so fully as it is required for an intelligent physician to know the structure of our body. There is a full enumeration of all the good qualities, as also of all the defects and diseases. Afterwards follow the faculties or powers of our mind, with their opposite defects; then are classified the virtues and vices. There is also a very copious enumeration of everything relating to our dresses, furniture, victuals, family, parentage, &c., &c.
11. “Then follows the enumeration of all quadrupeds, birds, amphibious animals, fishes, conchs or shells, insects, and worms, with several designations. Vegetables and [[45]]trees, shrubs, plants, all sorts of corn, pulse, flowers, herbs, &c. Minerals, and different kinds of earth or soil, stones (common and precious), salts, metals, &c. &c. Words for all sorts of instruments employed in farming, manufactures, and every kind of workmanship; arms and everything relating to war. All sorts of pronouns, numbers, adjectives, with their opposites. Inward and outward properties of bodies, colours, figures, technical terms, with several distinctions in arts and sciences. Names of officers, civil and military. Ecclesiastical persons, orders, dignities, and different sects in Tibet; their great names and their titles; monasteries or convents, and their buildings; respecting religion and superstition. Verbs, participles. In a word, there is a full enumeration of whatever we can meet within the region of the elements, as they are called, namely, the earth, water, fire, air, ether, and in the intellectual kingdom. These all were arranged after my direction and plan.
12. “Besides this vocabulary of the most necessary words which I have now with me, written all by the same Lama in the Tibetan capital character, I have another large collection in Sanskrit and Tibetan (the Sanskrit also being written in the Tibetan capital character, as they early adapted their alphabet to express properly every Sanskrit word), copied from the Stangyur Do division, 90 volumes, from the 223d leaf to the 377th, consisting of 60 sheets of common Cashmerian paper, having writing but on one side, and having on every page 32 lines. This vocabulary, arranged after certain matters or subjects under general heads, contains many thousand words of every description; several distinctions and divisions highly interesting in order to understand better the whole system and principles of the Buddhistic doctrine.
13. “As there is frequent mention made both in the ‘Kahgyur’ and ‘Stangyur’ of the five sciences of the greater class as: sgra-rigpa, gtantziks-rigpa, ḇzo-rigpa, sman-rigpa, and nangdon-rigpa, corresponding to our philology or [[46]]grammar, sabda in Sanskrit; philosophy or logic, hetu in Sanskrit; technology, silpa in Sanskrit; medicine, vaidya in Sanskrit, and divinity; the five small ones of the lesser class, as s̱nyanṅak, sdebsbyor, nonthol, dasgar and skar-rtsis (rhetoric, poesy, lexicography, dance music, and astronomy). The same person, at my request, wrote me a short account on grammar, and on the five sciences mentioned in the last place. On about five sheets the history of medicine, and the contents of its eight branches, arranged in chapters after the system of the most celebrated physicians, also in two sheets an account on astronomy, to find the places of the sun, moon, and planets, and to calculate eclipses. I have also in about ten sheets an account of the whole religious system of the Buddhists, written, at my request, in fine capital characters by a Lama of great reputation, a relative and friend of the Lama whose pupil I was. For an account respecting learning in general, and logic in particular, I have the answer of a celebrated Rab-hbyams-pa (doctor of philosophy), who was twenty-five years at Lassa, and now is sixty-five years old.
14. “Although in modern times, in Tibetan countries, there are several works on different branches of science, but the bases of them all are the ‘Kahgyur’ and ‘Stangyur’ (Commandment’s version, and Instruction’s version, on account of their being a version or translation from the Sanskrit); they correspond in signification to Bed and Shastra in Sanskrit. The first contains the doctrine and moral precepts of Shakya, in accordance as after his death his principal disciples arranged them. The second, written by ancient Indians and a few Chinese learned men or Pundits, is filled with treatises containing commentaries on the first, many original works on religious rites, ceremonies, arts, and sciences.
15. “The ‘Kahgyur’ family, in manuscript exemplars (copies), were divided according to the size of paper, characters employed in copying, into more or less, but generally [[47]]in 100 volumes. They form now in printed exemplars 90 volumes, with an additional one, containing, on 124 leaves, a prolix and historical account on several subjects, not reducible under one general head. I have now in my possession an exact copy, word for word, of the last 42 leaves, specifying the contents of the above-mentioned 90 volumes, with all their divisions and subdivisions, mentioning the names of the translators, the number of chapters and leaves in every volume, written in capital characters by a good writer, on common Kashmirian paper, bearing ink but on one side, in 30 sheets. It is impossible for me to give now a detailed account of the contents. I shall mention, therefore, the principal parts.
16. “According to this Register, the ‘Dulva’ (education, Vinaya in Sanskrit), in 13 volumes, in a very easy and agreeable style, gives interesting historical accounts on wars, particularly between the kings of Magadha and Anga, in Paks-yul (arya in Sanskrit, the highland); and for moral instruction relates many hundred fables, apologues, and parables. The She’s-rab-kyi-p’ha-rol-tu-p’hyin pa, by contraction ‘Shér-p’hyin’ (evergoing or everlasting wisdom; Prajna’ pàramità in Sanskrit), written on moral subjects, contains, in 12 volumes, many excellent moral precepts.
17. “The ‘Do-de,’ or merely ‘Do’ (rule, treatise, &c.; sútra in Sanskrit), in 30 vols., contains much from natural philosophy, divinity, and astronomy. I have with me two specimens of this class on thirty pages, elegantly copied by the Lama himself. The first is taken from the 30th volume of the ‘Do,’ signed with the A, the last letter of the Tibetan alphabet, beginning on the 364th leaf. This is against the holding so scrupulously on castes. When, on a certain occasion, the King of Kosala and a chief Brahmin, who frequented the meetings of Shakya, in a great assembly had expressed their disapproval, that his (Shakya’s) nephew, Kungavo, although of royal family, should marry the daughter of a common man. Shakya tells a story how, anciently in India, such and such a [[48]]chief of the Sudra caste, by his learning and address, obtained the beautiful daughter of a Brahmin of high rank, for his well-educated son. This story, in the above-mentioned volume, consists of sixty leaves, and gives interesting accounts of the four castes, their origin, and a summary report on the arts and sciences. The second specimen is taken from the 2d volume of the ‘Do,’ signed by ‘Kh,’ beginning on the 120th leaf, and is against the covering of the face of women. The principal, newly-married wife of Shakya, ‘Satsuma,’ being solicited by her maid-servants to keep her face covered while sitting with others, expresses her sentiments against the veil in a few elegant verses, with which her father-in-law was so well pleased, that he bestowed on her a great quantity of precious stones of all sorts.
18. “The ‘Gyud-de,’ or ‘Gyud’ (line, canon, original work, &c.; Tantra in Sanskrit), in 21 vols., treats on different subjects,—natural philosophy, medicine, astronomy, astrology, charms, secret praises (snyags) to imaginary spirits, prayers, &c. For a specimen of this class I have a correct copy of that same piece which, in 1722, in the last century, excited the curiosity of the learned in Europe. It is taken from the ninth volume, signed by T., beginning on the 336th leaf.—Vide P. Giorgi, Alphab. Tibet., p. 665.
19. “I will not go further in specifying the other divisions of works or treatises in the remaining twenty-two volumes. It is enough to state: they contain, collectively, ample stores on the political state and genius of the ancient Indians, from the Sita (Sihon, Jaxartes), on this side of the great snowy mountains, downwards to Ceylon.
20. “There is frequent mention made, almost in every volume of the ‘Kahgyur’ and ‘Stangyur,’ of an opposite religious sect, styled in Tibetan ‘Mo-stegs-chan,’ Tirthika in Sanskrit, of which there are many different branches. Judging from the proper meaning in the Tibetan, and according to their principles, they were Determinists or Fatalists, and the Buddhists Indeterminists or Libertinists, [[49]]which distinction we find also among the ancient Greek and Roman philosophers. We know very well at present that the Mohammedans are generally addicted to the doctrine of Fatalism. The Buddhists declare we have free-will in our actions, and, consequently, we can be punished or rewarded for our bad or good deeds. Hence the Hell and the Paradise, the place of punishment and reward after death, and the good and bad metempsychosis, with their several distinctions in their religious system. They are all ignorant of our principles and religion, and think we are all of the same principles as the Mohammedans (vide P. Giorgi, Alph. Tib., p. 501, the letter of the Pro Lama, at Lassa, while the Dalai Lama, Bezah-zar-boba, was exiled in China, written 1730, to P. Horatius, to be transmitted to Rome to the Pope).
21. “The ‘Stangyur’ (in 224 vols., 76,409 leaves, of about two feet long, on each side seven lines of middle-sized characters) contains the works of several ancient pundits in Asia, Kashmir, Sindhu, Ujain, Bengal, Nepal, and other countries. According to the register (which in 144 leaves makes the last volume), one volume, signed by the letter K, contains many praises and hymns to several divinities and saints.
22. “The ‘Gyud Class,’ in 36 volumes, contains more than 2600 treatises on several subjects, such as natural philosophy, astronomy, religious rites, ceremonies, prayers, charms, superstitious sentences, &c.
23. “The ‘Do’ Class, in 136 volumes, contains science after certain divisions. Ninety-four volumes are filled up with theological subjects, dogmatic, polemic, or controversial and moral. The following 21 volumes treat on philosophy, theoretical and practical, on logic, dialectic, metaphysics, and ethics. It is very probable that, whatever exercised the speculative mind of the ancient philosophers in Greece and Rome, respecting the origin and end of the world, or of the human soul: we meet with all those or like subtleties in these 115 volumes last mentioned. [[50]]
24. “The next two volumes contain grammar, rhetoric, poesy, and synonymy, afterwards five volumes, medicine. In the next volume there are several treatises on different arts—on alchemy, the mode of preparing quicksilver, ether, &c. The rest, mostly written by ancient Tibetan scholars, contain treatises on grammar, collections of vocabularies in Sanskrit and Tibetan, of which I have now with me a copy of the largest mentioned above.
25. “As I have copied specimens for the style and contents of the ‘Kahgyur,’ I have taken also from the ‘Stangyur’ some pattern-pieces. The first is on divinity, and gives an explanation of the ten moral precepts. The second is taken from technology, and enumerates what must be the proportion in feet, inches, lines of a statue representing Buddha or Shakya. The third, from medicine, is written on temperaments, viz., sanguine, choleric, and phlegmatic, &c. The fourth is from philosophy, on the elements of right knowledge. The fifth, from ethics (niti shastra), a collection of apophthegms, prudential and moral. From grammar, a treatise on twenty Sanskrit particles, which, if compounded with nouns and verbs, change their signification in several manners. Every particle is illustrated by examples in Tibetan. The twenty Sanskrit particles are the following:—Pră, pará, á, sam, anu, apa, nir, antar, vi, ava, ni, adhi, api, ati, su, ut, abhi, prati, pari, upa. It was written by a celebrated ancient pundit or professor, Chandra Komi, in Bengal, from whom, according to historical accounts contained in the ‘Stangyur,’ the modern city of Chandernagore (near Calcutta) obtained its name. From this learned man there are in the ‘Stangyur’ principally, many excellent treatises on grammar. All these specimens here enumerated fill thirty-two pages, written in large capital characters. The volumes and pages are quoted.
26. “The whole contents of the ‘Kahgyur’ and ‘Stangyur,’ with the pattern pieces copied by the Lama and by another good writer, make a volume of 277 pages, in [[51]]folio, on Kashmirian common paper, bound in leather at Kashmir, which Mr. Moorcroft had the kindness to give me on my return to Tibet. This and all other papers on Tibetan literature now in my hands belong to Mr. Moorcroft (consequently to the British Government), to whose liberality I am infinitely obliged.
27. “But since the Governor-General in Council favoured me with pecuniary aid, I beg leave to communicate my wish and plan for the future. The Tibetan literature merits, without doubt, to be fully explored. In return of my acknowledgment for the received liberal assistance, if Government pleases to permit me to be under the protection of the commanding officer at Sabathoo, and to devote myself again to the Tibetan, I hope that if I could join either the same Lama, to whose intelligence I owe now my insight into this class of Asiatic literature, or be able to procure another intelligent person, I shall be able to finish what I have commenced in the course of one year; and then
28. “I shall have the honour to present to the Government in English (a.) a large theoretical and practical grammar of the Tibetan language, on the five principal parts of the grammar, viz., Orthography (very difficult in the Tibetan, but sufficiently regulated by the best grammarians, in their collections of many words for the same purpose), Orthoepy (variable according to different provinces—can be fixed for the European students), Etymology (very simple and copious), Syntax, and Prosody (will not take much room). Specifying in etymology every part of speech, giving perfect patterns of declensions for personal, possessive, demonstrative, interrogative, relative, and reciprocal pronouns; for numbers, cardinal, ordinal, and adverbial; for adjectives and nouns of every kind; patterns of conjugations for verbs, neuter, active, intransitive, transitive, passive, causal, &c.; a complete catalogue of adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections, and the proper use of them in the syntax. (b.) A vocabulary of more than 30,000 words in Tibetan and [[52]]English, introducing all technical terms used in arts and sciences, leaving alone every conjecture respecting the relation of Tibetan words to any other language. (c.) A short account on the Tibetan literature. (d.) A succinct history of Tibet, in Tibetan language, taken from the works of native historians, word for word, accompanied by a short geography and chronology in Tibetan. (e.) Selected specimens of every kind in Tibetan.
29. “If there is no objection, I beg you will do me the favour to obtain the Government’s leave for me, to proceed with my literary labours to Calcutta, as soon as I have completed them.
30. “In support of the possibility to accomplish my engagement, I beg leave to state that I am acquainted with several ancient and modern European and Asiatic languages, and that my mother-tongue, the Hungarian idiom, is nearly related, not in words, but in structure, with the Turkish, Indian, Chinese, Mogul, and Tibetan languages. In every language of Europe, except the Hungarian, Turkish, and those of Finnish origin, there are prepositions like in the languages of Hebrew or Arabic origin, but in our tongue, like in the Indian, Chinese, and Tibetan, we have postpositions, and for the formation of different cases in declension, we have affixes with which to form from the same root several sorts of verbs. Our idiom[2] is not inferior either to the Sanskrit or Arabic, and I beg leave to confess that I am not merely a linguist—I have learnt several languages to learn polite literature, to enter into the cabinet of curiosity of remote ages, to acquire useful knowledge, and to live in every age and with every celebrated nation, as I do now with the British.
31. “It is recorded in Tibetan books that the ruin of the ancient Buddhists in the kingdom of Magadha, happened by the Turks, who, taking the city of Otantrapur, destroyed their colleges, killed many priests, and that those who escaped from the common peril fled southwards [[53]]to India. I cannot now say in what year. There is frequent mention made of Magadha in Asia, the scene (according to what is related) of the most illustrious actions and the home of the most celebrated learned men. I have not yet had sufficient time to search after curiosities: I must first learn the language. I have read but few volumes as yet from the ‘Kahgyur’ and ‘Stangyur’; but if we consider the words of a prophecy by Shakya recorded in the ‘Kahgyur’ (probably introduced thither in modern ages from historical evidences), that ‘his religion or doctrine shall advance from north to south, from south towards the north, and from north to north,’ as it verily happened, since historians mention the Buddhists in Asia, Kashmir, Sindh, Malwa, Ujain, Singhala, Kalingah, Malabar, Ceylon, Bengal, Burmah, Bhutan, Tibet, and the Mogul countries in recent times: we have every reason to suppose that this Asia [eminence, the high country, which is a Sanskrit word, and its literal translation in Tibetan is Pakspa; this also is a title of honour for persons of high dignity, spiritual and secular, in the same manner as we use the words ‘highness,’ ‘eminence,’ ‘excellency’] is the same as the Asia of Ptolemy and of other ancient geographers and historians, and is an appellative name for high countries in general, and comprehends all the ancient Scythia on this side of the Imaus, consequently includes the Transoxiana, Khorassan, and Bactria. In the same manner India or Hindia (from hin, hon, hinta = lowness, or Hindes, low countries) must have been a common or appellative name for many countries; which appellation the ancients extended so far as Arabia and Egypt, and mentioned sometimes three Indias.
32. “This opinion is confirmed by the splendid accounts of almost all the historians of antiquity who had mentioned these countries; and among other Asiatic authors by two Syrian historians, Abulferagius and Abulfida, in their ‘Dynasties and Annals,’ and consequently must have been the same central country, whence, according to Sir William Jones’s opinion, the Chinese, Tartars, [[54]]Indians, Persians, Syrians, Arabians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Gauls, Goths, Germans, and the Sclavonians derived their civilisation or culture in their arts and sciences. There is also, according to Niebuhr, existing in the inland countries of Arabia, an ancient tradition, that they were civilised by a people which descended from the environs of Samarcund.
33. “In the eastern and north-western parts of Europe there are many vestiges of the ancient Buddhism and of Sanskrit words among all the peoples, who but of late (after the time of Charlemagne) were converted to the Christian faith by means of the sword. But the most numerous monuments thereof are Sanskrit words used by Greek and Roman writers in their accounts relating to ancient Thrace (Rumelia), Macedonia, and the countries on both sides of the Danube, Servia, Pannonia, and Dacia.
34. “I beg leave to give a few instances of my assertion. Pannonia is a literal translation of the Sanskrit word ‘sarbiya,’ now applied to a province on the south side of the Danube, of which Belgrade is the capital, formerly belonging to Hungary, now[3] under Turkish dominion. Dacia, or, after Greek orthography, Dakia (the modern Lower Hungary, Transylvania, Moldavia, Wallachia, Bessarabia), was probably an appellative name for those countries, on account of their being abundant in grapes, from the Sanskrit word ‘dakh’ or ‘dak,’[4] signifying ‘the grape,’ in the form of the adjective ‘dakhia,’ or ‘dakia,’ ‘the graped.’ This is confirmed by other historical facts. Ancient geographers and historians mention the Agathyrsi (in the same countries probably I enumerated above). Thyrsus is Bacchus’ rod with the winded vines, and was an emblem of wine. The great river Dnieper, in the south-western part of modern Russia, is called by the ancients Borysthenes. This is a Hungarian name signifying ‘the wine—godded’ (the river being taken for the country), from ‘bor,’ ‘wine,’ and ‘isten,’ ‘god,’ with the adjective affix ‘es,’ equivalent to the English ‘ed.’ [[55]]
35. “Among the many names, in different languages, designating wandering people, as, e.g., Scytha (probably from the Sclavonian: Skitati, ‘to wander’), Heber, or Eber, Aavor, Bunger (all from the Hebrew or Arabic, Vandal, &c., there is also a Sanskrit word, ‘Geta,’ signifying walking, going, wandering, the English ‘to go,’ the German ‘gehen,’ are derived probably from the same source). The Getæ are mentioned and described by ancient writers in Central Asia, the modern Chinese Tartary, near the Oxus and the Caspian Sea, the Massagetæ, farther on the north-western shores of the Black Sea, in Thrace (now Rumelia), on both sides of the Danube. Hence Ovid, in his banishment at Tomi, near the Black Sea, in modern Bulgaria, says, ‘Jam didici getice sarmaticeque loqui!’ ‘I have already learnt to speak the Getic and the Sarmatic (Sclavonian) languages.’ The modern Indians do not use the word ‘geta’ as a participle noun; they have changed it into ‘jata;’ but they form the preterite of the same verb, ‘giya,’ regularly from ‘jata’ (the jat tribes in India). Among the attributes of the Supreme Being, or his representative, the Buddha, the first name is ‘Bhagvan’ (overcomer, a Sanskrit word), the second ‘Tatha-gata,’ walking on the same road, i.e., the ‘Just.’ Both these names also highly confirm every adopted opinion respecting Buddhism and the Sanskrit words in Europe. From the frequent mention of the Bhagvan (God) by the Buddhists, I think bigoted Christians, by way of contempt, called them Pagans, and the second word, ‘Tathagata,’ confirms the proper signification of ‘geta,’ mentioned above.[5]
36. “We know very little of the Parthians, the rivals [[56]]of the Romans for empire through more than four hundred years. But since Justin, the Roman historian, calls them the banished Scythians (exules Scytharum), and since, on public monuments and coins, there are many evidences of their being friends, admirers, and patrons of the Greeks, we may take them to be the same leading people as the Getæ in Europe and in Asia. Historians mention several princes of Parthian dynasty in Asia Minor (Mithridates, in the Greek empire, at Constantinople, in Macedonia; vide Gibbon’s History). After the conquest of Macedonia by the Romans, it is probable that the Parthian chiefs retired towards the Danube to their relatives, and from animosity and the great hatred they conceived against the Romans, never afterwards ceased to infest the Roman empire with all their auxiliaries. Hence Virgil in the Eclogue: ‘Aut Ararim parthus bibet aut Germania Tigrim.’ If we suppose that Alexander himself was of Parthian extraction, we can easily explain his successes in conquering Asia, and the subsisting for so long a time of the empire of the Greeks in Bœotia.
37. “We must not wonder that in the ancient Greek and Roman authors we find but slender accounts respecting Pannonia, Dacia, and the other countries on the Danube. Carthage was before the sight of Rome, yet very little is known now of its internal state. The Getæ probably descended successively from Asia (forced by Asiatic revolutions) [[57]]towards Assyria and Egypt, on one side, in a very remote age, called by these people, from their passing the great rivers Tigris and Euphrates, ‘Heber’ (an appellative name for wandering people), whence, about the time of Moses, several principal persons, forced to leave Phœnicia and Egypt, fled to the islands of Archipelago, Rhodes, Crete, &c.—hence the Pelasgi,—and on the other side, by Persia, Asia Minor, and so on to Thrace, Macedonia, and Thessaly. The modern language of Thessaly, and of some districts in Macedonia, blended with many Latin words, is the same as that of the Wallachians in Lower Hungary, Transylvania, Moldavia, Wallachia, and contains many Sanskrit words. It is totally different from the Hungarian idiom both in words and structure. There is a peculiarity of that language in the use of definite articles. For instance, ‘Domnu,’ ‘Dominus’ in Latin, ‘a lord’ in English; with the affixed definite article ul we have ‘domnul,’ ‘the lord’ in English. The feminine is ‘domna,’ ‘domina’ in Latin; ‘a lady,’ or ‘the lady,’ in English.
38. “In the Hungarian language the definite article a (or az before words beginning with a vowel, like the Hebrew ha, Arabic el, English the) is invariably put before every case and number. The Greek, German, French, Italian, Spanish, &c., languages also have definite articles put before nouns, but they vary according to the different genders, cases, and numbers. The Latin, Sclavonic, and Turkish languages have no distinct signs for the expression of a definitive or emphatic locution, like the the in English. There are also in the Tibetan, Sanskrit, Indian, Syrian, Wallachian, and Swedish languages certain signs denoting distinction in gender, marking a definitive and emphatic locution, but all these languages have the peculiarity of such particles being affixed to the nouns. Such affixes in the Tibetan are for masculines, pa, po, va, vo; for feminine, ma, mo, e.g., philingpa, European man; philingma, a European woman; rgyelpo, the prince, king; rgyelmo, the princess, the queen; lavo, the god; lamo, [[58]]the goddess; zlaba, the moon; nyima, the sun; contrary, nya-rgyas, full moon. In Sanskrit, deo, a god; deva, the god; devi, the goddess; raj, a prince, king; raja, the king; gang, a river; ganga, the river. The sign for such an affix in the Syrian is the same as in the Sanskrit; for the Wallachian I refer to the above-mentioned example; for the Swedish I cannot now cite an example. As in the Indian, Persian, Sanskrit, the word sived or sifed signifies white, fair. I may conjecture that the Swedes have taken their name from those Scythian people who spoke the Sanskrit language (the Getæ) when they mixed with them in Asia Minor and in the south-eastern parts of Europe, and passed many centuries together, like the Gauls, Germans, and Saxons; and it was in that time and in those regions that they all adopted many Sanskrit words, and that peculiarity mentioned above respecting the definitive article affix, like the Wallachians and Syrians, who have taken all these peculiarities in their language from those Scythians with whom they lived long since and formed a people under one government.
39. “The ancient Greek and Sclavonic languages, by their structure, particularly by the use of many particles, and of duals, both in the declensions of nouns and in the conjugations of verbs, show sufficiently that they were formed after the ancient Sanskrit. Those Scythians (Getæ) whose idiom was the Sanskrit, were few in number, like the Europeans in modern times in America and Asia; but as they were learned, well disciplined, possessing wealth, and being expert in warfaring with elephants, chariots (retha in Sanskrit, reda in Latin), and on horseback, with a few people displayed wonderful actions, in the same manner as the first Europeans in America and Asia with their artillery. I return now to Buddha.
40. “In the same manner as Europeans, Christians formed the word Pagan from Bhágván (the contemptuous name to design a Buddhist); so also did the Asiatics, principally the Mohammedans. They call both the Buddhists and [[59]]the Hindoos Bud or Budparast, derived from the noun Buddh, or with the affix a, Buddha, and from the Persian verb perishten, to worship, which, therefore, signifies a worshipper of Buddha, and is no contemptuous name by itself. But the Mohammedans generally use it so by way of contempt, and mean by it an idolater.
41. “There were in ancient times in many countries of Europe and Asia several representations of Buddha (Oden or Woden of the Goths and Germans, &c.) by statues; but afterwards, owing to religious hatred, they were all thrown down by the Christians and the Mohammedans. There is yet in ancient Bactria, at Bamian, on the road between Cabool and Balk, a large colossal statue, with two others of smaller size at a certain distance from the first, hewn in the mountain-rock. It is very probable this was a representation of Buddha, or Shakya, with his disciples represented in painting on both sides of the wall. The painting is in the same style as is usual amongst Tibetans or amongst the Christians of the Greek Church, to represent saints, with the radiant or solar circle round the head. In a vocabulary, entitled ‘Amara Kosha’ (Immortal Treasure), written by Amara Sinha (Immortal Lion), translated into Tibetan at Yampu (Katmandú), in Nepaul, there is in a single line a short and exact explanation in Tibetan of the word ‘Buddha’—‘Buddha rgad dang mkhas-pa yin;’ literally in English, ‘Buddha, an old and wise man’ (Buddha, senex sapiens). It was so indeed, as he lived eighty years, and was a genius of his age; but afterwards, his moral principles and his doctrine being formed into an ideal system by his disciples, his followers worshipped him like Christians do Jesus. That the doctrine of Buddha must have been diffused among many people, is evident from a similarity of terms in denomination in many languages of a spiritual head or chief ecclesiastic; thus ‘Buddha’ in Sanskrit, ‘peer’ in Persian, ‘sheik’ in Arabic, ‘presbyter’ in Greek and other European languages. I mention all these [[60]]facts to excite the curiosity of the learned to search after the ancient state of the Buddhists, and to respect a religion which is founded on the same moral principles with our own, namely, on the love of all men. I beg leave to communicate here a verse in four lines, each of seven syllables, containing a moral maxim taken from the ‘Stangyur.’
“In Tibetan—
“hTams tsad chhos ni mnyan par-bya,
hTos nas rab tu gsung-bya ste:
‘Kang zhig bdak nyid mi hdöd pa,
De dak kzhan la mi baho.’ ”
“Literally in English—
“Hear ye all this precept, hear,
Having heard do not forget—
‘Whatever I wish not to myself,
I never do it to another.’ ”
“The Mongols, a great and mighty nation in Central Asia, whose ancestors were the companions of Gengiz Khan in desolating the world, since the last four or five centuries, after being converted to Buddha, are a quiet and religious people, and faithful followers of Shakya.
42. “Although ignorance and barbarism have destroyed the ancient favourite seats of learning and civilisation, yet before this had happened: for the benefit of mankind, many works of learned men—which so conspicuously contribute in every country to public happiness, by forming the heart, illuminating the mind, and exciting to industry—were rescued from the deluge of destruction, by being transported to Tibet. This was the effect of the conquest of Persia by the Mohammedans in the year 636 after Christ.
43. “According to M. de Guignes’ account (vide P. Giorgi, ‘Alphabetum Tibetanum,’ p. 417), Fo-a-Xaca (Shakya) was born 1027 years before Christ. A Tibetan annalist, the author of ‘rGyel rabs gsal-vahi mé-long’ [[61]](a clear mirror of royal pedigree), tells us that it is recorded in the Chinese Great Depter (memoir), called ‘Zhu-Hu-hou,’ that, till the Emperor Thang and his contemporary in Tibet,[6] there elapsed, since Shakya, 1566 years. Taikún, the son and successor of Thang, was contemporary of Srongtsan Gambo, the son and successor of Nami Srongtsan (in Tibet). After the concurrent testimonies of all historians in Tibet, it was Srongtsan Gambo who, through his two wives, married from Nepaul and China, and by the ability of his minister (who was educated in India), Sembhota (which name was given to him by the Indians, signifying a good or excellent Tibetan), introduced into Tibet the doctrine of Buddha or Shakya, and encouraged learning. Mr. Gibbon, in his History, mentioned the king of Persia,[7] who, after the conquest of Seleucia, the capital of Persia, 636 after Christ, retired to the Emperor Katai Taikun, of the Thong dynasty. In the Chinese history of P. du Halde, Thong commenced a new dynasty about the end of the sixth century, succeeded by Taikun, his son, who favoured the Christians. Now, from these data, we can say with certainty that Srongtsan Gambo (the twenty-fourth in the order of the Tibetan kings, and who is supposed to have lived in the first century of our era, according to the ‘Alph. Tib.’ of Giorgi, &c.) reigned in the seventh century after Christ; consequently there are many mistakes in the above-mentioned ‘Alphabetum Tibetanum.’ With this now fixed epoch agree very well both M. de Guignes and the ‘Zhu-Hu-hou,’ already alluded to; consequently, Nami Srongtsan, the contemporary of Thang, was reigning in Tibet about 539 after Christ, but it is uncertain how long afterwards he reigned. It is enough his son and successor, Srongtsan Gambo, succeeding in the thirteenth year of his age, lived eighty-three years. The sixth after Srongtsan Gambo, in the ninth century, was Khri Srong déhu tsan. He favoured learning and learned [[62]]men, and contributed much to the establishment of the Buddhistic religion in Tibet.
44. “Many works in the Tibetan volumes end with this wish of the author or translator (Sahi steng ma nyi-zal ltargyur chik), “Be it on the earth like the sun and moon.” They were a long time hidden from the curiosity of Europe, and it is but of late that we have received some accounts respecting the literary treasures in Tibet. For an easy and agreeable way to the storehouse of this interesting ancient literature, we are indebted to the public-spirited zeal and liberality of Mivang, a regent or king at Lassa, from 1729 till 1746 of the last century. According to his order, whatever time has spared from the works of antiquity of foreign countries, were collected, arranged in registers, and printed by types engraved in wooden tables of birch tree.
45. “The Kahgyur (in 98 volumes, with separate index, every volume being 2 feet long and 8 inches broad; on each side of the leaves are seven lines in large capital characters; in every volume, taken on an average, are more than 300 leaves) was finished in 1731 before Christ, in about fifteen months.
“The Stangyur (consisting of 224 volumes, the whole making 76,409 leaves, having on each side seven lines in somewhat closer and smaller capital characters than those of the ‘Kahgyur’) was finished in one year, in 1742 after Christ. There is at the beginning of each work an index or register (karchak, in Tibetan), giving a detailed account of the expenses, both in kind and cash, names of people of every description (more than 3000) who were employed on the work, and of the gratuities and contributions towards it, both of secular and ecclesiastical persons of high rank and wealth.
46. “The wooden typical tables yet in continual use, deposited in Narthang, a large building or monastery near Teshi Lhunpo, are in the possession and disposition of Panchen Rin-po chhe, the great Lama residing at Teshi Lhunpo. [[63]]
47. “In Derghe, the capital of Kham-yul, or Potchenpo, Great Tibet, about forty days’ journey eastward from Lassa, there is another recent and more correct edition of the ‘Kahgyur,’ which, I am informed, is highly esteemed. Besides these two great works, there are many other printed volumes written by Tibetan learned men.
48. “There are in the ‘Stangyur,’ on about 18 leaves, passports for such pious men who desire to visit Kalapsa in Shambhála. The mentioning of a great desert of twenty days’ journey, and of white sandy plains on both sides of the Sita (Sihon, Yaxartes), render it very probable that the Buddhist Jerusalem (I call it so), in the most ancient times, must have been beyond the Yaxartes, and probably in the country of the Yugurs.
49. “Kun-dgah Snying-po, the author of the above-mentioned ‘rGyel rabs gsal-vahi mé-long’ (sec. 43), who wrote in the monastery of Sa-skya (two days’ journey westwards from Teshi Lhunpo, a very celebrated place for all sorts of manuscripts), about 800 years ago, says: ‘We have received from the East, from China (Gya-nak, the black plain), medicine, astronomy, and astrology; from the South, from India (Gya-kan, the white plain), orthodox religion; from the West, from Nepaul and Sokyul, goods and victuals (Sok-po is the common name in Tibet for Moguls, Kalkas, Kalmucks, &c.); from the North (from the countries of the Hors and Yugurs), books of laws and of workmanship.’ All those people in Central Asia who speak the Turkish language are called in Tibet the Hor; and Gengiz Khan, according to this and other authors, was of this race.
50. “From the same author, there is another historical work, entitled ‘Depter Ningpo’ (ancient memoir). I was not able to procure it, but I am informed it is a very interesting work, particularly for the history of Gengiz Khan. His apophthegms, from another work I am acquainted with, are very judicious and elegant.
51. “In the Tibetan books the name of the Yugurs is [[64]]written Yoogoor, and their country sometimes is called Yoogera. I could not learn further any other interesting things on the Yoogoors, except that in the ‘Stangyur’s’ register is mentioned a small treatise translated from the Yoogoor language, containing a short account on the wandering from one country to another of an original statue representing Shakya, and which is now kept at Lassa, brought thither from China by Kongcho, the wife of Srongtsan Gambo.
52. “The most ancient Buddha on record, I believe, was the same as Zoroaster, who, according to an ancient author, lived in about the same age with Ninus, the great king of Assyria. In support of this opinion the following æras, being the times in which Shakya is supposed to have lived, speak for themselves. The first four æras are, according to the opinions of the most learned men in Tibet and Nepal, in Srongtsan Gambo’s time, in the seventh century after Christ. The tenth æra or opinion is that which in modern times has most authority at Lassa.
53. “In the present year of the Christian æra (1825) the Tibetans count the nineteenth year (shingmocha) of the fourteenth cycle of sixty years, which commenced with the new moon in February last. But this mode of counting years is of very recent date, commenced about eight hundred years since, and probably was adopted from the Chinese. As with respect to more ancient times, there is a great uncertainty in chronology: Padma Karpo, a celebrated Lama in the Bhutan country of Tibet, in the twenty-sixth year of the tenth cycle of sixty years, in 1592 after Christ, collected a short disquisition (now extant, in nicely printed copies of thirty-one leaves each), containing the different opinions of learned men in ancient times of Tibet, Nepal, and Kashmere, on the æra of Shakya or Buddha, the great prophet of the Buddhists. These opinions or æras were found to be twelve in number, to which he added his own.
54. “According to these thirteen opinions, the numbers [[65]]of years which elapsed from the death of Shakya till the author’s time, in which he wrote, viz., 1592 A.D., and then the total number of years from Shakya till the present year, 1825 after Christ, would be as follows:—
The Numbers
Of Opinion. Of years till 1592. Till 1825 after Christ. 1st 4012 4245 2d 3738 3971 3d 3725 3958 4th 3729 3962 5th 2900 3133 6th 2342 2575 7th 2243 2476 8th 2136 2369 9th 2470 2703 10th 2427 2660 11th 2166 2399 12th 2474 2707 13th 2650 2883
55. “Thus I have endeavoured, to the best of my abilities, to give a summary report of the contents of the Tibetan books and papers in my possession as Government required from me. Both the Sanskrit and the Tibetan literature open a wide field before me, for future speculation on the history of mankind. I possess the same ardour as I felt at the beginning, when I planned and determined to come to the East. Should these first rough drafts of my labours, arguments, and sentiments have the Government’s approbation, I shall be happy if I can serve them with my ulterior literary researches.”
| Of Opinion. | Of years till 1592. | Till 1825 after Christ. |
| 1st | 4012 | 4245 |
| 2d | 3738 | 3971 |
| 3d | 3725 | 3958 |
| 4th | 3729 | 3962 |
| 5th | 2900 | 3133 |
| 6th | 2342 | 2575 |
| 7th | 2243 | 2476 |
| 8th | 2136 | 2369 |
| 9th | 2470 | 2703 |
| 10th | 2427 | 2660 |
| 11th | 2166 | 2399 |
| 12th | 2474 | 2707 |
| 13th | 2650 | 2883 |
Notwithstanding the change of circumstances and the great progress which has been effected in Oriental literature, and especially in the studies to which Csoma devoted his energies, the above paper, written though it be in imperfect English, will still command respectful consideration at the hands of those who take an interest in [[66]]what Csoma has done. This is his first important essay on Tibetan learning, then so little known; many eminent scholars have since followed in the same direction; Rajendrolála Mitra, one of the greatest living Orientalists, declares “that no European has studied Tibetan with greater success than Csoma did;”[8] while Dr. Malan remarks, “Csoma laid down the foundation, and others merely built upon it.”[9] [[67]]