“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.