The contents of this report were communicated to the Asiatic Society, by whom one thousand rupees was voted for the purpose of being placed into the hands of Major Lloyd that a suitable monument be erected over the grave. The inscription was approved by the Society at their meeting in February 1845, which the Secretary, Mr. H. Torrens, introduced with the following words:—
“I beg to submit the epitaph to be placed on the tomb of our lamented friend, Csoma de Körös, as approved by the committee.”
H. J.
Alexander Csoma de Körösi,[6]
A Native of Hungary,
Who, to follow out Philological Researches,
Resorted to the East;
And after years passed under privations,
Such as have been seldom endured,
And patient labour in the cause of Science,
Compiled a Dictionary and Grammar
Of the Tibetan Language,
His best and real monument.
On his road to H’Lassa,
To resume his labours,
He died at this place,[7]
On the 11th April 1842,
Aged 44 years.[8]
His fellow-labourers,
The Asiatic Society of Bengal,
Inscribe this tablet to his memory.Requiescat in Pace.
[[155]]
Dr. Archibald Campbell’s report on Csoma’s closing days, and his subsequent memorandum,[9] will always be read with deep interest, the contents of which have been quoted already. Dr. Campbell again mentions in it Csoma’s ardent wish to reach Lassa, where, strengthened with his linguistic attainments, he formed enthusiastic hopes of realising the objects of his research. “Could he reach Lassa, he felt that Sanskrit would have quickly enabled him to master the contents of its libraries, and in them he believed was to be found all that was wanting to give him the real history of the Huns in their original condition and migrations. The power of acquiring languages was the extraordinary talent of Csoma. He had studied the following ancient and modern tongues, and was proficient in many of them: Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit, Pushtu, Greek, Latin, Sclavonic, German, English, Turkish, Persian, French, Russian, Tibetan, with the addition of Hindustani, Mahratta, and Bengali. His library at his death had a dictionary of each of the languages he was acquainted with, and on all were his manuscript annotations.”
These remarks, recorded by a kind friend under the influence of sorrowful sympathy, have been looked upon by many, in the absence of any other information, as the chief if not the sole clue to the proper understanding of Csoma’s whole career and aspirations. Relying on imperfect data, Csoma’s aims appeared to his critics as very illusory, if not altogether erroneous. But by any one, wishing to do justice to the memory and labours of this extraordinary man, and keeping in view his long scientific preparation, both in his own country and in Germany, to enable him to attain a special and well-defined object, Dr. Campbell’s remarks will not be regarded in any other light than what they are, and as he doubtless wished them to be regarded, namely, a graphic description of the incidents of the last scenes of a dying man. Words which were uttered by the patient between the paroxysms [[156]]of his fatal disease will not be taken as a legitimate basis upon which alone to pronounce a satisfactory judgment of a life-long career, particularly after what Dr. Campbell tells us, that “the context of the story was too complicated for me to take connected note of it.”
In the oft-mentioned letters to Captain Kennedy in 1825, Csoma expressed his opinion as to the coincidence of certain geographical names and words derived from the Sanskrit, which live to this day in the countries bordering on the Lower Danube. He spoke likewise of the country of the Huns and Yugurs on the western border of China, which, if possible, he desired to visit that he might become acquainted with the Mongol people. But he nowhere insists on any special linguistic affinity between the Magyar and the Tibetan tongues, which affinity, by itself, would have induced him to devote so much precious time to this language.
In the course of his Tibetan studies, pursued, as so often mentioned, in fulfilment of a solemn engagement towards the Indian Government, Csoma discovered, as he tells us in his second letter to Captain Kennedy, paragraph 50 and 51, that among the contents of the libraries in Tibet was to be found all that was wanting to give the real history of the Huns in their original condition and migrations. “What would Hodgson, Turnour, and some of the philosophers of Europe not give to be in my place when I get to Lassa!” was a frequent exclamation of Csoma’s during his fatal illness.[10]
To reach Lassa, therefore, and to examine the contents of the libraries there, was the proximate aim of the journey during which he died.