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,—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. [21] 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 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 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.
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.
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 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 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 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
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,
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.
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 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 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 [22] 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 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,
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 [23]
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,’ [24] 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.’
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. [25]
36. “We know very little of the Parthians, the rivals 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) 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, 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 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 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’ (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, [26] 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, [27] 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 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.
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 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 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.”
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 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;” [28] while Dr. Malan remarks, “Csoma laid down the
foundation, and others merely built upon it.” [29]