The Tibetan Grammar and Dictionary are published at Government
expense—Mr. Prinsep’s letter to Government—Prince Eszterházy to Mr.
Prinsep—Mr. Döbrentei of Pest to the same.
Csoma’s principal effort was now directed towards the issuing of his
Grammar and Dictionary from the press. This was finally accomplished in
January 1834, and the fact was notified to Mr. Macnaughtan, the
Secretary to Government, on the 5th of that month by Mr. Prinsep giving
a detailed account of all the circumstances connected with these works.
In that letter is found a summary of the pecuniary aid which the author
had received from the Indian Government for the previous fourteen
years, that is, since the 14th of October 1820, when, on his arrival at
Teheran, Csoma applied to Major, afterwards Sir Henry Willock, for help
and protection. This the recipient gratefully acknowledges in the
Preface to the Tibetan Dictionary. The flattering distinction which
Csoma had just obtained from the Asiatic Society by being elected an
Honorary member, was doubtless highly gratifying to such highly
sensitive feelings as his; but his systematic silence and reserve in
regard to everything that concerned himself deprive us of the
opportunity of being partakers of such pleasures as occasionally
cheered his toilsome career. We miss also many details of events and
incidents such as always constitute an attractive charm in a
biographical sketch like the present.
The above-mentioned letter of Mr. Prinsep’s, announcing to Government
the completion of Csoma’s works, reflects honour, not only on the
achievements of the indefatigable scholar, but also on the authorities
for their long-continued generosity. It likewise does credit to Mr.
Prinsep himself from the graphic description his report contains of the
various details and of the difficulties that had to be overcome.
“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 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 [39] 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 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, [40] 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 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 [41] 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 [42] (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.
“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.”
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 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. [43]
“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. 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.
“The Hungarians,” he declares, “would find a fund of information from
the study of the Sanskrit respecting their origin, manners, customs,
and language, since the structure of the Sanskrit, and also of other
Indian dialects, is most analogous. As an example of this close
analogy, in Hungarian postpositions are used instead of prepositions;
by a simple syllabic addition to the verbal root, and without any
auxiliary verb, the several kinds of verbs, namely, the active,
passive, causal, desiderative, frequentative, and reciprocal, are
formed in the same manner as in Sanskrit.”
The author further informs us that the Grammar and Dictionary had been
compiled from authentic sources, with the assistance of an intelligent
Lama of Zanskar, who resided with Csoma at the Monastery of Kanum from
1827 to 1830. His name is mentioned on the title-page as: Bandé
Sangs-RGyas PHun-Tsogs.
At first, the author had naturally to contend with many difficulties,
as, beyond the “Alphabetum Tibetanum” of Father Giorgi, he had no
elementary works to assist him, and his teacher the Lama, “at whose
feet,” as Pavie says, “the pupil of Blumenbach, and a graduate of the
University of Göttingen, learned how to spell Tibetan like a child,”
knew no other tongue but his own.
Sanskrit terms seldom occur in Tibetan books, Csoma tells us, with the
exception of a few proper names of men, places, precious stones,
flowers, and plants; but the technical terms in the arts and sciences
found in Sanskrit have been rendered by their precise syllabic
equivalents in Tibetan, according to a system framed expressly for the
purpose, by the pandits who engaged in the translation of the sacred
works of the Buddhists into Tibetan, as may be seen in several
vocabularies of Sanskrit and Tibetan terms, [44] of which a large one
has been translated into English, and presented to the Asiatic Society
by Csoma; the same, he afterwards found, had been previously made known
to the learned of Europe by Monsieur Abel Rémusat, as stated above.
The Grammar was the second of Csoma’s great works, published a few
months after the Dictionary. Some of the remarks prefacing it will be
read with interest.
“Tibet being the headquarters of Buddhism in the present age, the
elementary works herewith published,” says Csoma, “may serve as a key
to unlock the immense volumes, faithful translations of the Sanskrit
text, which are still to be found in that country, on the manners,
customs, opinions, knowledge, ignorance, superstitions, hopes and fears
of great part of Asia, especially India, in former ages.
“It is not uninteresting to observe the coincidence of time with
respect to the great exertions made by several princes on behalf of the
literature of the three great religions, Christianity, Islamism, and
Buddhism, in the Latin, in the Arabic, and in the Sanskrit languages,
the epoch being the eighth and ninth centuries of our era—in Germany
and France by Charlemagne; at Baghdad by the Khalifs Al-Mansur, Harun
al-Rashid and Al Mamun; in India by the kings of Magadha; in Tibet by
Khrisrong De’hu tsan, Khri De’srong tsan, and Ralpachen; in China by
the Emperors of the Thang dynasty. But whilst learning has continually
decreased among the Buddhists and Mohammedans, it has developed
immensely in countries professing the religion of Christ, and the two
rival religions are studied in their original languages by the learned
of Europe.
“The students of Tibetan have been most rare, if they existed at all.
Isolated among inaccessible mountains, the convents of Tibet have
remained unregarded and almost unvisited by the scholar and traveller;
nor was it until within these few years conjectured, that in the
undisturbed shelter of this region, in a climate proof against decay
and the destructive influences of the tropical plains, were to be
found, in complete preservation the volumes of the Buddhist faith in
their original Sanskrit, as well as in faithful translations, which
might be sought for in vain on the continent of India.
“I hope that my sojourn in this inhospitable country, for the express
purpose of mastering its language and examining its literary stores,
will not have been time unprofitably spent, and that the Grammar and
Dictionary may attest the sincerity of my endeavours to attain the
object I have determined to prosecute.
“The structure of the Tibetan language is very simple. There is only
one general form for all sorts of declinable words. In the verbs there
is no variation in respect to person or number. The orthography is
uniform throughout Tibet, but the pronunciation differs, especially
with reference to the compound consonants.
“My selection of the English language,” remarks Csoma, “as the medium
of the introduction of my labours, will sufficiently evince to the
learned of Europe at large the obligations I consider myself under to
the English nation.”
We have two more letters which reflect on the events of this epoch in
Csoma’s life—one from Prince Eszterházy, the Austrian Ambassador at the
Court of St. James’s, and the other from Mr. Döbrentei, secretary to
the Hungarian Literary Society at Pest; both are addressed to Mr.
Prinsep, expressive of acknowledgments for the kindness and protection
shown to their distinguished countryman.
The Prince’s letter is dated the 4th of August 1835, and will be read
with interest. One more act of generosity of the Indian Government
towards Csoma de Körös is acknowledged here by the Ambassador, and it
is but justice that the same should be recorded.
The Prince writes:—
“Sir,—In reply to the letter you addressed to me of the 25th
January last, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the
two boxes, containing each twenty-five copies of the Tibetan
Dictionary and Grammar, prepared for publication by the Hungarian
traveller, Mr. Alexander Csoma de Körös, and printed at the expense
of the British Indian Government under the auspices of the Asiatic
Society.
“These fifty copies being destined by Mr. Körösi to be presented to
the different public institutions of His Imperial Majesty’s
dominions, I lose no time in assuring you that the learned author’s
intentions shall be faithfully fulfilled.
“The enclosed letters and the Oriental works you have sent to the
Aulic Councillor von Hammer have also been forwarded to their
destination.
“I have not failed to inform my Government of the liberality with
which the Indian Government has replaced the sum of 300 ducats
transmitted through this Embassy to Mr. Csoma de Körös, which had
been lost by the failure of Messrs. Alexander & Co.; and
anticipating its intentions, I seize with great pleasure this
opportunity to express to you, and through you to the Indian
Government, as well as to the Asiatic Society, the high sense I
entertain of the kind protection afforded to my learned countryman
in His Britannic Majesty’s dominions in India.
“Allow me to offer my sincerest thanks for such generous conduct.—I
have the honour to be, sir, your most obedient servant,
(Sgd.) “Eszterházy.”
Mr. Döbrentei’s letter to Mr. Prinsep is dated the 30th of September
1835, and, like the preceding, is extant among the papers in the
Library of the Asiatic Society in Calcutta. Döbrentei states that Mr.
Prinsep’s letter excited the greatest attention when its contents were
made known to the meeting of the Literary Society at Pest, because
there was no reliable news of Csoma since he wrote from Teheran to his
friends at Nagy Enyed in 1820. Mr. Döbrentei expresses gratitude for
the protection his countryman enjoyed in India, and mentions the
willingness on the part of Hungarians to send pecuniary aid to him if
required.