896 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



a communicative disposition ; and 

 I hope that gentleman will find 

 them more tractable than in the 

 peninsula. From that circum- 

 stance the dialect of Magad'ha is 

 become the Sanscrit of Ceylon, 

 Siam, and the Burman empire, 

 where it is called indifferently 

 Bali, or Magad'hi. Captain Ma- 

 hony writes that word Magedee; 

 and Mr. Buchanan, in his learned 

 and interesting essay on the reli- 

 gion and literature of the Bur- 

 mahs, calls it Magata. Both say 

 that it is the same with the Bali, 

 or Pali, which last denomination 

 prevails through the countries of 

 Ava, Siam, and Ceylon, though 

 hardly known in India, where they 

 call it Magadhi. According to 

 capt. J. Towers, the word Pali is 

 written in Aracan, Palit, where 

 the letter T has a very peculiar 

 sound. The country of Pali, or 

 of the children of Pali, or Bali, the 

 same with Maha-nanda, according 

 to the Pur^n'as, included all the 

 country to the south of the Ganges, 

 from the banks of the Soane to the 

 western branch of the Ganges'. 



The Bali characters.either square 

 or round, are obviously derived 

 from the Sanscrit ; but it is doubtful 

 whether, in their present state, 

 they ever prevailed, or were used 

 in any part of India, Among the 

 numerous inscriptions in Bahar, 

 only a fev in that character have 

 been found. One was kindly sent 

 to me by Mr. Dick of the civil 

 service. It was obviously written 

 in the Burmah character, but I 

 could not decipher it. 



The bards of Magad'ha were in 

 great repute formerly, and they 

 are mentioned under the name of 

 Magad'has. They reckon three 

 sorts of Bards in India: the Ma- 



gad'has, or historians, thus called 

 because those of Magad'ha were 

 the most esteemed ; the Sutas, or 

 Genealogists; and the Bandis, 

 whose duty was to salute, early in 

 the morning, the king or chief, in 

 selected phrase, and well-chosen 

 words, wishing him long life and 

 prosperity. The usual name in 

 India for a Bard is Bhat, vulgarly 

 pronounced Bhat. It is not a 

 Sanscrit appellation, though as- 

 serted to be derived from it. But 

 the original name, as it was pro- 

 nounced several hundred years ago, 

 was Bardai or Bardahi, though 

 some think it a different name, ap- 

 plied to the same class of petple.; 



Bh^t, or Bhat, is derived from 

 the SanscritVarta, or Bar'ta; and 

 which is the same with the English 

 word and the German wort, a 

 word. In the west, Bhats were 

 equally called Bardi in Latin, and 

 Bhardh in Welsh. They were 

 also called Vates, from Jari,fatus 

 sum in Latin, the same with Varta, 

 the letter R being dropped, as in 

 the vulgar dialects of India. They 

 were also denominated Eubages, 

 from the Sanscrit verb Vacha, or 

 Bacha, to speak, which becomes 

 Uv&cha and Ubacha, through va- 

 rious moods and tenses. Vacha, 

 or Bacha, becomes also Baga, or 

 Vaga ; lience the Irish word bogh, 

 rendered logos, or speech, by 

 general Valiancey. The word 

 Bardai, or V^ardai, comes obviously 

 from the same root Vdrta ; but 

 my learned friends are of opinion, 

 that it comes from Bh^r-danara, 

 which signifies to burden with ; 

 because they are burdened with 

 the internal management of the 

 royal household : and this is the 

 case, to this day, in Gurjdrat ; 

 being next to the Prad'hdn, or 



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