ANUGANGAM, ScC. 75 



ment on their arrival in India. It is universally ac- 

 knowledged, that tlie kings of Magadlia gave every 

 possible encouragement to learning, which they en- 

 deavoured to diifuse through all classes, by encou- 

 raging learned men to write in the s{3oken dialect of 

 the country. Tradition says, that there were trea- 

 tises on almost every sul)ject in tlie JMagad'hi, Bai'i^ 

 or Pali dialect, which are supposed to be still extant. 

 I could not, however, procure any ; and I believe 

 that they were doomed to oblivion by the Brahmeni- 

 cmI class, who by no means encourage the composing^ 

 of books in the vulscar dialects. Should thev exist, 

 however, they are to be found among the followers 

 ofJiNA: and Majoil I\Iackexzie says, that these 

 sectaries are in possession of a great many treatises 

 on different subjects. That this is the case here, I 

 am credibly informed: but the Jainas are not of a 

 communicative disposition ; and I hope that gentle- 

 man will find them more tractable in the Peninsula. 

 From that circumstance the dialect of Mamdlia is 

 become l\\t Sanscrit oi Ceylon^ Siam^ and the Buryimn 

 empire, where it is called indifferently Bali or Ma- 

 gadlii. Captain Mahony writes that word A/age- 

 dee ; and IMii. Buchanan, in his learned and inte- 

 restino- Essav on the Religion and Literature of the 

 Burwahs, 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 Ulagadhi. According to Capt. J. Towers, 

 the word Pali is written in Aracan^ Palic, 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-xanda, according to the Puran'as, in- 

 cluded all the country to the south of the Ganges, 

 from the banks of the Soanc to the western branch of 

 the Ganges. 



The Bali characters, either square or round, are 



