JOURNAL 



OF 



THE ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



No. 25. — January, 1834. 



I. — Professor Schlegel's Enigma. — Mode of expressing numerals in the 

 Sanskrit and Tibetan languages. 



At the end of the pamphlet lately addressed by Professor Schlegel 

 to Sir James Mackintosh, on the subject of the Oriental Translation 

 Committee of the Royal Asiatic Society*, we findamorceau of enlighten- 

 ment for the continental orientalists, on the Hindu method of expressing 

 numerals by symbolical words, which the learned author states himself 

 to be the first to expound to European scholars. 



It is certainly a curious circumstance that neither Colebrooke, Davis, 

 nor Bentley, when quoting, translating, and commenting on the text of 

 Sanskrit astronomical works, should have taken occasion to explain the 

 system invariably used by their authors in expressing verbally the num- 

 bers occurring in their computations and formulae ; it must doubtless be 

 attributed to their considering the subject too trite and obvious to need 

 any remark, or otherwise the very passage quoted by Professor 

 Schlegel would surely have elicited some observation by the translator. 

 It is true however that many of the terms thus technically adopted by 

 the Sanskrit arithmeticians and astronomers, as the only mode perhaps 

 of screwing the uncouth elements they had to deal with into the procrus- 



* This pamphlet contains also an attack upon Dr. H. H. Wilson, which that 

 gentleman will doubtless answer for himself, and some severe criticism on the 

 careless manner in which oriental works are issued from the press by Calcutta Edi- 

 tors generally. We trust our Orientalists will be able to shew that such censure is not 

 deserved, or at any rate that it applies but partially ; and we should like to have the 

 opportunity of pointing out those works (such as the Shah nama) to the accuracy of 

 which real editorial care was devoted, and on which the confidence of the reader 

 may be implicitly placed. — Ed. ^ 



