852 A Grammar of the Sindhi language. [May, 



no remarks on the subject further than that " with one or two excep- 

 tions the letters are merely represented by ciphers, combinations of 

 numbers, and fractional parts : for example 1 1 1 (f ths) for n ; 8 (4) for 

 ch ; &c. &c. !" 



Having on a former occasion noticed the singular application of the 

 Arabic numerals to the alphabet of the Maldive islands, we were struck 

 with the apparent similarity of the process here pointed oat at the 

 opposite extremity of India ; but a closer examination removed most 

 of the analogy by shewing that the Sindhi and Multdni letters, although 

 strikingly similar in form to the common numerals, were all deducible 

 from the elements of the ordinary Deva-Nagari symbols, and that they 

 are, in fact, but one step removed from the Marwdri and Mehajani of 

 our mercantile class. This we have endeavoured to shew in the ac- 

 companying lithographic table (XXII.) (being always happy to add to 

 our catalogue of Indian alphabets !). The Marwdri (which does not 

 differ essentially from the Bendrasi) we have added on the authority of 

 gomashtas residing in Calcutta ; but it must be remembered that these 

 written characters are peculiar to the mercantile class, and that the 

 learned of Mdrwdr and Sindh, as of other places, use the Deva-Nagari 

 forms. As to the arrangement of their alphabet given by our author on 

 the authority of merchants, it seems to be nothing more nor less than 

 a couple of memoria-technica lines contrived to comprehend the whole 

 of the letters combined with their most usual vowel sounds ; so that in 

 ordinary writing the merchants may dispense with the application of 

 the matras or vowel-marks. The inconvenience of this omission is not 

 much felt in the limited scope of mercantile correspondence, and in 

 the drafting of hoondees, where the same sentences are constantly 

 repeated. Indeed the first memorial line of the Sindhi and Multdni 

 alphabets, 



pronounced, Pvja saldmati howen ghani Bhai Tek Chand, (with vowels) 

 generally forms the opening (mutato nomine) of every mehajan's epis- 

 tle, as may be seen in the example given by our author* . It may be 

 translated " Prayer (or 1 pray) that health may be abundant to brother 

 T6"k Chand." The continuation is as follows : 



pronounced, chha ba ra ndth rde rh gajan khatri pha dhauf. 



* The meaning of the specimen of hoondee endorsement lithographed at the foot of 

 the plate is " one half (being) rupees twenty-five, double fifty, to be paid in full." 



■f- We have ventured to alter one or two of the letters conjecturally, which in the 

 lithographed plate copied from the grammar, are repeated, while those we have substi- 



