474 



Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 



[No. 4, 



have travelled south, if the north had been already occupied by a 

 strong and powerful race of Aryan people I do not quite compre- 

 hend. We have incontestable proof in late researches, that the 

 religion of China went from Ceylon, and that India received nothing 

 from the seaboard. But I must not detain the meeting longer. The 

 subject now so ably handled by my friend Babu Kajendra Lai opens 

 up questions of the deepest interest in Ethnological, Philological 

 and Historical points of view, which instead of being exhausted, are 

 comparatively fresh ; and I trust that the interest excited by his 

 paper will be such as to ensure us many more of them from other 

 parts of India from persons as competent to deal with the difficulties 

 with which they are surrounded as he is." 



The Honourable Gr. Campbell had great pleasure in very heartily 

 seconding the proposal for a vote of thanks to the learned member 

 whose most interesting and instructive paper had been heard with 

 so much profit. Not being himself a scientific linguist, he could not 

 presume to pronounce an opinion on a matter which depended on a 

 skilled comparison of Grammar and structure, but the subject was one 

 which had been too much neglected : he was sure all the members 

 took the greatest possible interest in it. The arguments of the 

 learned gentleman seemed most convincing, and if much might still be 

 said on the subject, all must feel under the greatest obligation to the 

 learned gentleman for so well broaching it, and provoking a discussion 

 which will no doubt eventually throw complete light on the matter. 



One word he would like to say as a mere lay bystander, on the 

 point last noticed by the learned gentleman, viz., the character to be 

 used in writing the Vernacular language. He had understood the 

 learned gentleman to say, — that the character used by the unhappy 

 gentleman of Agra, who was so unfortunate as, by a badly written 

 note, to induce his wife to commit a premature Suttee, was Hindi. 

 Now, he must say that story seemed to tell against the learned 

 gentleman's argument, for Hindi being one of the Nagri characters 

 which he extolled, if all adopted that character, a similar inopportune 

 accident might happen to any one of the present company. The 

 fact seemed to be, that although the Nagri in print or carefully 

 written, is a very clear and precise character, it appears to be too 

 angular and square for use in common writing, and in all parts of 

 India some rounded modifications of it had been adopted for ordinary 



