Ii4* On the Introduction of Writing into India. [No. 2. 



The terms for the three accents show no traces of writing, such as 

 the Latin word " circumflexus." 



What would have been more natural, if writing had been known 

 in Panini's time, than that he should have called the dot of the 

 Anusvara, vindu, i. e. dot, and the Visarga, dvivindu, the double 

 dot 1 Let us take a later grammarian, Vopadeva, and we find such 

 words at once. In Vopadeva, the Anusvara is called vindu, the 

 Visarga, dvivindu. What the Pratisakhyas and Panini called the 

 Jihvdmilliya, the sibilant formed near the base of the tongue, and 

 Upadhmdniya, the labial flatus, Vopadeva calls VajrdJcriti, having 

 the shape of the thunderbolt (x), and GajaJcumbhdJcriti, having the 

 shape of an elephant's two frontal bones Q). The term arddha- 

 chandra, or half-moon, belongs to the same class of grammatical 

 terms. Why should these words occur in later grammarians, and 

 not one of them be found in the Pratisakhyas or Panini ? 



Another class of words which would be sure to betray the exis- 

 tence of writing where writing was known, are the words expressive 

 of reading, composing, book, chapter, paragraph, &c. The most 

 usual word for reading in Sanskrit is adhyeti or adhite and at first 

 sight the very existence of such a word might seem to prove the 

 existence of books that could be read. But we have seen in the 

 Pratisakhyas what was meant when the pupils asked their tutor to 

 make them read. Adhyeti and adhite from adhi, over, and i, to 

 go, mean " he goes over a thing, he conquers it, acquires it;" and 

 the very expression " to read a work from the mouth of the tutor," 

 would be sufficient to show that the work existed, not as a book, but 

 in men's memory. Another expression of the same kind is found 

 in Manu (x. 1.) : " All the three castes may read the Veda, but the 

 Brahman alone is allowed to proclaim i. e. to teach it (prabruyat)." 

 To teach is expressed by the causative of the verb adhyeti, adhyd- 

 payati, he makes read, i. e. he teaches. The ancient Hindus dis- 

 tinguish between two kinds of reading, the grahanddhyayana, the 

 acquisitive reading, and the dhdranddhyayana, the conservative 

 reading ; the former being the first acquisition of a work, the latter 

 its rehearsing in order not to lose a volume that once belonged to 

 one's mental library. This rehearsing, or svddhydya, self-reading, 



