ISO Bibliographical Notice. [No. 2. 



studying the sacred and other writings, as by their piety. He gives 

 a more detailed account of this country than of any other in India. 

 Here occurs the most interesting chapter in the author's biography, 

 that in which he endeavours to give to his countrymen an idea of 

 Sanskrit Grammar, with the rules and principles of which Hiouen 

 Thsang after tedious study seems to have familiarized himself. 

 The Chinese language being known to be deficient in grammatical 

 forms, and even in expression for denoting them, the authors of 

 the biography as well as Hiouen Thsang himself must have had 

 great difficulty in conveying to Chinese readers anything like a clear 

 representation of what the Sanskrit language was. They had to 

 use words which in their own language were used altogether in a 

 different sense, and sometimes they were obliged to give examples 

 of grammatical definitions, scarcely comprehensible by Chinese, this 

 being the only mode of conveying to their countrymen the mean- 

 ings of the several terminations of nouns and verbs. It may rea- 

 sonably be doubted whether such a meagre sketch succeeded in 

 giving Hiouen Thsang' s countrymen any idea of Sanskrit Grammar. 



" After spending five years in Magadha, during which he acquired 

 a complete knowledge of Sanskrit and of the Tripitaka or the three 

 collections of sacred writings, and of other important Brahminicat 

 works, Hiouen Thsang determined on visiting those parts of India, 

 which he had not yet seen. He first travelled over a great portion 

 of Bengal and subsequently along the eastern coast as far as Dra- 

 vida. This name is not used by him in its wider sense, as applied 

 to all the countries where Tamil is spoken, but in its narrower sense 

 as designating a particular kingdom of which Kanki on the Palar 

 river was the capital. Thence he proceeded over the table-land of 

 the Deccan to Konkana on the coast of Malabar. Subsequently he 

 visited the northern countries and those situated in the valley of 

 the Indus, and then he returned to Magadha, where an event took 

 place which more than any other spread his fame in foreign lands. 

 It is related with all its remarkable details at p. 211; we can only 

 here give an outline of it. 



" Hiouen Thsang had become very celebrated as well for his know- 

 ledge of the sacred books and of other writings, as for his philoso- 

 phical doctrines, his pious life, and his ascendancy in controversy 



