1870.] Contributions towards Vernacular Lexicography. 131 



Contributions towards Vernacular Lexicography , JVb. L—By 

 Babu Prata'pachandra Ghosha, B. A. 



[Received 19th May, 1870; read 1st June, 1370 ] 

 Like other subjects of study regarding the Hindus, the history 

 of the Bengali language and literature is obscure. There is 

 however, no lack of internal evidence to lead if not to an 

 accurate at least an approximate idea of the real state of things 

 in the earlier days. The science of the history of language 

 is of modern date, and even if it had been in existence in 

 the days of the rshis and munis of ancient India, their habitual 

 silence with regard to history would have added but little to 

 our meagre knowledge of the subject. The Muhammadans in 

 painting the portrait of a prince give a minute representation of 

 the dress and the ornaments, but they scrupulously avoid giving 

 any features to the face, which they leave blank, an oval space 

 without eyes or nose. The Hindus in the same way are prolix in 

 poetical and other irrelevant descriptions, but when they come 

 to historical facts, they are studiously silent. A dull description of 

 sober and unexaggerated facts is not compatible with their highly 

 imaginative and over-poetic disposition. The wonderful and mar- 

 vellous is the back-bone of their themes. Exceptions are rare and 

 unique, but even in them, foreign influence is not unfrequently seen. 

 The inquisitive eye of the antiquarian, however, penetrates the 

 thick veil of the marvellous and the hyperbolic, and grasps at once 

 the real image. Facts are chained together in the relation of 

 cause and effect, and the willing mind with a little labour traces link 

 after link, and thus reaches the first cause. Experience of modern 

 events in the way of analogy leads much to the elucidation of 

 antecedent facts. "Written history may sometimes mislead, but 

 internal evidence cannot be altered by the prejudices of contempora- 

 neous historians or by the colour of legendary tales. Internal 

 evidence, however, is weak on some points. Several dissimilar 

 causes sometimes lead to the same or apparently the same conse- 

 quence, and considerable judgment and discrimination is therefore 

 required "to connect the sequel with its real and only cause. Hasty 



