1866.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 141 



communication, and it was most desirable tliat it should be circulated 

 and farther discussed. 



Babu Rajendralala Mitra said he had not well heard the paper, and 

 could not therefore then enter in detail into the question involved in 

 it, which was one of great importance. The historical evidences 

 which had hitherto been collected, all tended to show that the Arians 

 were one of the earliest civilized of the human races, and that they 

 brought their civilization and social arts from the plateau of Central Asia 

 to the plains of India ; and as one important element of civilization 

 was the alphabet, it was difficult to suppose that they borrowed it 

 from the aborigines of the south, whom they described as Dasyus, 

 barbarians and monkeys, and who unquestionably were in a state of 

 mental culture far below that of their conquerors. 



The Rev. Mr. Banerjea thought that the papers just read should be 

 circulated. He had no great acquaintance with the Dravidian lan- 

 guages, but had made several visits to Madras, and had thus gained 

 some knowledge of their alphabets. He thought that Mr. Thomas's 

 theory should have been more precisely stated. Which alphabet did 

 he mean— the Tamil or the Teloogoo ? The former was as imperfect 

 as the latter was irregularly exuberant. The Tamil admitted no 

 sounds such as Jch, gh, bh, dh y and had no distinctive character for g, d } 

 or 6, the letters k } t 7 or p doing duty for them in certain positions. 

 The Teloogoo' s exuberance itself was a proof of its being a descen- 

 dant of Sanscrit — the additional letters standing simply for rude abo- 

 riginal sounds. It is not probable that the rich Arian alphabets were 

 derived from one so poor as the Tamil. The Telegoo is evidently an 

 offshoot of Sanscrit. Moreover the aborigines of the country, the Gronds, 

 &c, have no alphabet. 



He would not, however, go so far as to say that the invaders had 

 borrowed nothing from the aborigines. On the contrary, he thought 

 that some portions of their worship, especially that of Shiva, had been 

 so adopted. 



In accordance to the notice given at the last meeting, the Hon'ble 

 Mr. G-. Campbell moved — 



" That while the members of the Society regret that they feel them- 

 selves precluded from expressing an opinion on the purely educational 



