1867.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 35 



Babu Rajendralala Mitra said that it was with great diffidence that 

 he ventured to make a few remarks on the letter read to the meeting. 

 The prominent position held by Mr. Thomas as an oriental scholar ; 

 his thorough knowledge of the antiquities of this country, and the 

 service he had already rendered to Indian history by his varied and 

 learned researches, claimed for his opinions and theories the highest 

 consideration. His conversancy with Oriental palaeography was 

 unrivalled, and anything said by him in regard to it, was sure to 

 command the respect of all. Then again the arguments on which 

 his new theory of the Dravidian origin of Sanscrit writing was based, 

 had not yet been all given out, and, in their absence, it was impossible 

 to discuss the subject in all its bearings without risk of serious mis- 

 takes. The few words that he had then to say, were intended, 

 therefore, more to comply with Mr. Thomas's wish to provoke discus- 

 sion, and to direct attention to such objections as suggest themselves 

 at first sight, in order that truth may be ultimately elicited, than to 

 rebut his theory. 



The subject mooted by Mr. Thomas was of great importance, and 

 since his first letter about it was read to the Society in July last, 

 it had engaged the attention of many persons who take an interest in 

 Oriental antiquities. Since the receipt of Mr. Thomas's last letter, he 

 had himself jotted down a few notes, the substance of which he wished 

 to bring to the notice of the meeting. These he would read as follow,— - 



" The general position laid down by Mr. Thomas is that ' the 

 Arians invented no alphabet of their own for their special form of 

 human speech, but were, in all their migrations, indebted to the 

 nationality amid which they settled for their instruction in the science 

 of writing.' He then instances the Persian cuneiform, the Greek, the 

 Latin, the Zend, the Pehlavi and the Devandgari, as alphabets bor^ 

 rowed by the Arians. It is to the last that I wish to confine my^ 

 self for the present, as it is to that I have, in my humble way, directed 

 my study for some time. 



" It has been said that if the Arians did not elsewhere originate an 

 alphabet, it is not likely that they should do so in India, and that if 

 they always borrowed elsewhere, it is to be presumed that they di4 

 so also in this country. But such a line of argument is neither logical 

 nor fair. The Arian race migrated from their cradle at different 



