84 



Professor B'uhler's Remarks 



upwards of forty such blunders. Owing to this inaccu- 

 racy it sometimes becomes impossible to make out the cor- 

 rect form of the name. It would therefore seem that not 

 all these mistakes are mis-prints " which can be readily cor- 

 rected by an intelligent person with a pen" (Vol. II, page 

 xciii). One must, however, admire the ingenuity and lofty 

 moral tone of the excuse that follows : " A list of errata, 

 besides being unsightly, has the disadvantage of implying 

 that there are no other errors ; which never can be safely 

 asserted and should not be implied." 



The description of the external appearance of the manu- 

 scripts is likewise inaccurate, so much so that it would be 

 impossible to identify them. Frequently the number of 

 leaves is not mentioned. We miss the notice of the dates 

 when the manuscripts were copied, which is generally given 

 by the copyist. The description of a book as " long and 

 thin" or "medium length" etc. is useless. The correct 

 plan, which has been followed about a dozen times, would 

 have been to give always the exact measure by inches or 

 by the numbers of lines and syllables. Besides this, the 

 first and last line of each book and chapter ought to have 

 been quoted in full, without which a manuscript cannot be 

 properly identified. 



In fine I can only regret that so much time and money 

 should have been expended in order to produce so untrust- 

 worthy and unpractical a catalogue. In order to find out a 

 single work it is often necessary to go over the whole cata- 

 logue, and when it is found one is frequently brought to 

 doubt its identity. Under these circumstances I cannot 

 but express the wish, in which every Orientalist will join, 

 that the Madras Government may complete its generous 

 work, and engage the services of some really sound Sans- 

 krit scholar to prepare a catalogue which will satisfy the 

 requirements of modern philology. 



