OCT . — MAR. 1858-59.] for the Indian characters. 



245 



or truants, fail to get through even the alphabet, which is the pons 

 asinorum of Hindu education. Every one has pitied the fate of 

 unfortunate Native children, who are compelled to toil every day 

 from 6 o'clock in the morning at so wearisome a task, but almost 

 every one has fancied that it was impossible to let them off more 

 easily. I believe that the case was not so hopeless as was sup- 

 posed. Possibly some Europeans, though they admit that the In- 

 dian characters are difficult, are not prepared to admit that they 

 are a practical obstacle to education ; or at least, they will not 

 make this admission with respect to the character which they have 

 themselves learnt. A person who has succeeded in learning to 

 read Telugu with ease, will not admit that the Telugu character 

 is an obstacle to knowledge, but he is ready enough to cry out 

 about the perplexities of the Tamil or the Malayalam. Vice 

 versa, one who has overcome the difficulties of the Tamil character 

 professes to find his fetters on the whole a convenience to him 

 rather than otherwise, but he has no mercy on the Telugu, 

 which " goes out of its way," he will say, " to invent difficulties." 

 Every character in India will find apologists in turn. " It is 

 true they are difficult," it will be said, " but the difficulty is 

 unavoidable and is soon got over." People are unwilling that 

 what occupied so much of their own time should be considered 

 as valueless or worse, and wish to impose the same task upon their 

 successors. Perhaps, therefore, the best way to form a fair, impar- 

 tial estimate of the difficulty of the Native characters, and to judge 

 whether or not they are an obstacle to education, will be to call 

 attention to a character which is unknown on the Continent of 

 India, though as truly Indian in a general sense as any other — 

 I mean the Singhalese. 



This character on the whole resembles the Telugu more than 

 any other now used in India, though the mode in which it com- 

 bines its vowels with its consonants has most resemblance to the 

 Grantham. It is unnecessary to write or print the letters and 

 vowel symbols referred to in the following extract from Lambrick's 

 Singhalese Grammar : the English explanation of their use and 

 meaning will be sufficiently intelligible (?) of itself. Note, that 

 what follows is to be learnt by Native children, as w ell as by adult 

 foreigners. 



Vol. xx o. s. Vol. t. n. s. 



