ii 



"During my residence in Zauskar, by the able assistance of that intelligent man (the I,ama) I 

 learned grammatically the language and became acquainted with many literary treasures shut up in 320 

 large printed volumes, which are the basis of all Tibetan learning and religion. These volumes, divided 

 into two classes, and each class containing other subdivisions, are aU taken from Indian .Sanskrit, and 

 are translated into Tibetan. I caused to be copied the contents of these immense works and treatises 

 in the same order as they stand in the printed indexes. Each work or treatise begins with the title in 

 Sanskrit and Tibetan, and ends with the names of the authors, translators, and places wherein the 

 author has written or the translation was performed. As there are several collections of .Sanskrit and 

 Tibetan words among my other Tibetan writings, I brought with me a copy of the largest, taken out of 

 one of the above-mentioned volumes, consisting of 154 leaves, every page of six lines." 



The next allusion to the vocabulary occurs in the second Report, dated 25th 

 May, 1825: 



"It was this man (the Ivama) who in the course of three months after my arrival at that place 



(Zanskar) wrote down at my request some thousand words arranged after certain heads, and since he 

 had many books with him containing collection of words and could easily procure others from the 

 neighbouring monasteries, he gave me so much account of technical terms used in arts and sciences that 

 I acquired sufficient information to be interested in Tibetan literature and to pursue in certain order the 

 study I was engaged in. . . .In a word, there is a full enumeration of whatever we can meet within the 

 region of the elements, as they are called, namely, earth, fire, water, air, ether, and in the intellectual 

 kingdom. These were all arranged after my direction and plan.' 



" Besides this vocabulary of the most necessary words which I have now with me, all written by 

 the same Lama in the Tibetan capital character, I have another large collection in Sanskrit and - Tibe- 

 tan (the Sanskrit also being written in the Tibetan capital character, as they early adapted their alpha- 

 bets to express properly every Sanskrit word), copied from the Stangyur, Do division, Go volume, from 

 the 223rd leaf to the 377th, consisting of 60 sheets of common Cashmerian paper, having writing but on 

 one side, and having on every page 32 lines. This vocabulary, arranged after certain matters or subjects 

 under general heads, contains many thousand words of every description ; several distinctions and 

 divisions highly interesting in order to understand better the whole system and principles of the Bud- 

 dhist doctrine.' ' 



Soon after his arrival in Calcutta in April 1831, Csoma reported himself to 

 Mr. Swinton, the Secretary to Government, and placed all the literary treasures in his 

 possession at the disposal of the authorities. From 1831 to 1835 he resided in the 

 Asiatic Society's rooms and was principally engaged in the publication of his famous 

 Dictionary and Grammar. He was also employed by the Society to make a catalogue 

 raisonne of the Tibetan works forwarded from Nepal by Brian Hodgson. On the 

 26th December, 1832, H. H. Wilson writes that besides the Dictionary and Grammar 

 a translation of a Tibetan vocabulary, containing a summary of the Buddhist 

 system, was ready for publication and at the disposal of Government, ''to whom the 

 author considered his works to belong, in return for the patronage it had been 

 pleased to afford him. Should it be the pleasure of Government to defray the cost of 

 pubhcation, which has been estimated at from 3,000 to 4,000 rupees, Mr. Csoma will 

 be happy to conduct them through the press in Calcutta, or he is wiUing, should the 

 Government think it proper, to send them through me to England, where, perhaps, 



' I believe this manuscript is now in the British Museum. 



