INTEODUCTION. 



For nearly eighty years the lyibrary of the A. S. B. has held half-hidden among 

 its treasures a thick folio volume written throughout in the careful hand of Alexander 

 Csoma de Koros^ the pioneer of Tibetan studies. This manuscript, upon which the 

 great Csoma spent so much time and pains, contains an extensive systematic vo- 

 cabulary in Sanskrit, Tibetan and English, the Sanskrit being in Roman letters. 

 From time to time, no doubt, scholars have had this precious folio in their hands, 

 and some indeed may have made practical use of its contents, but it is only quite 

 recently that the proposal to print the whole manuscript has been seriously con- 

 sidered : and in 1908 the Council of the Society appointed Dr. Satis Chandra Vidya- 

 bhusana and myself — the joint-philological vSecretaries — to see this long-neglected 

 work through the Press. 



The original work on which Csoma based his edition is a vSanskrit-Tibetan voca- 

 bulary occupying 154 folios (ff. 223-377) the Go volume of the MDO (or Sutra) 

 Division of the Tanjiir. The full title of this vocabulary, as we learn from Csoma's 

 Analysis y\s Lo-pait-mang-pos-mdzad-pahi-bye-brag-tu-rtogs-byed-chen-mo : and it is com- 

 monly known as Che-ta-tu-tog-che} It is a curious circumstance that in the course 

 of the many allusions which Csoma makes to his work on this vocabulary he never 

 mentions either the Tibetan or the Sanskrit title. 



My object in this Introduction is to explain the genesis of this Manuscript, and, 

 as far as possible, in the Author's own words. 



Csoma first came to Tibet in 1822 when he was 38 years of age : and he remained 

 in that country or its vicinity till 1831, when he realised his long-cherished desire 

 to visit Calcutta. He spent altogether nine years in this town, first from 1831-35, 

 and secondly from 1837-1842. In April 1842 he died in Darjeeling of fever con- 

 tracted in the Terai. It was, as we shall see, during his first stay in Calcutta that he 

 prepared the manuscript which is now being published. 



The first allusion to the vocabulary occurs in the Report which Csoma sent to 

 Captain Kennedy, Assistant Political Agent in Subathu, dated January 28th, 1825.^ 



• Asiatic Researches, vol. xx, pt. 2, p. 5S4. See also Aunales du Musle Guimet, vol. 11 (1S81). 

 The Sanskrit title is Mahavyutpatti. The Sanskrit text alone was published by Minayei? in his 

 Buddhism, vol. i, pt. 3, St. Petersburg, 1887. The editors owe an expression of thanks to Dr. Thomas, 

 lyibr irian at the India Office, for kindly lending them Minayeff' s work, which is to-day quite unprocur- 

 able in the market. While the first 16 pages were passing through the press we had not the advantage 

 of consulting this work. An abridgment of the present vocabulary is mentioned in Csoma's Analysis 

 under the title of : Bye-brag-iu-rtogs-byed-hbring-po, 



^ This Report is printed in extenso in Mr. Duka's Life. It appeared in an abridged form in the first 

 number of the Journal of ihe Royal Asiatic Society, London, 1834. 



