1850.] 



of Continental India, fyc. 



117 



and some from Kalinga or Telingana, and Orissa : the relative an- 

 tiquity of these colonies, is open to investigation. In passing 

 it may be noticed, that the word Bdsa for language, is with slight 

 modification, alike Persic, Pali, Telugu and Tamil, Malaya and Ja- 

 vanese. In noticing a similarity between Bengali and Malaya, 

 Dr. Ley den adduces some words among which are punah or pun 

 further, again, (in Sanscrit punnor, in Tamil pin or pinnam,) Vangsh 

 or Vangsee, (in Tamil Vangisham or Sanscrit Vamsam which word is 

 found also in Pali.) Kulihi a little ; in Tamil Koncham, in Hindos- 

 tani Kuch or Kootch. Dr. Leyden adduces reasons for believing 

 very ancient, and intimate relations between the Malays and Java- 

 nese ; arising from the whole state of Malay literature, language, 

 and history ; in derivation of mythological fables from the Javanese 

 to the Malays ; in translation of Javanese books into Malay ; in re- 

 taining the Javanese title even in translations, direct from the 

 Kaling language, every Sanscrit term in Malay being found in the 

 Basa-Dalam-Java, or court language of Java ; and in the fact, 

 that many Malay states are known to have been founded by Java- 

 nese adventurers. He thinks that the greater part of Sanscrit 

 words, found in the Malay, do not come through the Pali, as they 

 are often nearer to the pure Sanscrit, than the Pali words them- 

 selves. Besides many mythological stories exist in Malayu, not 

 found as far as he could learn in Pali compositions, nor in any of 

 the Indo-Chinese languages of the continent. 



The basis of the language which Marsden thinks to be the ori- 

 ginal insular language of the South Seas, and which original lan- 

 guage Sir W. Jones pronounces to be a derivative from the Sans- 

 crit, Dr. Leyden asserts to be not Sanscrit, as may be evinced by 

 a very slender knowledge of both languages ; and believes, that the 

 . supposed original dialect is derived by a process, which he eluci- 

 dates from different sources, Dr. Leyden speaks of the Malay Pan- 

 tun as a rhyming quatrain, always restricted to four lines, composed 

 with a sort of oracular brevity. This might just as well be premised 

 of some kinds of Tamil verse ; and one of the names for versifica- 

 tion in Tamil is Pan ; whence, by derivation, a minstrel is termed 

 pannen, or one who recites the pan. The cheritra, or legendary 

 and heroic narrative, the same in name and object as in Telugu and 

 Tamil, is found among the Malays of Sumatra, and the Javanese : 



