On the Code and Historical HISS, of the Siamese, [July 



India, and in which Mr. Gutzlaff lately heard the Buddhist priests, in 

 one of the islands on the east coast of China, chant the sacred rites of 

 this religion. The religion, language, and its written character will 

 have doubtless suffered considerable change by coming in contact with 

 those of the various nations among whom they have been transplanted, 

 and that the Pali, or Sanscrit (as will probably be found the case with 

 regard to the various dialects of peninsular India known under the 

 Brahminical appellation, Prdcrit) is not the root of the living lan- 

 guages of the Archipelago but merely a graft — as Arabic in the Persian, 

 Malay and Hindustani, and Latin in our own language. 



In order that these impressions might be corrected or confirmed by 

 the written evidence of history, I resolved to procure copies of the 

 most ancient annals, codes of laws, alphabets and written characters 

 of the Ultra Gangetic nations, but before the collection had made much 

 progress my Regiment was ordered to Madras. I feel convinced that 

 a careful collation of the annals and sacred books of Burma, Siam, 

 Khohman and Laos in the Pali dialects, and of Java and Bali in the 

 Kaivi, of the religious books and inscriptions of the Buddhists of 

 China and Japan written in the sacred characters of the Fan-yu* and 

 Bon-se (supposed to be modifications of Pali derived from India) with 

 those of Ceylon and Southern India, together with the opening of the 

 hidden resources contained in the great native libraries, fac-similes of 

 inscriptions of the Buddhists of Magadha and of the Jainas of the 

 peninsula,! will by mutual illustration serve to shed considerable light 

 over the chronology and history of India and eastern Asia, as well as 

 to test the forgeries suspected to exist in the apocryphal writings of 

 the Brahmins, and perhaps to solve the long contested point regard- 

 ing the greater antiquity of the religion and language of the disciples 

 of Buddha and Brahma. For this purpose the writings of the 

 Brahminical philosophical schools might also be more minutely 

 examined with advantage. Goverdhan Caul (who appears to have 

 been of the Brahminical faith), in his article on the literature of the 

 Hindus from the Sanscrit observes, "We need say no more of the 

 heterodox writings, than that those on the religion and philosophy of 

 Buddha, seem to be connected with some of the most curious parts of 

 Asiatic history and contain, perhaps, all that could be found in the 

 Pali, or sacred language of the Eastern Indian peninsula." 



It is necessary to add that these speculations would not have been 



* For the alphabet and specimens of the written characters of these languages I have 

 already written : should they he procured copies, or the originals, shall be forwarded 

 to the Society. 



+ Many valuable manuscripts on the religion of the Jainas collected by Mr. Wathen, 

 are deposited iu the library of the Bombay Literary Society ; still, I believe, awaiting 

 translation. ♦ 



