46 
G. A. Grici’Son — Study of Indian Vernaculars in Europe. [No. 1, 
hum , 1 2 though its translation was incorrect, marks the first step in a new 
stage of the study of Indian languages in Europe. For the next few 
years, European scholars attacked the languages of Northern India 
through Chinese and Thibetan. 
The other curiosity, the book which consisted of eight leaves, had 
been printed in China, and may be considered as the Rosetta stone 
of these explorers. It gave in parallel lines an entire syllabary of 
the Lantsha Devanagari alphabet, with a transliteration into Thibetan, 
and into what Bayer calls Mongolian. A reference to Bullhorn’s Gram- 
matography will show that these last letters are not in the Mongolian 
character as now accepted, but more nearly resemble those given as Man- 
chu. They are evidently some Tartar alphabet. A facsimile of the first 
page and a half 3 is given on plate V. Bayer’s first procedure was to 
establish as far as possible the Thibetan characters. This was an easy 
task, for the language was already partly known to him, and he had 
other Thibetan students and books at his command. Then with the 
aid of this and of other specimens, he established the Mancliu trans- 
literation, and finally from these two, he was enabled to make a very 
fair attempt at transliterating the Devanagari. In the plate, I have 
given the transliteration fixed by him. From this he deciphered the 
Om mani padme hum of the inscription. It will be observed that the 
transliteration is incorrect in many particulars. 
Having thus made out the Lantsha alphabet, Bayer sent a copy of 
it to Schultz, a missionary in Madras, and was gratified to learn that 
the letters could be read by Brahmans of Northern India. 3 Schultz, 
himself, to judge from the specimens he gives, cannot at that time 
have known Sanskrit, or, indeed, any Aryan Indian language. He 
spells the name of Banaras 3irsfT or and talks of '3HMTT! •frsffj’! 
Ho, however, describes three alphabets and gives specimens of them, the 
Devanagari, the ‘ Balabandu,’ and the ‘ Altar Nagari.’ They have 
evidently been sent to Bayer just as they were written down for Schultz 
who could not read them. By ‘ Balabandu,’ is meant Marathi, but 
the three alphabets are really all Devanagari, as written by different 
hands. Schultz also gave instructions for pronunciation. Some of 
them may be quoted. 
i breue, lingua ad dexteram inclinata. 
i longum, lingua ad sinistram mota. 
1 See J. A. S. B. for 1892, Part I, pp. 30—33. 
2 There were two lines to a page, but as three lines comprise the entire alpha- 
bet of simple letters, I have given a page and a half on the plate, in this following 
Bayer. 
3 ! Brahmanes extraneos et perigrinoB.’ 
