1893.] G. A. Grierson — Study of Indian Vernaculars in Europe. 
45 
fact tliat it was a purely vulgar language, and was considered a mere 
jargon, led to its being neglected. 
Tlie foundation of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Peters- 
burg, on the lines of the great French Academy, were laid by Peter the 
Great, and it was formally opened by the Empress Catherine. The 
most learned men of Europe (amongst whom was Bayer) were invited 
to join it, and finally it was placed in a permanent position by Peter II. 
The first part of the transactions, relating to the year 1726 was pub- 
lished in 1728. 1 .These two volumes are very rare, nearly all having 
been destroyed in a fire which consumed the Imperial Academy and 
Printing Offices in 1741. 
In the year 1727 Daniel Messerschmid, who had been deputed by 
Peter the Great to explore Siberia, returned to St. Petersburg, and 
amongst other curiosities brought with him an inscription, and a Chinese 
printed book. These were made over to Bayer, and he describes them 
in the third and fourth volume of the transactions. 2 The inscription 
consisted of two short lines, one being in Brahmanical and the other in 
Tangut letters. It is reproduced here. 
It will be recognized that the first line (which Bayer calls Brah- 
manical) is in the pointed variety of the Devanagari alphabet used by 
the Buddhists of Thibet, and called Lantslia. The second line is the or- 
dinary Thibetan character. Bayer with the aid of his knowledge of 
Manchu, and of the book to be subsequently described, deciphered this as 
‘ Ong ma ni pa dme chPum chi' but was unable to translate it. Messer- 
schmid, he says, told him that it was one of the commonest prayers of 
the Tanguts (i. e. Thibetans), and meant ‘ God have mercy on us.’ 
This decipherment of the well-known Buddhist formula, Om, manipadme, 
1 Commentarii 1 Academia) I Scientiarum I Imperialis I Petropolitaua) i Tomus 
I, Ad Annum clo. locc xxxi. i Petropoli I Typis Acadcmico clo loco xviii. 
2 For the years 1728 and 1729, and published in 1732 and 1735 respectively. 
2 Pronounced like a Greek x- 
