43 
1893.] G. A. Grierson — Study of Indian Vernaculars in Europe. 
that he intends to give for the first time specimens in the Singhalese, 
Javan, and Bangali languages. This request incited La Croze 1 in Novem- 
ber of the same year to write a long communication to Chamberlayne deal- 
ing with the subject of the study of languages in general, and vindicat- 
ing comparative philology from the charge of inutility. He then 
proceeds to describe briefly the inter-relationship of the various lang- 
uages as then known to him, and coming to India says, ‘ 1 have, how- 
ever, little -to offer concerning the alphabets of this country, except 
the conjecture that they are derived from that called Hanscrit.' The 
oldest letters of the Brachmans, he adds, can hardly have sprung from any 
source except from those of the Persians or Assyrians. But, as already 
remarked, the characters used by the other Indians are most probably 
derived from those called Hanscrit, which are used by the Brahmans, for 
on the one hand it is from them that the other Indian tribes imbibed 
their superstitions, and, on the other hand, Xaca, who laid the bonds 
of false religions on the peoples of the Bast, was himself brought up 
amongst the Brachmans. Moreover the order of the alphabet is the 
same amongst the Brachmans, the people of Malabar, the Singhalese, 2 
Siamese, Javans, and even of the language of Bali, which is the sacred 
tongue of Laos, Pegu, Cambodia, and Siam. 
This change of the initial S of Sanskrit, into II is worth noting 
from a philological point of view. It seems to point to an authority 
coming from Eastern Bengal where s is in popular speech pronounced 
as h, and no doubt La Croze’s immediate source of information was 
Bernier’s travels (1666 A. D.). As Yule and Burnell in the Anglo- 
Indian Dictionary point out, the term Sanskrit did not come into 
familiar use till the last quarter of the 18tli century. I am in doubt 
as to what religious reformer is referred to under the name of Xaca. 
Was it S'akya Muni ? 
So much for Chamberlayne’s Sylloge , which was published early 
in 1715. It did not give great satisfaction to La Croze, for he com- 
plains 3 4 in one of his letters that Wilkins, more suo, had so ‘ edited ’ 
a Tartar specimen which he had given him, that the donor could hardly 
recognize it. 
In the following year 1716, Ziegenbalg* a Danish Protestant 
Missionary writes from London. It is evidently a letter in answer to 
inquiries made by La Croze. The word Brachmann, says Ziegenbalg, 
1 L. C. Ill, pp. 78 and ff. What letter writers thero wore in those days ! This 
Epistle covers 17 pages of small type. 
2 Coilanenses. 
8 L. 0. Ill, 20. 
4 L. 0. I, 381. 
