1893.] G. A. Grierson — Study of Indian Vernaculars in Europe. 41 
On the Early Study of Indian Vernaculars in Europe. — By 
G. A. Grierson, Esq , F. C. S. 
Some years ago, wliile perusing an old number 1 of the Calcutta 
Review, I chanced upon the following sentence. ‘ Antonio, a Roman 
Catholic Missionary at Boglipur on the Ganges, translated the Gospels 
and the Acts into the dialect of the people of that district.’ This was 
given as a quotation from a certain Dr. John, who wrote in 1809, and 
would refer to a translation of a portion of the New Testament into 
the local dialect of the people of Bhagalpur some years previously, 
that is to say at the end of the 18th century. The first translation of 
the Bible made by Carey was published in 1804 (into Marathi), and 
most of the succeeding ones appeared in the second decade of the 19th 
century, so that so far as I am aware Father Antonio’s version was 
the first translation of the Bible into any language of Northern India, 
and, curiously enough, it must have been made into Maithili, a lang- 
uage into which the Bible has never been translated since. 8 
At the time when this statement of Dr. John caught my attention, 
I was occupying a good deal of my leisure time with the vernaculars 
of Bihar, and it seemed to mo that, if I could get hold of Father An- 
tonio’s translation, it promised to afford me information regarding the 
condition of Eastern Maithili a century ago. Such evidence would 
have been an invaluable witness on the subject of the rate of growth 
of the Vernacular dialects of North India. 
I accordingly communicated with Bhagalpur, and learned that Fa- 
ther Antonio had been a Capuchin Missionary there at the end of the 
last century, and had thence gone to Patna. No trace of the alleged 
translation could be found. I enquired at Patna and at A'gra, whither 
he had subsequently gone as Bishop, with a similar result. From Agra 
he returned to Rome. Being at Rome in the year 1890, I called at the 
College of the Congregatio do propaganda Fide, and, though a total 
stranger, when I communicated the object of my search, was most 
kindly and hospitably received, and given every assistance in search- 
ing through the magnificent Oriental Library attached to the Con- 
gregation. My efforts wore in vain, so far as the immediate object 
was concerned, for no trace of the missing translation could he dis- 
covered, though I saw numerous translations into Nepali of about the 
same date. Indeed the Jesuit Fathers, who first entered Nepal in 1661, 3 
1 Vol. V, p. 722, June 1846. • 
2 I omit from consideration a few detached extracts translated by the late Mr. 
John Christian. 
8 The pioneers were Gruber, and Donville. They were succeeded by Kicanete, 
J. i. 6 
