1894.] 
21 
Q. C. Dus —Note on the Buddhist Golden Booh. 
the work when published with its commentary, will be of the highest 
value to all who inquire into the history of the art of writing and 
the study of religion, and particularly to the student of Buddhism. 
No ancient work either in Sanskrit or Pali written in the form of 
Sutra (aphorisms) can be of any value when published without its com¬ 
mentary. As all the editions of the Kamma-vdcd that have come to 
my notice are without their commentaries, it is no wonder that little 
importance should be attached to them. I have been informed that 
there are in a certain Buddhist library at Colombo, two commentaries 
on the Kamma-vacds , one of which is very elaborate and the other 
brief. If we obtain a copy of these two, it will be easy to edit the 
Manuscript before us. No work on Buddhism that has yet been issued 
by the Asiatic Society of Bengal, can have higher claims to literary 
and historical, as well as sacerdotal importance, than this book of the 
rules for admission into the holy order of the Buddhist monks, as 
prescribed by the founder of Buddhism himself. The Kamma-vdcd 
is in fact the basis of Buddhist monkhood, and contains the entire 
history of the order from its foundation by the Buddha to its maturity 
during the course of his ministry, which extended over forty-five years. 
This Manuscript is written in a missing form of the ancient Bali 
character. It resembles what is called the square Pali , but differs from 
the latter just as the Devanagarl differs from the Bengali, or the Rus¬ 
sian from the Roman character. The Burmese call it the ‘tamarind-seed 
character’ on account of the resemblance of the lines forming the letters to 
tamarind-seeds. Whether this was the earliest sacred character of the 
Buddhists of India, or the square Pali; and in which of these the early 
Pali Gdthas were written, are points which require careful examina¬ 
tion. The Pali books of Ceylon are written in Singhalese, those of Siam 
and Cambodia in Cambodian, and those of Burma in Burmese, with 
the exception of the Kamma-vdcas which are invariably to be found in 
the so-called tamarind-seed character. 
The Kamma-vdcas , in the shape they are embodied in the Golden 
Book, are not to be found in any Buddhist country except Burma. 
The Burmese who obtained their religion directly from Iudia got 
the golden book from Magadha—the central and the earliest seat of 
Buddhism. It is prized by the Burmese for its writing, though many 
among them can hardly read the character used in it. The learned 
priests of Burma believe that the writing of the golden book is, in fact, 
the last vestige of the ancient Pali character in which the sacred books 
of the Buddhists were written in very early times. It is for these rea¬ 
sons that the golden book is more worshipped than read by the Burmese 
people. In Siam the priests read the Kamma-vdcas from the Vinaya text 
