1888.] S. C. Das —The Sacred and Ornamental Characters of Tibet. 43 
result of these two opposite forces, operating on the Tibetan, was its 
conversion into a dissyllabic language. The tongue of the Tibetans 
being unaccustomed to pronouncing polysyllables and combinations of 
several consonants with one vowel, phonetic rules to help in pronuncia¬ 
tion were formed ; and though they were not written down by the 
Tibetan authors for the guidance of students, they were handed down 
orally. It does not appear to me that the Tibetans ever pronounced 
their words as they wrote them. 
The thirty-four letters were now increased to fifty (see Plate 
II, No. b), and henceforth the Tibetan alphabet became capable of 
more extended use by the addition of aspirates, long vowels, and 
compounds. 
The Chinese professor Ssan than S'an S'i, who visited Sam-yea at 
the invitation of king Thisron Deu-tsan, was so much struck with the 
capacity of the Tibetan characters to express Chinese words with their 
curious intonation and phonetic peculiarities, that he undertook both 
to transliterate and translate some of the Chinese works into Tibetan 
and certain Tibetan works into the Chinese language. In an inscrip¬ 
tion found at Sam-yea it is mentioned that he (Ssan than S'an S'i) com¬ 
pared the two languages and shewed their resemblances at the great 
monastery of (Gssan yah. mi-hgyur Lhun gyis-grub) Sam-yea. I here 
give a copy of the inscription (see Plate VI, No. 1). 
The written language of Tibet has undergone slow but gradulal 
changes from the time of its formation between 640 and 650 A. D. to the 
present time, but a description of these changes does not fall within the 
scope of this short paper. I shall, therefore, only confine myself to 
dividing this long period into five divisions, having regard to the nature 
of the changes the language has undergone. 
The first or the earliest period extends from the time of king 
Sron tsan Gampo to the accession of king Thisron Deu-tsan to the 
throne of Tibet. 
The second period extends from the reign of king Thisron to the 
assassination of Thi Italpachan. 
The third or dark period, during which both literature and Buddhism 
collapsed, is the gap between the reign of Langdarma and the revival of 
Buddhism by Atisa and Brom-tan under the auspices of king Yese hod in 
the beginning of the lltli century. 
The fourth period, during which the study of Sanskrit was consi¬ 
dered a necessary accomplishment for the scholars of Tibet, began with 
Atisa and Brom-tan and terminated with the downfall of the Sakya 
hierarchy. 
The fifth period, which commenced with the rise of the Gelug-pa 
(yellow cap) school, continues to the present day. 
