.MO 
REPORT— 1847* 
as, inrityur&p rajju, the cords of death, i. e. having the form of deiili; 
^knrdp agni, the fire of distress. 
The use of tliese compounds is not so extensive in Sanscrit, but we new- 
theless find already tliere the first traces of tliem even in ancient works, ** 
for instance in Mann and even in the Veda; as, nlhhlhanlWm anittrawir’' 
ktishthtinnin viadhye nihitam rariram vrtlrasyai the bodyof Vriira (die clot. , 
thrown into the flowing and restless waters. In modem books, and €»pccttL*T 
in the Buddhistical works, this usage is very general, and particularly i^- 
Oiling as giving the key for the original meaning of many obscure 
viaiions, wliich in the spoken dialects of India form the new system of oe 
clensiuns. As far as the doclensious are concerned, I think then it “ 
bf uilmitted that the Bengali is nothing but a modern development oft-T 
Itianscrti language, and that though reduced to a state of great poverty 
its grammatical tonuation, it has not borrowed the principles ofa nr" 
from the language of barbarous tribes. 
Of the conjugation of the Bengali it would be still more dilRculi fopra 
a non-Sanscriiical origin. In comparing the conjugations of the wK"" 
with those of the Sanscrit verbs, we are struck witli the same plisnoBKi* 
which presented itself to our notice when examining the declension». 
S.'uiscrit possesses ten distinct forms, whereby the verbal base isdenn- 
froin the primitive root; and by its three voices, the active, passut- 
middle voice, offers to us a rich variety of teruiintitions, destined i‘> 
every form of tense, mood and person. But, what at first sight » 
strange, vvlnle those languages wliicb have for centuries beepexd* 
their native lauds have jireservetl even in the extreme north vivid 
their ancient wealth and originality, the Bengali, which has reinuji'® 
paternal soil, has (legeuerated more than almost any other of the 
manic language.s. It is true that tlie Indian tongue may have teh 
wearied and oppressed by the abimdance of forms ]iroduced at tW ^ 
burst <»f its youth; it is true, that in divesting itself of these exuber^- 
was following but a wise teconoroy, and by analytical expressions 
dating itself to the wants of ordinary life ; but the primitive beauty ot 
speech, the happy harmony between the spirit and the ^ 
was lost, and the wings of human thought were broken. 'I* '” ^ p 
gali neither middle nor jiassive; the greater part of its tenses are , 
means of auxiliary verbs, and according to the common system of J 
ga!i granmiariaus, there are no longer even diflerent forms in the p “ r. ^ 
singular, hut admitting all these differences between Sanscrit stt 
gaU, which, indeed, everybody would expect to exist to a certain ^ 
betwersn every ancient and rnodern language, I cannot see bow a |- 
diHereui origin of the Bengali language can be proved bydiffeten'^ 
the following, which Dr. Stevenson quotes in proof of his theory ■ ^ 
1. 1 hat the second person singular imperative is the root 
f«>rm in Bengali and the other languages, wliile this is tlie case wJW’ 
about one-hull the tenses in Sanscrit. . • 
2. That in Bengali the present tense contains the present 
constituent part of it followed by the substantive verb, as in our lot 
reading. 
aorist, which denotes past, present and luiu*'® 
r* ^erb.s are coni|H)se<l with the negative particle. 
P* past tense has no reduplication, and 
• * hat the passive is formed in a peculiar manner. . -.-joiX- 
8 to the first point, if I understand him right, his calcubtion 
