1881.] 
Sarat Chandra Das —Contributions on Tibet. 
219 
remained unsupplied, no success in either could be ensured. He, therefore, 
sent Sambliota, son of Anu, with sixteen companions, to study carefully the 
Sanskrit language and thereby obtain access to the sacred literature of 
the Indian Buddhists. He also instructed them to devise means for the 
invention of a written language for Tibet by adapting the Sanskrit alpha¬ 
bet to the phonetic peculiarities of the Tibetan dialect. He furnished the 
members of the mission with a large quantity of gold to make presents to 
their Indian professors. They safely reached their destination in Arya- 
varta, where, under the Buddhist sage Livikara, Sambhota acquired a 
thorough knowledge of the Sanskrit and of sixty-four different characters 
known in the Arya land. Under Pandit Devavid Simha they learnt the 
Kalapa, Chandra and Sarasvata grammars of the Sanskrit language. They 
also mastered the twenty-one treatises of aphorisms and mysticism of the 
Buddhist creed. After returning to Tibet, they propitiated Manjusri the 
god of learning, and framed the system of Tibetan characters, viz., the 
U-chan or “ letters provided with heads” (matras) adapted from the 
Devanagari, and the U-me or “ headless” from the Wartu, and thus 
introduced a copious system of written language into Tibet. They com¬ 
posed the great grammatical work called SumCliu dag-yig. The king 
ordered the intelligent class of people to be taught the art of reading and 
writing, and many Sanskrit Buddhist books to be translated into 
Tibetan, and thus he laid the foundation of Buddhism in Tibet. He then 
required all his subjects by royal edicts, to observe the ten virtues besides 
the following sixteen moral virtues : 
(1.) To have faith in KonChhog (god) AJ3b^l). 
(2.) The performance of religious observances and study. 
(3.) To honour one’s parents. 
(4.) To respect the meritorious and to promote the talented. 
(5.) To honour the elders as well as those who are of high birth, &c. 
(6.) To pay attention to relatives and friends. 
(7.) To be patriotic and useful to one’s own country. 
(8.) To be honest and upright. 
(9.) To know the good use of food and wealth. 
(10.) To follow the example of the good. 
(11.) To be grateful and return the kindness of benefactors. 
(12.) To use just weights and measures. 
(13.) To be free from jealousy by establishing concord and harmony 
with all. 
(14.) Not to listen to the words of women. 
(15.) To be gentle and polite in speech and acquire skill in conversa¬ 
tion. 
(16.) To bear sufferings and distress with patience and meekness. 
