Life and works of Alexander Csoma de Körös : $b A biography compiled chiefly from hitherto unpublished dataDuka, Tivadar
History
Life and works of Alexander Csoma de Körös : $b A biography compiled chiefly from hitherto unpublished data
Duka, Tivadar
Kőrösi Csoma, Sándor, 1784-1842
Eötvös goes on to explain how Csoma, on his first arrival in British
India, was detained at Sabathú, but afterwards received permission to
continue his travels; that the “Governor had put him up in his own
house, and at his host’s request, Csoma discarded the Indian dress he
wore, and appeared instead in the costume of his native country,
namely, with Hungarian trousers, waistcoat, and a tailcoat, which
costume he wore at Sabathú, and ever afterwards, the hot Indian sun
notwithstanding.”
Eötvös continues to communicate other details on the strength of his
information, and concludes:
“A great trial, however, was in store for Csoma in his new sphere of
action at Calcutta. After having communicated the result of his labours
to others, and heard from them that the Tibetan language, to the study
of which he had sacrificed the best part of his life, was but a corrupt
dialect of the Sanskrit, his heart was filled with undescribable
anguish, and the strong man, who suffered so many privations cheerfully
and without complaining, was prostrated on a bed of sickness by this
new discovery.”
It will be our duty to show that these allegations have no foundation
whatever in fact. The same must be said of what we read further on in
Eötvös’s speech, namely, “that Csoma had prepared his extracts from
Tibetan works in Latin.”
Baron Hügel, we know, was in Calcutta in 1835. Csoma’s Dictionary and
Grammar were published in 1834; if, therefore, Baron Hügel had thought
of it, he might easily have gathered correct information regarding the
progress of Oriental literature. Csoma’s merits were then fully
acknowledged by the Government and by the learned world.
The statement that Csoma spent eleven years in a Buddhistic monastery
at Kanaur is quite inaccurate, as appears from the following data:—
In the monastery at Yangla in Zanskar, Csoma lived from 20th June 1823
to 22d October 1824.
In the monastery at Pukdal or Pukhtar, also in Zanskar, he remained
from 12th August 1825 to November 1826.
At Kanum, in Upper Besarh, also written Bussahir, Besahir, from August
1827 to October 1830.
It is also an error to say that Tibetan is a subordinate dialect of
Sanskrit. It belongs to the Chinese group of languages. This has been
pointed out already by Giorgi, about the middle of the last century, in
his work the “Alphabetum Tibetanum,” [13] and this was precisely the
book which Moorcroft gave into the hands of the Hungarian traveller in
1823, from which Csoma obtained his first glimpses of that language.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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