Indian Antiquary Vol 32

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 28

22
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JANUARY, 1903.
learned, and next refers to the Ter Tet' or Beka Boll' or common tongue which is found in the University of Kasi or Benards.' It then goes on to enumerate the other principal alphabets of India which (except. Nagri, Nagri Soratensis, or Balabandu ') do not immediately concern 18. Of more particular interest is his mention of a Lexicon Linguae Indostanicas which was composed by a "Capuchin Missionary of Surat named Franciscus M. Turonensis, in the year 1704, the manuscript of which was then in the Propaganda Library in Rome, and which Amad uzzi describes at considerable length. He also mentions a manuscript dialogue (i in Hindôstant between a Christian and a Native of Indis regarding the truth of religion, which was dedicated to the Raja of Betiâ, in the present district of Champaran, by Josephus M. Gargnanensis and Beligatti, the author of the work we are now describing. The Alphabetum Brammhanicum is of importance as being the first book (so far as I am aware) in which the vernacular words are printed in their own character in moveable types. But not only are the Déva-nagari letters represented by types, but even the Kaithi ones receive the same honour. Beligatti calls the Déva-nagarf character the Alphabetum expressum in litteris Universitatis Kasi,' and after covering over a handred pages with a minute description of its use (including the compound consonants), he goes on, on page 110, to deal with the Alphabetum populare Indostanum vulgo Nagri.' This is, he says, used by all the natives for familiar letters and ordinary books, and for all subjects, whether religious or profane, which can be written in the
ar te bhakà boli or valgar tongue,"16 He then gives a good description of the Kaithi alphabet, using moveable types also here. The book conclades with an account of the numerals and with reading exercises. These last are transliterations of the Latin Pater Noster and Ave Maria into Deva-nagari, followed by translations of the Invocation of the Trinity, the Lord's Prayer, the Are Maria, and the Apostles' Creed into Hindôstânt, in the same character. Taking it altogether, the Alphabetum Brammhanicum is, for its time, a wonderfully good piece of work.
With the Alphabetum Brammhanicum the first stage of Hindôstant Bibliography may be considered to be completed, Hadley's Grammar appeared in 1772, and was quickly followed by a number of other and better ones, such as the Portuguese Gramatica Indostana (1778: far in advance of Hadley), Gilchrist's numerous works (commencing 1787), and Lebedeff's Grammar (1801). These will all be found below, each described in its proper place. Lebedeff's work deserves more than a mere entry on account of the extraordinary adventures of its author. This remarkable man gives an account of his life in the preface of his book, from which we gather that he began his Indian career (apparently as a handmaster) in the year 1785 at Madras. After a stay there of two years he migrated to Calcutta, where he met with a Pandit who taught him Sanskrit, Bengali, and Hindôstani (or, as he called it, the Indian mixed dialect). His next attempt was to translate two English plays into Bengali, and one of these was performed publicly with great applause (according to its author) in 1795 and again in the following year. According to Adelung,17 he then became theatrical manager to the Great Mogul, and finally returned to England after a stay of more than twenty years in the East. In London he published his grammar, and made the acquaintance of Woronzow, the Russian Ambassador, who sent him to Russia. He was employed in the Russian Foreign Office and was given a large subvention towards founding a Sanskrit press. I have no knowledge of any other works from his pen. It is to be hoped, for the sake of his patrons, that his knowledge of Sanskrit and Bengali was greater than that of Hindôstäni which he displays in his grammar. Not only is its system of transliteration (kon hay hooa = who is there) detestably incorrect, but so is the whole accoun of the grammatical structure of the language. The concluding words of his preface show that he was not conscious of its imperfections, and at the same time throw a curious light on the morality of Europeans in India at his time. The Indian
18 Peligatti's representation of this expression is more accurate than Amadussi's, but even his transliteration here breaks down.
17 Mithridates, I. 185. According to the same authority he was by birth an Ukraine pousant, and, on acouant ut his musical talents, was taken up by Prince Resumosky, who carrie on the violoncello. He then wandered to Paris and London, where he took servioo under a Lord who went to India as Governor.