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MAY, 1910.]
NOTES AND QUERIES.
NOTES AND QUERIES.
DERIVATION OF TALAPOIN.
"
In my notes on the derivation of this old puzzle among Indo-European words, meaning a Buddhist monk (ante, Vol. XXXV, p. 268) I noted that Gerini had stated that it represented the Talaing expression tala poi, my lord': and I gave reasons for showing that he was probably right. There is now at last proof that he was so. In a Talaing Inscription on a pillar of the Myazedi Pagoda at Pagan recently edited by Mr. C. O. Blagden in J. R. A. S., 1909, occur (p. 1023) the words (line 18) tila poy Mhâther, 'My Lord Mbather. This Talaing Inscription relates to the presentation of a golden image to the Pagoda in 108 A. D., and corresponding with it on the
BUDHASVAMIN-Brhatkatha
Clokasamgraha I-IX Texte Sanskrit publié pour la premiére fois, avec des notes critiques et explicatives et accompagné d'une traduotion française par Felix Lacôte. Paris 1908. Ernest Leroux. 8vo. XIII+2+115 pp.
THE Brihatkatha of Gunadhya is a famous work in Indian literature. We know that, according to tradition, it was written in the Pais&chi dialect, and that it was, at a comparatively early date, lost in India proper, but continued to be handed down in Kashmir, where it was later on remodelled and translated into Sanskrit by the two authors Sômadêva and Kshêmêndra. Bühler has made it probable that the original drawn upon by them was written in Prakrit, and the common opinion has been that this original was Gunâ lhya's Brihatkatha itself. The natural inference was that wherever Sômadêva and Kshêmêndra agree, their statements can be traced back to Gunadhya.
some
159
In 1893 Mahimahopadhyaya Hara Prasad Sâstri found, among the Nepalese manuscripts acquired for the Bengal Asiatic Society, a Sanskrit version of the Brihatkatha, on which he reported in the Bengal Asiatic Journal (Vol. LXII. Part I, pp. 245 and ff.). His remarks were, as we can now sce, neither exhaustive nor quite accurate, and it is only after the publishing of M. Lacôte's books that we can judge of the real importance of the find. These books are, as will appear from the titles, an edition of the first nine chapters of the text and a study summing up the results to be derived from the new version of
same pillar is a Burmese Inscription (p. 1021) which (lines 22-23) translates the above words by (bhagri Mahather) p'öngyi Mahathi, i.e., the monk Mahathi. The inscription purports to relate that the dedication of the image was made in the presence of the Monk Mahathera and seven other monks, all named.
BOOK NOTICES.
FELIX LACÔTE-Essai sur Gunadhya et la Bṛhatkatha | Gunâdhya's work. The manuscripts discovered do suivi du texte inédit des chapitres Vol. XXVII d XXX du Nepala-Mahatmya. Paris 1908. Ernest Leroux. 8vo. XV 335 pp.
There seems, therefore, to be no room left for doubting that the term tala poin, in all its variations, for a Buddhist monk is the Talaing term 'tala pói' ('my Lord, ') as applied to a Buddhist monk, and is the equivalent of the ordinary Burmese term p'ongyi.
R. C. TEMPLE.
not contain the complete work. Only 20 chapters have been found, and they will all be published by M. Lacôte. To judge from the part just issued, we have every reason for being thankful that the work of editing them has fallen into ao able hands.
The study on Gunadhya is a very important work, written with great learning and throughout bearing testimony to the critical skill of its author. I do not intend to review it at length, I shall only draw attention to one or two points which are bound to change the views hitherto commonly held about Gunadhya and his work. An abridged translation of M. Lacôte's study ought to be published for the benefit of those who cannot read it in the original.
M. Lacôte first shows that the legends about Guna ya contained in the Kathasaritsagara and the Brihatkathâmañjari cannot go back to Gunâdhya himself. Taken together with the traditions contained in the Nêpâla Mahatmya and published as an appendix to the Essai, however, they make it all but certain that the historical Gunadhya did not live at Paithan at the court of the Andhrabbrityas, bat was born in Mathurâ and spent much of his time in Ujjayini, and that his Brihatkatha was written somewhere on the line which takes us from Ujjayini to Kausâmbi. This result is, I think, of considerable importance for the question about the home of the old Paisâcht dialect. M. Lacôte agrees with Dr. Hoernle that Paisachi was an Aryan dialect as spoken in the month of un-Aryan tribes. He thinks that the evidence brought into the field by the late Professor Pischel and by Dr. Grierson makes
