Wojtilla Gyula: A List of Words Sanskrit and Hungarian by Alexander Csoma de Kőrös.
II. Csoma and Sanskrit Studies
47 ian royal chronicle the Rajatarangip i , and the epic poem, the Na is adhacarita . 2 7 He certainly studied the most authorative law-book, the ffijnava-Dharmasastr a because he cited it in his List of Words. In short, Csoma had a genuine knowledge of Buddhist Sanskrit texts and was familiar with some parts of Sanskrit technical and narrative literature. His proficiency in Buddhist Sanskrit bestowed him a long-lasting fame but his Sanskrit learning in general, an underlying motive of which was to pave the way for comparative studies with special regard to Hungarian language and Hungarian prehistory, caused the rise of a serious controversy around him. One thing is sure. His thorough grounding in Sanskrit was not inferior to any of his contemporaries', either in India or Europe. Before we turn to concrete results in his writings, let us throw a glance on his studies in modern Indo-Aryan vernaculars . This subject has much less weight in his oeuvre ut it is not negligible. His fluency in Persian enabled him to converse with learned people in many parts of India. He used it as a medium of learning in the first years of his Tibetan studies. It served as a tool for learning Hindustani since it was a constant source of the Hindustani vocabulary; both languages used Arabic characters and Hindustani inherited a great deal of Persian grammar, too. He had little time to learn that language before 1835. It is the reason why he wrote to Prinsep on 30th November 1835 the following lines: "... But since I have not yet reached my aim for which I came to the East, I beg you will obtain for me the permission of Government to remain yet for three years in India, for the purpose of improving myself in Sanskrit and in the different dialects; and, if Government will not object, to furnish me with a passport in duplicate, one in English and one in Persian, that I may visit the north-western parts of India." 2 9 James Prinsep forwarded this letter to MacNaughton, the secretary to Government. Curiously he put the following sentence in his official letter: "It is Mr. Csorna's present intention, after having pursued his researches into the dialects of Mithila, etc., to return to the Presidency, and then to prepare the results of his studies for the press." 3 0 As a matter of fact Csoma did not apply for a visit to Mithila. Moreover both Csoma and Prinsep might have been aware of the linguistic stratification of north India, therefore they might have known that Mithila was an area of Maithili language and it was in many aspects a cultural area significantly different from other parts of Bihar or Bengal or the upper provinces^ It was a mine of Sanskrit and Maithili literature and the Maharaja of Darbhanga owned an extraordinary collection of ancient manuscripts. In spite of that, it was not the place where Csoma was going to go, at least his application speaks against this supposition.
