Wojtilla Gyula: A List of Words Sanskrit and Hungarian by Alexander Csoma de Kőrös.
II. Csoma and Sanskrit Studies
52 the Huns, which, with singular opinions on the Buddhist faith, constituted his most favourable speculations. He, on more than one occasion entered on the subject with me at great length, detailing in particular the Sanskrit origin of existing names of places and hillranges in Hungary. My constant request at the close of these conversations used to be that he would record these speculations. He invariably refused, alluding darkly to the possibility of his one day having it in his power to publish to the world something sounder than speculation. .."40 Pál Hunfalvy, the strong advocate of the Finno-Ugrian theory in the debates on the origin of Hungarians, was a great authority in linguistics, a sharp-eyed critic of theories, a man of great calibre indeed. But his remark on Csoma is malicious. As he put it: Körösi during his stay in Calcutta, experienced 'the bitterest moments' of his life being conscious that up to that time he had fruitlessly looked for the origin of Hungarins ."41 Ármin Vámbéry, professor of Turkish studies at Budapest University, an opponent of Pál Hulfalvy and defender of the Turkish theory was the next. In a letter to Ralston which was published also in Hungarian in Vasárnapi Újsá g he speaks of Csoma with obvious despise: "Körösi was a victim to unripe philological speculation", because he was looking for a nation speaking the Magyar tongue, and suffered much disappointment at not finding the relatives he looked for. "And this was impossible főr Körösi to attain, because the Magyar tongue is a mixture of an Ugrian and a Turkish-Tartar dialect. But this is the result of recent investigations, and poor Körösi could have had hardly any notion of it! "4 2 Csoma's ideas in comparative philology almost entirely escaped the attention of Bernát Munkácsi, author of the most comprehensive book on Finno-Ugrian-Aryan contacts, published in 1901. 4 3 Sir Aurel Stein, the world-famed scholar, traveller and explorer also touched upon Csoma's activities in this direction. In his memorial speech on Theodore Duka written in 1913 he labelled Csoma's attempts in etymology "plays", "dreams" or even "formless imaginations". He calls it Csoma's good luck that he turned early to a virgin soil in science and produced long-lasting results in Tibetan studies. Stein's undifferentiated opinion clearly reflects the British view which again goes back to Hunfalvy and Vámbéry. On the other hand, Stein had only superficial information about Csoma's writings and he was not himself a researcher in etymology. 44 Sir E.D. Ross in his letter to the Bethlen College in Nagyenyed dated 20th July 1910 called Csoma - with some exaggeration - a linguist who surpassed both his predecessors and successors in Sanskrit and Tibetan studies. 4 5
