ALPHABETS OF INDIA.

SANSKRITA.

Ar the head of all the languages of India, is placed this most comprehensive and powerful tongue; which is involved in the profoundest darkness as to its origin, and in its descent is connected with so many other dialects, as to render the tracing of its history at once uncertain and difficult in the attempt, unsatisfactory and erroneous in the conclusion. Dr. Marshman, in his Clavis Sinica, as we have already mentioned in the Chinese Article, has denied that there exists any relationship between the Sanskrita tongue and that of China; because the former is polysyllabic, while the latter is confined to words of one syllable. The latter is indeclinable in every state, while the former varies sometimes in a thousand ways from the original Dhatoo, or Root; and finally there are sounds in the Sanskrita alphabet, which the oracular organs of a Chinese could never be enabled to pronounce. Notwithstanding all these difficulties, Dr. Marshman knew, that in the first century, A. D. when the Indian Priests of Budh were permitted to enter China, they endeavoured to introduce both their religion and their language; and he found in the Dictionary of Cang-he, the Deva-nagari series of characters; which is that hereafter given, placed at the commencement of it. It is however stated in the preface to that work, that it was a system brought from the West, (Hindoostan), which the learned of China could never be induced to adopt. He then proceeded to actual experiment upon the two languages, by taking the Ramayu, and the most ancient Sanskrita poem, and the She-King, the most ancient one of the Chinese, and in ten pages of the former he found only 13 monosyllables out of 459 words; and out of these thirteen, seven only occured in the She-King. As his object was to identify the purity of the Chinese, he next took four pages of the Mahabaru in the Bengalee dialect, which is derived of the Sanskrita, and in 265 words he discovered 7 monosyllables, of which 3 only were Chinese.

But although it is comparatively easy to say what the Sanskrita language did not descend from, it is next to impossible to ascertain from whence it did; since Arabic, Persian, and even Latin and Greek words, are to be found in it. Its very high antiquity however, is not to be doubted, since many traces of it are to be found on coins and seals, and more particularly in some volumes belonging to the learned Rajah of Kishnagur, wherein it was stated, that a communication formerly existed between India and Egypt, and wherein the Egyptians are described as disciples rather than instructors. Without implicitly receiving this asser

tion, the Sanskrita tongue doubtless extended over a very considerable part of Asia; indeed vestiges of it are to be found in almost every district, however remote; and whoever is well acquainted with it, has acquired more than a foundatory knowledge, of a large proportion of the vernacular dialect of India. The characters of numerous tongues, are also derived of the Sanskrita; but though its influence be so wonderfully extended, as a separate language it is confined to the libraries of the Brahmans, and appropriated solely to the records of their religion. The term Sanskrita was invented to distinguish that branch of the Hindu language properly so called, from the Prakrita, or the dialect spoken by the common people: it is a compound particle signifying altogether or completely, done, or formed, and when applied to a language it means polished. In the different provinces of India there are not only several dialects, but there are also several different kinds of characters, but the Deva-Nagari, which are the following, are those in which the Sanskrita is usually written and the most elegant

in form.

All languages of the Hindu class, are read from left to right; and the Alphabet by which the Sanskrita is taught, is arranged on the following plan. The letters themselves are called Karah, make or form, as A-Karah, Ka-Karah, &c. and although they would amount to fifty in number, yet their simple articulations are not more than 28, of which five are vowels and twenty-three are consonants. The following five simple vowels are represented by the characters to express their long and short sounds, similar to the arrangement of the Abyssinian alphabet.

Short.. अ इ उ ऋ लृ

Long.. आ ई उ ऋ लृ
आई

There are also fourcompound vowels or dipthongs, which are thus represented :--

ऐ ओ औ

E short

Ai

O short

Au

The thirty-four consonants contain only twenty-three separate sounds; as the remainder consists of ten aspirates

and one letter compounded of two others. This will be more readily shewn in the following list, in which it will be perceived that in the first twenty-five, ten are Aspirations of the letters which immediately precede them; and the last character Ksha, is an union of Ku the first, and Sha the thirty-first letters. The ensuing table is the arrangement of the Deva-nagari consonants.

क ka ख kha ग ga घ gha ङ. nga

च cha छ chha ज ja

झ jha ञ nya

ट ta ठ tha उ da ढ dha ण na

श sa ष sha स sa ह ha क्ष ksha

|ह

Like the other Eastern languages, some letters vary in shape, according to their positions, as Initials, Medials, or Finals. The characters for the vowels already given were the Initial forms of them, and the following marks are added to, or put for them, when they stand as Medials, or Finals.