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Let our friends smile incredulously. Let our enemies laugh at our pretensions to “penetrate the world-mysteries of Aryavarta,” as a certain critic recently expressed himself. However pessimistic may be our critics' views, yet, even in the event of our conclusions not proving more trustworthy than those of Fergusson, Wilson, Wheeler, and the rest of the archeologists and Sanskritists who have written about India, still, I hope, they will not be less susceptible of proof. We are daily reminded that, like unreasonable children, we have undertaken a task before which archaeologists and historians, aided by all the influence and wealth of the Government, have shrunk dismayed; that we have taken upon ourselves a work which has proved to be beyond the capacities even of the Royal Asiatic Society... | Let our friends smile incredulously. Let our enemies laugh at our pretensions to “penetrate the world-mysteries of Aryavarta,” as a certain critic recently expressed himself. However pessimistic may be our critics' views, yet, even in the event of our conclusions not proving more trustworthy than those of Fergusson, Wilson, Wheeler, and the rest of the archeologists and Sanskritists who have written about India, still, I hope, they will not be less susceptible of proof. We are daily reminded that, like unreasonable children, we have undertaken a task before which archaeologists and historians, aided by all the influence and wealth of the Government, have shrunk dismayed; that we have taken upon ourselves a work which has proved to be beyond the capacities even of the Royal Asiatic Society... | ||
Let it be so. But it is easy to remember, as we ourselves remember, that not very long ago a poor Hungarian, who not only had no means of any kind but was almost a beggar, traveled on foot to Tibet through unknown and dangerous countries, led only by the love of learning and the eager wish to pour light on the historical origin of his nation.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sándor_Kőrösi_Csoma Sándor Csoma de Kőrös] (1784-1842) was a Hungarian philologist and Orientalist, author of the first Tibetan–English dictionary and grammar book. He is considered as the founder of Tibetology. – Ed.</ref> The result was that inexhaustible mines of literary treasures were discovered. Philology, which til then had wandered in the Egyptian darkness of etymological labyrinths, and was about to ask the sanction of the scientific world to one of the wildest of theories, suddenly stumbled on the thread of Ariadne. Philology discovered, at last, that the Sanskrit language is, if not the forefather, at least – to use the language of Max Müller – “the elder brother” of all ancient languages. Thanks to the extraordinary zeal of Alexander Csoma de Koros, Tibet yielded a language the literature of which was totally unknown. He partly translated it and partly analyzed and explained it. His translations have shown the scientific world that (1) the originals of the Zend-Avesta, the sacred scriptures of the sun-worshippers, of Tripitaka<ref>''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripiṭaka Tripiṭaka]'' (Sanskrit "Triple Basket") is the ancient collections of Buddhist sacred scriptures. – Ed.</ref>, that of the Buddhists, and of Aytareya-Brahmana<ref>The'' ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aitareya_Brahmana Aitareya Brahmana] is the Brahmana of the Shakala Shakha of the Rigveda, an ancient Indian collection of sacred hymns, which holds a detailed description of different rituals. – Ed.</ref>, that of the Brahmins, were written in one and the same Sanskrit language; (2) that all these three languages – Zend, Nepalese, and the modern Brahmin Sanskrit – are more or less dialects of the first; (3) that old Sanskrit is the origin of all the less ancient Indo-European languages, as well as of the modern European tongues and dialects; (4) that the three chief religions of heathendom – Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Brahmanism – are mere heresies of the monotheistic teachings of the Vedas, which does not prevent them from being real ancient religions and not modern falsifications. | Let it be so. But it is easy to remember, as we ourselves remember, that not very long ago a poor Hungarian, who not only had no means of any kind but was almost a beggar, traveled on foot to Tibet through unknown and dangerous countries, led only by the love of learning and the eager wish to pour light on the historical origin of his nation.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sándor_Kőrösi_Csoma Sándor Csoma de Kőrös] (1784-1842) was a Hungarian philologist and Orientalist, author of the first Tibetan–English dictionary and grammar book. He is considered as the founder of Tibetology. – Ed.</ref> The result was that inexhaustible mines of literary treasures were discovered. Philology, which til then had wandered in the Egyptian darkness of etymological labyrinths, and was about to ask the sanction of the scientific world to one of the wildest of theories, suddenly stumbled on the thread of Ariadne. Philology discovered, at last, that the Sanskrit language is, if not the forefather, at least – to use the language of Max Müller – “the elder brother” of all ancient languages. Thanks to the extraordinary zeal of Alexander Csoma de Koros, Tibet yielded a language the literature of which was totally unknown. He partly translated it and partly analyzed and explained it. His translations have shown the scientific world that (1) the originals of the Zend-Avesta, the sacred scriptures of the sun-worshippers<ref>Zoroastrians. ''Zend-Avesta'' now referred to as just ''Avesta'', since ''zend'' means “to know”, “to understand” or “interpretation”. So, ''Zend-Avesta'' means commentaries and translations of the Avesta's texts. – Ed.</ref>, of Tripitaka<ref>''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripiṭaka Tripiṭaka]'' (Sanskrit "Triple Basket") is the ancient collections of Buddhist sacred scriptures. – Ed.</ref>, that of the Buddhists, and of Aytareya-Brahmana<ref>The'' ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aitareya_Brahmana Aitareya Brahmana] is the Brahmana of the Shakala Shakha of the Rigveda, an ancient Indian collection of sacred hymns, which holds a detailed description of different rituals. – Ed.</ref>, that of the Brahmins, were written in one and the same Sanskrit language; (2) that all these three languages – Zend, Nepalese, and the modern Brahmin Sanskrit – are more or less dialects of the first; (3) that old Sanskrit is the origin of all the less ancient Indo-European languages, as well as of the modern European tongues and dialects; (4) that the three chief religions of heathendom – Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Brahmanism – are mere heresies of the monotheistic teachings of the Vedas, which does not prevent them from being real ancient religions and not modern falsifications. | ||
The moral of all this is evident. A poor traveler, without either money or protection, succeeded in gaining admittance to the Lamaseries of Tibet and to the sacred literature of the isolated tribe which inhabits it, probably because he treated the Mongolians and the Tibetans as his ''brothers'' and not as an ''inferior'' race – a feat which could never be accomplished by generations of scientists. One cannot help feeling ashamed of humanity and especially of science when one thinks that he whose labors first gave to science such precious results, he who was the first sower of such an abundant harvest, remained, almost until the day of his death, a poor and obscure worker. On his way from Tibet he ''walked'' to Calcutta without a penny in his pocket. At last Csoma de Koros became known, and his name began to be pronounced with honor and praise whilst he was dying in one of the poorest parts of Calcutta. Being already very ill, he wanted to get back to Tibet, and started on foot again through Sikhim, but died in Darjeeling<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darjeeling Darjeeling] is a city in West Bengal, in the Lesser Himalayas. – Ed.</ref>, where he was buried. | The moral of all this is evident. A poor traveler, without either money or protection, succeeded in gaining admittance to the Lamaseries of Tibet and to the sacred literature of the isolated tribe which inhabits it, probably because he treated the Mongolians and the Tibetans as his ''brothers'' and not as an ''inferior'' race – a feat which could never be accomplished by generations of scientists. One cannot help feeling ashamed of humanity and especially of science when one thinks that he whose labors first gave to science such precious results, he who was the first sower of such an abundant harvest, remained, almost until the day of his death, a poor and obscure worker. On his way from Tibet he ''walked'' to Calcutta without a penny in his pocket. At last Csoma de Koros became known, and his name began to be pronounced with honor and praise whilst he was dying in one of the poorest parts of Calcutta. Being already very ill, he wanted to get back to Tibet, and started on foot again through Sikhim, but died in Darjeeling<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darjeeling Darjeeling] is a city in West Bengal, in the Lesser Himalayas. – Ed.</ref>, where he was buried. | ||