Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c5.s3.13

c5.s3.13

[^1): See No. ii. of my "Specimens of South-Indian Dialects". [^2): Cfr. the grants to the Israelite and Christian communities in Travancore. These were first attempted (like most branches of S. Indian archæology) by Dr. John Leyden (see his Life by Morton, Calcutta, 1823, p. 52). Even in a treatise like the present it may not be out of place (as so little is now known about this distinguished scholar) to give an unpublished piece of information about him, viz., his epitaph at Batavia. It runs: "Sacred | to the memory of | John Casper Leyden, M. D. | who was born | at Teviotdale in Scotland, and who died | in the prime of life | at Molenvliet near Batavia | on the 28th August 1811 | two days | after the fall of Cornelis | | The poetical talents and superior literary | attainments of Dr. Leyden rendered him an | ornament of the age in which he lived— | His ardent spirit and insatiable thirst after | knowledge, was perhaps unequalled: | And the friends of science must ever | deplore his untimely fate— | His principles as a man were pure and spotless | And as a friend he was firm and sincere. | —Few have passed through this life | with fewer vices or with a greater | prospect of happiness in the next". I owe this copy to the kindness of Dr. Stortenbecker, the first Colonial Secretary at Batavia; when I was there, I was unable to seek out Leyden's tomb, but I doubt not that it is well cared for by the Dutch. In Java, at least, cemeteries are not allowed to be desecrated and become the abomination and disgrace that they so often are in British India. [^3): See Appendix A. [^4): See Appendix A. [^5): The Telugu and Canarese grammars explain the respective phonetic systems by a steady reference to that of Sanskrit; the Tamil grammars do not refer to the Sanskrit at all in this way.