The History of Indian Literature c9.92

c9.92

∗ Considering the scarcity of the *Asiatic Researches*, I here give Csoma Körösi's account of the Tandjur, contained in vol. xx., 1836, in some detail. "The Bstan-Hgyur is a compilation in Tibetan of all sorts of literary works" (in all some 3900), "written mostly by ancient Indian Paṇḍits and some learned Tibetans in the first centuries after the introduction of Buddhism into Tibet, commencing with the seventh century of our era. The whole makes 225 volumes. It is divided into the Rgyud and the Mdo (Tantra and Sútra classes, in Sanskrit). The Rgyud, mostly on tantrika rituals and ceremonies, makes 87 volumes. The Mdo, on science and literature, occupies 136 volumes. One separate volume contains (58) hymns or praises on several deities or saints, and one volume is the index for the whole.—The Rgyud contains 2640 treatises of different sizes: they treat in general of the rituals and ceremonies of the mystical doctrine of the Buddhists, interspersed with many instructions, hymns, prayers, and incantations.—The Mdo treats in general of science and literature in the following order: theology, philosophy" (these two alone make 94 volumes), "logic or dialectic, philology or grammar, rhetoric, poesy, prosody, synonymics, astronomy, astrology, medicine and ethics, some hints to the mechanical arts and histories." See further, in particular, Anton Schiefner's paper, *Ueber die logischen und grammatischen Werke im Tandjur*, in the Bulletin of the St. Petersburg Academy (read 3d September 1847).