Caldwell brought out his Comparative Grammar, which is chiefly de—
voted to a consideration of the inflections of words. It is no disparagement
to that useful work to say that Dr. Gundert's Dictionary proves that we
want a new and revised edition of it, and we trust that its learned author
will see that great changes are now necessary in it.
The number of names of plants and animals given by Dr. Gundert
is also a new feature in an Indian Dictionary. Owing to the deservedly
high repute of Rheede's Hortus Malabaricus and Buchanan's works,
many of these Malayalam names have contributed terms to European
botanical and Zoological science, but in a very incorrect form. As the
identity of species is always a difficultquestion. Dr. Gundert's Dictionary
will be of value in this way to naturalists.
The transcription of each Malayalam word according to Lepsius'
system is another useful feature. Modern linguistic science requires a
knowledge of the mode of production of sounds and distrusts the more or
less imperfect alphabetic systems in use for writing languages; Lepsius'
system is one of the best for expressing accurately the delicate shades of
quality which are not given by the usual orthography, but which are
indispensable to comparative philologists.
It will then be evident that Dr. Gundert has not only performed a
most laborious task, but also that he has done it in a manner every way
corresponding to the requirements of modern linguistic science, with the
latest results of which he is perfectly at home.
It is difficult to make any suggestions to the author; we will
however venture on one or two. The Puttanpana (i.e. "new song") which
he often quotes is not a Syrian but a Roman Catholic poem; Dr. Gundert
has been misled by the mutilated edition printed at Cottayam. The
original has only been printed quite recently; it was written by a German
Jesuit—Ernest Hanxleden and as the introduction mentions Don An
thony (i.e. Pimental) as Archbishop of Cranganore, it must have been
composed after 1721. Hanxleden died in 1732. Max Müller mentions
him as an excellent Sanskritist, and under the name of Father Arnos he
is the most popular author among the Syrians of Cochin and Travancore.
He and the more famous Father Beschi came out to India at the same time.
Again Dr. Gundert takes the word cangadam, a raft, to be a
Portuguese word, which cannot be the case as it occurs in the Periplus of
the Red Sea (3rd century A.D.) in precisely the same sense, and is used
