bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Art. III.—Short Vocabulary of Red Karen
Authors: Houghton Bernard
Published: March 2011

The subjoined list of words is founded mainly on those of B. H. Hodgson, but certain omissions and additions have been made, with the object of showing only those words in common use which experience teaches are not easily altered or changed in the times of “storm and stress” through which most of the wilder tribes of Burma are passing, or which they have undergone at some previous stage of their history. In few parts of the world, indeed, has tribal conflict been more incessant than amongst the Mongoloid hillmen of S.E. Asia, or the conditions more favourable for the disintegration of old and the formation of new languages and dialects,—hence the multiplication of the latter so frequently remarked on by philologists.
Art. IV.—The Indian Buddhist Cult of Avalokita and his Consort Tārā ‘the Saviouress,’ illustrated from the Remains in Magadha
Authors: Waddell L. A.
Published: March 2011

The present paper brings the much despised Mahāyāna form of Buddhism fully home to the very cradle-land of Buddhism in India, and invests itwith unexpected importance in the history of Indian Buddhism.

No one has yet realized the vast extent to which Mahāyāna and Tāntrik Buddhist remains cover India; nor sufficiently realized the leading part played by the Mahāyāna in Indian Buddhism during its most popular period.
Art. X.—Ssŭma Ch'ien's Historical Records. Introductory Chapter
Authors: Allen Herbert J.
Published: March 2011

In support of the theory set forth in the pages of this Journal (Part III. 1890, Art. IX.) that the Chinese classics, supposed to have been brought to light again towards the close of the second century b.c., were probably forged at that time, it would be advisable to give a literal translation of the first few chapters of the Historical Records by the great historian Ssŭma Ch'ien, written circâ b.c. 91. The introductory chapter is by Ssŭma Chêng (the ‘Lesser Ssŭma’), who lived a.d. 720, and made the Records the study of his lifetime. It is usually printed with the Records, and forms an integral part of it.
Art. I.—Description of Mesopotamia and Baghdād, written about the year 900 a.d. by Ibn Serapion. The Arabic Text edited from a MS. in the British Museum Library, with Translation and Notes
Authors: le Strange Guy
Published: March 2011

Now six leagues after the Nahr Kūthā has been led off from the Euphrates, this last divides into two branches. Of these the (true) Euphrates passes on down to (the town called) Ḳanṭara-al-Kūfa, then it runs past the city of Al-Kūfa, where there is a Bridge-of-Boats over it. And after this it flows into the Swamps.
Art. IX.—On the Origin and Earlier History of the Chinese Coinage
Authors: Hopkins L. C.
Published: March 2011

The origin and earlier history of the Chinese coinage have been discussed in several European works, of which the most important are, in order of date, Dr. W. Vissering's “On Chinese Currency,” Leiden, 1877; Professor S. M. Georgievsky's “Drevneishia moneti Kitaichev” (The Ancient Chinese Coins), 1889; and M. Terrien de Lacouperie's “Catalogue of Chinese Coins,” printed by order of the Trustees of the British Museum, 1892.
Art. XIII.—Ghaṭayāla Inscription of the Pratihāra Kahkuha, of [Vikrama-] Saṃvat 918
Authors: Debiprasād Munshi
Published: March 2011

The stone which bears this inscription is in the wall of a small building which is close to some ruins about a mile east of Ghaṭayāla, a village situated about twenty miles north of the city of Jodhpur. It contains twenty-two lines of writing, which cover a space of about 2′ 2″ broad by 1′ 9″ high. The first twenty lines are well preserved; of the two others the greater part is effaced or broken away, together with any subsequent lines of writing which, the inscription originally may have contained. The size of the letters is about ⅝″. The characters are Nāgarī; they closely resemble those of the Jodhpur inscription of Bāuka, and have been drawn and engraved with the same care and skill. The language, up to nearly the end of line 20, is Māhārāshṭrī Prākṛit; the small remainder is in Sanskṛit; and the whole is in verse. In respect of orthography it will be sufficient to state that the letter b, when it is not combined with another consonant, is denoted by a sign of its own, not by the sign for v.
Art. XIV.—Mahuan's Account of the Kingdom of Bengala (Bengal)
Authors: Phillips Geo.
Published: March 2011

The following is a Chinese description of the kingdom of Bengal, written at the commencement of the fifteenth century, about eighty years before the Portuguese discovered the route round the Cape of Good Hope, and about sixty years or so after Ibn Batuta had visited those regions. This account is a chapter taken from a work, bearing the Chinese title Ying-yai--shêng-lan (a general account of the shores of the ocean), compiled by one Mahuan, an Interpreter attached to the suite of Chêng Ho, who was sent to the various kingdoms of the western ocean by the Chinese Emperor Tung-lo. The object of this expedition was, that the Emperor Yung-lo feared that Hui-ti, his predecessor, whom he had driven from the throne, was concealing himself in some country over the sea; he wanted to trace him, and at the same time to display his military force in foreign countries, in order to show that China was rich and strong.
Art. XVI.—The Lî Sâo Poem and its Author
Authors: Legge
Published: March 2011

In my former paper I endeavoured to set forth the principal events in the life of Ch'ü Yüan, the author of the Lî Sâo Poem, as they are related in the biography of him by the historian Sze-mâ Ch'ien.
Art. XI.—Vidhūra Jātaka (No. 548 . of Ceylon List.) [From the Burmese.]
Authors: St. John R. F. St. Andrew
Published: March 2011

One day, when the disciples were discussing the various forms of wisdom peculiar to the Buddha, the Lord came into the hall and inquired what they were discussing. On being informed, he said: “Rahans, there will be no difficulty in understanding how I can now so easily overcome the opinions of Brahmans, princes, and others, bringing them to a right frame of mind, when you hear how, in a former existence as the high-born Vidhūra, on the summit of Mount Kāḷāgiri, I overcame and subdued the virulence of the Rakshasa Puṇṇaka.”
Art. XII.—Chao Ju-kua's Ethnography: Table of Contents and Extracts regarding Ceylon and India, and some Articles of Trade
Authors: Hirth F.
Published: March 2011

Chao Ju-kua's ethnographical work, the Chu-fan-chih, consists of two parts (books, chüan). In the first part the author describes the various countries concerned in the Oriental sea-trade of his time; while the second part treats upon the foreign products brought as merchandise to China, and is followed, by way of supplement, by a detailed description of the island of Hainan, which in those days had among all the possessions of the empire risen to a high state of civilization, owing to a large number of statesmen, poets, and philosophers having spent years of their lives there in banishment during the Sung dynasty.
Art. XIII.— The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration
Authors: Irvine William
Published: March 2011

In 1894 I began the preparatory studies for an account of the later Indian Moghul system of government and administration in all its branches, being impelled by the belief that some information of the kind was a necessary introduction to a History of that period, which I had previously planned and commenced. Before I had done more than sketch out my first part, which deals with the Sovereign, the Court Ceremonial, and the elaborate system of Entitlature, I noticed the issue of a book on a part of my subject by Dr. Paul Horn. The perusal of this excellent work diverted my attention to a later section of my proposed Introduction, the subject of the Army and Army Organization; and in this way I have been led to write this portion before any of the others. Except incidentally, my paper is neither a translation nor a review of Dr. Horn's essay; and though indebted to him, as acknowledged from time to time, my study covers, in the main, quite different ground, forming a complement to what he has done, and, as I think, carrying the subject a good deal farther in several directions. Dr. Horn seems to have read chiefly the authorities for the period before Aurangzeb ‘Ālamgīr; while my reading has been confined in great measure to the reigns of Aurangzeb's successors in the period 1707–1803.
Art. X.—A Study of the Dakhan Villages, their Origin and Development
Authors: Baden-Powell B. H.
Published: March 2011

It is probably well known to most readers interested in tenure questions, that the villages of the Dakhan Districts of Bombay are in that form in which no joint-ownership of the whole (separately named) area appears: the holdings within the village are entirely separate, and no area of waste land is included as the ‘ common ’ property of the whole body, and capable of partition. But apart from the fact that the village is a geographical unit, the feeling of being a ‘ community ’ is maintained by the common interests and customs of the local group, by obedience to one hereditary headman, and by its self-contained life : having its own staff of artizans and servants, the village does not need to look outside its own limits for the supply of its ordinary wants. This constitution is quite different from that of the joint-village of Upper India, though some features (such as the artizan staff) must necessarily be common to both.
Art. XIII.—Two Notes on Indian Numismatics
Authors: Rapson E. J.
Published: March 2011

The regular Greek inscription on the coins of Hermaeus is ΒΑΣι٨ΕΩΣ ΣΩТΗΡΟΣ | ΕΡΜΑ;ΙΟΥ; but, on some of his bronze coins, and on the whole bronze series issued by him conjointly with Kujula Kadphises, there appears an inscription which differs from this in two respects— (1) the substitution of ΣТΗΡΟΣ for ΣΩТΗΡΟΣ, and (2) the addition of the syllable Σ;Υ.
Art. XIV.—Some Notes on the Dîwâns of the Arabic Tribes
Authors: Goldziher I.
Published: March 2011

The Dîwân of the Huḏeilites must be regarded as our single remaining inheritance of a great mass of literature which formed an important part of the results obtained by the Arab philologians in their first endeavours to collect the old poetry of the Arabs.

Indeed, the history of Arabic literature, which—if it be ever once realised—must suffice for the oldest period with recording many lost productions of learning and diligence, has exactly this office to fulfil when it begins to give an account of the labours of philological workers in the field of ancient poetry.
Art. XXVII.—The story of the merchant Ghosaka (Ghosakaseṭṭhi) in its twofold Pāli form, with reference to other Indian parallels
Authors: Hardy E.
Published: March 2011

The Manoratha-Pūraṇī, Buddhaghosa's Commentary on the Aṅguttara-Nikāya, embraces a pretty large collection of highly important and interesting legends, which, according to my estimation, amounts to nearly one-third of the whole work. A general idea of it may be gained from two initial words, viz. Etad aggam; for each legend points to some follower of Gotama Buddha, an example, as it were, amongst all of the same kind, whether man or woman, whether member of the Order or still living in the world.
Art. XXVIII.—The Geography of the Kandahár Inscription
Authors: Beames John
Published: March 2011

In the Journal Asiatique for 1890, vol. xv, p. 195, the late eminent scholar M. James Darmesteter gave the text and a translation of the inscription, in the vaulted chamber constructed by order of the Emperor Bàbar on a rock near Kandahár, a.d. 1522–27. The inscription is not entirely of the same date as the building. It is in three parts, the first of which only is synchronous with the dome, having been engraved under the orders of Prince Kámrán, then governor of Kandahár. The second, which has been partly defaced, seems to have been executed after Bábar's death by Prince'Askari, to whom Kámrán entrusted the government of Kandahár at the time when, after their father's death, he began those scandalous intrigues against his brother, the long-suffering Humáyún, which ended in the temporary downfall of the dynasty. The third part was written and set up seventy years later by Mir Ma'súm, an official in the service of the Emperor Akbar. M. Darmesteter remarks on this portion of the inscription: “Un commentaire de la liste géographique contiendrait toute l'histoire géographique de l'Hindoustan … Cette liste serait un bon point de départ pour remonter dans la géographie historique du moyen âge et pour descendre jusqu'à nos jours” (p. 223).
Art. VII.—The Logos Ebraikos in the Magical Papyrus of Paris, and the Book of Enoch
Authors: Gaster M.
Published: March 2011

The scholars who have studied hitherto the Greek magical papyri, such as Parthey, Wessely, Dieterich, and others, have either concentrated their attention upon the Greek forms contained in these documents, or have tried to find a connecting link between these books, notably between the weird notions contained therein and Greek and Egyptian parallels. Greek mysteries have been adduced in order to explain some of the curious notions prevailing in these papyri. Egypt had to serve for explaining the origin of some of the mystical names or angels mentioned therein. From time to time allusion has been made to so-called Cabalistic parallels, without any clear proof being furnished as to the dependence of one upon the other. But one branch of literature has been entirely neglected, which ought to have attracted attention in the first place, namely, the apocryphal and pseudo-epigraphic literature, which is the only truly contemporary literature. Similarity in tendency, claim of great antiquity, and open or covert allusions to heavenly mysteries show close affinities of no mean order. The authors in one case would be the very persons to avail themselves of the information furnished by the other. The world in which the writers of the apocryphal literature move has not been very much different from that in which the writers and speculators in this mystical lore, preserved, in the papyri, have lived. And one would have thought that the material offered by the apocryphal literature would have been the first to be utilized for the elucidation of some of the problems connected with these magical papyri.
XVIII Catalogue of the Stein Collection of Sanskrit MSS. from Kashmir
Authors: Clauson Gerard L. M. , Macdonell A.A.
Published: March 2011

The subjoined catalogue describes a collection comprising 368 separate texts mainly in Sanskrit, which were collected by Dr. M. A. Stein and acquired at his expense chiefly at Śrīnagar during his visits to Kashmir between 1888 and 1905. Apart from texts needed by Dr. Stein for his labours, during 1888–99, on his critical edition and annotated translation of Kalhana's Rājataraṅgiṇī, numerous MSS. were purchased by him either to assist the work of fellow-scholars in Europe or on account of their philological or palæographical interest.
XIX. Fragment Final de la Nīlakaṇṭhādharaṇī en brāhmī et en transcription sogdienne
Authors: Poussin L. de la Vallée , Gauthiot R.
Published: March 2011

Le fragment de dhāraṇī publié ici provient de Touenhouang, d'où il a été rapporté par M. M. A. Stein à son second voyage d'exploration en Asie centrale. Il est écrit sur un morceau de rouleau, en double, d'abord en brāhmī, puis en écriture sogdienne. Le texte en brāhmī a été lu, transcrit, et annoté par M. de la Vallée Poussin, la transcription sogdienne a été étudiée par M. Gauthiot. On a disposé en tête de l'article les notes qui ont paru nécessaires; à la suite on a donné le texte entier en transcription littérale; en dernier lieu figure la reproduction intégrate de l'original.
XXII Some Talaing Inscriptions on Glazed Tiles
Authors: Blagden C. O.
Published: March 2011

In the Indian Antiquary for December, 1893 (vol. xxii), on pp. 343–5, in a paper entitled “Notes on Antiquities in Rāmaññadesa (the Talaing country of Burma)” there is a discussion by Major (now Sir) R. C. Temple on two inscriptions figured on plates ix and ixa of the series illustrating the paper. These plates represent two glazed terra-cotta tiles found in Lower Burma, each one bearing in rather high relief two female figures elaborately robed and adorned with bracelets, necklets, ear-rings, pagodaspire-shaped head-coverings, etc. The attitudes of the figures differ slightly in the two plates. Above them, in each case, is an inscription in the native character which Sir R. C. Temple has read kwan phrau mā, pa mat Iwat, with the alternative suggestion of phra instead of phrau. He has tried to make sense of this legend in Talaing, Burmese, and Shan, with a further hint that it may possibly be Siamese. As a Talaing inscription he interprets it to mean something which, as being “against epigraphic experience”, he is “loth to accept”, namely, a vague reference to a “wife who is a friend for ever”, a statement which in fact has no particular point. In the other alternative languages he makes it out to be a formal dedication (lwat) of the tiles by a nobleman with a Siamese title and a Pāli name, one kwan phra Mahāpamat to wit. At the same time he adds the caution that the legend does not appear to be correct Siamese.
The Kharosthi Alphabet
Authors: Banerji R. D.
Published: March 2011

Kharoṣṭhī or Kharoṣṭrī is the name of a particular script used in Afghanistan, the Punjab, and portions of Central Asia from the fourth or fifth centuries before Christ to the third or fourth centuries of the Christian era. In the third or fourth centuriesa.d.it gradually went out of use, the place being taken by one or more forms of the mediaeval Brāhmī. In the eighteenth century the earlier generation of epigraphists and archæologists used to call this script “Bactrian”, “Indo-Bactrian”, “Bactro-Pali”, “Ariano-Pali”, etc. Then it was identified with theKharoṣṭhīorKharoṭṭhī lipi, on the evidence of theFa-wan-shu-lin. The Chinese work describes the “ass-lip” (Kham-oṣṭhain Sanskrit) script, invented by one Kharoṣṭha, in which the writing ran from the right to left. This identification, proposed by George Bühler, has since met with general acceptance.
Invasion of the Panjab by Ardashir Papakan (Babagan), the first Sasanian King of Persia, A.D. 226–41
Authors: Smith Vincent A.
Published: March 2011

In the course of miscellaneous reading lately I came across a passage in the Introduction to Firishta's History of the Rise of the Muhammadan Power in India which I had marked long ago and then completely forgotten. If the main, statement in that passage (as italicized), to the effect that Ardashīr Pāpakān (Bābagān), the founder of the Sasanian dynasty of Persia (A.D. 226–41), invaded the Panjāb and retired on receiving homage and tribute, be accepted as true, the information thus acquired not only explains an extremely puzzling unique coin which I published in 1897, but also throws welcome light upon one of the darkest periods of Indian history, the third century after Christ.
A Samaritan Periapt
Authors: Pilcher E. J.
Published: March 2011

The illustration shows a small amulet which is remarkable as being the first known example of a bilingual in Greek and Samaritan. On the obverse it bears, in Samaritan characters, ןורשי לאכ ןיא ēn ka'ēl Yeurûn, “ None like the God of Jeshurun” (Deut. xxxiii, 26). On the reverse, Εἷς θες: Βοθ[ε]ι Μαρκιανν “ One God. Help thou Marciane ! ” The female name, Marciane, recalls Marah הקרמ (a variant of the Latin Marcus), the first great Samaritan theologian. He has left a large literature, and is usually considered to have flourished about the fourth century of the Christian Era. His original name was Moses ben Amram ben Sered ; but from humility, or other consideration, he altered השמ Moeh. Instead of the ש, which has the numerical value of 300, he substituted ר = 200 and ק = 100 : thus preserving the original total, but replacing the revered name of Moses by the obscure Marah.
The Plays of Bhāsa
Authors: Banerji-Śāstrī A.
Published: March 2011

Towards the beginning of the fifth century a.d. Kālidāsa made his début with an apology for his temerity in addressing an audience accustomed to such old, wellestablished authors as “Bhāsa and others”. After the lapse of fifteen centuries Kālidāsa has held his own, while Bhāsa is practically forgotten. The reason is not the decisive verdict of Time, but the unfortunate loss of his works. But lately came a surprise. In 1912 Gaṇapati Śāstrī discovered and published thirteen dramas in the Trivandrum Sanskrit Series, and claimed them as Bhāsa's. For the past eight years Orientalists have been considering this claim, the general trend of opinion being unfavourable. The present article proposes to supplement the progress already made in the investigation of this question, and to point out the facts practically settled, thus paving the way for further research.
A Loan-tablet dated in the Seventh Year of Saracos
Authors: Pinches Theophilus G.
Published: March 2011

As historical inscriptions of this, the last king of Assyria, are wanting, any additional light on his reign, however meagre that light may be, will probably be regarded as welcome, and this must be my excuse for the publication of this interesting but comparatively unimportant inscription.

Like his predecessors, Saracos (Sin-šar-iškun) called himself “the great king, the powerful king, the king of the world, the king of Assyria”. He was also “the favourite of Aššur, Enlil, and Ninlil; the beloved of Merodach, and Zēr-panîtum, the choice of the heart's desire of Nebo and Merodach”, etc. From the phrasing of this cylinder-inscription, it is clear that he regarded himself as much king of Babylon as of Assyria, and from the fact that the text came from.Nineveh, it might be supposed that his sympathies were as much with the one country as with the other—indeed, as neighbouring nations, speaking the same language, this feeling would in no wise be unreasonable. Less than sixty years, however, had passed since the death of the somewhat ruthless Sennacherib, and this was probably too short a time to allow the Babylonians to forget what had happened during the earlier years of his reign and in the time of Aššur-bani-âpli—the “great and noble Asnapper”, when the latter was in conflict with Šamaš-šum-ukîn (Saosduchinos), his brother. That they had the right to resist the Assyrian claim to over-lordship there is no doubt, and it is therefore certain that the action of the armies of Aššur-bani-apli, king of Assyria, aroused again Babylonian resentment against the dominion of the more northerly power.
Notes on the editions of the Arabic Poets 'Abid ibn al-Abras, 'Amir ibn at Tufail, and 'Amr ibn Qami'a published by Sir Charles J. Lyall
Authors: Krenkow F.
Published: March 2011

Since the publication of these three important collections of ancient Arabic poetry, I have had access to two valuable old works dealing with the older period of Arabic poetry, viz. the second volume of Ibn Qutaiba's Kitāb al-Ma'ānī (India Office, No. 1155) and the Ḥamāsa of Hibat Allāh Ibn ash-Shaǧarī (Paris: Arabe No. 6018), the latter in photographs belonging to Mr. Storey.
The Kufic Inscriptions of Kisimkazi Mosque, Zanzibar, 500 H. (A.D. 1107)
Authors: Flury S.
Published: March 2011

Our knowledge of ornamental Kufic inscriptions is chiefly based on the materials which have been found in Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, and Upper Mesopotamia. Although they are fairly numerous, a comparative study of the origin and general development of the different types of Kufic writing is not yet possible. Such a work would have to include the countries further East, and unfortunately they have not been thoroughly explored hitherto. But the few landmarks we possess show clearly that the outlying Eastern provinces produced a greater variety of decorative inscriptions than the West ever did.
On a Newly Discovered Early Chou Inscribed Bronze
Authors: Hopkins L. C.
Published: March 2011

The large Chinese Bronze (Plate I) which the kindness of its owner, Mr. George Eumorfopoulos, has enabled the members of our Section to inspect and examine at our leisure, is a specimen in more than one respect of exceptional importance. And being a quite recent acquisition, and not derived from any other European, American, or Japanese collection, it has been judged a very appropriate occasion to introduce it to the notice, and, I will add, to the critical scrutiny, of the sinologic world here represented.
Some Features of the Siamese Speech and Writing
Authors: Bradley Cornelius
Published: March 2011

The Siamese is the southernmost outlier of the great family of the Chinese dialects. Its kinship with them is shown, first, by its monosyllabic vocabulary; and second, by the peculiar use it makes of tonal inflections of the voice, not as a part of its rhetorical apparatus, but as essential elements of individual words, quite as indispensable for their right enunciation and interpretation as are the consonants and vowels that make up their framework. Their kinship is further shown by a singular feature of the content and use of words in both—a quality which is often called their abstractness. To me, however, that term seems wholly inappropriate, for it apparently denies what is one of the most conspicuous features of both languages, namely, their concreteness. The fact apparently is this: In both languages the words are symbols of conceptsper se, being wholly devoid of inflectional apparatus to express and define their relations with other words in the sentence. They are, therefore, free to function in any syntactical relation not incompatible with their essential meaning. The very same thing has to a notable degree become not only possible but even common in modern English, as a result of the disappearance of the inflectional and derivational apparatus that formerly prevented nouns from taking on the functions of verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, andvice versa.
Hymn to Ninurta as Sirius (K 128)
Authors: Burrows Eric
Published: March 2011

Although this was one of the first hymns to Ninurta which attracted attention, it seems never to have been published fully. Strassmaier, AV. 7357+8575+6971+7129+8536+7586+8431, provides the text of obv. 1–12; 7303 gives obv. 19. Jensen, from two copies by Bezold, gave in Kosmologie, 470 ff, transcription and translation of obv. 1–13 only (cf. also Jastrow, Religion, i, 149). I have been able to copy the full text through the kindness of Sir Ernest Wallis Budge. I am greatly indebted to Professor Langdon for help of all kinds in editing it. References and other matter in the notes which I owe to him have been marked [L.].
The Transcription of Cuneiform Signs
Authors: Thureau-Dangin François
Published: March 2011

The transcription of the Cuneiform signs presents a problem much more difficult than that of the transcription of the ordinary Semitic alphabetical scripts. The object of transcriptions of Cuneiform signs is not merely that of obtaining phonetic perfection, but it must also distinguish the signsemployed for the same sounds. In the earlier stages of Assyriology Delitzsch and others adopted the system of accentuating the signs, and before a larger number of homophones were discovered this system sufficed, and has beenadopted for the transcription of both Sumerian and Semitic texts. But at present there is complete anarchy among Assyriologists in transcribing Cuneiform texts. A tablet of the Rassam Collection in the British Museum, which the writer recently copied through the kindness of Sir Ernest Wallis Budge, groups together the homophonic signs. On this tablet there are, for example, eight different signs for the phonetic syllable eš. nine for še, eleven for gir, and eighteen for ge! It is not possible to devise eleven and eighteen different accents for thesevalues. The writer, therefore, proposes to introduce the method of numbering the signs with inferior exponents, eš1 eš2 eš3; ge1, ge2, ge3, etc., following a suggestion made by Dr. A. Walther, ZA. xxix, 147. [The idea was taken from Weissbach.]
The Story of the Dasaratha Jataka and of the Ramayana
Authors: Utgikar N. B.
Published: March 2011

The existence of parallelisms between a number of the stories contained in the Jataka portion of the Buddhist literature and those embodied in the epic literature is an admittedly interesting fact, and is by now a commonplace of Post-Vedic studies. The canker of chronological uncertainty, however, that generally runs through the history of Indian literature and antiquities here also unfortunately prevails, and detracts much from the value of what would otherwise have been a highly decisive means for judging of the priority of the one to the other. Indeed, because of this particular disqualification, viz. chronological dubiousness, the issue often tends to appropriate wrong proportions, and generally a satisfactory solution of the diverse aspects of the problem thus presented in a double form becomes increasingly difficult.
Meccan Musical Instruments
Authors: Farmer Henry George
Published: March 2011

Among the most interesting exhibits at the Rijks Ethnographisch Museum at Leyden are the Meccan musical instruments presented by the well-known Arabist and traveller, Professor Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje. They are displayed, in a special case containing other Meccan objects, in the bureau of the Director, Dr. H. H. Juynboll. These instruments, Dr. Snouck Hurgronje informs me, were not collected by himself personally, but by a Jidda friend who, unfortunately, omitted to supply the requisite data for scientific registering. Even their names are denied us. Yet with the help of the donor, both by conversations and correspondence, and the courtesy of the Director of the Museum, the present writer is able to submit an account of these instruments, which comprise a lute, two viols, three rustic reed-pipes, an oboe, a flute, and a tambourine.
The Sumerian Epic of Gilgamish
Authors: Langdon S.
Published: March 2011

Last season M. Watelin discovered a number of Sumerian tablets at Hursagkalamma in the spur of the great mound north of the temple of Ninlil. These were found in trench C 15, 1 metre below the surface, 3 metres above plain level, and in the Hammurabi stratum. Several fragments have been joined at Oxford, so that the lower half of a large two-column tablet has been completed. The tablet is 5 inches wide (125 mm.) and 5 inches long, originally 10 inches long. This tablet contains that part of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamish which relates to the Humbaba episode. Now it is clear that the lower half of a large tablet published by Zimmern,Sumerische Kultlieder(all from the same period as the Kish tablet) belongs to the same series. This tablet, No. 196, VAT. 6281, has also two columns, and is obviously the first tablet of the series. Zimmern wrote that a dealer sold VAT. 6281, claiming that it came from Dilbat. That tablet is only 105 mm. wide, or ¾ in. narrower than the Kish tablet. The two tablets, therefore, represent local peculiarities observable in local editions of other series.
Working in metal: Mutual influences between the Islamic world and the medieval West
Authors: Fehérvári G.
Published: March 2011

The enamelled Islamic dish which is in the Ferdinandeum at Innsbruck is well known to scholars of Islamic art. It is a unique and outstanding piece of work, yet, surprisingly, so far no monograph has been devoted to it. One of the earliest references to this object was made by Max van Berchem and J. Strzygowski. In 1910 it was on show at the famous Islamic exhibition in Munich. Then the dish was included in Alois Riegel's publication, which came out soon after World War I. The late L. A. Mayer mentioned it again briefly in connexion with a small glass bottle in the British Museum, which, like the dish, depicts dancing girls. Then an article by Hugo Buchtal referred to it once more. More recently the dish was described and illustrated by Sir Harry Garner.
Art. I. On the Intermixture of Buddhism with Brahmanism in the religion of the Hindus of the Dekkan
Authors: Stevenson J.
Published: March 2011

That Buddhism prevailed extensively in the Dekkan during the period of its ascendancy in India, is evident, from the imperishable monuments of that religion existing in the celebrated caves of Ellora (Verul), K´rli, Ajanta, and Salsette (Sáshte). It would give, however, but a very imperfect and limited idea of the influence and extensive ramifications of Buddhism, to suppose that its monuments are confined to places of such celebrity. To speak only of the neighbourhood of Bombay, small caves having inscriptions in the ancient cave character are to be found in the hills near Nasik and Junír. Even at the comparatively unimportant villages of Máhar on the Bánkot river, and Kher, twelve miles distant, there are excavations of a similar kind, which I myself have visited. Some of them still contain a dágoba, and others fragments of stone, belonging to a previously existing place of that kind; and I have no doubt that many similar caves exist throughout the country, though they never have been brought to public notice. When, then, stations of Buddhist priests existed in such places as these, to say the least, their influence in the country around must have been considerable. At the commencement of the controversy between the rival sects, the Buddhists seem to have had the decided superiority. Buddhism is eminently a religion of reason: it rejects all that reason does not comprehend; and makes its constant appeal to (Buddhi) the human intellect, as the supreme judge in religious things. Brahmanism, on the contrary, is a religion of tradition.
Art. II.—Observations on the Preparation of Caoutchouc
Authors: Solly E.
Published: March 2011

The many uses to which Caoutchouc is now applied, as well as its increasing importance as an article of trade, render it of peculiar interest, and more particularly so at the present time, from the circumstance that a new and abundant source of it in India has been lately pointed out. In the following observations I am anxious to draw attention to some facts which, though perhaps known to a few who have examined the subject with great attention, are generally unknown or overlooked.
Art. III.—Account of the Wáralís and Kátodís,—two of the Forest Tribes of the northern Konkan
Authors: Wilson John
Published: March 2011

That India is not the cradle of the Brahmanical faith, may be a proposition startling to many who are not acquainted with its ancient literature. To the orientalíst of the humblest pretension, however, it needs no proof. The predecessors of the Brahmans, it is admitted by all who hare considered their records and traditions, were first associated together as a religious fraternity in a country beyond the Indus, or exterior to the Himálaya mountains. Our greatest men are divided in their opinions as to the country from which they came. Sir William Jones brings them from Iran, or Central Asia; Adelung from a similar locality; Klaproth, from the Caucasian mountains; Kennedy, from the plains of the Euphrates; and Schlegel, from the borders of the Caspian Sea. The theories of these scholars are all plausibly supported; and they generally agree in this respect, that they take it for granted, that the Brahmans in ancient times were found in the territories immediately north of India. The occurrence of about three hundred Sanskrit words in the Persian language, the Hindú notion of the northern position of the residences of the gods, the situation of the Manusarovar, or Lake of Intelligence, still a celebrated place of religious pilgrimage, and the source of the river Brahmaputra, whose etymological meaning, the “son of Brahma,” is similar to that of the usual designation of the priestly class to whom I refer, are in favour of this agreement. After the Brahmans entered India, they continued for a considerable time to inhabit its northern territories. The “Holy Land” of Manu, which is of no great extent, lies between the Drishadwatí and Saraswatí. On the banks of the latter river, according to some authorities, lived Vyása, the reputed compiler of the Vedas and Puránas. In the north are to be found the shrines, junctions of rivers, and lakes, esteemed most sacred by the Hindús in all ages.
Art. V.—Memoir on the Length of the Illahee Guz, or Imperial Land Measure of Hindostan
Authors: Hodgson J. A.
Published: March 2011

In submitting to the Royal Asiatic Society the following remarks on the very important inquiry, as to the length of that unit on which is founded the simple but perfect system of land measurement, by bigahs and their subdivisions, adopted by the most enlightened of the Moghul sovereigns of Hindustan, the Emperor Akbar, I hope I may be excused for entering into much more detail than the subject may at first seem to require; and before entering into the investigation, that I may be allowed to submit some preliminary remarks.
Art. VI.—An Account of the Bauddho-Vaishnavas, or Vitthal-Bhaktas of the Dakhan
Authors: Stevenson J.
Published: March 2011

The Bauddho-Vaishnavas are a sect of Hindus living chiefly within the limits of the Marátha country, though also scattered over Gujaráth, Central India, and the Carnatic, wherever the Marathas have formed settlements. People usually call them Vitthal-Bhaktas, because they worship Vishnu under the form of Pandurang or Vitthal, whose chief temple is at Pandharpur, on the right bank of the Bhima. They delight in calling themselves Vaishnava Vira, yet since there are others to whom this name is equally applicable, it will not serve for a characteristic epithet. But as the worshippers of Pandurang consider their god to be the ninth or Bauddha Avatár of Vishnu, the term Bauddho-Vaishnavas forms a convenient descriptive name for the sect, In the paper on the intermixture of Buddhism with Brahmanism in the religion of the Hindus of the Dakhan, I made particular mention of Vithobá, as this god is most frequently termed. In that paper, I based my observations mainly on oral communications and popular traditions; since that time, however, having had occasion to pay more attention to the literature of the Vitthal-Bhaktas, there appears enough of interesting matter in their writings to merit a particular notice of their religious opinions and history.
Art. VIII.—Visit from Wadi Tor to Gebel Nakús, or the Mountain of the Bell, Peninsula of Mount Sinai
Authors: Newbold
Published: March 2011

After a night's refreshing bivouac on the sand, under the palm trees of Wadi Tor, we rose at sunrise on the 10th of June, 1840, mounted, and travelled slowly among some low sand hills in a northerly direction, almost parallel with the eastern shore of the Red Sea. As we emerged from the mouth of a small defile, the waters of this sacred gulf burst on our view; the surface marked with annular, crescent-shaped, and irregular blotches of a purplish red, extending as far as the eye could reach. They were curiously contrasted with the beautiful aqua-marine of the water lying over the white coral reefs. This red colour I ascertained to be caused by the subjacent red sandstone, and reddish coral reefs; a similar phenomenon is observed in the straits of Babel-mandeb, and also near Suez; particularly when the rays of the sun fall on the water at a small angle. The low hills of the defile were covered with fragments of brown, red, white, and black chert, many of them coated with a white mealy enduit, flattish and singularly honeycombed. Hillocks of a considerable size were often wholly composed of similar fragments. In a pass to the left, at the foot of some cliffs about fifty feet high, imbedded in a stratum of friable earthy sandstone, we observed a layer of fossil shells. The rock in many places is impregnated with oxide of iron, and contains thin veins of quartz resembling calcedony. From this place, our route lay along the shore of the Red Sea. High sandstone cliffs skirted the right of the path, in regular strata, dipping at an angle of 5°. E. 20 N.; direction S.S.E.
Art. XIV.—On some Ancient Mounds of Scorious Ashes in Southern India
Authors: Newbold T. J.
Published: March 2011

About the middle of 1836 I sent to the late Mr. J. Prinsep, then Secretary to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, a brief account of a hill of ashes, situate at Budigunta, about eleven miles W. from Bellary, in the Ceded Districts, which he published in the Journal of the Society for October of the same year under the head of “Note on the occurrence of Volcanic Scoria in the Southern Peninsula;”—a title given by himself to the communication, from which it may be inferred that he was inclined to consider the ashes (specimens of which were forwarded) as of volcanic origin.
Art. XV.—Notes on the Sabhá Parrva of the Mahábhárata, illustrative of some Ancient Usages and Articles of Traffic of the Hindus
Authors: Wilson H. H.
Published: March 2011

The subject of the Sanskrit poem called the Mahábhárata is well known to be the struggle for supremacy between two kindred and rival families, those of Pándu and Kuru. The event is in all probability historically true, and the circumstances related in the poem, however blended with fiction and coloured by mythology, are in many instances likely to be substantially authentic. It is, however, Jn the episodical portions with which the poem abounds, that information of a curious and no doubt, in the main, correct description, relating to the social and political state of India, at periods considerably anterior to the Christian æra, is to be found. The information, it is true, is of a mixed character, as might be expected in a professedly poetical composition, and in a work which has very possibly been from time to time corrupted by comparatively modern interpolation. Still there is much that wears the semblance of accuracy and antiquity, as in the instances which I propose to bring to the observation of the Society.
Art. XVII.—Mineral Resources of Southern India.—No. 1. Copper Districts of Ceded Districts, South Mahratta Country, and Nellore
Authors: Newbold
Published: March 2011

These are some excavations, said to have been made under the direction of Hyder, on the lower ridge of the copper mountain range in the Ceded Districts, five or six miles westerly from the cantonment of Bellary, in about lat. 15° 5′ N., and long. 76° 59′ E.; they were given up, according to native information, in consequence of the little profit yielded. The ore,—the green carbonate of copper,—I found in thin layers, filling up seams, and interlaminated with a slate-clay and slate, resembling the killas of Cornwall, which is associated with hornblende and chloritic schists, alternating with gneiss in conformable strata. The former contain thin veins of crystalline marble, and, with the gneiss, have been penetrated by large basaltic dykes. Bosses of granite are seen in the plain at the base. The highest peaks of the range are capped with a ferruginous cellular rock resembling laterite, and resting horizontally on the highly-inclined strata of the crystalline schists; it exhibits efflorescences of impure muriate of soda and sulphate of aluminaj the latter resulting, probably, from the decomposition of iron pyrites which are occasionally found in this rock. Depositions of kunker are seen at considerable elevations, on the sides of the range, and often covering, in beds of variable thickness, the rocks in the plain. The excavations made in search of the ore are not of great magnitude, and must have been speedily given up. I was unable to detect any distinct lode. I have observed indications of a similar ore in the plumbiferous district of Jungumrazpilly, in the Cud-dapah Collectorate, Ceded Districts.
Art. XVIII.—Mineral Resources of Southern India.—No. 2. Magnesite Formations
Authors: Newbold
Published: March 2011

Although it is the object of this paper to notice all the known magnesite localities of Southern India, its scope is more particularly directed to that of the Salem province, as being the most extensive, and as yielding the mineral in the greatest abundance.
Art. II.—On the Lake Phiala—the Jordan and its Sources
Authors: Captain Newbold
Published: March 2011

In Josephus we find the following account of the sources of the Jordan, and the Phiala lake: “The head of this celebrated river [the Jordan] has been thought to bo Panion; but in truth it passes hither underground; and the source of it is Phiala, an hundred and twenty furlongs [stadia] from Cæsarea [Philippi], a little on the right hand, and not much out of the way to Trachonitis. It is called Phiala (that is, the Vial) from the round figure of it; and its water stands always at a stay, the basin being brimful, without either shrinking or overflowing. The first discovery of this secret was from Philip, the Tetrarch of Trachonitis, by casting straws into Phiala, that came out again at Panion, which, till that time, was taken for the head of the Jordan. This river, thus, as to appearance, taking its origin from the Cave of Panion, afterwards crosses the bogs and fens of the lake Semechonitis; and after a course of an hundred and twenty furlongs farther, passes under the city of Julias [or Bethsaida], and so over the lake Genezareth; and then running a long way through a wilderness or desert, it empties itself at last into the lake Asphaltitis, or the Dead Sea.”
Art. III.—On the Site of Caranus, and the Island of Ar-Ruád , the Arvad or Arpad of Scripture
Authors: Captain Newbold
Published: March 2011

Strabo describes Caranus as the maritime arsenal of Aradus, between Balanea and Enhydra, and Pococke recognises it in “the place to which boats come from the isle of Ruad, which is about half a mile to the N. of the present wall of Tortosa; but the port for shipping,” he continues, “is doubtless where it is now—between the island and the continent.” Had this learned traveller pursued his investigations a little farther up the sea-coast to the N. he would have discovered the real site of Carauus, in a port and adjacent ruins, about a mile northerly from the landing-place of which he speaks. These ruins are called to this day, by the Arabs, Caranún a corruption of the Greek Καρύνος or, what is possible, the Greek name might have been a corruption of the more ancient and original Syrian appellation, to which the Arabs have returned, as they have done in the case of the adjacent island of Ruád, the Arvad or Arphad of Scripture, and which the Greeks converted into Arados, 'Αράδος. The present Arabic name, with the article, which is invariably used with it, would be still nearer the ancient name, for instance, Ar Ruád There are many cases in which the Arabs have rejected the names imposed by their Grecian and Roman conquerors on their cities, and returned to the original ones; as in Beyrút, Acca, Bániás, Tidmúr, for Colonia Julia Felix, Ptolemais, Csesarea Philippi, Palmyra, and mauy others. Emésa was a corruption for Homs, &c.
Art. V.—Description of an Execution at Canton
Authors: Meadows T. T.
Published: March 2011

The place used as the execution – ground at Canton is in the southern suburbs, about midway between the forts known to foreigners as the Dutch and French “Follies.” It is, however, some distance back from the river, being about halfway between the southern wall of the city, running parallel to the river, and the latter; distant from each 120 or 130 yards in a straight line. There is no street leading directly to it either from the river or the city. There is a dense population all around, composed, towards the north and west, of the inmates ef shops and dwellings, respectable in its immediate neighbourhood, and getting more wealthy as the foreign factories (distant about a mile) are approached. To the south and east the suburb is, generally speaking, poor, inhabited by low and even criminal classes. The execution-ground itself is a short thoroughfare or lane, running north and south, about fifty yards in length, eight yards in breadth at its northern end, and gradually narrowing to five yards at its southern extremity, where the projection of a house-corner reduces it to a mere passage of one yard and a half in width, and five in length. At the end of this latter is a high strong door, closed and guarded during executions. The eastern side of the ground is bounded in its whole length by a dead brick wall, of about twelve feet high, forming the back of some dwellings or small warehouses.