bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Kādambarī as a source for contemporary administrative history
Authors: Gaur R. C.
Published: March 2011

Unfortunately, not much evidence is available regarding the administrative system of Harṣa. Although we have direct sources like the travel accounts of Huien-Tsiang, the Harṣacarita of Bāṇabhaṭṭa, the Baṇskhérā and Madhubana copper-plate grants, and inscriptions of contemporary rulers, these fail to provide a comprehensive account of Harṣa's government and the political set-up of his time. We therefore supplement our knowledge with the records of the Gupta rulers. This lacuna can be filled, to some extent, if a careful study of Bāṇa's Kādambaī is made. The late V. S. Agrawala's study on Kādambaī in Hindī has a cultural bias rather than a political one. On going through the pages of Kādambaī, it appears that it is complementary to the Harṣacarita. For example, while in the Harṣacarita the picturesque account of the royal palace is mainly confined to its entrance and first block, in Kādambaī the remaining parts are dealt with at length. Similarly, while in the Harṣacarita a detailed account of all the rites which are performed on the eve of a campaign is given, in Kādambaī we get merely an indication of these activities. Thus several scenes which could not be described in the Harṣacarita owing to its limited scope, have been skilfully incorporated by the poet in Kādambaī, thus avoiding duplication. An attempt, therefore, has been made in this paper to study the political and administrative information in Kādambaī.
The interplay of art, literature, and religion in Ṣafavid symbolism
Authors: Cammann Schuyler
Published: March 2011

The Persian literati have always delighted in poetic symbols and metaphors, and subtle plays on words. Therefore we should not be surprised to find that, during a brief period in the first part of the Ṣafavid dynasty when it was possible to use pictures in patterns and designs, these pictures often held symbolic connotations, conveyed through visual puns. Moreover, it seems that the second meaning carried in these puns usually involved a religious message, relating to the spiritual tradition of those Muslim mystics known as Ṣūfīs, who had great influence at court during that same short period. This clever use of pictures to convey ideas was apparently soon forgotten, after the practice was abandoned. But it comes to light again when we undertake to analyse certain early Ṣafavid designs – especially the patterns on various carpets from that period, known to have been woven between approximately 1520 and 1620 of our era.
Lahu Nyi (Red Lahu) funerary chants: Two Lahu texts with a brief ethnographic introduction
Authors: Walker Anthony R.
Published: March 2011

The two texts presented here are part of a rich corpus of Lahu Nyi (Red Lahu) ritual prayers and chants, some of which I was able to record during the course of my anthropological investigations among these Tibeto-Burman-speaking hill folk in the mountains of north Thailand. As I have stated in two previous contributions to this Journal, I am concerned to preserve these texts as a valuable contemporary expression of the cultural heritage of this preliterate people. In this presentation a brief — and therefore far from exhaustive — ethnographic introduction suggests the setting for the recitation of the texts.
Anatomical and pathological terms in Akkadian: Part II
Authors: Adamson P. B.
Published: March 2011

The gilšu is found in both sexes and on both sides of the body. It is followed in the text series by qinnātu (GU.DU.MEŠ) “the buttocks”. This specific anatomical term appears to refer quite clearly to the upper part of the lower limb. Further evidence may be provided by the description of carrying children straddling the hip region, a form of transporting infants which is still widely practised among the more primitive peoples of Africa and Asia at the present time. As it is an obvious landmark, easily recognizable on the surface of the body; it may perhaps be the palpable mass formed by the protrusion of the greater trochanter of the femur. However, this is still open to question.
Two interesting coins of Śaśāṅka
Authors: Bhattacharyya P. K.
Published: March 2011

Śaśāṅka, who flourished in eastern India, was one of the most important rulers in the post-Gupta epoch. He was a rival and opponent of the Maukharis of Kānyakubja, Rājyavardhana and Harṣavardhana of Thāneśvara, and Bhāskaravarman of Kāmarūpa. Śaśāṅka is known from a large number of sources and among these coins are very important. Śaśāṅka is generally known to have issued coins made of gold only. In course of our recent exploration in the deltaic regions of West Bengal, we have, however, come across two examples of the hitherto unnoticed silver coins of Śaśāṅka. These coins were discovered along with the two other coins made of gold, and of these one belongs to Śaśāṅka and the other to a class of coin with the legend Śrī the obverse.
A Kharoṣṭrī inscription of Seṇavarma, king of Oḍi
Authors: Bailey H. W.
Published: March 2011

This inscription, in private possession, is on gold, seven centimetres long bearing fourteen lines in Kharoṣṭrī script with some 100 syllables (aḳsaras) to a line. Its importance as containing a date of a king of Oḍi and a reference to the Kušān Emperor Kuyula Kataphśa has made me willing, though no specialist in Kharoṣṭrī texts, to prepare the following transliteration, preliminary translation and comment.
The transfer of the Burmese capital from Pegu to Ava
Authors: Lieberman Victor B.
Published: March 2011

like Anaw-rahta's conquest of Thahton or the Mongol expeditions against Pagan, Tha-lun's transfer of capital from Pegu to Ava in 1634—5 is one of those prominent transitions in Burmese history which always attract comment in standard surveys. The pioneer historian of Burma G. E. Harvey claimed that the decision by Tha-lun (r. 1629–48) to forsake the coast in favour of the interior signified the abandonment of his predecessors' goal of a Burmese–Mon national kingship, and contributed to the subsequent isolation of the Burmese from international intercourse. D. G. E. Hall, expanding the latter theme, wrote that “(t)he removal of the Burmese capital from Pegu to Ava in 1635 was, without doubt, one of the cardinal events of Burmese history … it signalised the triumph of the more intransigent elements in Burmese character and governmental policy” and contributed ultimately to the political ruin of the country.
Indian relations with East Africa before the arrival of the Portuguese
Authors: Chittick Neville
Published: March 2011

The Indian Ocean has for at least two thousand years served as a highway for the exchange of goods and ideas, and the cultural links between the lands bordering it are perhaps closer than over any other region of comparable size. The length of voyages undertaken since early times has been very great, as is forcefully demonstrated by the Indonesian colonization of Madagascar in the first centuries A.D. Commerce has been facilitated by the monsoon which in the western part of the ocean blows for roughly half the year from the northeast and for half in the opposite direction. The eastern and western shores of the western part of the basin share much the same climate and are suited to similar ways of life.
The Broach coin-hoard as evidence of the import of valuta across the Arabian Sea during the 13th and 14th centuries
Authors: Digby Simon
Published: March 2011

The Broach (Bharoch) hoard found in 1882, though its publication is statistically incomplete, offers evidence of the movement and import of valuta into western India during the 13th and more particularly the 14th century. Broach and Cambay were the principal ports of Gujarat during this period. The hoard, found in a brass pot, consisted of 448 gold coins, besides pieces of coins and a small ingot, and about 1,200 silver coins and pieces. The coinages represented are those of Genoa, Venice, Egypt, Armenia, Persia, southern Arabia and the Dehfi Sultanate. With the exception of two 12th-century coins the dates of minting fall between A.D. 1260 and 1382, which we may take to be the approximate date of burial.
Scrupulousness and a HinduJain contact
Authors: Derrett J. Duncan M.
Published: March 2011

Scrupulousness is associated, where it occurs spontaneously, with certain personality-types, and with certain neurotic conditions. A scrupulous person is somewhat difficult to live with. Where it is a cultural constant, and is observed in and by a whole mass of indiscriminate humanity, it is another phenomenon. The Jewish civilization is familar with the double standard. There is the norm, to which everyone should conform: and there are two extremes, that of the Men of Sodom, who are the dogs in the manger, who will never do the righteous thing even if it costs them nothing, and, on the other hand, the ḥasidm, who are scrupulous. The double standard implies that there are persons, and groups who are voluntarily associated, who choose to be more careful than the average, and though their scrupulosity does not impugn the righteousness of the average, it provides some kind of control upon it, and vice versa. Even the average are exhorted in the Mishnah to build a fence about the Law. This is a normative principle of Pharisaic origin, to the effect that one should so conduct oneself as never to place oneself within reach of breaking the negative commandments. This is scrupulosity, and the difference between the average observant Jew and the Hasid is (in this respect) that the Hasid will pursue the principle, if need be, to his own cost. A good example of the Mishnaic principle in general practice was the 39 stripes: a man was flogged 39 times, so as not to infringe the biblical precept of 40 lashes: one kept just within the margin of the Law.
The oriental collections in the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London
Authors: Allan Nigel
Published: March 2011

One of the larger, and probably the least well-known collections of oriental manuscripts, printed books and other two-dimensional material in the United Kingdom (and possibly in Europe) is to be found in the library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. The collection includes over 10,000 manuscripts, some 900 written on palm leaves, and others on paper, metal, leather and ivory. There are about 3,000 books printed in oriental scripts, prints, drawings, paintings, and items of photographic material. Over 30 languages are represented in the collection.
Mahmud al-Ghul's old South Arabian inscriptions
Authors: Beeston A. F. L.
Published: March 2011

When Professor Mahmud al-Ghul died on 10 December 1983, he had in his possession four fragments of Sayhadic inscriptions. A year later, at the time of the symposium held at Yarmouk University (Irbid, Jordan) in his memory, they were still with his wife Mrs Rita Ghul, who has kindly placed at my disposal photographs of them, made by Mr Michael Macdonald. The ultimate depository will probably be Yarmouk University, and it is desirable that they should be placed on record and assigned convenient sigla, although three of them contain no more that a couple of letters each.
A Survey of Tamil Christian writings in European libraries
Authors: Muthuraj J. Gnanaseelan
Published: March 2011

What are the primary sources for the early history of the Tranquebar mission? One depends on Danish, German and English sources, in that order of priority, because the mission was initiated by the King of Denmark, executed by German missionaries and financially supported by the English. The history of Christianity in India, however, is not equivalent to the history of mission boards and missionaries, though these are necessary components of a true understanding of the history of the Church. To be fair, equal importance should be given to the Tamil sources which have been underestimated by historians. The first step must be to collect them, for there is evidence that they were neglected from the very beginning of the mission in Tamilnadu
Musnad, musnad ilayhiand the early history of Arabic grammar: a reconsideration
Authors: Talmon Rafael
Published: March 2011

Students of the early history of Arabic grammar may note with surprise that, until now, studies dealing with the possibility of Greek influence on the emergence of that Islamic scholarly discipline have hardly ever made an issue of the fact that the Hellenistic grammatical tradition as well as the Greek philosophical legacy differ significantly from the Arabic grammatical tradition in their conception of the main parts of the sentence.
The description of the travels of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa in Palestine: is it original?
Authors: Elad Amikam
Published: March 2011

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that large parts of Ibn Baṭṭūṭuta's description of his travels in Palestine were in fact copied, with certain abbreviations and deletions, from the records of another Muslim traveller, Muhammad b. Muḥammad al-‛Abdarī.
The Indian National Congress: a hundred-year perspective
Authors: Taylor David
Published: March 2011

India, it is often pointed out both by Indians and by others, is the world's largest democracy, not simply in terms of the sheer number of people who participate in elections but also because of the continuous stream of open political activity. Democracy is not just a label that has been applied to the country at the whim of an individual or clique but is manifestly something that is alive and well. In the last decade alone, there have been two changes of government at the national level, and the government in New Delhi currently coexists, more or less willingly, with non-Congress ministries in several major states. There have indeed been voices to suggest that India in its present economic circumstances cannot afford the luxury of uncontrolled political activity. One of the arguments, for example, put forward for a presidential system has been that the level of “unproductive” political activity would be reduced. It could certainly be argued that the relatively sluggish rate of economic growth that has been maintained over the past four decades is linked to political constraints. That question, however, is not the theme of this article. For better or worse, India's democracy is here to stay, and one of the most important tasks for the historian or the political scientist, is to try to identify the factors that have given it its apparent staying power.
Statistical patterns in Hebrew and Arabic roots: corrected diagram
Authors: Michael Weitzman
Published: March 2011

This is a corrected version of the diagram published on page 21, volume 1, 1987 to illustrate Michael Weitzman's article, “Statistical patterns in Hebrew and Arabic roots”. It is very much regretted that the diagram as previously published was incomplete.
Art. I.—Observations with a view to an Inquiry into the Music of the East
Authors: Dauney William
Published: March 2011

It is well known that the style and character of melody, with the tonalities and scales upon which it is composed, differ in different ages and countries to a great extent; and it is obvious that a more perfect acquaintance with these than that which we possess, would be of great consequence to the art of music in various ways. Those forms of melody which are solely recognised as legitimate, according to the modern European system, may possibly be the best which can be adopted; but this can only be known for certain by an extensive comparison with other systems. The furtherance of such inquiries, therefore, may lead to a direct improvement in the cultivation of music, while there can be no doubt that the resources of that art would be immensely enriched by a more complete knowledge of the different styles of melody which prevail in foreign countries, and copious and authentic collections of the airs themselves.
Art. III.—Vocabulary of the Maldivian Language
Authors: Christopher W. , Wilson John
Published: March 2011

This vocabulary was compiled by Mr. Christopher during his residence on the Maldive Islands. I have prefixed to it an extract from a communication referring to it, with which I was favoured at the time that it was forwarded to me, and which will sufliciently explain several circumstances connected with its preparation.
Art. IX.—Observations on the Expediency of opening a Second Port in China, addressed to the President and Select Committee of Supracargoes for the, management of the Affairs of the Honourable East India Company in China
Authors: Ball Samuel
Published: March 2011

The following Memoir, bearing date the 2nd July, 1816, was written on the occasion of Lord Amherst's Embassy to Pekin. A few copies were printed at the Company's press at Macao, early in the year 1817, for private circulation only, and were very sparingly distributed, so that this memoir has now become scarce, and not to be found, except in a few public and private libraries. The publication of it, therefore, at the present moment, when our relations with China are exciting an intense interest, seems highly desirable. The time is now come when we are called upon to decide what new privileges we have to demand of the Chinese: and since a more unrestricted intercourse with that country is looked for, it becomes an object of the first importance to ascertain at what Ports these privileges may be best obtained; for on that decision the future interests of the trade depend. It will be found that this memoir enters upon that subject with a minuteness of detail and fulness of illustration, not even attempted in any other publication. And though the principles laid down and course of arguments employed, may seem exclusively confined to the state of the trade under the control of the East India Company, yet they will be found, in fact, equally applicable to the circumstances of the trade at the present moment, and to contain matter eminently worthy of the attention of the public. It has been deemed advisable not to alter the original text, but to add a few notes, marked thus, where any change of circumstances in the trade, or matter furnished by more recent information, seemed to render such observations necessary. For greater ease of reference, the Chinese names of places have been altered and adapted to the orthography of Arrowsmith's map.—Edit.
Art. III.—Notes on Indian Agriculture, as practised in the Western or Bombay Provinces of India
Authors: Gibson Alexander
Published: March 2011

I do not offer these notes for perusal in the idea that they communicate any thing very new, neither do I suppose that from their contents can be elicited any thing likely to be of solid benefit to the more enlightened agriculturist of Great Britain; as little do I fancy that they can possess even a tithe of the interest which must attach to a detailed description of the careful cultivation practised by the industrious Chinese husbandman. Still, I deem it possible, that they may in some points not be destitute of interest:

1st. As showing that the agriculture of India is not altogether of so rude or slovenly a character as it is often supposed to be.

2nd. That many of the means and instruments used, albeit simple, are yet well adapted to attain the end in view.
Art. VIII.—A few Observations on the Temple of Somnath
Authors: Captain Postans
Published: March 2011

A s a strong feeling has been evinced by the Society that by means of graphic illustration the curiosities and monuments of antiquity in India should be rescued from oblivion, (a wish that has been most liberally met by the Honourable Company,) I have considered it somewhat conducive to the object in view to print the sketch which I took of the celebrated temple of Somnath during my visit to Girnar in 1838, and of which a description was given in the Royal Asiatic Society's Journal for October, in that year.
Art. XIII.—Account of Aden
Authors: Malcolmson J. P.
Published: March 2011

So much has already been written on the topography of Aden by travellers who have visited the place, either from motives of curiosity, or on their way to more distant regions, also by individuals whose duties have detained them there, that I fear any information which I can add to what has already been made known, will be of little interest; however, in compliance with the request of a friend, I forward such remarks and observations as a permanent residence of six years has enabled me to collect.
Art. XV.—On the Kapur-di-Giri Rock Inscription
Authors: Norris E.
Published: March 2011

For above a month past, I had been trying at intervals, but without success, to decypher the Kapur-di-Giri Rock Inscriptions, which were brought to Europe by Mr. Masson; all of which had been copied by sight, and of which some also were fac-similes impressed on calico, in the manner which Mr. Masson has described. About ten days ago, on examining the copy of that portion which forms the back or south side of the rock, I remarked a group of letters of frequent occurrence, representing, according to the value attached to such of the characters as correspond with those on the coins of Bactria, the word piyasa; I found that the group was repeated frequently, and that in every case it was preceded by three letters which I could not identify. I had not the resource of a cloth impression, as Mr. Masson had found it impracticable to apply the calico to that part of the rock; but on comparing all the different examples together, I judged that the same group was always intended: in some cases the first letter took the form of di, as read on the coins; the second I read r; and the third n; this would make the word Diranapiyasa.
Art. I.—A Catalogue of the Chinese Manuscripts in the Library of the Royal Asiatic Society
Authors: Holt Henry F.
Published: March 2011

“The Story of Chin, P'ing, and Mei.” A Novel. A Description of Chinese manners and customs, especially with reference to Courtship and Marriage, the design of which, according to the Preface, is to promote Virtue and to discourage Vice. 2 cases, 20 vols. Ref. B.M. p. 11.
Art. IX.—Lāmaist Graces before Meat
Authors: Waddell L. A.
Published: March 2011

The Lāmas always say Grace before food or drink. Most of these Graces are curiously blended with demonolatry, though they always are pervaded by universal charity and other truly Buddhistic principles. And they throw some light on the later Mahāyāna ritual of Indian Buddhism, from which they are alleged to have been borrowed.
Art. XI.—Maṇicūḍāvadāna, as related in the fourth chapter of the Svayambhūpurāṇa [Paris, dev. 78]
Authors: Poussin Louis de la Vallée
Published: March 2011

The Svayambhūpurāṇa [Paris, dev. 78] is probably a literary recast of the Svayambhūpurāṇa named by copyists Vṛhat˚ and Mahāsvayambhūpurāṇa, and existing in many copies in the Paris, Cambridge, and London (A. S.) Libraries, and also in India. The topics of this work are identical, but the language is, to some extent, different, and the treatment of the matter fairly independent. The same can be said, so far as I am acquainted with the facts, about the Madhyama recension of the S. P. [London A. S. Library and Cambridge]. The number of chapters differs in the S. P. [Paris, dev. 78], and other redactions (being respectively 12, 20, and 8); prose and verse of very varied rhythm occur intermingled throughout the book, whilst, on the contrary, the Vṛhat˚ and the Mahāsvayambhūpurāṇa are both, from beginning to end, written in classic çlokas. The Mahā˚, as noticed in Bendall's Buddhist MSS. Catalogue, is only a second recension of the Vṛhat˚: all the verses of the Mahā˚, together with the prologue itself, are faithfully reproduced in the Vṛhat˚ edition, the distinctive mark of the two redactions being the separation between the first and the second chapters.
Art. XIV.—The Madhura Sutta concerning Caste
Authors: Chalmers Robert
Published: March 2011

The Sutta of which the Pāli text and commentary, together with a translation, are here given, is No. 84 of the Majjhima Nikāya. In addition to the interest which attends every addition to our knowledge of the great canonical books of primitive Buddhism, this Sutta may claim a twofold interest of its own, derived (i.) from the form in which the dialogue is cast, and (ii.) from its subject.
Art. XX.—The Route by which Alexander entered India
Authors: Pincott Frederic
Published: March 2011

The interesting and scholarly volume of Mr. McCrindle, recently published by A. Constable and Co., invites an attempt to settle more precisely the line on which Alexander reached the bank of the Indus. Mr. McCrindle loses the clue when Alexander reaches Nikaia. This place he is inclined to fix somewhere near Bagraâm, and he thinks that a part of Alexander's troops then passed through the Khaibar to the district called Peukelaôtis, somewhere near Hashtnagar on the river Landai. The formation of the country makes such a course improbable; but Mr. McCrindle admits that the geography of Kâfiristân, Chitrâl, and Swât is too little known to enable him to trace the course of the Macedonian army at this point. I will here try to supply that information.
Art. XVII.—Ssŭma Ch‘ien's Historical Records
Authors: Allen Herbert J.
Published: March 2011

Hsieh of Yin's mother was Chien Ti, who was one of the daughters of Yusung and the secondary wife of Emperor Ku. She was going with her two sisters to bathe, when she saw a dark bird drop its egg. Chien Ti picked it up, and swallowed it, and thus being with child gave birth to Hsieh. When Hsieh grew up, he was successful in assisting Yü to control the flood, and the Emperor Shun, directing Hsieh, said: “The people are wanting in affection for one another, and do not observe the live orders of relationship. You, as Minister of Instruction, should reverently inculcate the lessons of duty belonging to those five orders, but do so with gentleness.” He held in fief the principality of Shang, and was given the surname of Tzŭ (son). Hsieh flourished in the reigns of Yao, Shun, and the great Yü. His services were manifest to the people, who were accordingly at peace.
Art. XVIII.—Some Buddhist Bronzes, and Relics of Buddha
Authors: Sewell Robert
Published: March 2011

The bronze images and fragments figured in the accompanying plates are a few specimens taken from a large collection now lying at Bezwada, all of which were found, some time before the year 1870, by some labourers employed under the Public Works Department of the Madras Presidency while excavating a canal at a place called Buddhapād, or Buddhavāni, about 20 miles westwards from the right bank of the river Kṛiṇhnā, and 30 miles from the nearest mouth of its delta.
Art. XIX.—Sinhalese Copper-plate Grants in the British Museum
Authors: Wickremasinghe Don Martinu de Zilva
Published: March 2011

There are three Sinhalese sannas (grants of land) on copper-plate amongst the Sinhalese MSS. of the British Museum, catalogued under the press-marks Add. 11,555 a, b, and c. The sannas were presented to the British Museum by a Mr. J. Barlow Hoy as long ago as the 30th of March, 1839. But who Mr. Hoy was and how he got them I have not been able to find out. The two marked b and c are neatly engraved on smooth rectangular copper-plates, measuring by 2⅛″ and 12⅜″ by 2″ respectively, leaving in each, case a margin on the obverse side to the left, in which the royal symbol Çrī, signifying prosperity, is cut in large type. The other sannasa (a) is ornamented with a plain silver border running round the rectangular plate of copper, 16⅜″ by 3″ in size. The letters are well cut, with, kuṇḍali flourishes at the beginning and end of each line. On the left of the obverse is the usual margin, which is here separated from the text by a thin silver band right across the plate, so as to receive a large-sized Çrī engraved boldly.
Art. XX.—Some Notes on Past and Future Archæological Explorations in India
Authors: Bühler G.
Published: March 2011

Just thirty-five years ago, in 1860, the Government of India agreed to institute an Archæological Survey of Upper India, and thus to take an active part in the exploration of the numerous and extensive historical remains of the country, which task until then had been left to the desultory efforts (occasionally aided by grants from the public funds) of the learned societies and private individuals. Adverse circumstances, however, very soon counteracted the effects of this official recognition of the claims of antiquarian research to continued Government assistance and guidance. Already in 1866 financial pressure induced Lord Lawrence to stop the work which Sir A. Cunningham had barely begun. The Survey was abolished, and there followed a regrettable time of inaction, which lasted until 1870, when, in consequence of urgent representations from various influential quarters, and especially from eminent members of the Royal Asiatic Society, the Secretary of State and the Supreme Government of India consented to return to the principle laid down in 1860. The next result was the re-opening of the Archæological Survey for the Northern half of India, which was now organized on a larger scale, and the issue of orders by the Secretary of State for the registration and preservation of the historical monuments all over India. Soon afterwards, in 1873, the Government of Bombay was permitted to establish a survey of its own for the Western Presidency, and somewhat later the Government of Madras likewise directed its attention to the collection of notes regarding the antiquities of Southern India and to their scientific exploration.
Art. X.—Pāli Elements in Chinese Buddhism: a Translation of Buddhaghosa's Samanta-pāsādikā, a Commentary on the Vinaya, found in the Chinese Tripiṭaka
Authors: Takakusu J.
Published: March 2011

Whether we possess among the numerous Buddhist books preserved in China any text translated from a Pāli original, is a question which has not as yet been quite settled. Several scholars have answered it positively or negatively, but no one until now has brought forward an undeniable fact in support of his opinion. The object of my present note is to decide this point, and to introduce to the Society a text of Pāli origin in Chinese.
Art. XV.—A Seljukite Inscription at Damascus
Authors: Kay Henry Cassels
Published: March 2011

The Royal Asiatic Society is indebted to the courtesy of the Royal Institute of British Architects for a copy of the article published in its Journal (vol. iv, 3rd ser., Nos. 2 and 3)—a paper read at a meeting of the Society in November last, by Mr. R. Phene Spiers, F.S.A., on the great mosque of Damascus. The paper offers us an historical account of the building, adescription of the surviving vestiges of the old temple, and of the Christian Church of St. John the Baptist, including the well-known Greek inscription over the Southern Gateway, particulars on the conversion of the building into a mosque by the Omayyad Khalīfahal-Walīd, of the changes the mosque has undergone during the past period of well-nigh twelve centuries, and last, though not least, itgives us a careful and minute description of the building as it existed previous to the fire of 1893. Thenumerous plans and drawings with which the paper is illustrated, whilst attractingnotice by their beauty, are of no small assistance to the reader in studying the text.
ART. VII.—Marco Polo's Camadi
Authors: Schindler A. Houtum
Published: March 2011

In my “Notes on Marco Polo's Itinerary in Southern Persia” (Journal R.A.S. 1881, p. 495) 1 expressed the opinion that the city of Camadi, where Marco Polo rested on his march from Kermān to Hormuz, was a caravanserai or village close to the city of Jīruft, and that the name might be explained as “Kahn i Muhammadī,” or “Kanemadi,” as it is pronounced in Jīruft, meaning Canal of Muhammad. Lately, while collecting some historical notes on Kermān, I found that the first part of my supposition was correct, but that my explanation of the name was wrong.
Art. VIII.—On the Will in Buddhism
Authors: Davids Rhys
Published: March 2011

It is only to be expected, while the ancient literature of Buddhist philosophy is inaccessible to the general critic, and still to some extent also to the Indianist, that many hasty generalizations and one-sided conclusions concerning the nature of Buddhist ideals and discipline should continue to prevail. Enough, however, has already been accomplished in the editing of texts to render some revision of what may be called common errors not altogether premature. There is, for instance, much that is misleading, or downright false, in labelling Gotama's doctrine as Pessimism, Pantheism, Atheism, Nihilism, Quietism, or Apatheia. Nor is that recent criticism altogether discriminating which finds in it the closest coincidences with that of Schopenhauer, or characterizes it bluntly as an ethic rooted in egoism, or as “the crassest eudaemonism,” and aspiring to moral stultification.
Art. II.—The Exodus
Authors: Mahler Edward
Published: March 2011

One of the most important and significant of the epoch making discoveries of the nineteenth century in ancient Egypt is that of a stele found by Flinders Petrie, containing a hymn of victory of King Merneptah. This victory was one obtained in the fifth year of his reign over the Libyans.
XVII. Notes on Some Ṣūfi Lives
Authors: Amedroz H. F.
Published: March 2011

By the recent appearance in the “E. J. W. Gibb Memorial” of vol. xvii, the Kashf al-Maḥjúb of Dr. R. A. Nicholson, preceded, as it was, rather closely by the Treatise on Mysticism of Evelyn Underhill, the Eastern as well as the Western manifestations of the mystical spirit are portrayed. Dr. Nicholson is concerned exclusively with the former, which in Mysticism are but lightly touched on, its subject being that Mysticism which is dependent on a specific religious impulse, and is thereby distinguishable from Pantheism.
XX The use of the Roman Character for Oriental Languages
Authors: Brown R. Grant
Published: March 2011

The Roman character may be used for Oriental languages in two ways: first, to represent in writing the sounds of a spoken language; and secondly, to represent the characters of a written language by another set of characters. The first process is usually called phonetic writing, the second transliteration. The second process includes the first. As this may not be clear at first sight I will endeavour to explain what transliteration is.
XXI The Secret of Kanishka
Authors: Kennedy J.
Published: March 2011

The interest which attaches to Kanishka is manifold. Primarily it is Buddhist. Kanishka convoked the fourth great Buddhist Council, the Council held in Kashmir, which gave consistency and official sanction to the doctrines of Northern Buddhism and led to its adoption by the Yue-che, who in their turn became ardent propagators of the faith, diffusing its light among the nomads of Central Asia and introducing it to the knowledge of the cultured Chinese. The Buddhists in the north-western corner of the Panjāb preserved the memory of their royal patron; they adorned his memory with miracle and legend; they placed him by the side of Aśoka, the first great foster-father of their religion; and vague reminiscences of Kanishka lingered in this region to the time of the learned Alberūnī and of Kalhaṇa, author of the metrical Chronicles of Kashmir.
To the East of Samatata
Authors: Vidyainod Padmanath Bhattacharya
Published: March 2011

The famous Chinese traveller Yuan Chwang travelled throughout India during the second quarter of the seventh century a.d.: he proceeded eastwards as far as Samataṭa, and when he was turning back he mentioned six countries which he had heard of but could not visit. Their names are given in serial order: “(1) Shihli-Ch'atalo to the north-east (from Samataṭa) among the hills near the sea; (2) south-east from this, on a bay of the sea, Kamolangka; (3) Tolopoti to the east of the preceding; (4) east from Tolopoti was Ishangnapulo; (5) to the east of this was Mohachanp'o; and (6) to the south-east of this was the Yenmonachou country.”
An Egypto-Karian Bilingual Stele in the Nicholson Museum of the University of Sydney
Authors: Rowe A.
Published: March 2011

One of the most interesting and valuable of all the objects-which were presented half a century ago by the late Sir Charles Nicholson to the University of Sydney, for the purpose of forming a nucleus of a “Museum of Antiquities”, is a stele inscribed in two kinds of writing, Egyptian and Karian.
Rulers of Gīlān
Authors: Rabino H. L.
Published: March 2011

In a former paper I dealt with the rulers of Lāhijān and Fūman in Gīlān, and now give an account of the remaining local dynasties and petty rulers of that province. The sources from which I have gathered my information have already been mentioned.
The Origin of the Semitic Alphabet
Authors: Sayce A. H.
Published: March 2011

In the Journal of Egyptian Archœology for January, 1916, a conjoint article was published by Dr. Gardiner, Dr. Cowley, and myself on the origin of the Semitic alphabet, starting from Dr. Gardiner's decipherment of the name of the Semitic goddess, Ba‘alath, in certain non-Egyptian inscriptions or “ scribings ” discovered by Professor Petrie in Sinai. The characters are Egyptian, but are not used with Egyptian values; they are usually written in vertical columns, and like the Meroitic hieroglyphs are read from the back and not from the front. Unfortunately the inscriptions are not numerous; they are badly written and in many cases effaced. However, we succeeded in determining the phonetic values of the majority of the letters—for letters they are—and in adding one or two more words (םענ לע, בר, תנת) to Dr. Gardiner's תלעב. One of the inscriptions which is on the base of a sphinx is “ bilingual ”, that is to say, there is an Egyptian text as well as what I will call a Semitic text.
Taxila Inscription of the year 136
Authors: Chanda Ramaprasad
Published: March 2011

Sir john marshall's interpretation of ayasa in the Taxila silver scroll inscription of the year 136 as “ of Azes ” has been the subject of adverse criticism by some of the most eminent antiquarians since the publication of the record in 1914. The latest is by Professor Sten Konow in the Epigraphia Indica, xiv, p. 286. Professor Konow revives two of the objections to Sir John's explanation : (1) “ the word (ayasa) could hardly be the name of a king, because no royal title is used ” (2) “ if ayasa were really the name of a king, it would place the inscription in the reign of this king, who would then most likely have to be identified with the Khushana mentioned in 1. 3. ” I hope to show in this note that these objections are not as insuperable as they are supposed to be.
The Dates in Merutunga's “Prabandha Chintāmaṇi”
Authors: Sewell Robert
Published: March 2011

There are several ways of writing history. A conscientious historian does not invent details in the hope that their inaccuracy will remain undiscovered ; but there have been authors who seek to present to their readers a false appearance of accuracy by mentioning as facts minute details which have no existence except in their own brains. Merutunga, the author of the Prabandha Chintāmaṇi, an historical work of the early fourteenth century a.d., so far at least as regards the dates which he gives for the accession, etc., of the kings of Anhilvāḍa during a period of about 400 years, appears to belong to the latter class. We in Europe are quite content to know that one of our sovereigns 400 years or so ago began to reign in a certain year. We want nothing more. But Merutunga, to give an instance, tells us that in the Vikrama year 862 Yogarāja was crowned on “ Āshāḍha śukla 5, Thursday, the moon being in Aśvinī, when [the zodiacal sign] Siṁha was in the ascendant ”, the last detail giving us within two hours the exact time of day.
Hiuan-tsang and the Far East
Authors: Finot Louis
Published: March 2011

In a paper published in the January issue of this Journal, under the title “ To the East of Samataṭa ”, Professor Padmanath Bhattacharya Vidyavinod has proposed a new interpretation of a well-known passage in Hiuantsang, concerning the countries situated in the east of Samataṭa (Eastern Bengal). These six kingdoms were not visited by the pilgrim, but known to him by hearsay. Here are their names, together with the identifications generally admitted: —

1. Shih-li-ch'a-ta-lo = Śrikṣetra (Prome);

2. Ka-mo-lang-ka (Tenasserim ?);

3. To-lo-po-ti = Dvāravatī (Lower Siam);

4. I-shang-na-pu-lo = Īśānapura (Cambodia);

5. Mo-ha-chan-p'o = Mahā-Campā (Annam);

6. Yen-mo-na-chou = Yavadvīpa (Java) [?].
Tablet of Prayers for a King (?) (K. 2279)
Authors: Sidersky M.
Published: March 2011

This fragment K. 2279 + S. 675 + S. 2152 (lower half of a large tablet) was copied by Dr. Pinches at the British Museum many years ago. When I saw him on a visit to London he was kind enough to hand me, for publication, his copy of the text, which he had neither transliterated nor translated.
Gujarati Phonology
Authors: Turner R. L.
Published: March 2011

34. The general evolution of the PI consonants, together with the special question of dialectical differences arising therefrom, has been set forth by Dr. Bloch. It will be sufficient here to note the chief features in that development, with special reference to Gujarātī.
The Portuguese in India and Arabia between 1507 and 1517
Authors: Ross E. Denison
Published: March 2011

In the January number of this Journal there appeared a most interesting article by Mr. M. Longworth Dames on “The Portuguese and Turks in the Indian Ocean in the Sixteenth Century”. The article furnishes an admirable introduction to this engrossing, if little known, subject; and it is only by way of supplement that I am writing the following notes.
The Portuguese in India and Arabia, 1517–38
Authors: Ross E. Denison
Published: March 2011

In continuation of my previous notes on the Portuguese in India and Arabia, I propose to deal with three Muhammedan chiefs who played an important part in the history of the Portuguese between the years 1517 and 1538, namely:—

1. Salmán Ra'ís.

2. Sulaymán Pasha al-Khádim, Governor of Cairo.

3. Khwája Ṣafar, Khudáwand Khán.
Pictographic Reconnaissances. Part IV
Authors: Hopkins L. C.
Published: March 2011

That “East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet”, Rudyard Kipling has impressed on us, and the dictum is widely accepted as an article of popular faith. But as an axiom it is not be to pressed without certain qualifications.

Beyond doubt there prevail certain antipathies, dissympathies, and as it were static estṛangements of populations, deeply rooted in racial sub-consciousness, but capable of becoming profoundly dynamic under appropriate stimulation and appeal.
Notes on the Phonology of Southern Kurmanji
Authors: Soane E. B.
Published: March 2011

The allocation of its proper place among Iranian languages to Kurmanji (Kurdish) has been rendered well-nigh impossible up to the present by the lack of material available for examination. The most careful Orientalists tend to consider it a non-Persian language, notably Justi, Darmesteter, and Socin (in the Grundriss der Iranischen Philologie). The first emphatically states that it is in no way a degraded New Persian, and that a description of the peculiarities of Iranian speech would not be exhaustive if the phonetics and etymology of Kurdish be disregarded.
Notes on the Excavations of 1919 at Muqayyar, el-‘Obeid, and Abu Shahrein
Authors: Hall H. R.
Published: March 2011

It was before the Eoyal Asiatic Society that seventy years ago (on 8th July, 1854, to be precise) Mr. J. E. Taylor, H.B.M.'s Consul at Basrah in Turkey-in-Asia, read his paper on his excavations for the British Museum at Ur. Nearly a year later, on 5th May, 1855, after a further season's work in the land of the Muntefik, Mr. Taylor read his paper on Eridu and other sites in the neighbourhood. The first paper, “Notes on the Ruins of Mugeyer, by J. E. Taylor, Esq.,” will be found printed on p. 260 ff. of Vol. XV of the Journal, published in 1855; the second paper, “Notes on Abu Shahrein and Tel el Lahm,” on p. 404 ff. of the same volume. Both articles were illustrated by the quaint woodcuts of the time, in which first the draughtsman and then the engraver combined successively to deform the (originally probably rather poor) sketches or notes of the actual observer into something that can have borne but a faint resemblance to the original. One notices this in Taylor's sketch of the ziggurrat of Ur on p. 262, which is of the severely diagrammatic kind, as befits a learned publication. For the florid and romantic style of the period one may turn to the picture of the same ziggurrat opposite p. 129 of Loftus's “Travels and Researches in Chaldeæa and Susiana”, published three years later (reproduced in Plate XII, Fig. 1).
The “Second Evocation” in the Manichaean System of Cosmogony
Authors: Jackson A. V. Williams
Published: March 2011

In his philosophical speculations regarding the original scheme of the universe, Mānī portrayed with poetic imagination the primordial struggle between the powers of Light and Darkness that formed the dualistic basis of his system of religion. When the primeval attack upon the Realm of Light was made by the King of Darkness, the Sovereign of Light “evoked”, or emanated, three successive evocations in the form of divine personifications, designed to serve first in combating the onslaught of Evil, and then in weakening the pernicious effects of its force.
Avestan Words beginning with F
Authors: Dewhurst R. P.
Published: March 2011

The labial spirant does not occur at all in Sanskrit, but the words beginning with the letter F constitute an interesting but limited class in the language of the Avesta. They occupy less than 47 out of the 1,879 pages of Bartholomæ's Altiranisches Wörterbuch, and less than 21 out of the 611 pages of Kanga's Avesta Dictionary.
Sivaji as Known to his Western Contemporaries
Authors: Abbott Justin E.
Published: March 2011

Sivājī occupies so prominent a place in the history of the Marathas that many European and Indian writers have made him the subject of their study and works. Among writers in English we are especially indebted to five: Eobert Orme, official historian to the East India Company; James Grant Duff; H. G. Eawlinson; C. A. Kincaid and D. B. Parasnis; Jadunath Sarkar.
The Tajaribu's-Salaf, a Persian version of the Arabic Kitabu'l-Fakhri, composed by Hindushah ibn Sanjar as-Sahibi al-Kirani in 723/1323
Authors: Browne E. G.
Published: March 2011

That so attractive and useful a historical manual as the Kitábu'l-Fakhrí should be represented, so far as is known, by only one complete manuscript, on which all the printed editions are based, is a fact so remarkable that Ahlwardt, who first edited the text in 1860, has thought it necessary to suggest an explanation. Good as this manuscript appears to be, it presents several lacunæ, and in particular some uncertainty prevails as to the name of the author and the proper title of the work. On these questions the Persian manuscript which forms the subject of this notice throws a certain amount of light.
Sher Shah's Revenue System
Authors: Moreland W. H.
Published: March 2011

Historians are agreed as to the importance of the fiscal institutions established in Upper India by Sher Shah (1540–1545), but their precise nature is not easy to discover. The difficulty lies mainly in the authorities available. All the published chronicles of the Afghan kingdom derive in effect from the Tārīkh-i Sher Shāhī of Abbās Sarwānī, and the text of this writer has not yet been worked out from the discordant manuscripts which have survived, so that it is not possible to be certain what the chronicler actually wrote in the few and tantalising passages which he devoted to the fiscal system. The only detailed study of the subject which I have seen is contained in Professor Kalikaranjan Qanungo's monograph entitled Sher Shah, which was published in Calcutta in 1921. In what follows I shall have to question some of the Professor's conclusions regarding the fiscal system established by his hero, and it is only fair to begin by saying that my criticisms do not apply to more than a very small proportion of his work. He has not, indeed, faced the problems presented by the text of the Tārīkh, and consequently his study cannot be regarded as definitive, but in the questions of chronology, topography, and psychology which occupy most of his pages he seems to me to have exercised a generally sound judgment along with great industry, and there are not many of his conclusions from which I would dissent.