bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Human Figure in Archaic Chinese Writing. A Study in Attitudes
Authors: Hopkins L. C.
Published: March 2011

Portraiture, as we now know, was a very early member of the nascent arts of primitive man.

Palæolithic men were of necessity hunters. What they hunted on the plains and among the hills for food and covering, that they painted or carved on the walls and roofs of their cave dwellings and cliff shelters. The reindeer, the bison, the horse, the elephant were favourite objects of their vivid and impressionistic genius. What they lacked of imagination they made up for by exact memories and singularly skilful technique. Less frequent were their delineations of humanity, and as concerns the female part of it, most unflattering, being affected by a kind of exasperated candour. The Age of Chivalry was far distant indeed!
Local Self-Government in the Vedic Literature
Authors: Bhatnagar B. G.
Published: March 2011

In the first nine maṇḍalas of the Rigveda there is hardly anything which deals directly with local government or which, even indirectly, could give us an idea of the constitution and working of local government institutions of the period. The only terms which we find used in the sense of a locality of some sort are: (1) Gaya, (2) Gṛha, (3) Pastya, (4) Harmya, (5) Grāma, (6) Pūr, (7) Viś, and (8) Rāṣṭra. Of these the first four are all used in the sense of a house or household. The term Grāma is used both in the sense of a village (that is a locality) and a body of men (that is a division of the Āryan people). The term Pūr, though understood by some to mean a town, is distinctly used in the sense of a fortification.
The Date of the 11th Paripāḍal
Authors: Śaṅkar K. G.
Published: March 2011

The Paripāḍal, which belongs to the Eṭṭuttogai collection, is of unique interest in that it enables us to fix the Saṅgham age accurately, by a careful consideration of its astronomical data. The data are contained in the following opening lines of the 11th Paripāḍal of Nallanduvanār:—

virikadir madiyamoḍu viyal viśumbu puṇarppa

veriśaḍaiyeilvēan talaiyenak kīirundu

teruviḍaippaḍutta mūnṟonpadiṟṟirukkaiyu

ḷurukeu veḷḷivandēṟṟiyal śēra

varuḍaiyaip paḍimagan vāyppap poruḍeri

pundi mitunam porundap pular viḍiya

laṅgiyuyar niṟpa vantaṇan paṅguvi

nillattuṇaikkuppāleyda viṟaiyaman

villiṟkaḍai makaramēvap pāmbollai

madiyamaḍaiya varunāḷil vāynda

podiyin munivan puraivaraikkīṟi

mitunamaḍaiya virikadir vēni

ledirvaravu māriyiyaikena vivvāṟṟäṟ

puraikeu śaiyam poimaaitāa.
The Chandonukramaṇī of the Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā
Authors: Vira Raghu
Published: March 2011

The Chandonukramaṇī forms a part of the Vārāhapariśiṣṭas. As is evident from the text given hereunder, it is of immense importance. This little booklet is unknown from any other source. Few scholars know of its existence. The original MS. is in the Baroda library, and was discovered by my friend Mr. R. A. Sastry.
A Coin of Abu Muslim
Authors: Guest R.
Published: March 2011

The copper coin (fals) shown in the plate was unearthed recently during work for irrigation on the lesser Zâb. Mr. W. Allard, Director of Irrigation in 'Irâq, has kindly allowed it to be photographed for publication. The inscriptions on the coin are:—

Obverse

Centre

Border

Creed.
The Influence of Al-Farabi's “Ihsa' al-'ulum” (De scientiis) on the Writers on Music in Western Europe
Authors: Farmer Henry George
Published: March 2011

The question of the Arabian influence on the music of Western Europe has been considerably stressed of recent years. In the practical art, the minstrel class of the Middle Ages not only adopted the actual instruments of the Arabs, such as the lute ('ūd), rebec (rāb), guitar (kaithār), and others, but also the actual musical devices of the performers on them. In the theoretical art, clues in the Mediaeval Latin treatises on music enable us to follow a track which leads us to the conclusion that the teachings and writings of Arabian or/and Mozarabian theorists of music also had some influence on the theory of music of Western Europe.
Zum Alter der frühen Fachüberlieferungen der indischen Medizin, der Saṃhitā des Caraka, Suśruta und Vāgbhaṭa
Authors: Müller Von Reinhold F. G.
Published: March 2011

Night ganz unähnlich der allgemeinen Achtung vor der Vereinigung der drei Veden (trayī vidyā) geniesst auf medizinischem Gebiet ein hohes Ansehen die alte Trias (vāddha-trayī), welche aus den Ärzten Caraka, Suśruta und Vāgbhaṭa zusammengesetzt ist. Nach der Überlieferung und in dem Gesichtswinkel der Inder erscheinen diese Medizinlehrer der Vorzeit durchaus als gesehichtliche Persönlichkeiten, wie manche ihrer Vorläufer. Einer jener letzten, Hārāta, bezeichnet Caraka, Suśruta und schliesslich Vāgbhaṭa in ihren Sammellehren als Vertreter der drei Welt-Zeitalter (carakaḥ suśrutas caiva vāgbhaṭaś ca tathā 'paraḥ | mukhyās ca saṃhitā vācyās tisra eva yuge yuge). Die Sachlage, welche die apokryphe Hārtā-Saṃhitā in ihrem Anhang (praśiṣṭa) schildert, lässt sich kritisch unschwer überblicken. Das Zitat beleuchtet aber anderseits auch allgemein den Boden, welchem noch heut die gesehichtliche Einstellung der Inder entspringt, in Bindungen zu ihren überkonimenen Weltanschauungen und Religionen, und nicht so selten unter Anerkennung solcher Richtlinien seitens Beobachter eines westlichen Kulturkreises. In derartigen Materialien erscheint die Grenze zwischen Sage und Geschichte sachlich und zeitlich verwaschen und eine kritische Betrachtung bald in mittelalterliche, bald in neuzeitliche Verhältnisse verworfen. Bei der fast sprichwörtlichen Unsicherheit des Zeitmasses indischer Belange wurde daher folgerichtig der entsprechende Schwerpunkt geschichtlicher Forschung der kritischen Beurteilung des Text-Inhaltes eingereiht. In dieser Richtung laufen die bahnbrechenden und grundlegenden Untersuchungen eines Cordier, Hoernle und Jolly. Die stehengebliebenen Unstimmigkeiten weisen aber auch auf die verschiedenen Möglichkeiten in der Auswertung des Textmaterials und des wenig übersichtlichen Geflechtes seiner Kommentare hin. Bei einem Versuch zur Einebnung des sachlichen Zwiespaltes drängt sich aber immer wieder der Mangel zeitlicher Bestimmungen wie eine Sperre auf für einen Fortschritt und zwingt oft zu einem Verzicht, der für einen Erfolg keiner Erwähnung bedarf.
An Old Moorish Lute Tutor (cont.)
Authors: Farmer Henry George
Published: March 2011

Since my article on the above appeared, additional information has come to hand which appears to be of sufficient merit to be recorded, more especially because this old music of the Moors is gradually disappearing. At the invitation of the Egyptian Government, I attended a Congress of Arabian Music which was held in Cairo during March and April, 1932, where I had the honour to preside over the Commission of History and Manuscripts. During this congress I had the opportunity of studying, at first hand, the practical as well as the theoretical art. The best native orchestras from Arabic speaking lands were in attendance, and among them were three from Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. These latter included in their répertoires the old Maghriban melodies from the ṭubū', naubāt, or ṣan'āt. At these auditions, and from conversations with the musicians, but more especially through information obtained from Sīdī Ḥasan 'Abd al-Wahhāb the Governor of Mahdia, and Sīdī Muḥammad al-Manūbī al-Sanūsī of Tūnis, I had confirmation by eye and ear of that which hitherto had only been known to me by script.
Kalawān Copper-plate Inscription of the Year 134
Authors: Konow Sten
Published: March 2011

Sir John Marshall'S excavations have again brought important results. A new Kharoṣṭhī inscription has been found, which throws new light on the difficult question of the eras used in a series of Indian Kharoṣṭhī inscriptions belonging to the Pahlava and Kuṣāṇa periods. In May last Sir John was good enough to let me have excellent photographs of the new epigraph, for the purpose of editing it in the Epigraphia Indica. In consideration of its great importance, he has, moreover, kindly allowed me to publish a preliminary account in this Journal.
The reuse of marble in the eastern Mediterranean in medieval times
Authors: Goodwin Godfrey
Published: March 2011

Precious building materials have always been used over and over again — the spoils of the architectural war. A section of the Colosseum is now the Palazzo Farnese and the Church of the Wisdom of God in the respectable Surrey town of Kingswood harbours capitals from Ephesus, the Studion, and the Myrelaion in Istanbul, besides a quantity of Byzantine marble. Precious marbles were transported far and wide by sea and, although it is not surprising that porphyry from the Red Sea coast of Egypt is used in the Pantheon, it is interesting that Giallo Antico from Algeria or Tunisia and Pavonazzetto from Phrygia which decorated, for example, the Basilica Julia in Rome have been found at provincial Colchester.
“Freemen” and “Nobles” in Iranian and Semitic Languages
Authors: de Blois François
Published: March 2011

It has been recognized for a long time that the Iranian wordāzāta-covers what would seem to us to be two distinct ideas: “free” (not a slave) and “noble” (not a commoner). Avestan hasāzāta-, “noble”hvāzāta-, “very noble”; Old Persian *āzāta-is attested by the phrase ’zt šbqtky bmwty, “I free you (a slave girl) at my death”, in an Aramaic document from Elephantine dated in the 38th year of Artaxerxes (427 B.C.). Early Middle Iranian forms are reflected by Hesychius' glosses, i.e. *āzāt-īh, =“freedom”, andi.e. *āzāta-with the Greek plural suffix“the intimates of the (Persian) king”. That the Arsacid Parthians used one and the same word for “free” and “noble” is evident from two passages where Josephus refers to the Parthian élite troops as“free men”. In Middle Persian and Sasanian Parthian textsāzādis extensively attested in both senses, “free” and “noble”, as are numerous derivatives. From Parthian come Armenianazat, “free, noble” and Georgianazat'i, “free”. Sogdian ”z't means “noble”, “free”, and “clear”. Khotanese hasāysāta-, “well born” and “free born”. In Neo-Persian, however,āzādhas become restricted to “free”, whileāzādais used for “noble”; Persianāzād(ozod, etc.) has been borrowed into most other Neo-Iranian languages, but an independent form has survived in Kurdishaza, “brave”; Osseticazat, “free”, is perhaps borrowed from Georgian.
Art. IX.—Observations on the Maráthí Language
Authors: Stevenson
Published: March 2011

The study of the vernacular languages of India is every day becoming a subject of more and more importance. The Government, yielding to the voice of reason, has decreed, that in every province the language of the people shall be the language of their rulers. Christians and philanthropists, in every district of the country, are preparing books and communicating the elements of learning to the native inhabitants, in their own dialects. Grammars and dictionaries of the principal vernacular tongues, exist either printed or in manuscript; and the speech of the common people instead of being despised as a jargon, is every where cultivated as a language.
Art. XXII.—Mineral Resources of Southern India. No. 4. Gold Tracts
Authors: Newbold
Published: March 2011

Though it is my intention to confine this series of papers, as much as possible, to notices of mineral localities within the limits of Southern India, I have deemed right, in this paper, with reference to the importance of the subject, to travel beyond these boundaries, and cast a cursory glance at the vast geographical extent over which auriferous deposits are scattered throughout our Indian possessions; at the same time particularizing, in a more detailed form, such localities within the specified limits as have been undescribed by former observers: namely, those of the Southern Mahratta country, of which I had given a cursory notice, prior to quitting Madras, in the Journal of the Branch Society for January, 1840. Of the gold tracts on the Malay peninsula detailed accounts will be found in my work on our settlements in that part of the globe; therefore little will be said of them here.
Art. XXIII.—Mineral Resources of Southern India. No. 5. Manganese Mines in the Kupput-gode Range, Southern Mahratta Country
Authors: Newbold
Published: March 2011

At the time of my visiting these hills I had not seen Dr. Wilson's remarks on the minerals sent to the museum at Bombay by Trimulrow, from whose oral account of his excursion, and what he had heard among the hills, I was induced to imagine that there might be some truth in the report of the existence of coal. Led by this hope I proceeded from the gold-washings at Doni, and crossed the southern chain of the divergement by a steep and rugged mountain-path leading down on the opposite side by a ravine, in which the Kupput Iswara temple sits enshrined, into a jungly valley. A mile or two easterly down the valley, the village of Chick Wodurti is reached; here I was shown some fragments of a yellowish and brownish ferro-siliceous stone, not unlike some varieties of jasper, or the eisenkiesel of the Germans. The excavations whence these were procured were made by order of Hyder and Tippoo, who used these stones as gun-flints. They lie in the plain at the base of a spur of the Kupput-gode range, about two miles to the S.E. of Wodurti. They are evidently fragments of a large vein, analogous to those of chert or hornstone that so frequently occur near plutonic formations.
Art. XXIV.—Mineral Resources of Southern India. No. 6. Lead Mines of Jungamanipenta, &c
Authors: Newbold
Published: March 2011

I am not aware of the existence of other lead mines in Southern India than those of the Eastern Ghauts, which lie in an area bounded by the 14th and 17th degrees of N. lat., and the 78th and 80th of E. long. The principal excavations are situate near the village of Jungumrazpilly, between Cuddapah and Nellore, on the Coromandel coast.
Art. XXXIII.—Account of the Atesh Kedah, a Biographical Work on the Persian Poets, by Hajji Lutf Ali Beg, of Ispahan
Authors: Bland N.
Published: March 2011

The history of the Persian poets is the history of the Persian nation; it is the biography of their greatest men, whose lives, whose actions, whose feelings, and whose tastes, are all, in a greater or less degree, associated with poetry and influenced by poetic impulse. This influence was exercised over the highest potentates by the most subordinate of their subjects. Their graver historians supply countless anecdotes of men exalted to rank and power, and enjoying the unlimited favour of their Sovereign by this sole merit. Lives have been sacrificed, or spared—cities have been annihilated, or ransomed—empires subverted, or restored—by the influence of poetry alone. Armies, levied to avenge the insult of an epigram, have been disbanded at its palinodia; the prison has opened its gates to the ingenious author of an impromptu; stanzas have saved a suppliant's life, and a well-turned compliment in verse more than once soothed a breast in which dwelt all the undisciplined passions of Eastern despotism. Even history itself is indebted to this taste, and if not written in verse, its pages are enriched with metrical fragments and quotations, while the earliest annals of the Persian empire are preserved in the poetic legends of the Shah Nameh.
Art. I.—On the restoration of an Ancient Persian Inscription, analogous to those at Behistun
Authors: Donaldson J. W.
Published: March 2011

The beginnings of ancient history too often contain a large admixture of legendary or fabulous ingredients; and the difficulty of discriminating between truth and fiction is greatly increased in those cases where the annalist derives his information from statements or documents conveyed in a language with which he is imperfectly acquainted. The critical historian is obliged to content himself with conjectures, more or less arbitrary, unless he can fall back upon authentic monumental records which he is enabled to interpret. This solid basis has at last been supplied, in the case of early Persian history, by the inscriptions which Colonel Rawlinson has deciphered and explained, and I propose in the following paper to make these memorials available for the correction of a curious tale respecting the great Darius.
Art. IV.—On the Miniature Chaityas and Inscriptions of the Buddhist religious dogma, found in the ruins of the Temple of Sárnáth, near Benares
Authors: Lieut.-Col. Sykes
Published: March 2011

In a letter received on the 1st March last from Major Kittoe, engaged in antiquarian researches under the Bengal Government, he informed me that in excavating the mound constituting the rain of the great Buddhist temple of Sárnáth at Benares, he had turned up some scores of miniature chaityas in baked clay, the base of many of them being impressed with an inscription in the carly Deva Nágarí charecters in a seal form. Some of the chaityas being broken transversely at the base, it was found that an independent seal with an inscription, not in itaglio, but in cameo, was enclosed in the base; and that the seal was first prepared and hardened, and the chaitya then fashioned round it while the clay was plastic, was manifest by the raised letters of the seal having imbedded themselves in the clay, and leaving fac-similes of their forms. Major Kittee readily discovered that the seals or stamps comprised the Buddhist religious dogma, or confession of faith, “Ye dhama,” &e.or “Ye dharma,” &c., as it happened to be in Páli or Sanskrit, and he refers their date from the form of the Deva Nágarí letters to the early part of the eleventh century; but why these chaityas, the first of the kind met with, stamped with the confession of faith or containing a seal with the dogma in relief letters upon it should have been lodged with in the temple, Major Kittoe does not discuss. As the discovery of the chaityas is new in antiquarian research in India, and as there are certain circumstances connected with this confession of faith being met with in different parts of India in mongrel Sanskrit, I have thought that a drawing of a chaitya and of the enclosed seal, together with a few remarks upon the confession of faith, might be acceptable for reference in the Journal of the Society.
Art. VI.—Remarks on the connection between the Indo-Chinese and the Indo-Germanic Languages, suggested by an Examination of the Sghā and Pghō Dialects of the Karens
Authors: Laidlay J. W.
Published: March 2011

More than a quarter of a century has elapsed since Wilhelm von Humboldt, in the introduction to his immortal work Ueber die Kawi Sprache, impressed upon orientalists the high philological importance of the Indo-Chinese dialects, from an enlightened study of which that eminent scholar anticipated results of the highest value for the illustration of the philosophy of language in general. Since the death of that illustrious and lamented writer, although the extension of our political and commercial intercourse, and the untiring zeal of the Christian missionary among the tribes of the eastern peninsula have given rise to many excellent treatises upon their various dialects, among which I may mention in particular the admirable works of my friend Colonel Low, the Rev. F. Mason, and Captain Latter; yet there still seems wanting a comprehensive and philosophical survey of these tongues, not merely with reference to their own internal structure and the singular mental idiosyncrasies of which these peculiarities are the exponents, but with reference to the light they throw upon languages in general, even upon those from which they most widely diverge, and with which their connection is indeed very faint and indistinct. For while all the other nations of the earth are being gradually associated into one family by their linguistic affinities, and even the long-silent Egyptian has from many an ancient tomb and many, a mysterious epigraph put forth his claim to relationship with the Semitic stock, little or nothing has been done towards bridging over the cheerless gulf that still divorces philologically the simple-minded speakers of the intonated monosyllabic tongues from their Indo-Germanic brethren, whose copious and highly-polished languages constitute at once the proudest monument and the most efficient instrument of their civilization.
Art. IX.—On the Muhammedan Science of Tâbír, or Interpretation of Dreams
Authors: Bland N.
Published: March 2011

The subject of Dreams has invited the inquiry of science in many ages and countries. A phenomenon of such frequent occurrence in connection with one of the ordinary functions of the animal economy could not fail to interest men of all classes and temperaments. To develop its theory as a mechanical working of the brain in sleep, or a secret energy of the mind during the temporary inaction of the bodily powers, equally forms a part of physics and of metaphysics; but, further than this, the association of dreams with objects and events having no immediate affinity with the waking thoughts, pursuits, or interests of the dreamer, thus seeming to indicate a sense of things to come, has led inquirers, with more or less of superstitious belief, to rely upon this as a species of foreknowledge within the reach of all, even of ungifted persons. Mankind, naturally anxious for direction in their worldly undertakings beyond the limits of human wisdom, studied every mode of possessing that information which might be supposed attainable by mysterious agency, and, in addition to the less permissible means of sorcery and divination, have endeavoured to obtain the desired instruction from observation of their sleeping thoughts, and even to reduce this process to a system.
Art. X.—On the original extension of the Sanksrit language over certain portions of Asia and Europe; and on the ancient Aryans (), Indians, or Hindus of India Proper
Authors: Curzon A.
Published: March 2011

In tracing back the orign of nations beyond the period embraced by the special histories of Greece and Rome, we reach the interval in universal history, during which four great nations are known to have floursihed, and to have extended their relations, political, millitary, or commercial, over the various regions of the globe. These are the races of India, China, Phœnicia, and Egypt. The two latter have long ceased to exist as distinct nations; or rather have been absorbed in other nationalities; whilst the two former, beside constituting the most numerous portion of the human race, have continued their ethnical existence to the present time. That other races of men inhabited the countries which have since been occupied and peopled by these races anterior to them may be considered certain; but no data exist from which it can be inferred that any considerable monarchy, or empire, was ever founded in any of these countries, prior to the clear, national establishment of those races, respectively, in India, and Egypt. The three former are the nations of Asia, who, whether by the antiquity of the civilization attributed to them, or the permanent influence they have exerted in the history of mankind, must be regarded by modern writers as the earliest races that have established themselves as great nations, whose peculiar languages and institutions mark them as the most distinct divisions of the human species, from whose records all researches in general history and ethnology must commence. Of the Chinese and the Phoenicians I shall have as little to remark as of the Egyptians.
Art. XV.—On the Natural and Artificial production of Pearls in China
Authors: Hague F.
Published: March 2011

Mankind had probably no sooner taken to the use of oysters as food, than pearls were discovered, and at no period could they be so rude as not to prize the beautiful animal gem; hence, in the most ancient records which have come down to us, we find the pearl enumerated amongst precious articles. In China, so early as twentytwo and a half centuries before our era, pearls are enumerated as tribute or tax; and, at a later period, they are mentioned in the Rh-'ya (the most ancient of dictionaries, compiled more than ten centuries before our era) as precious products of the western part of the empire. They are also mentioned as ornaments, as amulets against fire, &c.
Art. XVIII.—Notes of a Correspondence with Sir John Bowring on Buddhist Literature in China
Authors: Professor Wilson
Published: March 2011

When Sir John Bowring was on the eve of leaving this country for China, he expressed that willingness which might have been expected from his literary and liberal character, to promote any objects of inquiry which the Royal Asiatic Society might desire to have set on foot. There was no time for any communication with the Society, but I took advantage of the opportunity to suggest the desirableness of endeavouring to ascertain the existence of any of the books which were carried from India to China by Buddhist missionaries, in such numbers, during the first six or seven centuries of the Christian era, availing myself of the details furnished on this head by M. Julien, in his life of Hiouen Thsang. The suggestion has been most zealously acted upon by Sir John; and I have the pleasure to lay before the Society some of the results.
ART. IV.—Abstract of Reports on the Cultivation of Imphee in the Bombay Presidency, for the Year 1860
Authors: Dalzell N. A.
Published: March 2011

Reports on the experimental cultivation of imphee in 1860 having been received from nearly all the Collectorates of Bombay, and having perused them with much interest, the Conservator of Forests has the honour to make the following observations.
Art. VIII.—Translation from the Original Arabic of an Account of many Expeditions conducted by the Sultan of Burnu, Idris the Pilgrim, son of ’ Alī, against various Tribes his Neighbours, other than the Bulāla, &c., inhabitants of the land of Kānim
Authors: Redhouse J. W.
Published: March 2011

In the name of God the compassionate, the merciful; and may God look favourably upon our prince and prophet Mohammed the elect, the prince of those who preceded as of those who come after him, the messenger sent in victory and conquest, with glad tidings and warnings, to all the spheres of creation; may God look favourably upon him and upon his family, the just, the good, the pure, as also upon his companions, his household, his posterity, and the universality of the church who have responded to his call.
Art. XIV.—The Sutra of the Forty-two Sections, from the Chinese
Authors: Beal Reverend S.
Published: March 2011

The ordinary account of the introduction of Buddhist books and tracts into China is the following:—

“ In the fourth year of the reign of Ming-Ti, of the Han dynasty, the Emperor dreamt that he saw a divine personage, with a body like gold, and six chang in height, his head surrounded with brightness like the sun. Flying towards him, this Being entered his palace.
Art. XVI.—Notes on the Cultivation of Cotton in the District of Dharwar; Past, Present, and Future
Authors: Marshman J. C.
Published: March 2011

The district of Dharwar, which is likely to become the field of important operations in reference to the supply of superior cotton to England, lies within the presidency of Bombay, and is comprised in the Southern Mahratta couutry; the chief town of the district, which bears the same name, is 288 miles south-east of Bombay.
Art. I.—Two Játakas. The original Páli Text, with an English Translation
Authors: Fausböll V.
Published: March 2011

The two Játakas I here lay before the public contain, as will be seen, two fables which, in the tale that forms the framework of the second book of the Pancatantra, were combined into one. Only the main features, however, are the same, the details differing greatly; and the same is the case in all the other tales which the Játakas have in common with the Pancatantra and the Hitopadeça. But, as the MSS. of these two works disagree so much that there are almost as many texts as there are MSS. (“ut pœne quot codices, tot textus esse dicere possis,” Kosegarten, p. vi), new editions of both of them, based on the oldest MSS. that can be found in India, would be of great value; and if once the oldest MS. in existence had been discovered, I should particularly recommend its publication without any alloy from other MSS., that we might be sure we have one clear, self-consistent text. I think that if this had been done, the similarity between the Singhalese (Pali) and the continental (Sanscrit) fables would appear greater; the Pancatantra being originally, as Prof. Benfey has clearly shown, a Buddhistic work. If we look at the first of the two following fables, it will be seen that the truth to be expounded is the old one, couched by Sallust (Jugurtha 10), in the words, concordia parvse res crescunt, discordia maxumse dilabuntur, or in modern form: union is strength, disunion weakness.
Art. II.—On an Ancient Buddhist Inscription at Keu-yung kwan, in North China
Authors: Wylie A.
Published: March 2011

Travellers from the city of Peking to the town of Kalgan on the great wall of China, must make the journey by the rugged defile known as the Nankow Pass. Five miles north of the entrance, where the village of Nankow stands, is the smaller village of Keu-yung kwan. Fortifications there run up the steep slopes of the mountains on both sides of the valley; and besides arched gateways at the two ends of the village, the highway passes under a limestone archway of a much more striking appearance. This is covered with mythological and symbolic sculptures of obviously Indian origin. The tradition of the natives in the neighbourhood asserts it to have been the basement story of a pagoda which stood there; and the name by which it is still designated, Kwŏ keae t'à, “Pagoda crossing the street,” bears out the statement. We are told that this pagoda, though erected for the benefit of the locality, proved an object of such terror to the superstitious Mongols, coming south from their native wilds, that they could not be induced to pass under the ominous-looking structure; and thus it was found necessary in the early part of the Ming dynasty, to remove the upper stories of the erection; the policy of the government being to conciliate and attract these wild nomades.
Art. III.—The Bṛhat-Saṅhitâ; or, Complete System of Natural Astrology of Varâha-mihira
Authors: Kern H.
Published: March 2011

1. Each year (during which Jupiter completes a twelfth part of his revolution) has to bear the name of the lunar mansion in which he rises; the years follow each other in the same order as the lunar months.
Art. VII.—On Malabar, Coromandel, Quilon, etc
Authors: Brown C. P.
Published: March 2011

The Arabs and Africans who first visited the west coast of India, came “Mu-abbar”: “from beyond” the sea. In the voyages of Ibn Batuta, translated by Dr. Lee, the country is called Muabbar, without any surmise that this is Malabar. The Syrian Christians who live in Travancore wrote the word in Syriac characters , and it has occurred to me that in careless writing this may have been altered into Malabar: a name unknown to the inhabitants; who fancy it is the European name for their country and language. The Eastern shore of India also was visited by men “from over the sea:” and the name Malabar has also been wrongly applied to the Eastern coast.
Note on the preceding Mathura Inscriptions
Authors: Cunningham A.
Published: March 2011

The circumstances under which these inscriptions were discovered are detailed in my Archæological Report for 1862–3, par. 159–184.

Professor Dowson's translations were handed over to me in the end of April last, and I read them at a meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society on the 5th of July, just four months before the receipt of Bâbu Râjendralâl's translations, which appeared in the Bengal Asiatic Society's Journal for 1870, p. 117–130. But the Bâbu's translations are confined to the inscriptions which I first made known to Mr. E. C. Bayley in November or December, 1860, by the copies which are now engraved in the Bengal Journal. Mr. Bayley visited Mathura early in April, 1861, and made independent copies of most of these inscriptions; and in 1863 a considerable number of the inscribed stones were forwarded to Calcutta, where Bâbu Râjendra had the opportunity of studying them at leisure. The Bâbu mentions that the inscriptions which he has translated are taken from my transcripts, “with such corrections and emendations as a careful examination of the original and comparison with Mr. Bayley's transcripts would warrant.”
Art. VII.—Note on the Languages spoken between the Assam Valley and Tibet
Authors: Konow Sten
Published: March 2011

The mountainous region between the Assam Valley and Tibet, from Bhutan in the west to the Brahmaputra in the east, is inhabited by a series of tribes which are all of Tibeto-Burman stock.
Art. VIII.—Kusinārā or Kuśinagara, and other Buddhist Holy Places
Authors: Smith Vincent A.
Published: March 2011

Forty years ago Sir Alexander Cunningham, adopting a hint given by Professor H. H. Wilson, identified the Buddhist remains near Kasiā in the Gorakhpur District as marking the site of Kuśinagara, or Kusinārā, the traditional scene of the death of Gautama Buddha.
“Ancestral estates” in Aramaic contracts: the legal significance of the term mhḥsn
Authors: Szubin H. Z. , Porten Bezalel
Published: March 2011

The two family archives from the Elephantine Jewish Community contain respectively four (C 5, 6, 8, 9) and six documents (K 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 12) dealing with a single house each. One of the questions which arises is the occurrence, once in each of the archives (C 8:2; K 12:5), of the designation mhḥsn, translated either as “holding property” or as “military colonist”. Is the term of general meaning and its occurrence in each of the passages coincidence or is it a technical term with legal significance?
Men, gods and powers in the Vedic outlook
Authors: Werner Karel
Published: March 2011

In the last century the Vedic pantheon served as the best illustration of the theory that the gods of primitive and archaic religions were personifications of natural phenomena. The gods of the Vedas were seen as more recognisably such than, for example, the Greek gods, who had acquired more elaborate anthropomorphic features through Homer's poetic skill, so that their supposed natuie-substratumwas hardly or not at all detectable. In India the matter seemed clear. Thus Oldenberg believed that the Vedic gods were predominantly deifiedNaturwesen, agents behind the great happenings and processes of nature. Moreover, he maintained that different gods in the Vedas had reached different stages of anthropomorphism and independence from their nature basis and he made much of the job of determining this degree in individual cases.
The House of Commons and India 1874–1880
Authors: Durrans Peter J.
Published: March 2011

“Parliament”, complained John Bright two years after the transfer of Indian government to the Crown, “cares about India little more than the Cabinet”. Indian affairs continued to attract little attention at Westminster until the advent to power in 1874 of a Conservative administration committed, under Disraeli's leadership, to a vigorous defence of Britain's imperial pre-eminence. The subsequent emergence of India as the focal point of the Prime Minister's imperial ambitions aroused bitter Liberal criticism and ensured a break with the tradition that sought to insulate India from party politics in Britain. It is with the response to these developments of the House of Commons, an integral part of the machinery of Indian government, that this paper is primarily concerned. Following a preliminary examination of the reasons which lay behind Parliament's habitual neglect of India it takes as its particular focus the manner in which the House of Commons fulfilled its responsibility to India at a time when the conduct of Indian affairs became a major political issue.
The present state and future tasks of Graeco-Arabic studies: remarks apropos H. Daiber'sAetius Arabus
Authors: Gutas Dimitri
Published: March 2011

One of the monuments of Peripatetic scholarship which time and the long shadow of Aristotle have concealed from full view, and barred from general acclaim, is “The opinions of the natural philosophers” by his colleague and successor, Theophrastus of Lesbos. The work established the fields of intellectual history in the form of “doxography” in general, and of the history of natural science in particular, as separate branches of study, and laid the foundation for all subsequent research on the Presocratic thinkers and the origins of philosophy. Its pervasive influence and the tradition it generated may be briefly recounted: shortly after the turn of the 1st century B.C. there appeared in the school of Poseidonius a revised and updated edition of the work, which also included the opinions of philosophers posterior to Theophrastus. In the following century the supplemented compilation was edited anew by an otherwise unknown Aetius, under the simple title “Opinions” (Placita). Around A.D. 150 Aetius's edition reappeared in an epitome falsely attributed to Plutarch and bearing the title, “Epitome of the Natural Opinions of the Philosophers” (Placita philosophorum). Of these works, only the last named has survived intact in Greek: its attribution to a famous author and its wide use, especially by Christians in their polemical writings, seem to have contributed to its preservation. One may further hazard the guess that by the same token, and because a tradition of reference to, and respect for, thisPlacitahad been created in Christian circles, it was translated into Arabic by a person in the same tradition, a Syriac Christian of Greek descent, Qusṭā ibn Lūqā (died c. A.D. 912). In Arabic translation it saw the widest diffusion possible among authors interested in ancient philosophy (see the diagram in the work reviewed, p. 88).
A Sasanian-style coin of Yazīd b. Mu‘āwiya
Authors: Mochiri Malek Iradj
Published: March 2011

The silver coin presented here (Plate I) was acquired from a travelling dealer. It was sold to the writer in isolation, without accompanying coins or information which might have given some clue to its provenance. The dealer, although ignorant of the Pahlavi script, was clever enough to realise the value of the piece. He offered it as a coin of Khusraw II, but demanded three times the usual price on the grounds that it was of a mint rarely encountered
Art. III.—On the Preservation of National Literature in the East
Authors: Goldsmid F. J.
Published: March 2011

English translations from Oriental languages are not easily made attractive to the general reader, unless they convey some startling novelty of idea or treatment, a position which they are not often calculated to realise. If literal, they are for the most part verbose or unmeaning; if adaptations to suit the supposed taste of the home public, they become subject to the rules of ordinary criticism, and have seldom the requisite stamina to pass creditably through the ordeal. I have always thought that the true charm of Sa'dí and Háfiz rests more in the language than in the morals or poetry; consequently, that our English versions, however ably executed, are far from doing justice to the original. The airs are for a full orchestra, and we hear them on a piano or street organ. And if the Persian intellect be, as I believe, one which places sound above import, so also may we esteem that of other Eastern nations, whose poets are humble imitators of the Persians. These remarks apply with especial force to the romantic and fanciful schools of poetry, whether expressed after the fashion of an ode, a ballad, or a sonnet. I use intelligible terms, though all may not precisely correspond with the technical requirements of the Asiatic Muse.
Art. XI.—Yama and the Doctrine of a Future Life, according to the Rig-, Yajur-, and Atharva- Vedas
Authors: Muir J.
Published: March 2011

It is only in the ninth and tenth books of the Rig Veda that there is any very distinct and prominent reference made to a future life. It is true that the Ṛbhus, on account of their artistic skill, are said to have been promised, and to have attained, immortality and divine honours (i. 161, 2; iv. 35, 3, 7, 8); but this is a special case of deification, and does not prove that ordinary mortals were considered to survive after the termination of their earthly existence. There are, however, a few other passages which may be understood as intimating a belief in a future state of blessedness. Thus (i. 91, 1) it is said, that “by the guidance of Soma the sage ancestors of the worshippers had obtained treasures among the gods;” and again, in v. 18, “Soma, becoming abundant to (produce) immortality, place for us excellent food in the sky.”
Art. III.—Five Hundred Questions on the Social Condition of the Natives of Bengal
Authors: Long J.
Published: March 2011

Desiderata and Inquiries connected with the Presidency of Madras and Bombay were issued by the Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1827, on points relating to the language, literature, ancient history of families, antiquities, coins, people, architecture, landed tenures, arts and manufactures, of India.

The British Admiralty has published a Manual of Scientific Enquiry, so have the Statistical and other Societies.

Haxthausen, in his work on the Caucasus, remarks: “My travels and observations during more than twenty years, have convinced me that an acquaintance with the manners of a people, their moral and material interests, domestic relations, corporate associations, and specially the commercial relations of the lower classes, is indispensable to a real knowledge of the history and constitution of peoples and states.”
Art. V.—Brief Prefatory Remarks to the Translation of the Amitâbha Sûtra from Chinese
Authors: Beal S.
Published: March 2011

The following translation of the Amitâbha Sûtra is made from the Chinese edition of that work, prepared by Kumârajîva, and bound up in a volume known as the “Daily Prayers of the Buddhist Priests belonging to the Contemplative School” (Shan-mun).

No doubt the Chinese version is much abbreviated. We are told that Kumârajîva omitted repetitions and superfluities in making his translations. We have reason to be thankful that he did so.
Art. IX.—On the Interpretation of the Veda
Authors: Muir J.
Published: March 2011

I am led to make some remarks on the subject of this paper by a passage in Mr. Cowell's preface to the fourth volume of the late Professor Wilson's translation of the Rigveda, which appears to me unduly to depreciate the services which have already been rendered by those eminent scholars both in Germany and in England who have begun to apply the scientific processes of modern philology to the explanation of this ancient hymn-collection. Mr. Cowell admits (p. vi.),—
Art. X.—An Attempt to Translate from the Chinese a Work known as the Confessional Service of the Great Compassionate Kwan Yin, possessing 1000 Hands and 1000 Eyes
Authors: Beal Samuel
Published: March 2011

It is reported that Kwan Tseu Tsai Bodhisattva, prompted by her great compassionate heart has engaged herself by a great oath to enter into every one of the innumerable worlds, and bring deliverance to all creatures who inhabit them.

For this purpose she has enunciated the Divine sentences which follow, which, if properly recited, will render all creatures exempt from the causes of sorrow, and by removing them, render them capable of attaining Supreme Reason.

And if the virtuous man, who has already attained the happiness consequent on True Wisdom, still continue to recite these sentences, and by his correct line of conduct induce others who believe not to follow his example, and to accept the Truth and believe in it—how great his happiness!
Art. XIX.—Of Jihad in Mohammedan Law, and its application to British India
Authors: Baillie N.B.E.
Published: March 2011

The term Jihad is technically applied to warfare carried on for the propagation of the Mohammedan religion. As such warfare is unlawful, unless the people against whom it is about to be waged have been first summoned to embrace the faith, this summons has entered into the legal definition of the term. Jihadis accordingly defined to be a call to the true religion, and war with those who refuse to accept it in their persons or property,—that is, by professing the faith themselves, or by submitting to pay the jizyut or poll-tax, by means of which they are rendered free to the open profession of their own religion.
Art. XV.—The Sumerian Language and its Affinities
Authors: Hommel Fritz
Published: March 2011

Of all the known languages of the world, Sumerian may undoubtedly be regarded as the oldest. We possess now inscriptions (e.g. of the ancient Chaldean King Ur-ģanna of Sigrulla) which are of an even earlier date than the timeof the half-mythical Egyptian King Menes. Our sources for the knowledge of this language—the language of the founders of the Babylonian civilization—are twofold, namely: a long series of bilingual incantations, hymns, psalms, etc., preserved in late copies, giving the original text, line for line, with its Semitic (Babylonian or Assyrian) translation; and a great many inscriptions, in Sumerian only, of the early kings, most of them very short, but some of considerable length.
Art. XVII.—The Pre-Akkadian Semites
Authors: Bertin G.
Published: March 2011

Assyriology offers such a vast field still unexplored that it is hardly possible to open a new tract without falling on some unexpected discovery. That is how, studying Babylonian astronomy, a subject so difficult that few scholars have ventured to take it, I arrived, after many doubts and hesitations, at the conclusion that, when the Akkadians appeared in Mesopotamia, the country was already occupied by a Semitic population possessing a certain degree of civilization and the art of writing.
Art. XX.—The Mosque of Sultan Nasir Mohammed ebn Kalaoun, in the Citadel of Cairo
Authors: Watson C. M.
Published: March 2011

The mosque of Sultan Nasir ebn Kalaoun, which stands at the centre of Cairo citadel, although one of the most interesting in the city, seems to have received less attention than it deserves. This is probably due to the fact that, for many years past, it has ceased to be used as a mosque, and has been thrown into the background by the great Mosque of Mohamed Ali Pasha, which is visited by at least a thousand persons for every one who takes the trouble to enter the old royal mosque of the citadel.
Assyriological Notes
Authors: Smith Sidney
Published: March 2011

The nature and the religious meaning of the construction called a gigunu have long been disputed. Its close association with the ziqqurrat or temple tower has led one scholar to assume the identity of the two as probable, its association with graves has led another to suppose that the ziqqurrat was a gigunu as being the tomb of the god, while yet a third denies that gigunu signifies “place of burial”, and translates simply “sanctuary”.
The Wanetsi connexion Part II: Glossary
Authors: Elfenbein J.
Published: March 2011

The following glossary contains all words which appeared in ‘The Wanetsi Connexion, Part I’ (JRAS I, 1984, 54–76), as well as many words from LZ, LZM, and M, where something new can be said. No locus is given for a very few very common loanwords (mainly from NP). The alphabetical order disregards vowels, as usual. Pashto cognates are given mainly to facilitate reference to EVP, and to underline the differences between Pashto and Wanetsi. Note that h is very unstable in all positions in Wan, and that Pš words ending in (for standard -áy) are Kākaṛī forms.
Indian concepts of human personality in relation to the doctrine of the soul
Authors: Werner Karel
Published: March 2011

Among the popular misconceptions which still linger in the minds of many people who are interested in the study of different religious systems, who are personally involved in one of the growing Hindu- or Buddhist-based modern religious movements, or who even do academic research in the field of the history of religions, is the rather simplistic view that Hinduism teaches the existence of a transmigrating individual soul, but that Buddhism denies it. At the same time it is well known that Buddhism, like Hinduism, teaches the rebirth of the individual in successive lives, in combination with the doctrine of moral retribution for his deeds in this or the next life or in subsequent lives according to the laws of karma, whose operation can be summed up rather well by the use of the biblical saying: “as you have sown so you will reap”.