bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Art. XX.—On the Authorities for the History of the Dominion of the Arabs in Spain
Authors: Wright William
Published: March 2011

None of the Spanish historians who lived before the present century possessed even the slightest knowledge of the Arabic language, and even they stumbled at every step when they had to treat of the Muhammadan dynasties, and their hostile or friendly relations with the Christians. Casiri alone, in his catalogue of the MSS. in the library of the Escurial, edited and translated some extracts from Arab authors; and this was all that had been done down to 1820, when the first volume of Conde's History appeared, and the world imagined that the light of this newly-risen sun was at length, in a great measure, to dissipate the darkness that had for ages enveloped the doings of the Arab and the Berber on the soil of Spain.
Art. VI.—Assyrian Tests Translated
Authors: Talbot H. F.
Published: March 2011

In presenting the following translations to the Royal Asiatic Society, I hope to make a useful contribution to the study of Assyrian Antiquities. They have been prepared quite independently and without any communication with other enquirers. This has been done once before, under the auspices of the Society, in the case of the important inscription of Tiglath Pileser I., and I believe that the result has not been considered unsatisfactory by the Council of the Society and by the learned world in general. It is indeed a cogent argument, and persuasive to all candid minds, that when independent enquirers agree in the interpretation of writings of such extreme diversity and complexity, their opinions must rest upon a foundation of truth.
Art. X.—On the Indian Embassies to Rome from the Reign of Claudius to the Death of Justinian
Authors: Priaulx Osmond De Beauvoir
Published: March 2011

After the Singhalese embassy to Claudius, the Indian embassies to Eome were few and far between. To the death of Justinian, A.D. 565, four only have been noticed, and barely noticed, by historians. The first, to Trajan, was present with him at the great shows which he offered to the Roman people, A.D. 107. The second, to Antoninus Pius,8 A.D. 138,161, came to pay homage to his virtues. The third, to Julian,8 though intended, Zonaras asserts, for Constantius, reached him, according to Ammianus Marcellinus, before it was expected, A.D. 361, and included ambassadors from the Divi (Maldives) and the Serendivi (the Singhalese), who now for the first time appear under their own name, and the name by which they were known to the Arabs. And the fourth, to Justinian, brought him gifts, and was at Constantinople, a.d. 530.
Art. XII—Notes on the production of Tea in Assam, and in India generally
Authors: Marshman J. C.
Published: March 2011

The subject of the cultivation of tea in Assam was first brought under the notice ofthe Committee of Trade and Agriculture of this Society on the 10th November, 1838, when “An Account of the Manufacture of Black Tea as practised in Upper Assam by the Chinamen sent thither for that purpose,” which had been drawn up by Mr. W. Bruce, the Superintendent of the Tea Culture, on the part of the Indian Government, was presentedby the Secretary of the East India Company.
Art. XVII.—On the Declensional Features of the North Indian Vernaculars, compared with the Sanskrit, Pāli, and Prākrit
Authors: Trumpp E.
Published: March 2011

Nothing is more important for the right understanding and analysis of the North Indian vernaculars, than a thorough comparison of their minute details with their noble mother-tongue, and the two intermediate languages, which we call Pāli and Prākrit. Many things, which have hitherto remained doubtful, will thereby receive light, and their true structure will be laid open, if we take the trouble to follow the old Präkrit down into its more modern branches. It is unquestionable that we shall never be able to decide what words in the modern vernaculars are of Sanskrit origin, and what are derived from some foreign (Tatar) source, until we have accurately defined the laws by which the system of sounds is regulated in the present (Sanskritical) vulgar tongues of India. An attempt of this kind I have made in an essay, entitled The Sindhī System of Sounds, &c., published in the “Journal of the German Oriental Society,” vol. xv. 4. It is my object in the present essay to show in what way the modern tongues of India have supplied their declensional necessities, and how far their method is in accordance with Sanskrit or Prākrit usage; from this will follow, naturally, how far they have a claim to be considered true daughters of their common mother, the Sanskrit-Prakrit. We shall also find occasion, in the course of the following investigation, to oppose some claims which hare lately been made in the name of the Drāvidian tongues of South India, and vindicate the original structure of the northern tongues, independent of any Dravidian influences. As we tread on ground which has, to our knowledge, never been investigated, many of our conclusions may prove abortive, for which we beg the reader's kind indulgence.
Art. IV.—Tibet. A Geographical, Ethnographical, and Historical Sketch, derived from Chinese Sources
Authors: Rockhill W. Woodville
Published: March 2011

Formerly in the seventh year Ch'ung-tê (A.D. 1643) of the Emperor T'ai-tsung-wen, the Panch'en Erdeni, the Talé lama, and Ku-shih han (Gushi khan), knowing of the appearance of a superior man in the eastern country, sent envoys for the express purpose (of seeing him). They were only able to reach their destination by passing through hostile countries, and after several years they arrived at Sheng-ching (Mukden). This was eighty years ago. (These princes) were all alike doers of good works and liberal patrons (of the clergy), and peace and happiness reigned (in their land). But after the death of the Talé lama, the Déba kept the news hidden from Us, and for sixteen years he madly ruled according to his caprice. La-tsang put him to death, and then Religion reappeared. For this reason We acceded to the united supplications, of La-tsang and all the princes of the Kokonor when Chih-wang a-la-p'u-tan in his foolishness fomented troubles. He excited to rebellion the Chun-ko-ehr (Sungans), who committed riotous acts of open rebellion, burning down the Talé lama's (monument), level-ling to the ground the pagoda of the fifth Talé lama, polluting the Pan-ch'en, destroying the convents, and killing the lamas. Glorying in being the champion of the Faith, he was in truth but its destroyer, seeking stealthily to take for himself the country of Tibet.
Art. IV.—Description of Persia and Mesopotamia in the year 1340 a.d. from the Nuzhat-al-Ḳulūb of Ḥamd-Allah Mustawfi, with a summary of the contents of that work
Authors: Le Strange G.
Published: March 2011

It is very generally a matter of complaint that the lithographed editions of Persian and Arabic works published in the East are, for the most part, unprovided with any index or full table of contents; and, further, that when the book treats of geography or history, the proper names of both persons and places are too often given in a manner that at first sight defies identification. Half a loaf, however, is proverbially better than no bread, and, until from some quarter funds are forthcoming to defray the cost of printing Persian texts in Europe, scholars would often be able to make use of the editions lithographed in India or elsewhere, if the true reading of the proper names were fixed by a collation of the best manuscripts, and if a full table of contents were available for purposes of reference. In many cases also a Persian work will only contain one part, or a series of chapters, that pre-eminently is of interest to Western scholars: and the remark, of course,- applies more especially to the Cosmographies where the geographical chapters alone are of first-rate importance, as also to those numerous Universal Histories where only the concluding sections, dealing with the author's own time, can in any way be considered as of primary authority.
Art. V.—The Risālatu'l-

Gh

ufrān: by Abū'l-‘Alā al-Ma‘arrī. Part II, including Table of Contents with Text and Translation of the Section on Zandaḳa and of other passages
Authors: Nicholson Reynold A.
Published: March 2011

In the last sentence of my paper on Part I of the ufrān (J.R.A.S., October, 1900) I described the Second Part as “more difficult, but also more characteristic and interesting.” Further study has led me somewhat to modify this view. It is more difficult to read, because the scribe, hastening to the goal, drove his pen furiously. On the first reading a good deal of it seemed to me almost hopeless, but a closer acquaintance has removed not a few of these stumbling-blocks, and I am convinced that only patience and determination are needed to remove all, or nearly all, that are left. If indeed Abū'l-‘Alā had always written as he writes in the section to which this article is mainly devoted, his readers would have no cause for complaint: it comprises many anecdotes and comparatively little rhetoric ; hence it is, beyond doubt, less difficult than any other section of the Risāla. Unfortunately, these twenty or thirty pages are but an oasis in the surrounding desert. Elsewhere Abū'l-‘Alā seldom escapes from his artificial prose with its forced metaphors and tyrannous rhymes. The passages of which I have attempted a, translation, on pp. 127–129 and 161–163, may serve to illustrate his typical manner. But on the whole, when account is made of the large number of scattered anecdotes, the Second Part is scarcely equal in difficulty to the First. That it is more characteristic will be admitted, in the sense that it is more personal.
Notes on the Greek Version of Aśoka's Twelfth and Thirteenth Rock Edicts
Authors: Norman K. R.
Published: March 2011

1. A block of stone inscribed with a Greek ( = Gk.) version of the latter part of Aśsoka's Rock Edict ( = RE) XII and the beginning of RE XIII was discovered at Kandahar in Afghanistan in 1963. The text was published in 1964 by D. Schlumbergerand again in the same year by É. Benveniste ( = B.) in Journal Asiatique (=JA). A condensed version of these two articles, in English, was published in Epigraphia Indica (= Ep. Ind.) in 1968.
Āpapāta (Qūmis commentaries no. 2)
Authors: Bivar A. D. H.
Published: March 2011

In a recent issue of this journal the writer essayed a reading of the fragmentary Parthian ostracon from the 1967 excavations by John Hansman and D. B. Stronach at Shahr-i Qūmis, near Dāmghān, Irān. The tentative reading in line 4 was as follows:

The round brackets at this point indicate the editor's hesitation between similar letter-forms, rather than actual defacement of the lettering. So far as they go, the traces are reasonably clear.
A Note on an Early Topographical Work of Sayyid Aḥmad Khān: Āsār al-Ṣanādīd
Authors: Troll Christian W.
Published: March 2011

Among the pre-Mutiny writings of Sayyid Aḥmad Khān (1817–1898), the Indian Muslim reformer, Āsār al-ṣanādīd, a history and description of Delhi, and its principal buildings and monuments, is a most impressive achievement. From the day of its publication onwards it has repeatedly been acknowledged as an important contribution to our knowledge of the history and archaeology of Delhi. However, on the whole, and in spite of recent re-editions of the work, no due attention has been paid to the fact that as early as 1854, i.e. only seven years after the first edition, Sayyid Aḥmad Khān published a second one remarkably different in form and content. We should like, in what follows, to present some evidence that may help to explain why and how this significantly altered second edition came about. This will also contribute to a better knowledge of Sayyid Aḥmad Khān's early intellectual development.
Achaemenid Sattagydia and the geography of Vivana's campaigns (DB III, 54–75)
Authors: Fleming David
Published: March 2011

Much of the work that is attempted in the field of early Iranian historical geography is by necessity hypothetical, since there are no explicit descriptions of the spatial nature of political control in Iran before the accounts of Greek writers of the 5th century B.C. and later. The actual geography of Iran is however so precisely delimited that careful study of available accounts, when linked with a knowledge of the local topography of any area under investigation, will allow the student to suggest reconstructions for the scenes of various actions. In this case, I shall propose a possible geographical framework for a sequence of events that is recorded in the inscription of Darius I at Behistun, and which has not been satisfactorily localized before. Tentative as it is, the reconstruction seems to clarify a passage that dealt with events of the greatest importance for subsequent Achaemenid history.
Who ran the Mongol Empire?
Authors: Morgan D. O.
Published: March 2011

“With the Mongols there is neither slave nor free man; neither believer nor pagan…. And every one who approacheth them and offereth to them any of the mammon of the world, they accept it from him, and they entrust to him whatsoever office he seeketh, whether it be great or whether it be little, whether he knoweth how to administer it, or whether he doth not. All they demand is strenuous service and submission which is beyond the power (of man to render).”
Two Kharoṣṭhī inscriptions
Authors: Bailey H. W.
Published: March 2011

The Kharoṣṭhī inscription here published (in private possession) has been referred to me by an interested friend for a reading. The Kharoṣṭhī script, and the North-West Prakrit language written in it still remain problematic, so that as usual the following translation is preliminary. The accompanying photographs (Plates II and III) will offer specialists in Kharoṣṭhī the necessary basis for study.

The inscription is on the halo of a standing Buddha (height 96.52 cm). Two photographs are given so that the letters behind the head can be seen.
The South Asia and Burma retrospective bibliography
Authors: Bloomfield B. C.
Published: March 2011

The British Library Board has recently approved a proposal to begin compiling within the Reference Division the first stage of a South Asia and Burma Retrospective Bibliography (SABREB). For the purposes of this project South Asia is understood as comprising India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. The Reference Division is uniquely fitted to undertake such a project which will undoubtedly fill a major gap in the bibliographical record of the sub-continent. The combined collections of the Department of Printed Books, the India Office Library and Records (IOLR), and the Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books (OMPB) are unrivalled outside South Asia and contain a great many rare items no longer, alas, to be found in their countries of origin.
Art. II.—The Páramitá-hridaya Sútra, or, in Chinese, “;Mo-ho-pô-ye-po-lo-mih-to-sin-king,” i.e., “The Great Páramitá Heart Sútra.”
Authors: S. Beal
Published: March 2011

This Sútra consists of about two hundred and fifty characters. It is repeated in the course of the daily worship of the Buddhists, by rote, as a mantra would be repeated (according to Colebrooke, pp. 8, 9, Relig. of Hindoos,) by the Hindoos. In its composition it resembles, or appears to resemble, the sacred writings of the Brahmans. No author's name is attached to it. It does not even begin with the usual preface “thus have I heard” (evam mayá śrutam). But we have mentioned in it the Rishi to whom it was communicated, and the Devatá from whom it proceeded. In this particular, at any rate, it strongly resembles the Vedic model. And when we recollect that the later Buddhists attempted in every possible way to absorb the system of the Brahmans in their own, yielding so far as they dared to popular superstitions, we shall not wonder in finding so many similarities, in externals at least, between the two religions.
Art. IV.—On the Agricultural, Commercial, Financial, and Military Statistics of Ceylon
Authors: Power E. R.
Published: March 2011

The following brief remarks on the Agricultural and Commercial Statistics of Ceylon, past and present, may not be without interest to the Members of the Committee of Agriculture and Commerce of the Royal Asiatic Society.

First. In respect to the present great staple of the colony. In 1809, according to the records of the Local Government under the Dutch régime, the production of coffee in the island, both for consumption and export, was about 250,000 Ibs. From that period the production continued steadily to increase; but it was in 1836, when the equalization in England of the duty on East and West India Coffee took place, that European capital and skill were brought to bear, and that to a large extent, in reference to the cultivation of the berry. Prior to the equalization of the duties, the import duty on Ceylon coffee in England had been 9d. per Ib. In 1836 the duty was reduced to 3d. per Ib., or 28s. per cwt.; and as the demand for the article continued undiminished, an equal rise of the price of coffee in bond simultaneously took place, the price to the consumer remaining much as before, and the importer reaping the benefit.
Art. VII.—Assyrian and Hebrew Chronology compared, with the view of showing the extent to which the Hebrew chronology of Ussher must be modified, in conformity with the Assyrian Canon
Authors: Bosanquet I. W.
Published: March 2011

It is now about two years since Sir H. Rawlinson published his discovery of the Assyrian Canon, that is to say, of a list of annual functionaries in the kingdom of Assyria, extending over a period of about two hundred and seventy years of the duration of that great empire. This is the most valuable contribution towards the recovery of ancient Asiatic chronology which has been made since the time when Selden deciphered and published the contents of the Parian Chronicle, in the reign of Charles the First; and there is every reason to believe that by means of this document, in conjunction with the well-established dates of the early portion of the Babylonian Canon, we shall be enabled, not only to fix with certainty the dates of the reigns of thirteen kings of Assyria, reaching as early as the year B.C. 907; but also, with much probability, to recover the exact date of the rise of the first Chaldean dynasty in Assyria; or, in other words, the commencement of the era of Ninus and Semiramis. Sufficient time has now elapsed for a full investigation of the contents and bearing of this valuable document, and three eminent Assyrian scholars, viz., Sir H. Rawlinson in England, Dr. Hincks in Ireland, and Monsieur Oppert in Paris, after careful and independent examination, have published their comments upon it. They are as yet undecided as to what was the exact nature of the functions of these annual officers, whether military, civil, or priestly.
Art. IX.—Bilingual Readings—Cuneiform and Phœnician. Notes on some Tablets in the British Museum, containing Bilingual Legends (Assyrian and Phœnician)
Authors: Rawlinson H.
Published: March 2011

At the last Anniversary Meeting of the Society I announced the discovery among the Assyrian collections in the British Museum of a certain number of clay tablets, bearing legends, both in Assyrian and Phoenician; and I promised at an early period to publish these Bilingual readings in the Society's journal, in order to afford those critics of the late Sir G. Lewis's school, who still disbelieve, or affect to disbelieve, in Cuneiform decipherment, an opportunity of testing the general accuracy of the phonetic system, now accepted amongst Assyrian scholars, by comparing the signs which they suppose to be unknown with those of a known alphabet and language.
Art. XIII.—Progress of the Vedic Religion towards Abstract Conceptions of the Deity
Authors: Muir J.
Published: March 2011

In a passage which I have already quoted in my former paper on the Vedic mythology (p. 59) Yâska, the author of the Nirukta, informs us (vii. 5) that previous writers of the school to which he himself belonged (the Nairuktas) reduced the deities mentioned in the Vedas to three—viz., “Agni, whose place is on the earth, Vâyu or Indra, whose place is in the air, and Sûrya, whose place is in the sky;” and asserted that “these deities had severally received many appellations in consequence of their greatness, or of the diversity of their functions, as the names of hotr, adhvaryu, brahman, and udgâtr, are applied to one and the same person [according to the particular sacrificial office which he happens to be fulfilling].” In the preceding section (vii. 4) Yâska goes still further and declares that “owing to the greatness of the deity, the one Soul is celebrated as if it were many. The different gods are separate members of the one Soul.”
Art XVI.—On the Identity of Xandrames and Kraṇanda
Authors: Thomas Edward
Published: March 2011

At the meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society, on the 21st Nov., 1864, I undertook the task of establishing the identity of the Xandrames of Diodorus Siculus and Quintus Curtius, the undesignated king of the Gangetic provinces of other Classic Authors—with the potentate whose name appears on a very extensive series of local mintages under the bilingual Bactrian and Indo-Pali form of Kraṇanda.
Art. I.—Contributions to a Knowledge of the Vedic Theogony and Mythology. No. II
Authors: Muir J.
Published: March 2011

The Aṣvins seem to have been a puzzle even to the oldest Indian Commentators. Yâska thus refers to them in the Nirukta, xii. 1: “Next in order are the deities whose sphere is the heaven; of these the Aṣvins are the first to arrive. They are called Aṣvins, because they pervade (vyaṣnuvāte) everything, the one with moisture, the other with light. Aurṇabhâva says they are called Aṣvins, from the horses (aṣvaiḥ, on which they ride). Who, then, are these Aṣvins ? ‘Heaven and Earth,’ say some; ‘Day and Night,’ say others; ‘The Sun and Moon,’ say others; ‘Two kings, performers of holy acts,’ say the legendary writers.
Art. II.—Miscellaneous hymns from the Rig and Atherva Vedas.
Authors: Muir J.
Published: March 2011

The hymns of the Rig Veda are, as is well known, almost entirely of a religious character, designed, or at least, adapted, for recitation at the worship of the various popular deities, or at some of the ceremonials connected with various important events in the domestic or public life of the ancient Indians. Among these, however, are interspersed a few of a different description, which, from the wide celebrity they had acquired, were carefully preserved by the descendants of their authors, or by other interested persons, and have been incorporated in the great collection of sacred songs.
Art. XII.—Specimen Chapters of an Assyrian Grammar
Authors: Hincks E.
Published: March 2011

A great number of years have now elapsed since I began to collect materials for an Assyrian grammar; an object, of which I have never since lost sight. Of late, I have been preparing my materials for publication; but a preliminary question has suggested itself:—“If I were to publish a grammar, who would read it ?” The persons for whose instruction I should naturally write would be either persons who were acquainted with other Semitic languages, and who were desirous of comparing the grammars of these with that of the oldest and the best developed language of the family; or else persons, who desired to study this language for its own sake, and who sought the aid of a grammar, in the absence of an oral instructor, to teach them the first principles of this “Sanskrit of the Semitic tongues,” which they might afterwards improve upon by their own studies.
Art. XIV.—On the Origin of the Buddhist Arthakathás
Authors: Vijasinha L. Comrilla
Published: March 2011

About eighteen months ago I was engaged in preparing an edition of Brahmajála Sutta, and of Buddhaghosa's commentary upon it which forms the first section of the Sumaṅgala Vilásiní. Buddhaghosa's commentary upon Brahmajála Sutta is one of the most important of his writings, since it contains a detailed account of the First General Council, held immediately after Buddha's death for the purpose of settling the text of the Buddhist Scriptures. Intending to publish this work in the same volume with the Brahmajála which it comments upon, I began, and made considerable progress with, a translation of it. At the very outset I met with a difficulty, in the shape of an historical statement in Buddhaghosa's introductory verses which seemed in the highest degree improbable and untrustworthy.
Art. XVII.—Notes on an Ancient Indian Vase, with an Account of the Engraving thereupon
Authors: Horne Charles
Published: March 2011

This curious and, I believe, unique relic of antiquity is in the form of an ordinary Indian lotah, and measures as follows: Total height, 6¼ in.; diameter, 5½ in.; ditto at neck, 2 in.; with a projecting circular lip of ½ in. It is apparently wrought in some fine alloy of brass, copper, and spelter (?), the brass prevailing, and has resisted corrosion in a very remarkable manner; for the date which I would, from external evidence, assign it is between 200 and 300 A.D. It has evidently been treated with the greatest care; for we do not find upon it any signs of the constant polishing with sand and ashes which the lotahs of the natives undergo when in constant use, and which in a few years wears them quite thin.
Art. XVI.—Early Buddhist Symbolism
Authors: Sewell Robert
Published: March 2011

In his “Tree and Serpent Worship,” our late honoured Vice-President, James Fergusson, called attention to the similarity observable between certain symbols found on the Buddhist Topes of Sāñchi and Amarāvati, and others found on sculptured buildings and coins of Western Asia and Eastern Europe; and in doing so he expressed a hope that this subject would be taken up and developed by other writers. Discussing the origin of the object known as the triśula he said, “It is curiously like the sign of the planet Mercury, or the caduceus of the god of that name; and, if it were not rank heresy even to hint at such a thing, I would venture to suggest that, after all, there may be some connexion between at least the symbolism of the East and West.”
Inscriptions from Cyprus
Authors: Honeyman A. M.
Published: March 2011

A.—Larnaca Museum, Inventory Nr. 1425; from Dromolaxia, 3 miles south-west of Larnaca. Inscribed area 38 by 5 cm.; Maximum height of letters 2 cm. Plate I.

“(1)[On the … day] of the month Pa'ulot in the thirty-fourth year of King Pumiyaton, King of Citium and Id[alion, (2) son of Ki]ng Malkyaton, King of Citium and Idalion, this image is that which he gave and set up.”
At the Crossroads Mother Goddess Cult-Sites in Ancient India
Authors: Kosambi D. D.
Published: March 2011

The Trade Routes. If the prehistoric tracks ran as outlined above, it would be logical to find some of them developing into trade-routes and also into modern roads except where settlements moved down into the valley, by the riverside, as land-clearing progressed. Such movement makes definitive proof rather difficult. But there is enough in common between old tracks and new, particularly the passes, to show the development. The great Buddhist cave monasteries (all near mountain passes) at Karsambḷe, Ṭhāṇālā, Bhājā, āarle, Beḍsā, and Junnar outline main trade routes without any doubt, particularly when smaller intermediate caves are linked up. It is logical to expect merchants to use the tracks most frequented by whatever people lived there before there were ploughusing villages. The Buddhist monks who penetrated the wilderness to preach ahiṃsā and peaceful social behaviour would naturally follow the same tracks in order to reach the greatest number of savages. Their religion insisted upon the cessation of bloodsacrifices, and the cult-spots were the most likely places for their preaching. So these cults and the major Buddhist caves which are obviously at the junctions of great trade-routes should have some demonstrable connection. In fact, this is just what we find.
Vedic Urvárī; ‘lady of choice, wife’
Authors: Burrow T.
Published: March 2011

The rare Vedic word urvárī is in the dictionary of Böhtlingk and Roth (BR) given the meaning ‘Werg’, i.e. ‘tow, oakum’. This meaning is repeated in a number of subsequent dictionaries, e.g. in the first edition of Monier-Williams' Sanskrit dictionary (1872: ‘tow, fibres drawn out of the distaff’), in the Sanskrit- English dictionary of C. Cappeller (London, 1891), in V. S. Apte's Practical Sanskrit Dictionary (2nd edition, Bombay, 1912), and more recently in the Sanskrit-German dictionary of K. Mylius (Leipzig, 1975). It also appears in other works of reference, such as Whitney's Sanskrit Grammar (1171c) and Altindische Grammatik of Wackernagel-Debrunner (Vol. II, 2, p. 909). On the other hand in the Vachaspatya, A Comprehensive Sanskrit Dictionary by Taranatha Tarkavachaspati (Vol.1, Calcutta, 1873) the meaning given, with reference to AV 10, 4, 21, is completely different: ādhikyaprāptā strī.
The wood carvings of Tamil Nadu: an iconographical survey
Authors: Kalidos Raju
Published: March 2011

The value of wood as a medium for making implements for secular and religious purposes has been known to mankind since the dawn of civilization. Some examples have survived till contemporary times. The fact that wood is available in abundant quantity, easily procurable and also eminently easy to fashion into the required shape must have been responsible for maximum use being made of it. The sruk and sruva, wooden spoons used by Vedic ritualists, continue to be of the same material and shape today. So also scholars are of the opinion that the earliest iconic presentations and temple edifices were made of wood. In view of the indispensable nature of wood as a medium of art, śilpaśāstras and āgamas embody elaborate information concerning the types of wood fit for art production and the methods for procuring them. It is well-known that art in wood is a legacy of very ancient traditions. The present paper makes an attempt to trace succinctly the art heritage of Tamilnadu in wood with special reference to temple cars, tēr in Tamil and ratha in Sanskrit, and to evaluate the scope for research in iconography.
Pre-Islamic Yemen in a recent publication
Authors: Beeston A. F. L.
Published: March 2011

On 28 April 1987 an exhibition opened in Munich under the title “Jemen: 3000 Jahre Kunst und Kultur des Glucklichen Arabiens”. In connection with this, Werner Daum brought together a team of writers to supply background essays on all aspects of Yemeni culture covered by the exhibition; these were published in a sumptuously produced 492 page volume (with splendid illustrations), by Pinguin Verlag of Innsbruck under the simple title Jemen. There are in all 45 contributions, but the following remarks refer only to the 14 concerned with pre-Islamic Yemen.
Art. I.—On the Persian Game of Chess
Authors: Bland N.
Published: March 2011

Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the introduction of Chess into Europe, its Asiatic origin is undoubted, although the question of its birth-place is still open to discussion, and will be adverted to in this essay. Its more immediate design, however, is to illustrate the principles and practice of the game itself from such Oriental sources as have hitherto escaped observation, and, especially, to introduce to particular notice a variety of Chess which may, on fair grounds, be considered more ancient than that which is now generally played, and lead to a theory which, if it should be established, would materially affect our present opinions on its history.
Art. VII.—Documents illustrative of the Occurrences in Bengal, in the time of the Nawábs Mír Jaffier and Kásim Alí Khán
Authors: Wilson
Published: March 2011

A short time ago, I purchased for the Library of the East India Company, a few MSS. which had apparently been written or collected by a gentleman named R. E. Roberts, who in 1784–5 held the office of Persian Interpreter either to the Governor of Bengal or the Commander of the Forces. I have not been able to learn anything further of him, except that, as might be inferred, he was an officer in the Bengal Army, and was personally known, late in life, to some of our members. There is an Indian Glossary or Vade-Mecum, compiled by a Lieutenant Roberts, of the 3rd Regiment N. I.; but it was printed in 1800, and his designation is T. T. Roberts; he must be, therefore, a different person. The papers of R. E. Roberts indicate extensive acquirements, and comprise a very good Persian grammar and a translation of a Hindustani grammar, compiled in Latin by a missionary named Schultz, and printed at Halle by Professor Cullenburg in 1745.
Art. XI.—Lecture on the present State of the Cultivation of Oriental Literature
Authors: Wilson H. H.
Published: March 2011

It has been judged possible, by the Council of the Royal Asiatic Society, that the objects for which the Society was founded, and for which it is maintained, may be made more generally known, and more accurately appreciated, by the adoption of arrangements of a more popular character than our ordinary proceedings, and which may interest a more numerous and varied portion of the public than the Members of the Society only, in matters concerning the Eastern World. It is not to be denied that the subjects which in a peculiar degree engage the attention of the Society,—the antiquities and literature of the nations of the East,—have hitherto failed to receive that attention from the public at large which might have been expected, if not from their own inherent interest, yet from our long and intimate intercourse with the most important countries of Asia, and the political identification of India and Great Britain. Works of high merit, elucidating Oriental literature, history, antiquities, religion, the conditions of Asiatic society in past or present times, and descriptive of the products of art or nature in the East, usually meet with a cold and discouraging reception, even from the reading world, or at most attract passing and ephemeral notice, leaving no durable impression, creating no continuous and progressive interest.
Art. IV.—Brief Account of a Javanese Manuscript, in the possession of the Society, and entitled “Babad Mangku Nagárá”
Authors: Nieman G. K.
Published: March 2011

The subject of this manuscript is the War of the celebrated prince Mangku Nagárá against the Dutch and their allies, which began in the latter half of the 17th century. The language is the modern Javanese, with here and there a word or two in Kavi, the ancient poetical idiom of Java, and in one passage wholly in Kavi. The composition is metrical; the metre is that which is usually employed in works of this nature, and the style is somewhat monotonous. The MS. is dated in the Javanese year 1724 (A.D. 1798), and the owner, and perhaps author of the work, is stated at the end to be Rader Fumenggung Suma diningrat.
Art. VI.—Glossary of Tibetan Geographical Terms
Authors: Hermann  , Adolphe  , de Schlagintweit Robert , de Schlagintweit Hermann
Published: March 2011

During our travels in India and High Asia, a careful collection of geographical names in the native spelling, and, if possible, with an interpretation added, became necessary for guiding us in transcribing those names in European characters. We soon observed that a considerable part of such information presented novel, unexpected, and well defined details, particularly for the countries beyond India. We directed our attention to it, therefore, with the greater zeal, as it gave us the idea of incorporating into our publications also a selection of geographical and ethnographical names.
Art. VII.—Bactrian Coins
Authors: Thomas E.
Published: March 2011

The subjoined paper was commenced, with a view to its insertion in this Journal, more than two years ago; circumstances, over which I have had no control, haye delayed and still obstruct its completion; nor would it now appear, in its imperfect and unfinished state, were it not that the illustrative plates, prepared for the occasion, await an accompanying notice.
Art. X.—On the Indian Embassies to Rome, from the Reign of Claudius to the Death of Justinian—continued from p. 298 of the XlXth Vol., Journ. R.A.S
Authors: Priaulx O. de B.
Published: March 2011

After the fall of Palmyra and the many disasters which about this time overwhelmed Alexandria, the far East ceased to occupy the Roman mind or much place in Roman literature. India and the name of Buddha are however to be met with in Christian controversial writings of the third and fourth centuries directed against the Manichæan heresy. They occur, in Archelaus' account of his disputation with the hæresiarch Manes held at Charra in Mesopotamia (A.D. 275–9), in the Catacheses of Cyril of Jerusalem (A.D. 361), and in the Heresies of Epiphanius (A.D. 375), which all trace back the Manichæan doctrine to one Scythianus and his disciple Terebinthus, whom they connect with India in this wise. Scythianus, of Scythian descent, though by birth a Saracen of the Saracens of Palestine and thus familiar with the Greek language and literature, was a contemporary of the Apostles, and a merchant engaged in the India trade. In the course of his business he had several times visited India; and while there, being a man of an inquiring mind and great natural parts, had made himself acquainted with the Indian philosophy. In his maturer years, having now amassed great wealth, while returning homeward through the Thebais, he fell in, at Hypsele, with an Egyptian slave girl, whom he bought and married, and who persuaded him to settle in Alexandria. Here he applied himself to the study of and mastered the Egyptian learning, and here formed those peculiar opinions which, with the assistance of his one disciple and slave Terebinthus, he embodied in four books, the source of all Manichæan doctrine.
Art. XII.—Translations of the Hieroglyphic Writing on an Inscribed Linen Cloth brought from Egypt
Authors: Nicholson C.
Published: March 2011

In the year 1857 Sir Charles Nicholson returned to London after a visit to Upper Egypt, where he had made a large collection of objects of antiquarian interest, including several stelae, sepulchral inscriptions, papyri, and inscribed linen cloth. Amongst the latter was one containing, in hieroglyphic writing, a part of the 129th chapter of the Book of the Dead. The document is itself of no particular interest. It presents a few new homophons. From the style of writing it is of an early date, and is probably of a period contemporaneous with the XVIIIth dynasty.
Art. XVI.—On the Botany, Geology, &c., of the country between Tamatave and Antananarivo, in Madagascar
Authors: Meller C.
Published: March 2011

In compliance with your request that I should furnish a few particulars on the botanical features of the country we passed through, on our way to Antananarivo, I will reduce my journal, and give as many salient points of the road as I can remember, begging you to have in mind that, in so hurried a journey, it is impossible to do justice to the materials supplied, and that our visit having been made in the winter season, a just appreciation of the country could not be formed. From specimens of timber sub-sequently obtained from a part of the island, remote from that of our road to the capital, I am able to aver that no opinion of the size or value of the woods can be formed from any seen on our journey.
Art. XIII.—The Age of the Avesta
Authors: de Harlez
Published: March 2011

The question of the age of the Avesta is one of those problems the solution of which will have the most important bearing on the history of the religions and civilizations of the East. It is not surprising, then, that it has occupied the attention of so many scholars, nor need we wonder that the results they have arrived at have been so various. From the time of Burnouf, who was the first to attack the problem with a scientific method, up to our own days, our knowledge on the point has passed through several stages. The founder of Iranian research came to the conclusion that the date of the Zoroastrian reform should be placed before B.C. 2900. On the other hand, the leading Iranian scholars of our own day, men like Spiegel, Darmesteter and Wilhelm, believe, as I do, that the Avesta, at least, is of comparatively recent date. It is therefore not a little surprising to see M. Q-eiger, the author of many learned works, returning to the former view on this matter in an essay which he presented, last year, to the Royal Academy of Münster.
Art. XVI.—The Vernacular Literature and Folklore of the Panjáb
Authors: Thornton Thomas H.
Published: March 2011

The aim of the present paper is to give some idea of what is known of the ‘Vernacular Literature and Folklore of the Panjáb.’ It lays no claim to be the result of original research. It is, in fact, little more than an epitome of information collected from books, periodicals, and official records, or gathered from the lips of Indian friends. Moreover, the task of collecting information has been greatly simplified by the appearance, within the last year, of a remarkable work by a rising Indian civilian. I refer to the Report of the late census of the Panjáb, by Mr. Denzil Ibbetson. The Report is a monument of elaborate research, is written in a most attractive style, and has been justly described by high authority as a “mine of information,”— not only regarding census operations—but also concerning the history, races, languages, and literature of the Panjáb. For the first portion of this paper free use has been made of the contents of that valuable work. I shall conclude by a few observations on the effects of thirty-five years of British rule on the development of vernacular literature and the intellectual condition of the people.
V. Reviews. Elementary Arabic. Part I. By F. D. Thornton. (Allen and Co.)
Authors: F.J.G.
Published: March 2011

So well-intended, almost sympathetic, and, in some sense, ingeniously expressed an exposition of Elementary Arabic as that of Mr. Frederic Dupré Thornton, deserves every encouragement, but even the author himself would perhaps feel as much surprise as gratification to find his method of instruction approved in every respect by the majority of scholars and students whom it may concern. To facilitate the study of the language in question, with its mathematically precise yet essentially intricate grammar, difference of opinion must exist as to the better way, and this difference will at once become apparent in elementary as well as in advanced treatises by independent writers. Nothing, for example, can be simpler, shorter, or less pretentious in form than the present publication. Practically, it consists of ten pages only; for if out of the sixty-four which constitute the whole book we deduct the Preface and Appendix, there remain no more than this number. They set forth the native alphabet and corresponding English letters, and explain a system of transliteration which, however Indian in principle, we believe to be sufficiently sound for ordinary purposes, and more appropriate for ordinary learners than one of stricter science or minuter erudition. But the exposition is suggestive of objections, the nature of which will be made evident if exception be taken to the results of the author's experience in certain matters of detail.
Art. XI.—The O'mánee Dialect of Arabic
Authors: Jayakar A. S. G.
Published: March 2011

In compiling the following vocabulary of 'Omanee words, the principal aim has been to give only such words as exhibit the dialectical peculiarities mentioned in the preceding Part, and not to furnish a complete list of words in common use in O'mán. Technical words, or words employed in agriculture, trade, arts, manufactures, etc., have been intentionally omitted, as they would be beyond the scope and extent of the present paper. Most of the words, it will be seen, are of Arabic origin, and the dialectical sense, wherever it differs from the original, is either metaphorical or an extension of the sense conveyed by the original root.
A robe of Murad III
Authors: Goodwin Godfrey
Published: March 2011

The Topkapisaray Museum has long displayed part of the great collection of royal robes of the Ottoman House. Most of these are kaftans with floral patterns related to those of other fabrics of their periods or to Iznik tile designs. Some have geometric patterns among which are the robe assigned to Murad III (Archive 2/3770) which is unique. Unlike some attributions, this is one that is probable although this garment has not, to my knowledge, been the subject of published research. Although it is labelled as a kaftan, a glance shows it to be nothing of the kind. Sevin recognised this error and calls it a kapamasi or mantle and even a cloak, but it has sleeves and could be worn as a gown.

I would suggest that it is a muraqqa‘a or khirqa, which was the patched garment candidates wore when they were newly admitted to the Khalwatī path among the Sufi orders after three years novitiate. It was the symbol of the new brother's renunciation of worldiness and worldly goods.
The emblems, medals and medallists of the Royal Asiatic Society
Authors: Hansman John
Published: March 2011

On 17 May 1823, two months after the founding of the Royal Asiatic Society, a selection of designs for the emblems of the Society was laid before Council. These had been prepared by the members Thomas Daniell, RA (1749—1840) and his nephew William Daniell, RA (1769—1837), both of whom were noted for their drawn and engraved views of India. On a single card which remains in the Society's possession, the Daniells submitted four designs for a seal of circular form. The first of these depicts a richly caparisoned elephant carrying a howdah of two compartments. A turbaned attendant sits before the howdah, holding an ankus in his right hand and a small whip in the left (Plate Ia). A second design (Plate Ib) shows a dense grove of banyan-trees beneath which stand three figures in Indian dress. The third drawing (Plate Id) depicts an Indian harrowing with an ox. In the background there is a palm tree and a view of the Jantar Mantar (astronomical observatory) erected in 1710 at Delhi by the Rajput Maharajah and astronomer, Jai Singh II of Jaipur. The fourth design (Plate Ie) shows an Indian ploughing. The background in this last drawing remains largely unfinished.
A pre-Islamic rite in South Arabia
Authors: Daum Werner
Published: March 2011

The two Yemens are still that part of the Middle East which most vividly retains the manners and customs of ancient Arabia. The majestic mountain ridges, the barrenness of the desert, the torrid shores of the Red Sea, the proud Yemeni tribesmen with their traditional janbīya, the picturesque palaces and houses pitched on towering peaks, the lone columns of the temples of Saba' (Sheba) in forgotten sands, all this cannot fail to convey the image of timelessness, and, indeed, of Arabia's yesterworld. It does seem to many that the highlands (the central mountain ridge stretching from about 50 miles north of Aden far into Saudi Arabia) are the most stubbornly traditional part of Yemen.
Art. X.—The Northern Frontagers of China. Part IV.—The Kin or Golden Tatars
Authors: Howorth H. H.
Published: March 2011

The new facts collected by M. Gorski clear up a good deal of obscurity about the darker period in the traditions, of the Manchus. His conclusions as to their ancestry are, however, quite at one with those which are now universally held, namely, that they are descended from the Kin Tatars, and that their royal family is descended from the Kin Emperors. In the Saga, Aishin Gioro appears among the three families as a stranger and a boy. Are such waifs and strays made into sovereigns in Asia, save when they have some ancestral claims? Is it not probable, rather, that during the Yuen dynasty, which only lasted about eighty-seven years, some members of the old royal stock were hidden away, and when the Mongol power collapsed, re-appeared again among their own people? We know that, notwithstanding the heavy hand which was laid upon it, the Sung Imperial family managed to survive until the days of the Ming, and even through the two hundred years of Ming rule. The only argument to the contrary is one which may be drawn perhaps from a statement in a letter of the Manchu Tai tsun to Su do shu, the defender of Da lin che: “The house of the Ming is not related to that of the Sung, and I am not akin to the dynasty of Kin. That was a peculiar epoch; now it is different.”