bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Tamang Ritual Texts. Notes on the Interpretation of an Oral Tradition of Nepal
Authors: Höfer András
Published: March 2011

In a recent issue of J.R.A.S. (2, 1982, 205–207), Tadeusz Skorupski reviewed my Tamang Ritual Texts I, Preliminary Studies in the Folk-religion of an Ethnic Minority in Nepal (henceforth “TRT”). His criticism is based on some postulates that I question. And since ours is a controversy between two disciplines, namely philology and anthropology, I think it worthwhile to examine more closely some of the arguments put forward by Skorupski. The point at issue is our approach to texts of an oral tradition.

Though neither Tibetans proper nor “Bhotias”, the Tamangs speak a language of the Bodic Division (in R. Shafer's terminology), and one component of the religious tradition is Tibetan Buddhism, which in the past exercised some influence on components of the oral tradition, such as shamanism and exorcism. An adequate interpretation of oral tradition, particularly in the diachronic perspective, necessitates some sort of cooperation between the Tibetologist and the anthropologist. Thus, my reply to the Tibetologist Skorupski is a programmatic rather than a polemic attempt.
A Solitary Vindicator of the Hindus: The Life and Writings of General Charles Stuart (1757/58–1828)
Authors: Fisch Jörg
Published: March 2011

“What then was to be looked for in a remote and extensive empire, administered in all its parts by men, who came out boys, without the plenitude of instruction of English youth in learning, morals, or religion; and who were let loose on their arrival amidst native licentiousness, and educated amidst conflicting superstitions?”

This complaint was made in 1805 by Claudius Buchanan, in the first influential evangelical tract on India. It was directed against the way of life of the servants of the East India Company in the second half of the 18th century. If certain assumptions are altered, Buchanan's complaint could be changed into praise: these men were not completely indoctrinated by narrow European, English and Christian values, but arrived with a remarkable openness towards what they found in the East, ready to accept different values and customs and to adopt a new style of life. What they were lacking was not so much education as indoctrination.
Art. X.—Letter from J. M. Heath, Esq., on the Introduction of the American Plough into India
Authors: Heath J.M.
Published: March 2011

The following paper contains a description, with drawings annexed, of a plough, recently introduced from America into India, and which promises to prove of the greatest benefit to agriculture in that country.
Art. XX. An Account of the Religious Opinions and Observances of the Khonds of Goomsur and Boad
Authors: Maopherson Samuel Charters
Published: March 2011

[Note. Several years ago, at the close of the military operations of the Madras Government in Goomsur, Captain (then Lieutenant) Macpherson executed by order of government a survey of the country, and in that service lost his health. From the Cape of Good Hope, whither he had gone for its recovery, he transmitted his notes on the religion of the Khonds to a relative in this country, who considered them to possess so much novelty and general interest, that he presented them to the Society, upon his own responsibility, and without the sanction of the writer: and a few additions having been since made, the paper is now laid before the public.]
Art. XXVI.—Mineral Resources of Southern India. No. 8. Diamond Tracts
Authors: Newbold
Published: March 2011

The diamond tracts of India lie between 13° and 25° N. lat; they occur in irregular arid patches, sometimes basin-shaped, in hilly districts on the great elevated plains bordering the more considerable rivers that have an easterly and southerly course to the Bay of Bengal. Diamonds of considerable size are not rarely found in the sands of these streams and of their tributaries; but their geognostic situs must be referred to the sandstone and sandstone conglomerate, which will be described at more length in the detailed accounts I am about to offer of the various localities in which this gem occurs, commencing with those of the Ceded Districts on the southern limit of the great diamond area just mentioned.
Art. XXVII.—An Account of the Discovery of the Ruins of the Buddhist City of Samkassa
Authors: Cunningham Alex.
Published: March 2011

Though personally unknown to you, I am aware, from many of your articles in different publications, of the great interest which you take in the subject of Buddhistical antiquities. I believe, therefore, that what I am about to communicate will be my best apology for the liberty I now take in addressing you. I have read your last Essay on the Social, Moral, and Political State of Ancient India several times over with the greatest interest, and I have traced Fa Hian's route upon the map with unfortunately more zeal than success. Some points, however, I have been able to clear up, which have escaped the researches of all the critics, including Wilson and yourself. It is regarding these that I now venture to address you. I will begin with the kingdom of Seng-kia-chi, or in English spelling Seng-kia-shi.
Art. XXX.—Memoranda on the Rivers Nile and Indus
Authors: Postans T.
Published: March 2011

Having had the advantage of journeying through the Deltas, and for nearly 400 miles up the two famous rivers of Asia and Africa (the Indus and the Nile), I venture to record briefly my general impressions on these two grand features of nature.

The Nile runs in a direction directly contrary to that of the Indus, and has its source in the most torrid regions of the globe, whilst the Asiatic stream rises in perpetual snow. The climates, therefore, are directly reversed; yet, passing through the same degrees of latitude, there are in some portions of the countries penetrated by the two rivers very curious coincidences in. productions and climate, to which we will refer hereafter.
Art. XXXI.—Travels beyond the Himalaya
Authors: Ullah Mir Izzet , Wilson H. H.
Published: March 2011

[The Royal Asiatic Society having- determined to reprint occasionally papers which may be considered of interest, or may contain useful information, and which, although in print, are not generally procurable in this country, have been pleased to select in the present instance a translation made by me many years ago, and published anonymously in one of the periodical publications of the Calcutta press. At the time of its publication, the subject was entirely new. It has lost something of the gloss of novelty by the more comprehensive journals which have since appeared; but it still contains information regarding parts of Turkestan and Central Asia, which is not derivable from any better source, as the countries have not been visited in modern times by European travellers. In what has also ceased to be novel, the observations of the traveller are not without interest, as they relate to a political state of the countries traversed, which had undergone a change for the worse even when Izzet Ullah's steps were; followed by Moorcroft and Trebeck, and which has become still further deteriorated by the anarchy that has so long distracted Afghanistan. The journal of Izzet Ullah is in most places little more than a mere itinerary, and it is so far more serviceable to geography than to history; but he occasionally extends his notes so as to furnish materials for the latter.
Art. XVII.—Additional Notes upon the Zend Language
Authors: Romer John
Published: March 2011

It is alleged that the invention of a language of so much character and grammatical peculiarity as the Zend is an impossibility, as may be proved by reference to the fictitious Formosan language, and that of the Ásmání Zabán of the Desátír. But the analogy does not hold. These pseudo tongues are the products of pure imagination; both unscrupulous inventions; the execution of the last, clumsy and open to instant detection. But the artificial construction of Zend out of Sanskrit materials (allowing for the deception of the act) proceeded on, and was effected in, a very different manner. A real language, with which the operators were well acquainted (see what Burnouf says of the mobed Neriosingh), was to be taken in hand; the work was facilitated by using an alphabet—that of old Persian—corresponding, in its employment of distinct characters for the short vowels, with that of Sanskrit; the business was skilfully performed, and the knowledge of Sanskrit is so successfully applied, as to complete the fabrication of a language in which Sir William Jones, to his surprise, found six words of pure Sanskrit out of ten of the Zend text, with some of its inflexions formed by the rules of the “Vyákaran.” Dr. Wilson observes that Zend shows an approach to Gujarátí idiom and Gujarátí corruption of Sanskrit, which awakened his suspicion. Nevertheless he thinks that none of the exiled and depressed Pársí priests in India could be supposed to have had the ability to invent that language, abounding as it does in analogies with other tongues, but overlooking the fact of Sanskrit being well known among them and used for translations (though the Sanskrit of these translations cannot be called classical) more than three hundred years ago.
Art. XIX.—Extrait du Livre IV. des Mémoires de Hiouen-thsang
Authors: Julien M.
Published: March 2011

Le royaume de Tse-kia (Tchêka) a environ dix mille lis de tour. A l'est, il s'appuie star la rivière Pi-po-che (Vipâçâ); à l'ouest, il est voisin du fleuve Sin-tou (Sindh-Indus). La circonférence de la capitale est d'environ vingt lis. Le sol convient au riz, et produit beaucoup de bled tardif. On en tire de l'or, de l'argent, du Teou-chi (cuivre jaune), du cuivre (rouge), et du fer. Le climat est très-chaud, et l'air est souvent troublé par des tourbillons de vent. Les habitants sont d'un caractère violent et emporté, et leur langage est bas et grossier. Ils s'habillent avec des étoffes d'une blancheur éclatante qu'on appelle Kiao-che-ye (Kâuçêya-soie), et portent des vêtements rouges comme le soleil levant, &c. Peu d'entre eux croient à la loi du Bouddha; la multitude adore les esprits du ciel. Il y a dix kia-lan (Sañghârâmas), et plusieurs centaines de temples des dieux (Dêvâlayas).
Art. XXII.—The Chinese on the Plain of Shinar, or a connection established between the Chinese and all other Nations through their Theology
Authors: M'Clatchie T.
Published: March 2011

No one who takes the trouble to investigate the various Mythological systems of the Heathen world, can fail to be struck with the very remarkable similarity which exists between them. To account for this similarity is an interesting, and, at first sight, a difficult undertaking.
Art. XI.—Verses from the Sarva-darsana-sangraha, the Vishnu Purāana, and the Rāamāayana, illustrating the tenets of the Chāarvāakas, or Indian Materialists, with some Remarks on Freedom of Speculation in Ancient India
Authors: Muir J.
Published: March 2011

In his essay on the heretical schools of the Hindus, Mr. Colebrooke has given an account of the tenets of the Chāarvāakas, or Materialists (Misc. Essays, L, 402 ff). Professor Wilson also, in his “Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus” (As. Ees., Vol. XVI., pp. 5, 6), alludes to the attacks made by the founder of the atheistical, or materialistic school, Vrihaspati, on the Vedas and the Brahmans, and quotes some verses attributed to that author, in which he asserts that “the whole Hindu system is a contrivance of the priesthood to secure a means of livelihood for themselves.” I am not aware whether either the aphorisms of Vrihaspati (Vāarhaspatya Sŭutras), to which Mr. Colebrooke refers (Misc. Ess., L, 404) as having been quoted by one of the commentators on the Vedanta, or the work which contains the verses adduced by Professor Wilson, be still extant or not. As, however, the Sarva Darśsana Sangraha of Māadhava ÃAchāaryya (a work containing a concise account of the different philosophical schools of India, both orthodox and heretical), from which Professor Wilson derived the verses which he cites, contains a good many more of a similar tendency, which are both satirical and clever, I shall translate the whole, and compare them with passages of the same tenor which occur in the Vishnu Purāana and in the Rāamāayana.
Art. XVIII.—Comparative Arrangement of two Translations of the Buddhist Ritual for the Priesthood, known as the Prátimoksha, or Pátimokhan
Authors: Beal S. , Gogerly D. J.
Published: March 2011

The importance of any document that throws light on the essential character of Buddhism will be at once confessed, when it is remembered that its doctrines are received, and its precepts obeyed, by Rome hundreds of millions of men. The writings of its priests are so vast in their extent, and appear in so many languages, that it is scarcely possible for one mind to make itself acquainted with them all. Hence the value of any authoritative treatise that presents in small compass a clear exposition of any one of its phases, whether it be its history, ethics, doctrines, or discipline. When we wish to know the practical working of any system as a rule of life, we do not refer to its legends so much as to its laws; and if a correct knowledge of them can be acquired, and they are known to be duly administered, we may infer, therefrom, almost with certainty, the kind of influence they must exercise upon the minds of the people among whom they obtain.
Art. VI.—Essay on the Creed and Customs of the Jangams
Authors: Brown Charles P.
Published: March 2011

The various Brahmanical creeds prevailing among those Hindus who worship Vishnu and Siva have been amply illustrated by Colebrooke and other eminent scholars. When I was in England in 1836 the learned H. H. Wilson desired me to ascertain and describe the peculiarities of the Jangams or anti-brahmanical worshippers of Siva, whom he had but slightly noticed in his Essay on Sects, in the seventeenth volume of the Asiatic Researches.
Art. X.—Ancient Inscriptions from Mathura
Authors: Dowson J.
Published: March 2011

The Inscriptions which are the subject of the following observations were collected by General Cunningham at Mathura, in the execution of his functions as Archæological Surveyor to the Government of India, The account of his visit to Mathura is given in his report for the season 1862–3. It is not my intention to do more with these Inscriptions than to offer decipherments and translations, with a few remarks upon their character and language. General Cunningham himself will sum up the results derivable from them. His intimate knowledge of Mathura and other similar localities, his long study of Indian antiquities, and his acquaintance with the coins of the period in public collections and in his own private collection, will enable him to do this much more effectually than I could hope to accomplish.
Art. II.—The Great Stũpa at Sāñchi-Kānākheḍā
Authors: Burgess Jas.
Published: March 2011

Among the ancient monuments of India, few are of more interest than the tōps or stūpas at Sāñchi - Kānākheḍā, about 5½ miles south-west from Bhelsā or Bhilsā, in the Gwāliar territory, and some 20 miles north-east of the capital of the Bhopāl State. There is now a railway station close to the spot, and most of the trains stop there. The various notices of the remains here are scattered in numerous publications, and some notice of them may perhaps be usefully combined with the history of the stūpas since their discovery.
Art. VI.—A List of Writers, Books, and other Authorities mentioned by El Maqrīzi in his

Kh

iṭaṭ
Authors: Guest A. R.
Published: March 2011

This list is not exhaustive; it is thought, however, that it will be found to contain the names of the principal authorities cited by El Maqrīzi in this book, and, in the absence of an index to the only printed edition at present available, it is hoped that it may be of service to students of Egyptian history.
The Coinage and Genealogy of the Later Jāms of Sind
Authors: Digby Simon
Published: March 2011

It is so long since Indo-Muslim numismatics first attracted scholarly attention and there have been so many devoted labourers in this field that it is gratifying to note a new coinage struck by yet another Indo-Muslim dynasty. To the best of the knowledge of the present writer no coinage of the Samma Jāms of Sind (14th–16th century a.d.) has yet been published. This paper records two varieties of their copper coinage, dating from the latest period of their rule.
Anatomical and Pathological Terms in Akkadian: Part III
Authors: Adamson P. B.
Published: March 2011

Interpretations of various anatomical and pathological terms have been given previously, and further examples from cuneiform texts are to be discussed in this article.
A Pahlavi Forerunner of the Umayyad Reformed Coinage
Authors: Mochiri Malek Iradj
Published: March 2011

The purpose of this note is to make known a remarkable, and hitherto unrecorded, drachma of Arab-Sasanian form, issued in the year 72/691–2 by the Governor of Sīstān 'Abd al-'Azīz b. 'Abdallāh b. 'Āmīr.

The momentous coinage reform of the Umayyad Caliph 'Abd al-Malik, begun in 77/696–7, was directed at removing all symbolism associated with the former Byzantine and Sasanian rule, and its replacement with a purely inscriptional coin-type, giving in Arabic the Muslim confession of faith, and various Qur'anic verses. These innovations were accompanied by the replacement of Greek in the western Muslim chanceries by the Arabic script and language. Similarly in the eastern provinces, Pahlavi was replaced by Arabic under the viceroyalty in Iraq of al-Ḥajjāj, appointed in 75/694–5. So far as the eastern coinages were concerned the change meant the disappearance of the Sasanian royal portrait from the obverse of the silver coinage; and of the fire altar ' symbol of Zoroastrianism ' from the reverse. The coin illustrated here (Pl. I, a, b - Foroughi Colin.) was struck several years before the commencement of the reform at Damascus, and anticipates it, so far as its reverse type is concerned, though still employing the Pahlavi script of the older tradition. As usual in dealing with a Pahlavi text, we give first facsimile, then transliteration, transcription and translation.
Chêng Ho's Voyages and the Distribution of Pepper in China
Authors: Ju-kang T'ien
Published: March 2011

The significance of Chêng Ho's voyages (1405–1433) has usually been considered purely from the political point of view. In that connection he is noted as the Muslim eunuch who lived from A.D. 1371–1433, and commanded a force in support of the Yung-lo Emperor's seizure of the Ming throne. Thereafter, from 1405, he commanded half a dozen enormous fleets, which sailed to Southeast Asia, India, the Gulf, and eventually East Africa. In the legend of the overseas Chinese, he was ultimately deified as the Prince of the Three Gems.

The emphasis of the present paper is however economic. It attempts to analyse the way in which the pepper brought from overseas was distributed; and to evaluate the influence of the seven voyages of Cheng Ho on the opening of trade relations between China and Afro-Asian countries, and the increased circulation of foreign goods in the Chinese market at that time.
Maka
Authors: Bailey H. W.
Published: March 2011

Ethnical and geographical names are found in Iranian from a base mak- with three suffixes, -a-, -u-, -i-, in maka- (Old Persian maka-, , with possibly maku- in makurastān, makurān, and before -i-, mači- in Old Pers. mačiya- These names are widely separated in three regions in ancient Iran.
Taoist and Buddhist mysteries in the interpretation of the Tao-te ching
Authors: Barrett T. H.
Published: March 2011

After over a century and a half of increasingly superfluous translations of the Tao-te ching one might be pardoned for thinking that there was no further need for sinologists to devote attention to this text. Nothing could be further from the truth. The publication in 1974 of two manuscripts from the tomb at Ma-wang-tui dating to the early years of the 2nd century B.C., together with some previously unknown works of the same period, constituted as sensational an advance in our knowledge as could possibly be imagined, short of an autograph copy revealing the identity of Lao-tzu himself. Quite apart from answering (and raising) a host of textual questions, these finds have afforded us a startling glimpse of the significance assigned to the Tao-te ching during the early Han. This in turn has served to remind us that the continuous transmission of the text has involved marked discontinuities in the construction placed upon it, discontinuities which Western sinology has in the past been all too remiss in tracing.
The Achehnese Metre sanja' and the Thai KLƆ:N P∈:T
Authors: Cowan H. K. J.
Published: March 2011

Almost half a century ago I pointed to the similarity between the national Achehnese verse form sanja' and a related Cham verse used in the song of the kadhar (a musician-officiant) at the ceremony of the sacrifice of the buffalo (Cowan, 1933). It will be useful to recall here the main points of that paper.

The Achehnese sanja' in its simplest form consists of lines of eight dissyllabic metrical feet or rather four pairs of such feet, whose two middle pairs rhyme with each other, while the final syllable of each line rhymes with that of the following line. Or in other words it is a double-eight-syllable metre with an internal rhyme on the eighth syllable of the first and the fourth syllable of the second half of the verse line, and with a final rhyme at the end of each line. Thus:
Perspectives in the study of Chinese Buddhism
Authors: Zürcher E.
Published: March 2011

If I, first of all, may express my gratitude to the Royal Asiatic Society for its decision to institute this lecture in memory of Paul Demiéville, please believe that this is more than a ritual gesture. He, indeed, was a person to be remembered both as a man and as a scholar. I shall not speak about his human qualities, for it is impossible to do justice to them in a few words. As a scholar, he was a man of astonishing breadth of vision, as is shown by the many different fields which he covered: Chinese philosophy, Chinese literature; historiography; Sino-Indian studies; the history of Chinese Buddhism, to mention only his main fields of interest, all of which were based on a truly stupendous erudition. For in his case breadth was always combined with depth, accuracy, and utter reliability; with the patient and painstaking labour of philology. Needless to say that, faced with the task of giving a lecture that bears his name, I feel both honoured and embarrassed, for I know that I, at best, can only do justice to one of the fields he covered, the study of Chinese Buddhism – an area in which he made bis most outstanding contributions. It is true that in doing so he worked in line with a great tradition in French sinology, alive ever since the heroic times of Stanislas Julien, that had also been carried on by his teacher Édouard Chavannes and his elder colleagues Paul Pelliot and Henri Maspero. However, it remains true that, also in this field, no other scholar has equalled Paul Demiéville in scope and depth, for his studies cover almost the whole field, from the earliest treatises ondhyānato late Chinese Buddhist iconography; from the most sophisticated products of Buddhist philosophy to popular Buddhist literature, and from the most rational type of scholasticism to the utter irrationality of those early Ch‘an masters that were so dear to him. His works constitute a vantage-point from which we can overlook the field, and plan future inroads; and if to-day we see some new perspectives, we can only do so by standing on his shoulders.
A press-seal, possibly of Indus type, found in Iraq
Authors: Wyatt N.
Published: March 2011

The seal illustrated in the accompanying illustrations (Plate I, 1 and 2; Fig. 1, a to c) was recently brought to my attention by Mrs. Sarah Campbell of Dunstaffnage, whose father, Mr. R. O. Ramsay, discovered it in 1931, while supervising canal-digging on the Latifiya estates, some 40 miles south of Baghdad.
A new survey of late Ch'ing history
Authors: Rodzinski Witold
Published: March 2011

Volume 11 of the Cambridge history of China, the third of the series to appear thus far, is a welcome continuation of Volume 10, which had dealt with the earlier part of the late Ch'ing period. It has been constructed on the same principles as its predecessor, with its contributors, well-known specialists in their field, seeking to present a synthesis of their subject. Hence, it is also basically a collection of essays and thus necessitates a brief mention of each contribution.
Art. I.—Vajra-chhediká, the “Kin Kong King,” or Diamond Sútra
Authors: S. Beal
Published: March 2011

This work belongs to a class of Buddhist books called Prajná Páramitá. It was translated first into the Chinese by Kumára-jíva (A.D. 405), who was brought into China from Thibet. “The King of Tsin had sent an army into that country with directions not to return without the Indian whose fame had spread amongst all the neighbouring nations. The former translations of Buddhist works were to a great extent erroneous. To produce them in a form more accurate and complete was the task undertaken by Kumára-jíva. More than eight hundred priests were called to assist him; and the king himself, an ardent disciple of the new faith, was present at the conference, holding the old copies in his hand as the work of correction proceeded. More than three hundred volumes were thus prepared.” (Edkins).
Note on the preceding Article
Authors: Colebrooke Edward
Published: March 2011

Having been led from the interest which has attached to Mr. Colebrooke's opinion, on the subjects discussed in Professor Whitney's paper, to examine the very copious memoranda on Hindu astronomy, which are in my possession, I think I am in a position to clear up some of the points which have given rise to this controversy. It seemed to be so improbable that Mr. Colebrooke should have taken such pains to identify the constellations named in the passage of the Jyotish, and have so pointedly referred to the double observation of the solstices as determining the epoch of the observation, while he was really grounding his opinion on the position of another asterism, that I thought the subject merited a closer scrutiny.
Art. XV.—Outlines of a Grammar of the Malagasy Language
Authors: Van der Tuuk H. N.
Published: March 2011

I. The Malagasy belongs unquestionably to the stock of languages which have been denominated Malayo-Polynesian, and more particularly to the great Western Branch, which comprehends the languages of the lank-haired races of the Indian Archipelago and the Philippines, and which we shall call Malayan (from the most predominating language in that part of the globe), to distinguish it from the Eastern Branch, which may be called Maorian (from the Maori of New Zealand), the geographical term Polynesian haying the disadvantage of not excluding the languages of the crisp-haired races. The Malagasy bears the greatest analogy to the Toba dialect of the Batak in pronunciation (III), and many salient points in its grammatical structure may be pointed out (IV) to prove its affinity to Javanese, Batak, Malay, Dayak, and other Malayan tongues.
Art. VIII.—Specimen of an Assyrian Dictionary
Authors: Norris Edwin
Published: March 2011

The following paper is a Specimen of what pretends to be no more than a Skeleton Dictionary of the Assyrian Language, which the few who know anything of the matter will assuredly expect to find incomplete, and often erroneous. The compiler, though well aware that such expectation will not be disappointed, believes that no apology is required; for many years must necessarily elapse before an approach can be made to completeness in such a work, and the best Assyrian decipherers are the most assured of the vague character of their interpretations, whenever the subject goes much beyond plain narration, or whenever words of infrequent occurrence are made use of. He ought rather, with Semitic knowledge limited to a superficial acquaintance with Hebrew, and with but little leisure, to apologize for venturing at all upon such an attempt; but having got together a very large number of words while assisting Sir Henry Rawlinson in the preparation of inscriptions for publication, and being, moreover, of opinion that a work like the present, which requires little more than persevering industry, will never be compiled by men of greater powers who are better employed, he was unwilling that his labour should be thrown away, and hopeful that it might be of some use.
Art. VIII.—On the Relations of the Priests to the other Classes of Indian Society in the Vedic Age.
Authors: Muir J.
Published: March 2011

In a former paper on “Manu, the progenitor of the Aryan Indians,” published in the Society's Journal, I have attempted to shew that in general the authors of the hymns of the Rigveda regarded the whole of the Aryan people, embracing not only the priests and the chiefs, but the middle classes also of the population, as descended from one common father, or ancestor, whom they designate by the name of Manu. This reference to a common progenitor excludes, of course, the supposition that the writers by whom it is made could have had any belief in the myth which became afterwards current among their countrymen, that their nation consisted of four castes, differing naturally in dignity, and separately created by Brahmâ.
Art. XI.—The Hymns of the Gaupâyanas and the Legend of King Asamâti
Authors: Müller Max
Published: March 2011

Having lately received two new MSS. of Sâyaṇa's Commentary on the Rig-veda, I thought that a few lines on the character of these MSS., and on the proper use to be made of Sanskrit MSS. in general, might be of some interest both in England and in India. I owe these MSS. to the kindness and enlightened generosity of Dr. Bhao Daji, who is well known to the members of the Royal Asiatic Society, both as an intelligent collector of Indian antiquities, inscriptions, and manuscripts, and as a careful and successful inquirer into the history and chronology of India.
Art. XI.—Specimen of a Translation of the Âdi Granth
Authors: Trumpp Ernest
Published: March 2011

In offering to the learned public a specimen of a translation of the Âdi Granth (or first holy book of the Sikhs), we premise a few words on the language in which that work is composed, as hitherto wrong notions have been entertained on this point. The language of the Âdi Granth is not the old Hindî, as has been recently stated, if the old Hindî (if it may be called so) is taken identical with the Hinduî, the language of the middle age of India, from which the present Hindî has sprung, and which is now nearly extinct. Even the learned Garcin de Tassy was of opinion that the Âdi Granth was written in Hinduî, but he had apparently not paid any attention to the study of this work, and his statement can, therefore, be only a surmise.
Art. XII.—Notes on Dhammapada, with Special Reference to the Question of Nirvâṇa
Authors: Childers R. C.
Published: March 2011

I have given in the following pages some of the results of a careful study of the text of Dhammapada, rendered necessary by the preparation of a Páli Dictionary. In endeavouring to elucidate some of the obscure or difficult points of this important text, I have given prominence to a few passages enabling me to test the theory of Nirvâna which I propounded last year in the columns of a periodical.
Art. XX.—Comments on Recent Pehlvi Decipherments. With an Incidental Sketch of the Derivation of Aryan Alphabets. And Contributions to the Early History and Geography of Tabaristán. Illustrated by Coins
Authors: Thomas E.
Published: March 2011

The plates which accompany this article have only recently been rescued from an obscure corner, where they had lain for years unappreciated. They originally constituted one division of a comprehensive medallic series, illustrative of the annals of the Sassanian Kings of Persia, which were prepared under the supervision of the late J. R. Steuart, from specimens in his own cabinets, and executed by the same conscientious Italian artist who engraved the copper-plates of the Sauráshtran coins inserted in one of the earliest numbers of our Journal (vol. iv. p. 273, o.s.).
Art. XXII.—Notes on the History of the Banu ‘Oḳayl
Authors: Kay Henry C.
Published: March 2011

The following particulars on the origin and early history of the Banu ‘Oḳayl are from Ibn Khaldūn, vol. ii. p. 312, vol. vi. p. 11, etc. (Bulak Edition).

I may perhaps allow myself to begin by reminding the reader that Eastern writers invariably represent the Ismailian Arabs as the posterity of ‘Adnan, descendant of Ismail, and the people of each tribe as the actual children of one or other of the Arab Patriarch's posterity, after each of whom the tribe is usually named. But it is obviously unnecessary, to say the least of it, to regard the genealogies attributed to the tribes as anything more than the real or reputed pedigrees of their chiefs.
Problems in Archaic Chinese
Authors: Karlgren Bernhard
Published: March 2011

In reconstructing the sound system of old Chinese— the script being ideographic, the old pronunciation cannot simply be read off—we have been able, thanks to rich materials of various kinds, to determine with tolerable certainty, even in detail, the system of what we call Ancient Chinese, the language of the sixth century a.d., embodied in the dictionary Ts'ie yün. When the inquiry turns to older epochs, the materials are much more meagre and unsatisfactory, and at present, at least, it does not seem feasible to reconstruct in detail the language which we may call Archaic Chinese, the language of the Chou dynasty, the language of the classics. But we are not entirely at a loss. Important conclusions can be drawn regarding this stage of Chinese, and that by four different means. Perhaps the most important of all will be a comparative study of the sinitic family of languages; but for such researches time can hardly be said to be ripe as yet. The T'ai languages and the Tibeto-Burman languages will have to be thoroughly investigated and their most ancient forms established by comparative methods, before there is any use of comparing them with Chinese. But the three remaining sources are ready at hand even now, and some examples will be given here to show how they can be used for reaching new and interesting results about the sound system of Archaic Chinese.
The Legend of the kiškanu
Authors: Langdon S.
Published: March 2011

In Cuneiform Texts of the British Museum, vol. xvi, 46, 183–204, occurs, in the body of the text of a long incantation, including a legend of the Fire God, Gibil, and the seven devils, the well-known legend of the plant kiškānû, which is otherwise unknown in medical and magical texts. The bilingual text in six long columns has been admirably pieced together by Dr. R. C. Thompson, who also gave an edition in Devils and Evil Spirits, vol. i, 184–201. It had been previously edited in both editions of iv, Rawlinson, pl. 15, but without several duplicates and joins latterly made by Thompson. The lines concerning the giš-kìn = kiškānu plant occur in the middle of Rev. I. A great many editions of this legend have been made; for the literature on earlier editions, see Dhorme's translation in his Choix de Textes Religieux, 98; Ebeling in Gressmann's Altorientalische Texte zum Alten Testament, 328. All editions suffered from one defect; they were based upon the Accadian text, which is not original and is often an incorrect version of the Sumerian. That the legend is originally of Sumerian origin is clear from the Sumerian tablet from Susa published by Dr. Leon Legrain in Délegation en Perse, xiv, 125, No. 9, and photograph, pi. xi. By comparing the two texts the similarity of phrases and style is at once evident. In contrast to these editions, Mr. C. J. Gadd gave an edition of CT. xvi, 46, in his Sumerian Reading Book, 165, which he correctly based upon the Sumerian text.
The Date of the Svapna-Vasavadatta
Authors: Thomas F. W.
Published: March 2011

I do not propose on this occasion to initiate a general discussion concerning the authenticity of the plays discovered and edited by the late Mahāmahopādhyāya Gaṇapati Śāstrī and by him attributed to Bhāsa. Hitherto the matter has run rather a normal course, first enthusiastic acceptance, then opposition, then suggestions of avia media. The debate has evoked some treatises which will retain their value even after a consensus is reached. The various questions are, we may assume, familiar to all scholars here, the question of the formal characteristics of the dramas, of their titles, of the Prakrit and the Sanskrit, of imitations in or by other literary works, of references and citations in anthologies and works on poetics, of the history of the stage in the Kerala country.
Zoroastrian traces along the upper Amu Darya (Oxus)
Authors: Scott D. A.
Published: March 2011

The aim of this study is to show how Zoroastrian elements have survived into the 19th and 20th centuries around the higher reaches of the Amu Darya (ancient Oxus), a river now forming the boundary between Afghanistan and the U.S.S.R, whose basin is mostly inhabited by East Iranian Tajiks and related Pamiri groups – that is, approximately Bactria of old. Although Islam reached Balkh as early as the 7th century, such Zoroastrian survivals should not perhaps be too surprising, since Bactria was one of the ancient homelands of Zoroastrianism, and was among those regions which laid legendary claim to Zoroaster's own ministry. Unfortunately although the history of Zoroastrianism in Western Iran during Achaemenid, Parthian and Sasanian times is fairly well known, its fortunes in the earlier East Iranian centres like Bactria are much less clear. A few literary sources like Strabo can be supplemented by gradually emerging archaeological evidence. Nevertheless Zoroastrian remains in Bactria are meagre when compared with Buddhist ones from there, or with Zoroastrian cultic materials found further afield in Central Asia/East Iran, i.e. from ancient Sogdia, Chorasmia and Margiana.
The Rasulids in Dhofar in the VIIth–VIIIth/XIII–XIVth centuries
Authors: Smith G. Rex
Published: March 2011

At a distance of about two miles along the coast to the east of Ṣalālah, chief town of Dhofar in Oman, lie the remains of a medieval maritime settlement called by present day Omanis al-Balīd. This is undoubtedly that named by the medieval historians and geographers Ẓafār. The site is an imposing one and has been described fairly recently by Costa. The area of the site measures approximately 1600 m by 400 m.
Islamic gold sandwich glass: some fragments in the David Collection, Copenhagen
Authors: Wenzel Marian
Published: March 2011

Sandwich glass is the product of a technique practised from antiquity. Essentially, decoration is achieved by laying gold to a glass surface, patterning this gold in various ways, and then adding a second layer of glass to encapsulate the gold pattern. The technique seems to have been employed only rarely by craftsmen in Islamic areas; certainly surviving examples are rare.
Art. IV.—Ancient Sepulchres of Pánduvaram Déwal, in Southern India
Authors: Captain Newbold
Published: March 2011

About three miles and a half to the E. N. E. of Chittoor, in North Arcot, lie the ancient sepulchres called Pánduvaram Déwal, in a secluded valley, hemmed in by rocks. The head of the valley is closed by a spur from the Eastern Ghauts, running nearly north and south. Through an abrupt transverse break in this ridge the stream which waters the valley runs to the Poinay river, which it joins about a mile further east. Beyond, and blue in the distance, a mass of irregular and strongly indented rocks closes the view to the eastward.
Art. XI.—The Linguistic Affinities of the Ancient Egyptian Language
Authors: Poole Reginald Stuart
Published: March 2011

The importance of the relation of the ancient Egyptian language to the Semitic group will be acknowledged, if it is remembered that the late Baron Bunsen based upon this relation his theory of the derivation of the latter from the former or a closely-similar variety of speech.
Art. XVII.—On the Cost and Construction of the Railways in India
Authors: Marshman J. C.
Published: March 2011

It is now an admitted truth, which is passing into the stage of a truism, that the most effectual means of “developing the resources of India, augmenting its value as a national possession, and promoting the prosperity of its inhabitants, are to be found in the general establishment of internal communications, and more especially in the construction of railroads. It will therefore be interesting to the members of this Committee to pass in brief review the exertions which have been made in the last ten years to establish a system of railways in India, together with the measures now under discussion to give full efficiency to it.
Art. XXI,—On the Inscription of Khammurabi
Authors: Talbot H. F.
Published: March 2011

The first portion of the volume of Cuneiform Inscriptions, recently published by the British Museum, contains an important series of legends of the early Babylonian kings. These are written in the Proto-Chaldæan language, which as yet is little understood. I therefore heard with great interest that the Paris Museum possesses an inscription of one of these kings, Khammurabi, written in the Babylonian language, and that Messrs. Oppert and Ménant had presented a copy of it, together with a translation, to the British Museum. The accession of so ingenious a scholar as M. Ménant to the small band of Assyrian interpreters, is a subject of much congratulation, and in this instance he has certainly presented the world of letters with a valuable gift. I am indebted to my friend, W. H. Coxe, Esq., of the British Museum, for an accurate copy of this important document, and from it I have made the translation which I now beg leave to offer to the Society. It will be seen, that though agreeing with M. Ménant in many things, I differ from him considerably in some parts of the second column.
Art. VIII—On Buddhism in its Relation to Brāhmanism
Authors: Monier-Williams Monier
Published: March 2011

The recent annexation of Upper Burmah will probably give an impulse to the study of Buddhism. At any rate, the fact that the sacred books of the Southern Buddhists are beingmade accessible through Professor Oldenberg's edition of the Vinaya-piṭaka,—through the works of Professor Rhys Davids and other scholars,—and more especially through the valuable publications of the Pāli Text Society, is likely, I hope, to cause a considerable accession to the ranks of Pāli scholars.
Art. XI—A Modern Contributor to Persian Literature. Rizá Kulí Khán and his Works
Authors: Churchill Sidney
Published: March 2011

But a few Persians have devoted so much time, energy, and real enthusiasm to their own literature during the present century as the subject of this notice: the Amíru-sh-Shu'ará Rizâ Kulî Khán B Muhammad Hádí Khan B Ism'aíl Kamál, poetically surnamed “Hidáiyat,” and popularly known as the “Lalah Báshi.” Descended in a direct line from the well-known poet, Kamál Khojandí—a cotemporary of Háfiz, who died at Tabríz in A.H. 792 (A.D. 1389)— the Amíru-sh-Shu'ará was born in Tehrán on the loth Muharram, A.H. 1215 (8th June, 1800). His family, in honour of their ancestor, appended the surname Kamál to their individual appellations. Hidáiyat's grandfather, Ism'aíl Kamal, suffered death at the hands of Zakí Khán Zand for refusing to take up the cause of the Zand dynasty in preference to that of the Pretender Aghá Muhammad Khán Kajár.
Art. VI.—The Bábís of Persia. I. Sketch of their History, and Personal Experiences amongst them
Authors: Browne Edward Granville
Published: March 2011

My object in the present essay on the Bábís is twofold. Firstly, I desire to bring to the notice of those who are interested in the history of thought generally, and Oriental thought in particular, the results of my investigations into the doctrines, history, and circumstances of a religious body which appears to me to constitute one of the most remarkable phenomena of the present century.
Art. IX.—The O'mánee Dialect of Arabic
Authors: Jayakar A. S. G.
Published: March 2011

The dialectical variations of a language principally consist of deviations from the standard rules of Grammar and accent, and in the adoption of certain words in preference to others. In this latter respect Arabic is particularly remarkable, as owing to the copiousness of its vocabulary, its dialects are so strongly marked as to render the speech of an uneducated inhabitant of one province sometimes almost unintelligible to an equally uneducated inhabitant of another province. In the case of educated Arabs, however, although the colloquial language may be affected by the dialectical influence, still, in writing, the established rules of grammar are generally observed, and words with universally accepted meaning are only nsed. It follows, therefore, that the state of education of a province must influence to a considerable extent the degree of departure from standard rules in the dialect of that province.
Art. X.—The Avars
Authors: Howorth H. H.
Published: March 2011

In the following paper I propose to myself to write a monograph upon the Avars, from the time they are first mentioned by Western historians to their final disappearance from history. The detail, and I hope the completeness, with which I have ventured to treat the subject, which are alone of value in ethnographic studies now-a-days, are especially valuable in the case of the Avars, whose place in history was so marked and yet so enigmatic, and who caused such potent changes in the ethnographic map of Europe.
Art. IX.—The Northern Frontagers of China. Part II.—The Manchus. (Supplementary Notice.)
Authors: Howorth H. H.
Published: March 2011

In concluding my former paper on the Manchus, I ventured to say that it condensed the history of their origin so far as it could be gathered from authorities accessible to western students, and to express a hope that new materials might enable us to clear up its crooked story. These have reached me sooner than I could have expected, and are contained in two papers by M. Gorski, who was attached to the Russian Mission at Peking, and have been published in the first and second volumes of the publications of that Mission. These two volumes have been translated into German under the title of Arbeiten der Russischen Gesandtschaft zu Peking, by Dr. Carl Abel and F. A. Mecklenburg. From this translation I shall give the following account, on which I am dependent entirely as to all new facts and authorities.
Art. XI.—On a Treatise on Weights and Measures, by Eliyá, Archbishop of Niṣibin
Authors: Sauvaire M. H.
Published: March 2011

The following letter, addressed to me by M. Henry Sauvaire, late of the French Consulate at Alexandria, at present Secrétaire-Interprète, Chargé du Vice-Consulat de France à Casablanca, Rabat et Mazagan (Maroc), appeared to me to be of so interesting and curious a nature that I requested the writer to permit me to offer it, together with the accompanying translation, for publication to the Royal Asiatic Society. The subject is at present very obscure, and the light thrown upon it by M. Sauvaire's researches, soon I hope to be more fully set forth in the work he is now preparing for the press, will be cordially welcomed by Orientalists.