bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Art. V.—Notes on the Assyrian and Akkadian Pronouns
Authors: Bertin G.
Published: March 2011

While studying the Akkadian pronominal forms, I was brought to a closer examination of the Assyrian pronouns, and I arrived at the conclusion that Assyrian had retained forms lost or forgotten in all the other Semitic dialects. Though in Assyrian the various pronominal forms are used rather loosely, the writers however seem to have retained an unconscious feeling of their primitive value: I find that by means of postpositions, the independent use of which is lost, added to the possessive suffixes, real cases are formed to express the pronouns in regimen: -ia ‘my,’ iāši ‘to me,’ iāti ‘m e’ accusative, iau ‘of me’ or ‘mine.’ When I communicated this to Mr. Pinches, he, with his usual kindness, gave me to examine a most important unpublished tablet, giving the Akkadian (or rather the Sumerian or dialectical) pronouns, with an Assyrian translation. As it is often the case in syllabaries or grammatical lists, the forms given are generally the most primitive. I will examine these forms further on and I give the copy of this important tablet as reference.
Art. III.—The Bushmen and their Language
Authors: Bertin G.
Published: March 2011

If this paper were the first on African questions read before the Royal Asiatic Society, I should have to apologize for trespassing, but as our learned Honorary Secretary, Mr. Robert Oust, noticed,1 there is no African Society, and the Royal Asiatic Society has liberally opened its door to those who may bring information about the mysterious continent. For some time Africa has attracted so much attention that the Society in thus acting has been true to its scientific mission, and its Transactions contain already several most important papers on this interesting quarter of the globe.
Art. V.—Gleanings from the Arabic. The Lament of Maisun, the Bedouin wife of Muâwiya
Authors: Freeland H. W.
Published: March 2011

Muâwiya, the sixth Khalif in succession after Muhammad, was the first of the fourteen Khalifs of the family which presided during a period of nearly a century over the destinies of the Saracenic Empire. His father, Abu-Sufian, was of the tribe of the Kuraish, a tribe to which Muhammad also belonged. Muawiya and his wife became followers of the Prophet on the same day as that on which the father of the former, who had previously commanded the forces of the enemy, announced his adherence to the new religion.
Art. VII.—The Alchemist. A Persian Play
Authors: Le Strange Guy
Published: March 2011

The Alchemist is one of a series of plays lithographed at Tehran, in 1874, by Mirza Ja'afar, a native of Karâjeh-Dâgh. They are his translation from an Azerbaijani-Turkish original, written by Mirza Fath-‘Ali, of Derbend, and first published at Tiflis in 1861. In conjunction with Mr. Haggard, some few years ago, I had occasion to edit, with a translation, the first in order of these plays. Recently, an excellent edition in Persian of three more of Mirza Ja'afar's comedies, and among them “The Alchemist,” has appeared under the auspices of two well-known French scholars.
Art. III.—Art. A Version in Chinese, by the Marquis Tseng, of a Poem written in English and Italian
Authors: Freeland H. W.
Published: March 2011

Art hath a holy mission: 'tis to raise

The soul, through form and beauty, unto things

More lovely than the sensual thoughts and ways

Of an old world's corrupt imaginings.

In song, on canvas, or in living stone,

Art saith unto the soul: “Behold the Pure,

The True, the Beautiful, for these alone

I live, by these through unborn time endure.”
Art. IV.—Hints to Oriental Students: No. 1. Some Useful Hindā Books
Authors: Grierson G. A.
Published: March 2011

It has often struck me how helpless European students are when they are in search of books published in India. These books are so cheap, and their demand in Europe is so limited, that it does not pay Indian publishers to have agents for their sale here. In addition to this, students have no means of knowing what works are published in India; and even if they knew their names, that is no criterion of the value of their contents. I therefore put down the following notes regarding books which I myself have found useful in studying Hindī, in the hope that they may be acceptable to my fellowstudents.
Art. V.—Original Vocabularies of Five West Caucasian Languages. Compiled on the spot by Mr. Peacock, Vice-Consul of Batúm, Trans-Caucasia, South Russia, at the request of, and communicated by, Dr. R. N. Cust, Hon. Sec. R.A.S., with a Note
Authors: Cust Robert N.
Published: March 2011

When I visited Trans-Caucasia in 1882 for the purpose of collecting information regarding the Languages of the Caucasus, the result of which was published in Vol. XVII. of the Journal, I became aware of the scantiness of the Vocabularies, and I mentioned this to Mr. Peacock, the Vice-Consul of H.B.M. at Battúm, who had resided some time at Poti, and had made excursions into regions not often traversed. He was good enough to undertake the duty of collecting Vocabularies, and I forwarded to him a copy of the Standard Form of Words and Sentences prepared by the Bengal Asiatic Society. After some delay, owing to the heavy press of his official duties, and a visit to England, when I had the pleasure of seeing him, and again encouraging him on the subject, he has forwarded to me he subjoined Vocabularies, which are highly important.
Art. X.—Description of the Noble Sanctuary at Jerusalem in 1470 A.D., Kamâl (or Shams) ad Dîn as Suyûtî
Authors: le Strange Guy
Published: March 2011

Among the many useful works that have appeared under the auspices of ‘The Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland,’ none is perhaps more palpably open to criticism than the Rev. J. Reynolds' History of the Temple of Jerusalem. To judge from the translation, Mr. Reynolds had, to begin with, but a very imperfect knowledge of Arabic, and, in the second place, from the extraordinary blunders he makes, he can have put himself to no pains whatever to become acquainted, by means of plans, and the descriptions of modern travellers, with the localities of which the Arab author speaks. It is not my present purpose to re-edit and correct Mr. Reynolds' work, for the book runs to some 550 pages, large 8vo., and it may safely be asserted that there is not a single one of his pages that would not require considerable alteration, to make it a tolerably exact rendering of his author's text. Moreover, the pages of the Royal Asiatic Society's Journal hardly afford room for so lengthy a work. I must therefore content myself with giving the headings of each of the seventeen chapters, and shall only translate such passages in the text as have seemed to me of most importance from an archæological or architectural point of view, and for throwing light on the vexed question of the sites of the Holy Places.
Art. XIV.—Formosa Notes on MSS., Races and Languages, By Terrien de Lacouperie, Ph. & Litt.D., Professor of Indo-Chinese Philology, University College, London. Including a Note on Nine Formosan MSS. by E. Colborne Baber, H.B.M. Chinese Secretary, Peking.
Authors: de Lacouperie Terrien , Baber E. Colborne
Published: March 2011

The following notes, excepting a few additions in March, 1887, were written chiefly in April, 1886, at the suggestion of my excellent friend, the much-venerated scholar Col. Henry Yule, C.B., LL.D., President of the Royal Asiatic Society, after he had received from our common friend E. Colborne Baber, of H.B.M. Consular Service in China, then at Se-ul in Corea, nine sheets of manuscript secured from Formosa. These manuscripts, written in an old Pepohwan dialect, with Roman characters of Dutch origin, and, as regards several of them, bilingual with a Chinese translation, were accompanied with a valuable note of E. C. Baber, which forms a portion of the first part of the present paper.
Art. XV.—On the Revenues of the Moghul Empire
Authors: Keene H. G.
Published: March 2011

It is not without sincere diffidence that I venture to lay before Oriental scholars the following remarks. It is my misfortune to find myself constrained to oppose the conclusions of one who, when I first took up the question, was the most accepted authority on the subject—the late Edward Thomas. That learned and distinguished man has recorded, in commenting on some former notes of mine (in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal), that I treated the matter in so discursive a way that he was unable to catch my drift. On observing this, I wrote a fresh paper for the Royal Asiatic Society—which has been unfortunately lost—in which I strove to speak out in a manner that should leave no room for misconception. Unhappily Mr. Thomas is no more among us; and one is again in the old difficulty. A hesitating delivery of opinion, which was originally caused by deference to the justly-deserved reputation of the opposing advocate, is now, in a manner, called for by respect for the memory of the departed.
Art. XVIII.—Were Zenobia and Zebbā'u, Identical?
Authors: Redhouse J. W.
Published: March 2011

The French translators of the “Meadowa of Gold and Mines of Gems,” by the Arabian traveller and writer Mes ūdiyy, who composed this book in A.H. 332 (A.D. 943), refer their readers, in their general index, from the name of Zebbā'u, which they have unaccountably transliterated as “Zibba,” to “Zenobie,” though they never once use this latter name in the eighteen pages (vol. iii. pp. 181–198) of the work devoted to the history of this princess. Neither have they said one word in their notes to that part of the volume to show how Zebbā'u may be identified with Zenobia. (But see the concluding passages to this paper on p. 596.)
Art. XX.—Origin and Development of the Cuneiform Syllabary
Authors: Bertin G.
Published: March 2011

Palæography never attracted much the attention of Assyriologists, and in only a few cases have they either turned their mind to the origin, growth and development of the Cuneiform syllabary. M. Menant, who tried in his grammar to give a list as complete as possible of all the signs of various styles and epochs, has unfortunately accepted many doubtful characters, and has not distinguished the really archaic from the ornamental style. F. Lenormant, who specially studied the Babylonian syllabaries now in the British Museum, has done much to elucidate many points, but his observations bear only on a few characters, and have for principal object to ascertain the values and meanings in order to help the decipherer in reading rightly the inscriptions. He made a great step no doubt in attributing exclusively certain values of the characters to Akkadian and others to the Assyrian texts, but other works seem to have claimed his attention, and he did not follow up the subject.
Art. II.—Some Suggestions of Origin in Indian Architecture
Authors: Simpson William
Published: March 2011

When Mr. Fergusson commenced the study of Indian Architecture, nothing was really known on the subject. He had first to collect the materials, and after years of work he was able at last to leave the Architecture of India in a classified form. This was in itself a great achievement for one man to do. But he did more than this. He traced back the developments of form and construction in many cases to their early beginnings, and thus gave us their origin. It is only when this has been accomplished that we can truly say “we know” any particular style of architecture. We have still some very interesting problems of this kind to work out in regard to India; and suggestions regarding them, even although they should ultimately be found to have pointed in the wrong direction, may yet be useful in many ways; such speculations may call the attention of men in India to the information that is required, and by this means we have the chance of receiving knowledge. I have often discussed some of these questions of origin with Mr. Fergusson, and he used to refer to some of the unexplored parts of India, where he thought some remains of the older forms of Architecture might yet be found, which would throw light on what we wanted. His mode of expressing himself was, “If some man, with the necessary knowledge, and with an eye in his head, could be sent,” he felt certain that there are old temples in many parts not yet discovered that would clear up most of the doubtful points.
Art. V.—The Dâgabas of Anurâdhapura
Authors: Capper John
Published: March 2011

In 1875 my son, the late George Capper, a Ceylon official surveyor, was employed during nearly two years in making measurements and drawings of the principle ruins at Anurâdhapura. The results of his labours were shown in upwards of thirty large sheets of tracings, which have since been copied and forwarded to the Colonial Office in London.
Art. X.—The Languages spoken in the Zarafshan Valley in Russian Turkistan
Authors: Cust R. N.
Published: March 2011

In the course of my reading preparatory to my proposed, trip in September next to Orenberg and the Steppes of Central Asia, I came upon the valuable book by Dr. Radloff, “Aus Siberien,” Leipzig, 1884. His account of the languages spoken in the Zarafshan Valley, of which the famous city of Samarkand is the capital, seems so important, that I have had it translated from the German for publication in the journal.
Art. VII.—The Trisula Symbol
Authors: Simpson William
Published: March 2011

It is only lately that the Trisula, or Trident, has attracted attention as a symbol. It so chances that for many years back I have collected matter connected with this subject, and have often wished to put it in form for publication, but want of time has always stood in the way of realizing this desire. Lately contributions dealing with the Trisula have appeared in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society from Mr. Sewell and Mr. Pincott, and I feel urged to add some additional material to what they have given. I shall not be able to reproduce everything that I have gathered up, but my endeavour will be to give what seems to be important, or may throw light on the subject. As to a theory of origin, I have one: it has long been formed in my mind, and up to the present I see no reason to reject it; or it might be expressed, that no better theory has as yet, so far as I know, been proposed.
Art. X.—Notes on the Early History of Modern India. Part V. On the Succession of the Hindu Priesthood. the Bḥrigus, Añgiras, and Atharvans, and the Historical Evidence thence derived, followed by the History of the Year
Authors: Hewitt J. F.
Published: March 2011

I closed the Appendix to the last Essay of this series, published in April, 1890, by adducing proof that Māghada and Bhārata were derived from the roots Mag amd Bhṛi, both of which mean “to bring forth,” and that they both meant “the sons of the great mother who brings forth all mankind.”
Art. XII.—On a Proposed Method of Transliterating the Languages written in the Arabic Character
Authors: Lyon H. T.
Published: March 2011

In bringing forward a scheme for the conversion of the Arabic character to the Latin—the second most widely spread alphabet of the world to the first—a word may be said as to the objections which the mere mention of such a proposal invariably evolves.
Art. I.—Tibet. A Geographical, Ethnographical, and Historical Sketch, derived from Chinese Sources
Authors: Rockhill W. Woodville
Published: March 2011

The relations existing between China and Tibet have been for such a length of time of so intimate a nature, that, better than any other people, the Chinese are in a position to give us reliable information concerning this secluded and interesting country; for, though we possess such valuable works as Markham's Tibet, various papers by Father Desgodins, the reports of the native travellers employed by the great Trigonometrical Survey of India and those of Sarat Chandra Das, who has within the last ten years twice visited Tibet, these do not by any means cover the whole field of Tibetan geography and ethnography, and all the information we can obtain supplementing or corroborating these works must be valuable and worthy of our attention.
Art. II.—The “Kistna Alphabet”
Authors: Sewell Robert
Published: March 2011

At p. 139 of the second edition of Professor Carl Faulmann's “Das Buck der Schrift” will be found a table called the “Kistna” Alphabet. It is supposed to be a special form of writing adopted on and about the Kṛishṇā River on the East coast of India, a part of the country noted for centuries as a centre of religious and secular education, and at the present day recognized as the tract where the purest form of the Telugu language is spoken. The date of the alphabet is not given, but I am prepared to prove that the table is copied from one made out by Prinsep, and published in 1837; that this was itself taken from a single inscription which, was engraved some time between the sixth and eighth or ninth centuries A.D.; and that the special forms given are erroneous and misleading, being copied, not from the original inscription, but from a drawing. In the original the drawing of the inscription itself is fairly accurate, so far as the shape of the letters is concerned, but the alphabet compiled from it by Prinsep is far from satisfactory.
Art. III.–On some Cuneiform Inscriptions of Sennacherib and Aššurnaṣirpal
Authors: Strong S. Arthur
Published: March 2011

The following inscription, or rather group of three independent inscriptions, is on a tablet of clay numbered K 1280 in the Kouyunjik Collection of the British Museum. The tablet measures by 2⅜ in. (Bezold, Catalogue, p. 257). The obverse contains an inscription of nine lines complete in itself, the reverse two inscriptions of three and six lines respectively, which are separated by a line of division, and a single group of three characters appears on the edge. The texts are clearly written in characters which for the most part present the Assyrian form, though some, as, for instance, zu in the first and riš in the third line of the third inscription, are purely Babylonian.
Art. XI.—On two Stones with Chinese Inscriptions
Authors: Koch E. , Morgan E. Delmar
Published: March 2011

In the last number (vol. v. parts ii.–iv.) of the Zapiski of the Oriental Section of the Russian Archæological Society (St. Petersburg, 1891), we find an account of two stones inscribed with Chinese characters, discovered on the Upper Orkhon, near the ruins of Kara Balgassun, among a quantity of other remains, by M. Yadrintsef, during his expedition last summer in North-eastern Mongolia, and forwarded by him to St. Petersburg. Here they were carefully examined by M. E. Koch, who reports that the stones are unfortunately only fragments of a much larger monument, and that it is impossible to say whether they both formed part of the same though they were found in close juxtaposition and their contents would apparently support such a conjecture. Most of the characters are easily legible, being very similar in style to those in present use in China, but owing to the fact of the stones being of grey granite, much weatherworn in places, and the age of the inscriptions (upwards of one thousand years old), there are difficulties in deciphering them. They refer to the period of the T'ang dynasty, or, to be more precise, to the time when the Uighurs were dominant in Northern Mongolia; The characters differ in some instances from those in general use and a few are quite illegible. Where these occur dots are inserted in the text. All the lines want both beginning and end.
Art. XIV.—Russian Central Asia
Authors: Biddulph C. E.
Published: March 2011

Such a cloud of mystery has from time immemorial involved the regions comprised under the somewhat vague designation of Central Asia, and so many misconceptions exist regarding that portion of them which has come under Russian rule, that it appears to me to be most desirable that any one who has visited those parts and thus had an opportunity of judging, however superficially, for himself, should do his best to convey to the public his unbiassed impressions on the subjects which have come under his notice, and this all the more that the general vagueness of the information obtainable hitherto on these points and the various misconceptions arising therefrom have formed the great obstacles to a satisfactory mutual understanding between the two great European Powers which should be working together in unison for the amelioration of the conditions of the Asiatic populations which Providence and their own individual energy and enterprise have brought under their respective rules, instead of, as has been too unfortunately the case more often hitherto, watching one another's progress with jealousy and distrust, and making use of every available opportunity of criticizing unfavourably the results, and depreciating or misrepresenting the motives of one another's policy.
XVI.—The Lycian Language
Authors: Conder C. R.
Published: March 2011

The subject of the Lycian inscriptions appears to have been first brought prominently to notice by Sir Charles Fellows half a century ago. The first texts in this character were copied by Cockerell, and published in Walpole's travels. These were commented on, in 1821, by M. Saint Martin, who, judging from the bilingual in Greek and Lycian from Limyra, supposed the native version of the text to be comparable with the Syriac and Phoenician. Ten years later, in 1831, Dr. Grotefende communicated to the Royal Asiatic Society a paper, published in the third volume of the Transactions, treating of the five Lycian texts then known, and lie concluded from the declension of the verb that the Lycian must have belonged to the Aryan family of speech, and that it possessed long and short vowels as in Persian. In 1838–9 Sir C. Fellows collected copies of twenty-four Lycian inscriptions, including the great obelisk of Xanthus, on which are inscribed, in letters one and half inches long, no less than 246 lines of Lycian writing, and twelve lines of Greek hexameters. A certain number of coins of Lycian cities, with Lycian inscriptions, were also recovered, and the results published in 1840 in the volume called “ Lycia.” The copy of the great Xanthus text was however imperfect, and to this, as the most important of the Lycian monuments, Sir Charles Fellows devoted further attention, and in 1842 published a larger and very careful reproduction of the monument.
Art. IV.—Bhūridatta Jātaka Vatthu
Authors: St. John R. F. St. Andrew
Published: March 2011

This translation has been made from a Burmese copy printed at the Hanthawati Press, Rangoon, but there is nothing to show whence the text was taken. I have also made use ofa manuscript taken from the Mandalay Library, and now at the India Office. The gāthā, which in many places seem to be imperfect, are not given in the shape of gāthā in the Mandalay copy. In some cases the Burmese translation was redundant, and in others defective, so in translating them, though not a Pāli scholar, I havedone my best to stick to the Pāli text, receiving some valuable assistance from Prof. Rhys Davids. The Jātaka is No. 547 in the Ceylon List, and what is called one of the Greater Jātaka, probably composed at a late date, as it refers to the Pandara Jātaka, No. 521 [vol. v. p. 75, of Fausböll], which I have translated in a note from another Burmese source.
Art. XIII.—Catalogue and Description of 27 Bábí Manuscripts
Authors: Browne E. G.
Published: March 2011

The occasion of the Bab's writing this Commentary is thus described in the Tárikh-i-Jadid (BBP. 5, f. 106a; Or. 2942, ff. 103a–103b):
Art. XV.—The Mines of the Northern Etbai or of Northern Æthiopia. With a Map, Water-colour Drawings and Photographs by the Scientific Expedition to the Northern Etbai
Authors: Floyer Ernest A.
Published: March 2011

By the Scientific Expedition to the Northern Etbai, despatched by his Highness the Khedive in the beginning of the year, that part of the eastern desert of Egypt which lies south of a line between Kina and Kosair and reaches rather below the twenty-fourth parallel of latitude, was rapidly examined and surveyed. The map is in the hands of the engraver of the Royal Geographical Society; the geology exhibited in a map and sections is before the Geological Society; and a map of the antiquities is attached to the present memoir. The country embraces an area of 23,000 square miles of mountain and desert, and is called by the inhabitants the Northern Etbai.
Art. XVI.—On Hiuen-Tsang instead of Yüan Chwang, and the necessity of avoiding the Pekinese sounds in the quotations of ancient proper names in Chinese
Authors: de Lacouperie Terrien
Published: March 2011

1. The reasons which induce me to preserve the spelling Hiuen-Tsang instead of adopting the newly-proposed Yüan Chwang are that the latter is erroneous and without any standing whatever, while the other, besides its long acceptance by European scholars, is more true to history.
Όmārah's History of Yemen—Observations
Authors: Kay Henry C.
Published: March 2011

Professor Robertson Smith, in his paper on my version of Όmārah's history, concerns himself with two points. He deals with my treatment of the Arabic text, and he enters into certain observations upon the brief sketch I have supplied of the author's life.
Art. VIII.—Dr. Serge D'Oldenburg “On the Buddhist Jātakas.”
Authors: Wenzel H.
Published: March 2011

The extensive literature of Buddhist legends may be divided into three groups: (1) the legends on the rebirths of the Buddha anterior to his last life in this world, these are the ‘Jātakas’ (proper); (2) legends of the Buddha in his last, historical, existence; (3) legends of the Buddhist disciples, these are the ‘Avadānas,’ which last name, however, is also applied to legends in general.
Art. XX.—The Late Appearance of Romances and Novels in the Literature of China; with the History of the Great Archer, Yang Yû-chî
Authors: Legge
Published: March 2011

It is well known that, as Mr. Wylie has said, “Works of Fiction par excellence are not admitted to form a part of the Chinese National Literature.” We look in vain for such books in the Catalogue of the Imperial Library. In the Supplements to the Ch'un Ch'iû of Confucius, especially in that of Tso Ch'iû-ming, we find many narratives full of stirring adventure, which have secured for him the title of “The Froissart of China.” But his Work belongs to the department of history, and the finest passages in it owe their interest to the ability of the author, whom the late Stanislas Julien used to denominate, in his letters to me, “Un grand écrivain.” In the works of Lieh-tsze, who could hardly be later than Tso Ch'iû-ming, and of Chwang-tsze, we have a good deal of Tâoist mythology and speculation; and, later on, Han Fei, Hwai-nan Tsze, Han Ying, Liû Hsiang, and others supply us with a multitude of incidents and anecdotes, with now and then an apologue, employed to point the moral of some classical passage or important statement of the authoritative writings of the Schools to which they severally belonged.
Art. IV.—Notes on Akbar's Súbahs, with reference to the Aín-i Akbarí
Authors: Beames John
Published: March 2011

For upwards of twenty years the late Professor Blochmann's translation of Abul Fazl's monumental work, the Aín-i Akbarí, has remained a splendid fragment, and students have longed in vain for its completion. It is, therefore, cause for congratulation that this has at length been effected. Colonel Jarrett's scholarly translation of the remainder of the work, which has recently appeared, is fully equal in accuracy, while it is superior in grace of language, to that of his predecessor. Only those who have laboured over the intricacies of Abul Fazl's detestable style, at one time turgid and overloaded with meaningless phrases, at another so curt and jejune as to be obscure, can fully appreciate the skill and learning which Colonel Jarrett has brought to bear on the supremely difficult task of rendering his author intelligible to European readers.
Art. IV.—Notice of an Inscription at Turbat-i-Jām, in Khorāsān, about half-way between Meshed and Herat
Authors: Elias Ney
Published: March 2011

I was not allowed inside the shrine inclosure at Jām, so sent my Mirza to look for the “Yadgār” of Humāyūn, which the Sheikh told me was there. The Mirza brought back a copy of the inscription, and described the situation as follows:—“The above inscription is written, or rather painted, with black ink or some other composition, on an oblong slab of white Herat stone, which is fixed with mortar on to the top of the railing (partly built of plain and glazed bricks and partly of stone) enclosing the grave of Sheikh Jāmi, which is in the open air. The slab in question is about ¾ ẕar' (about 30 inches) in length and about 3 girah (8 inches) in breadth, the inscription running lengthwise. The surface bearing the writing is smooth and polished. In some places the paint—or ink—has been removed, and it shows that the surface of the slab was first punctured with some pointed instrument, and afterwards the paint laid on. An old Khwāja told me that formerly this slab was fixed in the Diwān (arch) facing the Sheikh's tomb, but that afterwards it was removed from there and placed on top of the railing where it now stands. The Khwāja also said that he used to see the word Hindi written after ‘Muhammad Humāyūn,’ but that now it has been obliterated. Sheikh Abdur Rahmān, one of the descendants of Sheikh-i-Jām, says that the inscription is believed to be in Humāvūn's own handwriting.”
Art. XVI.—The Arakanese Dialect of the Burman Language
Authors: Houghton Bernard
Published: March 2011

It is well known that the people of Arakan are an offshoot of the Burman race, the accepted account being that they first crossed the range of mountains called the Arakan Yoma about b.c. 825 under a Prince Kanruga-gyi. It seems probable that the small portion of the country then inhabited was settled by a few of the advance-guard of the Chin-Lushai or IsTaga tribesmen, with perhaps some colonies of Indians on the sea-coast. These were expelled or absorbed; and the Arakanese kingdom, having its centre in the flat open plains of the Akyab district, gradually extended south as far as the Mawyon-gyaw Hills, in the Sandoway district, and north to Chittagong (a.d. 1450). It was finally crushed by an invasion of Burmans from the east of the Yoma in 1784. The people of Arakan have, however, preserved their peculiar dialect, and in certain customs they differ slightly from the Burmese, against whom in some of the purely Arakanese parts is still cherished a deep hatred, born from the cruel manner in which they were handled at the Burmese conquest. It must be admitted, indeed, that in their intertribal wars the peoples of the Tibeto-Burman race have endeavoured to enforce in the strictest possible manner the modern doctrine of the “survival of the fittest.” Owing to the steady immigration into Arakan of natives of India, principally from the Province of Bengal, which has been going on for centuries, the physical type of the people has been sensibly altered from the pure Mongoloid cast of their first progenitors.
Art. XXI.—Note on the Van Inscriptions
Authors: Basmadjian K. J.
Published: March 2011

Since the commencement of Cuneiform studies in Europe attentionhas been paid to Armenian or Yannic inscriptions; and, as is well known, it was the unfortunate Schulz who first copied and collected the inscriptions of Yan. These copies, full of faults, were those on which scholars commenced their Yannic studies. After Mordtmann, Robert, and F. Lenormant, Professor Sayce deciphered and published, as far as possible, bis own and his predecessor's researches.
Art. XX.—The Northern Frontagers of China
Authors: Howorth Henry H.
Published: March 2011

The Arab writers who describe for us the intercourse of the early Arabs with the Turks of Turan speak of the former as Afrasiyabi Turks, and the dynasty as the Afrasiyabi dynasty. They identify them apparently with the earliest Turks of whom we have any record under that name, who apparently dominated the steppes north of Mavera-un-Nehr from the middle of the sixth century, and with whom they associate an heroic figure named Afrasiyab. Their capital and metropolis was a famous city situated on the river Chui, called Belasaghun, and they also acquired authority— we do not know exactly when—over Kashgar and the district round it. These Khans also dominated over the more nomadic Turks in their neighbourhood, who were divided into several sections, such as the Karluks, the Kankalis, the Kipchaks, etc.
Art. XXV.—The Origin of Village Land-Tenures in India
Authors: Baden-Powell B. H.
Published: March 2011

In the Journal of this Society for July, 1897 (pp. 628–641), an interesting communication was made by Mr. J. F. Hewitt regarding the existence of a real community of ownership in land, among the earliest Kolarian and Dravidian village settlers. I had hoped to see this followed up by some further local and other details, as the matter is one of great importance, and one that cannot be elucidated except by the aid of such special local knowledge as Mr. Hewitt, from his long residence on the Central Provinces and in Chutiya Nāgpur, undoubtedly possesses.
Art. IX.—The Initiative of the Avesta
Authors: Mills
Published: March 2011

I Have announced as my subject in these introductory lectures the general relation of the Avesta to other systems of theology and philosophy. And I have especially mentioned its interest for Biblical criticism, because a relation, or a supposed relation, between the Avesta and Exilic and post-Exilic books of the Old Testament has been notorious for half a century.
Art. XIV.—Two Lists of Words from Báṇa's ‘Harṣa-Carita’
Authors: Thomas F. W.
Published: March 2011

The following lists are composed of words and meanings which, occurring in the Harṣa-Carita of Bāṇa, are not quoted, or are instanced only from grammars, dictionaries, and commentaries, in the great St. Petersburg Lexicon and the smaller Lexicon of Böhtlingk. Only a few words not coming under this definition have for special reasons been included; namely, where I was unable in the Kashmir text to verify Böhtlingk's references to Bāṇa's work, where only an inferior work is cited, and where I or the Sanskrit commentator, Çaṅkara, did not adopt the exact rendering given in the two dictionaries. It did not appear on the whole worth while to quote words and meanings simply because their earliest occurrence was in the Harṣa-Carita, or because they illustrated the well-known and extremely close lexical affinity of Bāṇa's works with such books as the Bṛhat-Saṃhitā, Rāja-Taraṅngiṇī, Kathā-Sarit-Sāgara, Vāsavadattā, Daçakumāra-Carita, and also the Kāvya literature in general.
Art. XVI.—A Theory of Universal Grammar, as applied to a Group of Savage Languages
Authors: Temple R. C.
Published: March 2011

In reviewing lately Mr. Portman's “Notes on the Languages of the South Andaman Group of Tribes,” I pointed out that he had used a pamphlet of my own, privately printed in 1883, entitled “A Brief Exposition of a Theory of Universal Grammar,” which was specially designed to meet the very difficulties he had to face in giving a general idea of languages constructed on lines at first sight very different from those on whose structure modern European Grammar is based.
Art. XVIII.—The Chahár Maqála (“Four Discourses”) of Ni

dh

ámí -i-'Arúḍí-i-Samarqandí
Authors: Browne Edward G.
Published: March 2011

In my article on The Sources of Dawlatsháh, which appeared in the January number of the Journal, I have already spoken of the excellent work which I now have the pleasure to present in English dress. For my translation I have used the Tihrán lithographed edition of a.h. 1305, which I have carefully collated throughout with the older of the two British Museum MSS. (Or. 3,507, dated a.h. 1017), and, in all doubtful passages, with the second MS. (Or. 2,955, dated a.h. 1274) also. These MSS. are fully described in Rieu's Persian Supplement, pp. 244–245 and 265, Nos. 390 and 418. It remains only to say a few words concerning the author and the book.
Art. XX.—The Chahár Maqála (“Four Discourses”) of Ni

dh

ámí-i-'Arúḍi-i-Samarqandí
Authors: Browne Edward G.
Published: March 2011

They relate thus, that Naṣr b. Aḥmad, who was the central point of the Sámánid group, whose fortunes reached their zenith during the days of his rule, was most plenteously equipped with every means of enjoyment and material of splendour—well-filled treasuries, an efficient army, and loyal servants. In winter he used to reside at Bukhárá, his capital, while in summer he used to go to Samarqand or some other of the cities of Khurásán. Now one year it was the turn of Herat. He spent the spring at Bádghís, where are the most charming pasture-grounds of Khurásán and 'Iráq, for there are nearly a thousand watercourses abounding in water and pasture, any one of which would suffice for an army.
Art. V.—An Autograph of the Mogul Emperor Jahángír (A.D. 1617)
Authors: Wollaston A. N.
Published: March 2011

At p. 115 of Mr. William Foster's admirable edition of Sir Thomas Roe's Journal of his Embassy to the Court of the Great Mogul, 1615–1619, recently published by the Hakluyt Society, there is an engraving representing (amongst others) the Emperor Jahángír.
Art. VI.—Sumerian or Cryptography
Authors: Pinches T. G.
Published: March 2011

Fifteen years ago I read before this Society a paper treating of “the languages of the Early Inhabitants of Mesopotamia,” in which I expressed my conviction that the non-Semitic dialects (for there are at least two closely-allied idioms) spoken in that district, revealed to us by the Babylonian and Assyrian inscriptions, were really languages, and not cryptographies or “allographic systems of writing,” as they were called by those who favoured the theory of the artificial nature of the script employed.
Art. VIII.—The Nīti-mañjarī of Dyā Dviveda
Authors: Keith A. B.
Published: March 2011

Having procured three manuscripts of this work, I at first proposed to edit the text. But in going through the work for that purpose I soon found that Professor Kielhorn was right in supposing it to be too dependent on Sāyaṇna to deserve publication in full. Under these circumstances Professor Macdonell suggested to me that I should collect all that was of interest in the work. This I have here attempted to do.
Art. XI.—The Villages of Goa in the Early Sixteenth Century
Authors: Baden-Powell B. H.
Published: March 2011

In the following pages I have endeavoured to present an account of the contents of a document, which needs some special acquaintance with the details of village history to understand it, but which possesses considerable interest since it is the earliest known account of a local group of Indian villages written by an European observer.
Art. XVII.—Notes on Indian Coins and Seals
Authors: Rapson E. J.
Published: March 2011

Thanks to the investigations of Professor O. Franke and of Mr. A. Viktor Bergny the readings of practically all the known biliteral coin-legends in Brāhmī and Kharoṣṭhī characters may now be regarded as finally settled. In this field of Indian numismatics, as in so many others, General Sir A. Cunningham was a pioneer, and it is, therefore, in no way surprising that many of his readings of these inscriptions as given in his Coins of Ancient India require correction. It is only within the last few years that the progress of the study of Indian epigraphy has made a scholarly treatment of this subject possible.
Art. XXII.—The First Preparers of the Haoma (Indian Soma) The Pahlavi translation and commentary on Yasna IX, 1–48 inclusive, for the first time edited with the collation of MSS., and now prepared from all the MSS. also deciphered
Authors: Mills Lawrence
Published: March 2011

As this edition of a short section of the Pahlavi translation of the Yasna is intended to be followed by similar publications ultimately embracing the entire Pahlavi texts of the Yasna with the exception of those which have been already treated in my Five Zarathushtrian Gāthas, I make here full allusions to the MSS. which have been consulted in producing it.
Art. XXIII.—Notes on Indian Coins and Seals. Part III. The Kulūtas, a people of Northern India
Authors: Rapson E. J.
Published: March 2011

The identification of the kingdom of Kulūta, which Hiouen Thsang visited, with the present valley of Kullu seems to be quite beyond dispute; and the lapse of more than twelve centuries and a half has effected so little change in the conditions, that Hiouen Thsang's description and the acount in Hunter's Gazetteer are curiously similar. Like its neighbour the kingdom of Chamba (Skt. Caṇpakā), it belongs to the eastern or Jālandhar group of Hill States in the Panjab. At present this group consists of twelve states, but, according to Cunningham, there were formerly only four—Jālandhar, Chamba, Kullu, and Mandi. Of the first and third we have a detailed description by Hiouen Thsang, and, as will be seen (inf., p. 541), it is possible that he mentions the second under another name. In our attempts to unravel the tangle of ancient Indian geography, the untying of one knot fortunately often leads to the untying of others. The identification of the Kulūtas may enable us to identify, with a greater or less amount of certainty, other peoples who occur with them in the geographical lists. It may, therefore, serve a useful purpose, if we examine in detail all the known occurrences of the Kulūtas in literature and on inscriptions and coins.
Art. XXIV.—“The Twelve Dreams of Sehachi.”
Authors: Gaster M.
Published: March 2011

Among the tales that make up the well-known Kalilah and Dimnah cycle, or the Fables of Bidpai, there is one which has a history of its own. In the Syriac version published by Bickell, probably the oldest text available, it is called the “Gate of Bilar” (German translation, p. 93 ff.). In the Arabic recension, and in the Syriac which rests upon it, it is called similarly, “The Story of the Wise Bilar.” A full account of this text, together with an English rendering, has been given by I. G. N. Keith-Falconer (“Kalilah and Dimnah,” Cambridge, 1885, p. xxxi ff., 219 ff., and notes p.301 ff.). By referring the reader to these “notes” I can dispense with any lengthy discourse on the history of this chapter within the frame of the Panchatantra. In one form or another it has travelled, together with the rest of the book, from one country to another, always forming an integral portion of it. The curious point about this chapter is, that hitherto no Sanscrit text of it has as yet come to light. The reason assigned for its disappearance has been, that it is of a pronounced Buddhist character and that a humiliating position is given to the Brahmins in this tale. The Brahmins, not being able to modify it by some slight eliminations, have suppressed it entirely. To Schiefner is due the merit of discovering a Tibetan counterpart of it, thus making the Indian origin and Buddhist character of the tale perfectly clear.
Art. XXV.—The Risālatu'l-

Gh

ufrān:
Authors: al-Ma‘arrī Abū'l-‘Alā
Published: March 2011

In a recent number of the Journal (July, 1899, p. 671 seq.) I briefly described a manuscript, now in my possession, of the Risāalatu'l-Ghufrān, and promised to give some further account of it at an early date. The work in question is mentioned by Safadil and probably, as I have shown, by Ḥājī Khalīfa. Dhahabī, in his list of Abū'l-'Alā's writings, includes it tacitly under the heading dīvānu'l-rasā'il, but he makes ample amends by setting it in the very forefront of his article on Abū'l-'Alā, which begins:
Art. XI.—Impressions of Inscriptions received from Captain A. H. McMahon, Political Agent for Swat, Dir, and Chitral
Authors: Rapson E. J.
Published: March 2011

The impressions of inscriptions represented, on very greatly reduced scales, in the accompanying collotype plate by Mr. W. Griggs were sent for publication to Dr. M. A. Stein by Captain A. H. McMahon, Major Deane's successor on the Malakand and Political Agent for Swat, Dir, and Chitral. It was Dr. Stein's intention to publish them in continuation of the series of inscriptions in unknown characters sent to him by Major Deane, and described by him in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (1898, p. 1). The preparations for his tour to Khotan did not, however, allow him the leisure to carry this design into effect, and the impressions were forwarded to me with the request that I would superintend their publication during his absence.
Art. XIV.—Asoka and the Buddha-relics
Authors: Davids T. W. Rhys
Published: March 2011

Our oldest authority, the Mahā-parinibbāna Suttanta, which can be dated approximately in the fifth century b.c.,1 states that after the cremation of the Buddha's body at Kusinārā, the fragments that remained were divided into eight portions. These eight portions were allotted as follows:—

1. To Ajātasattu, king of Magadha.

2. To the Licchavis of Vesālī.

3. To the Sakyas of Kapilavastu.

4. To the Bulis of Allakappa.

5. To the Koliyas of Rāmagāma.

6. To the brahmin of Veṭhadīpa.

7. To the Mallas of Pāvā.

8. To the Mallas of Kusinārā.
Art. XXX.—The Identity of Piyadasi (Priyadarśin) with Aśoka Maurya, and some connected Problems
Authors: Smith Vincent A.
Published: March 2011

In my paper entitled “ The Authorship of the Piyadasi Inscriptions” the question of authorship was treated on the assumption that the place of Piyadasi in history was unknown. This mode of treatment was adopted because I desired to examine afresh, and with perfect impartiality, the commonly accepted identification of Piyadasi with Aśoka Maurya. Before I undertook that examination I did not feel absolute certainty that the doubts as to the identification long ago expressed by Professor H. H. Wilson and recently again put forward by Bābū P. C. Mukherjī might not have some basis in fact. The problem of the Aśoka chronology is involved with the question of the identification of Aśoka with Piyadasi, and nearly the whole of the chronology of the history of ancient India depends upon the determination of the date of Asoka. For these reasons I felt compelled, in order to satisfy my own mind, to thoroughly examine the evidence for the identification of Aśoka with Piyadasi, and to see whether or not it is open to any doubt. The result of the examination is that to my mind no doubt is any longer possible respecting either the identity of Aśoka Maurya with Piyadasi, or respecting the approximate dates of the accession both of Aśoka and of his grandfather Candragupta. By “approximate dates” I mean dates with a margin of possible error not exceeding two years.
Art. XXXI.—Notes on Early Economic Conditions in Northern India
Authors: Davids Caroline Foley Rhys
Published: March 2011

The following classified references may prove useful and suggestive to the student of the economic conditions of ancient India. The work accomplished by Professor Zimmer in his Altindisches Leben, which contains, among so much of varied interest, almost all that may be gleaned on the political economy of Vedic times, has not been carried on with respect to the advancing civilization of the succeeding centuries. Mr. Romesh Chunder Dutt's important compilation, the Civilization of Ancient India, cannot, from the magnitude of its scope, treat adequately of what the literature of that era lets us see concerning rural economy, organization of industry, and methods of exchange. Dr. Fick's Sociale Gliederung im Nordöstlichen Indien is most valuable and suggestive as far as it goes. But it is compiled from a sociological and not from a specifically economic standpoint. Yet if we consider the ancient records now accessible, contemporary respectively with the age which preceded and with that which saw the rise of Buddhism and Jainism, and with the times of the earlier and succeeding ‘law-books’ —covering, from b.c. 800, let us say, a thousand years,— we may find materials sufficient to justify at all events some initial efforts to gain a coherent outline of economic institutions. I do not pretend that the passages noted are at all exhaustive; I am confident that much valuable material remains embedded both in edited and unedited texts.