bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
XV. Note sur la Langue et l'Ecriture inconnues des Documents Stein-Cowley
Authors: Gauthiot Par R.
Published: March 2011

Le fascicule du mois de Janvier 1911 du JRAS. contient un memoire de M. A. Cowley intitule “Another Unknown Language from Eastern Turkestan”. dont il parait impossible de dire qu'il n'est pas “sensationnel”. nous apporte en effet une ecriture inconnue d'origine arameenne, une langue mysterieuse, des documents d'un type precieux et rare puisqu'il s'agit de lettres et non de textes publics religieux ou civils; il nous fournit enfin des textes dont il est possible de determiner l'age de facon approximative, dont la haute antiquite est a peu pres certaine et qui proviennent du limes chinois lui-meme, d'un point situe, il est vrai a l'ouest de Touenhouang mais a l'extreme limite de ce que Ton peut appeler le Turkestan. Pour tous ceux qui s'interessent a l'histoire de l'Asie, a la resurrection des langues, des peuples, et des civilisations qui ont vecu entre la Chine, la Perse, et l'lnde, que d'attraits nouveaux et de problemes irritants!
XXIII. Coins Collected by Sir A. Henry McMahon, K.C.I.E., in Seistan
Authors: Codrington O.
Published: March 2011

Some time after the descriptions of the coins collected by Mr. G. P. Tate were published in the Journal for 1904 and 1905 Sir Henry McMahon brought home the collections which he had made during the time he was the Boundary Commissioner in Seistan, but unfortunately there has been much delay in giving a description of them.
XXIV. Buddhism in the Shan States
Authors: Scott J. George
Published: March 2011

In a very excellent book on the Shans at Home, recently published by a member of this Society, Mrs. Leslie Milne, it is stated that “the chief source of early Shan Buddhism was probably the Talaings and Cambodians”. This is the opinion of the Rev. Wilbur Willis Cochrane, who at the same time states that it is his conviction that the Tai got their alphabet and early literature probably from the same sources. Mr. Cochrane is an American missionary, who has spent something like twenty years among the Tai and is an accomplished Tai scholar. There is a quite considerable Tai literature, mostly of a religious kind, but with a very creditable amount of folk-tales. Unfortunately there is nothing that throws any light on the early history of their country. Previous to our occupation of the Shan States, as a consequence of the annexation of Upper Burma, the whole of the States had been involved in almost incessant civil war, and for a century before that the wars between China and Burma and Burma and Siam had led to the marching and counter-marching of armies through the hills. The troops were Buddhists, no doubt, but they had very little regard for sacred things, and the result is that most of what writings there may have been on the history of the country perished with the monasteries.
XXV. The Pāñcarātras or Bhāgavat-Śāstra
Authors: Svamin A. Govindacarya
Published: March 2011

The Synonymy of what is well known as the Pāñcarātra is thus given in the Pādma-tantra (one of the 108 Tantras or Samhltās):—

Sūris suhrid bhāgavatas satvatah panca-kala-vit
XXIX. Tablets from Tel-loh in Private Collections
Authors: Pinches T. G.
Published: March 2011

Though large numbers of the temple-records of Tel-loh have been published, and notwithstanding that they are mainly texts of but little importance, linguistic and minor historical details, to say nothing of the questions involved in Babylonian manners, customs, and religious beliefs, require that as many of these seemingly worthless records of the people who used the wedge-formed characters of the Sumerians should be published as is possible. On this account I need not crave the indulgence of the reader for issuing here these minor texts from the little Southern Babylonian state of Lagas. Their contents will be their own justification for claiming the attention of the student, as they have claimed mine.
II. The Tārīkh-Baghdād (Vol. XXVII) of the Khaṭīb Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. 'Alī b. Thābit al-Baghdādī Short Account of the Biographies
Authors: Krenkow Fritz
Published: March 2011

Among the recent acquisitions of the India Office Library is a volume of the Tārīḫ Baghdād of the Ḫaṭīb containing biographies of men with the names of 'Umar, 'Uthmān, and 'Alī. The MS. is acephalous, the end is missing, and many leaves have been lost, so that an edition of the whole text is out of the question. Paper and writing point to the beginning of the seventh century of the Hiğrah. This volume of the extensive biographical dictionary of the Ḫaṭīb does not appear to exist in other European libraries, the greater portion of the work having been lost. Salmon published in 1904 the geographical introduction of the book with a French translation; in his introduction he gives an account of the known MSS. and a biography of the author. With regard to the MSS. enumerated by Salmon, it must be noted that Amar (JA., vol. xi, 237, 1908) has shown that the MSS. Bibl. Nat. 2130 and 2131 are not the original work of the Ḫaṭīb, but parts of an amplification of his work by Ibn an-Nağğār (d. 643 a.h.). The fact that No. 2131 is called the twenty-eighth volume, and contains biographies of men named 'Alī following later, according to the alphabetical arrangement of the Ḫaṭīb, than those contained in the India Office MS., seems to prove that the latter is a portion of the twenty-seventh volume.
VI The Pictorial Aspects of Ancient Arabian Poetry
Authors: Lyall Charles J.
Published: March 2011

A Few months ago I endeavoured to give to an audience in this room some account of an ancient Arabian poet, 'Abīd of Asad, whose remains, recently recovered from the oblivion of the past, are now being printed. I explained the great position which the poet occupied in old tribal Arabia: how his championship in verse was as important to the interests of the clan as the prowess in arms of its men of war; and how in the southern deserts he held a place scarcely inferior to that of the prophet in tribal Israel. It was his business to extol the deeds of the warriors, to inspire the members of the tribe with fortitude and devotion to its interests, to maintain its cause in all contentions, to strike its enemies with biting satire, and to uphold the heroic ideal of conduct to which all should aspire by praise of the worthy, and especially by consecrating the memory of the valiant dead in those noble laments which form the most beautiful and touching monuments of old Arabian verse.
VII. On some Brāhmī Inscriptions in the Lucknow Provincial Museum
Authors: Lüders H.
Published: March 2011

In a recent number of the Ep. Ind., vol. x, p. 106 ff., Mr. R. D. Banerji has edited twenty-one Brāhmī inscriptions of the “Scythian” period, of which nine had been already published by him, under the name of R. D. Bandhyopadhyaya, in the Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society, N.S., vol. v, pp. 243 f., 271 ff. We certainly owe a great debt of gratitude to him for making these records accessible, although the way in which he has acquitted himself of his task cannot meet with unreserved praise. I do not undervalue the difficulties which beset these inscriptions. I know that it cannot be expected that the first reading and interpretation of an inscription of this class should be always final. But what may be reasonably expected, and what, I am sorry to say, is wanting in Mr. Banerji's paper, is that carefulness and accuracy that have hitherto been a characteristic feature of the publications in the Epigraphia Indica. It would be a tedious and wearisome business to correct almost line for line mistakes that might have been easily avoided with a little more attention. The following pages will show that this complaint is not unjustified.
XII. Goths in Ancient India
Authors: Konow Sten
Published: March 2011

The oldest instances of the use of the word yavana, yona, in India were discussed by the late Professor Weber in his paper on the Greeks in India. He maintained that the Indians adopted this denomination of the Greeks from the Persians. He also remarked that the name was then later on transferred to the Indo-Scythian successors of the Greeks in North-Western India, and, further, to the Parthians, Persians, and Arabs. There can he no doubt that the word was in later times commonly used to denote the Musalmāns, and sometimes also, in a more general way, as synonymous with mleccha. On the other hand its original meaning was certainly ‘a Greek’. That is the case in the Aśoka inscriptions, in the Besnagar column inscription, and in some of the Nasik and Karle epigraphs. In the Nasik inscription of the nineteenth year of Siri-Pulumāyi Vāsiṭhīputa (EI, 8. 60) we find the yavanas mentioned together with sakas and palhavas, and it is just possible that the word here denotes some Indo-Scythian tribe and not exactly the Greeks. In the Junāgaḍh inscription of Rudradāman of the year 72, i.e. probably of a.d. 150, we hear of a yavana ‘king’ (rājan) Tuṣāspha, who was governor of Kāthiāvāḍ under the emperor Aśoka. The name Tuḍāspha cannot be Greek, but must be Iranian. Still he is called a yavana. This shows that in the second century a.d., the name yavana was not restricted to the Greeks.
XXVIII. A Cuneiform Tablet from Boghaz Keui with Docket in Hittite Hieroglyphs
Authors: Sayce A. H.
Published: March 2011

Among the fragmentary tablets from Boghaz Keui which are in my possession is one with a docket attached to it in Hittite hieroglyphs (No. I). It is the first evidence yet discovered of the contemporaneity of the hieroglyphs and cuneiform, and I therefore give a facsimile of it in spite of its very fragmentary nature. The cuneiform characters were, as usual, impressed upon the clay prior to its being baked in the kiln; the docket was cut after the clay had been baked. As will be seen, the tablet is dated in the reign of Arnuwandas, the last king of the Hittite empire.
II. The Significance of Cairo
Authors: Richmond Ernest
Published: March 2011

Among the many peculiarities of Egypt, not the least notable is her instinct for rejecting the foreign influences which her position at the gates of three continents renders exceptionally numerous. This power to repudiate what is alien seems to belong to the very genius of the land. It is, perhaps, a sign of the sufficiency and adequacy of Egypt for herself; an indication that within herself she finds what she needs for her existence and for her development, and that the outer world and its gifts are not required. Her ancient history is an eloquent witness of her own peculiar power; a power to achieve, to develop, and to realize the highest that is in her, only under conditions of comparative isolation, or under such conditions of contact as leave her full freedom of choice; and her less ancient, as well as her modern, history no less eloquently testify to the deadening effects of contact with the outer world.
VIII. The Pṛithvīrāja Vijaya
Authors: Sarda Har Bilas
Published: March 2011

This celebrated historical poem, written to sing the glories of the last Hindu emperor of India, the illustrious Pṛithvīrāja. Chauhān, records the gallant deeds of the Chauhān kings of Ajmer, and is of great importance to the history of India. Only one manuscript copy of the poem is known to be in existence. It is a birch-bark MS. in Śāradā characters and is in the Deccan College library, Poona, where it is numbered 150 in the catalogue of the collection of 1875–6. It was discovered in Kashmir in a.d. 1875 by Dr. Bühler in the course of his tour in search of Sanskrit MSS.
XII. Note on the Numeral Systems of the Tibeto-Burman Dialects
Authors: Hodson T. C.
Published: March 2011

I propose to examine the various dialects of which specimens are given in vol. iii of the Report of the Linguistic Survey of India, to group them together according to their method of forming numerals, and then to examine the forms of the numerals used as bases for the higher numerals.
XIV. Al-Quhaif al-'Uqaili his poetical remains collected and translated
Authors: Krenkow F.
Published: March 2011

During the later periods of the Ornmayade Caliphate, with their continual rebellions and turmoil, the centre of Arab literary activity had moved entirely to the North, and we get only very few notices of poets who lived and flourished in the central provinces of Eastern Arabia, which in earlier days had produced many celebrated names. Among the poets of this period in Central Arabia the most prominent names are those of al-Quḥaif and Yazīd b. aṭ-Ṭathrlīyya, the latter being perhaps more famous through the elegy upon his death by his sister Zainab, of which verses have found a place in many anthologies. Al-Quṭaif is not mentioned by Ibn Qutaiba, Poësis, but the Kitāb al-Aghānī devotes four pages to his biography, and its author states that only few poems of his are preserved. He receives a short mention in the Fulmlat ash-Shu'arā’ of al-Aṣma'ī, where he is said to have made poems upon women, but that his verses were neither good Arabic nor suitable for being quoted as evidence for correct speech. Among the twenty-four fragments which follow there are only four which may be called poems upon women, while the remainder deal with the troubles in Central Arabia after the murder of the Caliph al-Walīd b. Yazid. As regards the statement that the verses of al-Quḥaif cannot be quoted as evidence for correct speech, the fragments preserved are too few to enable us to judge for ourselves, though I have endeavoured in the notes to several verses to point out deviations from customary usage.
XVII Dragon and Alligator: Being Notes on Some Ancient Inscribed Bone Carvings
Authors: Hopkins L. C.
Published: March 2011

The objects illustrated in the accompanying Plates are published with the aim of bringing to the knowledge of Orientalists and others a type of Chinese relic believed to be of unique design, and presenting an interest of more than one kind. Despite their excellent preservation, they must, for reasons given below, date back at least to the later half of the third century B.C., but how much earlier than that remains at present uncertain.
XVIII On the Origin of the Dative and Genitive Postpositions in Gujarati and Marwari
Authors: Tessitori L. P.
Published: March 2011

It is mainly with the two principal sets nē, nō of Gujarātī and rai, rō of Mārwāṛī, and with their older forms, that I propose to deal in these pages. Since the right clue to the explanation of them—with the exception of rō, which presents no difficulty—has been missed by scholars as yet, I trust that the present investigation into their origin will be of use even to such as might hesitate to accept all my views unreservedly.
XXI Jewish Knowledge of the Samaritan Alphabet in the Middle Ages
Authors: Gaster M.
Published: March 2011

The Jews have never practically lost sight of the Samaritans, unlike the Christians, who for at least a thousand years had entirely forgotten their existence, as no writer or pilgrim to the Holy Land speaks of them with the solitary exception of Mandeville. It was therefore a great surprise to the Western world when at the beginning of the seventeenth century the darkness began to be lifted, and through Scaliger, Huntingdon, and Della Valle for the first time authentic news about the Samaritans, their language, and their Bible began to reach Europe.
XXVII. Stress and Pitch in Indian Languages
Authors: Anderson J. D.
Published: March 2011

As our Society has published a communication on Indian phonetics, may I make a suggestion which may perhaps interest students of the Indian vernaculars? We all know that most languages have a musical quality which enables us to recognize what language is being spoken, even if we are too distant to hear the words used, or too ignorant to understand their sense. This characteristic quality is composed of stress and pitch. It has to be acquired by everyone who would speak like a native and would be readily and easily understood. It is not only by the meaning of words, but also by the significant modulation of a phrase that we make ourselves understood. It is very interesting, for instance, to note the change of stress and pitch when a word is borrowed from one language into another. This change is audible even when the borrowed word is pronounced by itself. It is even more obvious when the borrowed word forms part of the significant music of a phrase. So far, I am merely saying what is known to all students of living tongues. What I venture to suggest is that the characteristic modulation of a language may provide useful hints as to its origins and history, that the careful study of stress and tone may be a help to the philologist. This should particularly be the case where a language belonging to one family of human speech has been recently adopted by a race that once spoke a language of another family. It is easy, for instance, to feel an alien, a Celtic element in the pronunciation of English by an Irishman, a Highlander, a Welshman.
III. Ancient Arabian Poetry as a Source of Historical Information
Authors: Lyall C. J.
Published: March 2011

The conquest of the Persian and half of the Byzantine Empire by the Arabs, under the banner of Islam in the seventh century, was one of the most extraordinary events in the history of the world. On the one side were ranged the forces of two highly-organized military powers, Imperial New Rome and Imperial Persia, which for over three centuries had been engaged in constant conflict with each other. Although this necessarily tended to exhaust the material resources of the combatants, it would naturally be supposed that it must have given them military experience, and their leaders a training in generalship, adequate to enable them to face with confidence of victory enemies hitherto regarded with contempt as mere barbarians. On the other side we see hosts of men, reared in a country where the conditions of life have always been of the hardest and most precarious, divided by tribal feuds and secular hatreds, poorly armed, with no practice in warfare against disciplined foes, and with no allies to swell their legions. Yet from the beginning the progress of the Arabs was one of almost uninterrupted success.
XIII. The Name Kushan
Authors: Fleet J. F.
Published: March 2011

In a paper at p. 79 above, it is sought to show that the name of the race to which Kanishka and his connections belonged was Kusa or Kusha; not Kushan or Kushān, as is believed at present. I would invite closer attention to some of the evidence, which hardly seems to bear out such a view: other parts of it are being dealt with by Mr. Allan.
XVII. Laws of King George V, of Georgia, surnamed “The Brilliant” From the Bodleian Ms. of the Code of Vakhtang VI, Formerly the Property of Prince David of Georgia
Authors: Wardrop Oliver
Published: March 2011

The following translation is made from a MS. of Vakhtang's Code of Laws, purchased from a dealer in Tiflis in January, 1911, which is now the property of the Bodleian Library. The MS. is in good condition and bound in wooden boards covered with stamped leather. It is on yellow glazed paper, watermarked 1746, paged from 1 to 851; and then there follows, unpaged, a Code compiled by Prince David, son and heir of the last King of Georgia, which was hitherto unknown and bears that prince's autograph with the date “November 26, 1800” and a colophon by Gabriel, priest of Anchiskhati Church, dated 1805. The size of the page is 12 by 8 inches, of the text 8½ by 5½ inches. There are eighteen lines to the page and eight folios to the quire. A note on p. 57 says it was written by Ose Decanozishvili by the King's command in 1750, but this entry seems to have been made later in lighter ink and may only refer to the index. A remarkable feature of the MS. is that certain words (apparently those about which the scribe felt some doubt) are markedor; this seems to show a conscientious transcription of an old original. The MS. begins with an alphabetical list of contents (paged 1–57), the earlier part of which (before) had apparently been lost before the pages were numbered. Then comes the usual tabular index of subjects (pp. 62–136), with references to all the sections of the code for comparative purposes, so that the laws of Vakhtang, George, the Athabegs, and the Catholicos may be compared with each other, and with Greek, Armenian, and Mosaic legislation, at a glance.
XXVIII Hittite Vocabularies from Boghaz Keui
Authors: Sayce A. H.
Published: March 2011

A paper of prime importance for Hittite studies has been read by Professor Fr. Delitzsch before the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences at Berlin. The Oriental Museum at Berlin has obtained a collection of cuneiform tablets from Boghaz Keui, among which are twenty-six fragments of vocabularies, copies of which will appear in the first part of the volume of Boghaz Keui inscriptions which Dr. Weidner is engaged in publishing. The vocabularies contain lists of Sumerian words with their pronunciation as well as their equivalents in Assyrian (or, as Professor Delitzsch calls it, Accadian) and Hittite. The Sumerologist will be grateful for the authoritative information they at last give as to the pronunciation of the Sumerian ideographs; the “Hittitologist” will be still more grateful for the first insight they afford into the character of the Hittite language spoken at Boghaz Keui. In Professor Delitzsch's paper the words are given in transcription. The paper will doubtless be the subject of much philological commentary. Meanwhile I offer a few notes upon it.
XXIX The Date of Kanishka
Authors: Marshall J. H.
Published: March 2011

In the discussion on the date of Kanishka which took place last year much prominence was given to the so-called Vikrama era of 58 B.C., and arguments were put forward by those who favoured an early date for Kanishka to prove, not only that this era was founded by him, but that all the recorded dates of the Śaka, Pahlava, and Kushan rulers of Northern India are referable to it. Some discoveries which I have recently made at Taxila throw, I think, fresh light on this question, and, though they do not settle precisely the date of Kanishka, appear to prove that he was not at any rate the founder of the era of 58 B.C. and could not have come to the throne until the close of the first century A.D. or later.
I Examples of Tibetan Seals
Authors: Walsh E. H.
Published: March 2011

The subject of Tibetan seals has already been discussed in this Journal in connexion with the seal of the Dalai Lama, the reading of which was first given by Dr. Bushell in JRAS. 1906, p. 476, referring to the illustration of the seal in Colonel Waddell's Lhasa and its Mysteries, in his review of that book. But he gave no examples of the character.
III Notes on Dr. Lionel Giles' Article on “Tun Huang Lu”
Authors: Hu Suh
Published: March 2011

For the sake of clearness I have grouped my discussions under four separate headings, namely: (I) Punctuations, (II) Misreadings of the Chinese Text, (III) Errors in the Text itself, and (IV) Other discussions.
IV The Tun Huang Lu Re-Translated
Authors: Giles Lionel
Published: March 2011

I feel very grateful to Mr. Suh Hu. for having read my article with such care, and for having pointed out some undoubted mistakes. Unfortunately, there are others that have escaped him, but which have been brought to my notice by my father, Professor Herbert A. Giles, and other scholars, to whom I also tender hearty thanks. In the light of these corrections it seems desirable that a revised translation of the whole text should now be published.
VI The Zoroastrian Period of Indian History
Authors: Spooner D. B.
Published: March 2011

Ever since the exact site of Aśoka's classic capital was determined for us by the keenness and sagacity of Colonel Waddell, it has been a dream of the Government of India in the Archæological Department to subject the site of Pāṭaliputra to an examination commensurate with its importance. Colonel Waddell had, however, so abundantly demonstrated, in his trial excavations, the difficulty and costliness of extended operations here, that the dream had, until recently, appeared remote of realization. The munificence of Mr. Ratan Tata of Bombay has made the undertaking possible, and his offer of twenty thousand rupees a year, for an indefinite number of years, has enabled the Archæological Department to take up the work on a scale that would otherwise have been far beyond our resources.
VII. A Kharoṣṭhī Inscription
Authors: Thomas F. W.
Published: March 2011

On p. 111 of Ariana, Antiqua, under the heading “Tope No. 13 of Hidda”, we read as follows: “This tope is situated on the brink of a water-course, more than a mile from the village of Hidda. In our progress towards the centre we fell upon a small earthen jar, enclosing a stone wrapped in tuz-leaves. This simple deposit was perhaps the most useful that any of the many topes examined had yielded, for it was encompassed with a Bactro-Pali inscription, written with a pen, but very carelessly. Fearful that this testimony might become obliterated, or suffer in its journey from Kabul, I copied it at the time as well as I could, under the hope that, if necessary, a transcript would be serviceable.” Other references to the same find may be seen on pp. 60, 113, and 258–9.
XVII. The Kings of Vijayanagara, A.D. 1486–1509
Authors: Sewell R.
Published: March 2011

Considerable difficulty has been experienced by Government epigraphists in dealing with the history of the double usurpations of the kingdom of Vijayanagara in Southern India and the dates of accession and death of the various rulers in the period a.d. 1486–1509; and a note on these matters based on a number of inscriptions may have a beneficial effect in somewhat clearing the ground.
XVIII. The Meaning of the “Om-maṇi-padme-hūm” Formula
Authors: Francke A. H.
Published: March 2011

When spending several weeks at Leh, in 1914, I became interested in certain balcony – like structures containing three mchod-rten each. They were called Rig-dzin-mgon-po (Lords, holders of wisdom) or Rig-gsum-mgon-po (Lords of the three [realms of] wisdom). Besides the three mchod-rten, the balconies contained also Lamaist pictures and inscriptions. Mr. H. Körber, of the Munich Museum, rendered me valuable help in the identification of several of the pictures. The following is a list of the Rig-dzin-mgon-po (the abbreviation Rig. will be used instead of this long word) at Leh and neighbouring places.
XX. Sumerian Women for Field-Work
Authors: Pinches Theophilus G.
Published: March 2011

The tablet now published, which belongs to Mr. Alfred E. Knight, measures 42 mm. high by 42 mm. wide. Judging from its form and general appearance, it came from Jokha, the ruins of the city whose name is now generally read Umma. The obverse has five lines of writing, and the reverse three with a space between the first and the second. Both sides are covered with impressions of the cylinder-seal of the scribe by whom the document is attested.
I. Sumerian and Georgian: a Study in Comparative Philology
Authors: Tseretheli M.
Published: March 2011

39. en = incantation. Br. 10857 = šiptu. Georg. en-a = tongue, word; Laz. nen-a = tongue, word; Min. nin-a = tongue, word; Sv. nin = tongue, word.
II. The Ra

sh

aḥāt-i-'Ainal-Hayat
Authors: Beveridge H.
Published: March 2011

The Rashaḥāt is a Persian MS. dealing with the Naqshbandī Khwājās of Central Asia, and specially with the Samārkand saint Naṣīru-d-dīn 'Ubaid Ullah, commonly known by the epithets ḥaẓrat Īshān and Khwāja Aḥrār. The work is to some extent an introduction to Mr. Shaw's paper on the Khwājās which Mr. Ney Elias published in a Supplement to the JASB. for 1897. That paper treats of a much later period in the history of the Khwājās than does the Rashaḥāt, but they agree in tracing their descent from Imām J'afir Ṣādiq and from Ḥusain the grandson of Muḥammad.
III. The Sovereigns of the Shang Dynasty, b.c. 1766–1154
Authors: Hopkins L. C.
Published: March 2011

It must come some time and it shall come now, this confession of error committed and published, and by this writing recanted. The error concerns the date of the many fragments of inscribed bones exhumed in 1899 in the Honan province of North China. Contrary to the opinions of two Chinese authorities, Liu T'ieh-yün and Lo Chên-yü, and of a great French scholar, E. Chavannes, I had in earlier papers attributed these relics to the period of the Chou dynasty. I now subscribe fully to the view of the above-named writers in holding them to be survivals from the previous Shang dynasty. Moreover, I am a convinced convert, and can proclaim my belief in the admirably candid words of the French politician, “Moi, je soutiens que la chose est ainsi; et ceux qui ne pensent pas comme moi, sont des sots, des brigands, et des assassins.”
VIII. Nahapāna and the Śaka Era
Authors: Banerji Rakhaldas
Published: March 2011

At the present moment scholars seem to be agreed about the date of Nahapāna, and some are of opinion that lie was the founder of the Śaka era. This theory was propounded by M. l'abbé Boyer in his paper entitled “Nahapāna et l'ère Śaka”. Though the theory has not met with general acceptance, eminent scholars are still to be found who maintain this opinion even at the present date. In 1913, during the great debate on the date of Kanishka, Dr. J. F. Fleet said, “I hold that the era [Śaka era] was founded by the Kshaharāta king Nahapāna, who reigned in Kāṭhiāwār and over some of the neighbouring territory as far as Ujjain from a.d. 78 to about a.d. 125, and held for a time Nāsik and other parts in the north of Bombay, and who seems to have been a Pahlava or Palhava, i.e. of Parthian extraction.” There are others who, though they do not assert that Nahapāna was the founder of the Śaka era, maintain that the dates in the inscriptions of his son-in-law Ushavadāta at Nasik and Karle, and of his minister Ayama at Junnar, are Śaka dates. Mr. V. A. Smith says, “Almost all students are agreed that the inscriptions and coins of the Chashṭana line of Satraps are dated in the Śaka era, and I see no reason for doubting that the Kshaharāta records are dated in the same way.”
XVIII. Akbar's “House of Worship”, or 'Ibādat-khāna
Authors: Smith Vincent A.
Published: March 2011

One of the most famous institutions of Akbar was the 'Ibādat-khāna, or “House of Worship”, which he caused to be erected early in 1575, immediately after his return from the successful siege of Patna. The building no longer exists above ground, although it is just possible that its foundations may be still traceable, if searched for in the right locality. The two suggestions published concerning its situation, which will be noticed near the end of this paper, are both inadmissible, as will appear from perusal of the texts which I proceed to quote from Badāonī, the T̤abaḳāt-i-Alcbarī, and the Akbarnāma, all contemporary authorities.
XIX. The Semitic Inscriptions of the Harding Smith Collection
Authors: Pinches Theophilus G.
Published: March 2011

The three tablets which follow have been selected on account of their uncommon nature, and because of the unusual words or expressions which they furnish. The collection contains other documents equally interesting, and some of these will probably be placed before scholars from time to time, should their difficulties yield satisfactorily to study and research.
XXII. Yasna XLIII, 7–16, in its Sanskrit Forms
Authors: Mills
Published: March 2011

First of all God's Bounteous Holiness is held in mind as Supreme when the Representative of the Sacred Tribes — the Loyal One par-eminence — comes with Vohu Manah's Sincere Intention to ask of him, once more, his principles,—on which all hangs.
III. A Samaritan MS. of the Second or Third Century: A Palæographic Study
Authors: Gaster M.
Published: March 2011

All the elements are missing for even a moderate attempt at establishing definite rules for Samaritan Palæography. Of all the MSS. of the Pentateuch known in Europe only a few specimens have hitherto been published in facsimile, and, as far as I am aware, not one of them dated. The same holds good for all other Samaritan documents, prayer-books, letters, etc. There is therefore practically nothing to go upon, except personal experience, and the examination as far as possible of the materials available to as large an extent as circumstances allow. It is the course which I have endeavoured to pursue, but as will be seen the examination of MSS. hitherto known does not lead us further back than the eleventh or twelfth century. With all modesty I may claim to have seen most of the Samaritan MSS. in England and in Nablus. In the rest of Europe they are an almost negligible quantity: possibly the oldest dated fragment of a scroll of the Bible is in rny possession. I have seen all the scrolls in the Kinsha in Nablus, inclusive of the famous one ascribed to Abisha, grandson of Eliezar, the son of Ahron the priest, and I have obtained copies of the Tarikh, or as they call it of the Teshkul (pronounced Tesh'ul), i.e. the date of most of them. I have taken a photo of the scroll of 1140, and done my best to get an insight into Samaritan palæography, intimately bound up as it is with the history of the Bible. If anywhere, it is among the Samaritans that the ancient traditions have been fossilized, and their scribes betray a most touching anxiety to imitate the originals as closely as possible.
V. The North Pañcāla Dynasty
Authors: Pargiter F. E.
Published: March 2011

The dynasty of North Pañcāla, which sprang from one of the sons of Ajamīḍha, who reigned at Hastināpura, a successor of Bharata, king of the Paurava line, is of great importance, because not a few of its kings play an important part in the hymns of the Rigveda. Its genealogy is given by eight Puranas, the Vāyu, Matsya, Harivaṁśa, Brahma, Viṣṇu, Agni, Garuḍa, and Bhāgavata. The first four are based on a common original, but now form two versions. The Vāyu and Matsya generally agree, though with variations, the former having the older text. The Harivaṁśa and Brahma largely agree, the former having the better text, while the latter is generally incomplete. These four give the oldest account of the genealogy. The other four have recast the account and are later, the Viṣṇu's version being in prose.
XIV. The Prakrit Vibhasas
Authors: Grierson George A.
Published: March 2011

Pischel, in §§3, 4, and 5 of his Prakrit Grammar, refers very briefly to the Vibhāṣās of the Prakrit grammarians. In § 3 he quotes Mārkaṇḍēya's (Intr., 4) division of the Prakrits into Bhāṣā, Vibhāṣā, Apabhraṁśa, and Paiśāca, his division of the Vibhāṣās into Śākārī, Cāṇḍālī, Śābarī, Ābhīrikā, and Ṭākkī (not Śākkī, as written by Pischel), and his rejection of Auḍhrī (Pischel, Oḍrī) and Drāviḍī. In § 4 he says, “Rāmatarkavāgīśa observes that the vibhāṣāḥ cannot be called Apabhraṁśa, if they are used in dramatic works and the like.” He repeats the latter statement in § 5, and this is all that he says on the subject. Nowhere does he say what the term vibhāṣā means. The present paper is an attempt to supply this deficiency.
I. The Decipherment of the Hittite Language
Authors: Crawford S. J.
Published: March 2011

Among the most important results of philological research in recent years is the decipherment of the Hittite language by Dr. Friedrich Hrozný, Professor of Semitic Languages in the University of Vienna. Hrozný's account of his work is contained in the Mitteilungen der deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft (No. 15), and at the suggestion of my friend—now, alas, the late—Professor James Hope Moulton, I have summarized Hrozný's interim report for English readers.
XVI. Gesture in Sumerian and Babylonian Prayer
Authors: Langdon S.
Published: March 2011

Religious worship is abundantly illustrated in many of its most important aspects by scenes engraved on Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian seal cylinders. Chronologically the seals of this region illustrate nearly every period of the long history of these peoples and the changing rituals and beliefs of their religion. A very large proportion of the seals represent the owner of the seal approaching a deity in the attitude of prayer. This is especially true of the glyptique of Sumer and Akkad, where the proportion of this type of seal to all others is much greater than in Assyria. In the northern empire the Assyrians are not so much attached to the scenes of worship, but even here this motif is well represented. The engravers of cylinders in all periods probably kept in stock seals engraved with the scene of the private prayer as the custom imposed in their periods. The human who is figured standing before a god, or in Assyria more frequently before a divine symbol, is not a portrait of the owner of the seal. The owner regards himself rather as represented and symbolized by the conventional figure. In those cases in which the engraver produced a seal cylinder at the command of a Sumerian or Babylonian, perhaps, we may regard the praying figure as an approximate portrait.
XVII. On the Japanese Sotoba, or Elemental Stupa
Authors: Troup James
Published: March 2011

There is frequently to be seen in cemeteries and monastery grounds in Japan a stone figure known as the Sotoba. The word is the Japanese pronunciation of the Sanscrit Stūpa, and the parts of the figure represent the Five Elements conceived as composing the Universe, namely: Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Space. An illustration of it is given in Fig. 1, taken from a Japanese Buddhist picture, in my possession, of the Sumisen, Mount Sumēru, the World Mountain. It may be convenient if the term Elemental Stūpa is used in this paper to designate this figure, so that it may be distinguished from what is usually implied by the word Stūpa in India. The term Sotoba will be used only when reference is made to the Elemental Stūpa in Japan.
XVIII. The Legend of the Divine Lovers: Enlil and Ninlil
Authors: Pinches Theophilus G.
Published: March 2011

The following is a transcription and translation of the reverse of the British Museum Tablet the text of which is given on p. 191. The whole legend, as far as known, is printed on pp. 185–205 from Professor Stephen Langdon's rendering.
Notes on some Babylonian Rulers
Authors: Gadd C. J.
Published: March 2011

The founder of the third dynasty of Ur has long been known by the name of Ur-Engur. This has been regarded as an improved reading for Ur-Gur, a form which was once generally used by Assyriologists. The change was made when the publication of fresh material revealed that the sign was pronounced engur by the Sumerians. It is not difficult to show that gur is untenable, for this value seems to have been inferred from a fragment of a god-list, K. 4366 (published inCuneiform Texts, pt. xxv, pl. 48, 1. 3), which has:—
The Decipherment of the Hittite Hieroglyphic Texts
Authors: Sayce A. H.
Published: March 2011

There are the same recognized rules for the decipherment of an unknown script as there are for that of an ordinary cipher, and if they can be followed the script can be deciphered with as much ease as the cipher. Sometimes they cannot be followed, sufficient materials being absent; in this case, all we can do is to wait patiently until the materials are forthcoming.
The Introduction of the Cadmeian Alphabet into the Aegean World in the light of Ancient Traditions and Recent Discoveries
Authors: Eisler Robert
Published: March 2011

In his review of my book on the newly deciphered Sinai inscriptions (JRAS., 1920, p. 301) the Rev. Professor A. H. Sayce has already been good enough to mention my recent discovery of some short alphabetic biliteral inscriptions on certain copper ingots, unearthed from the very border-line of the so-called “ Middle Minoan III ” and “ Late Minoan I ” layers of the Hagia Triada palace by the excavation mission in Crete of Messrs. Halbherr, Pernier, Stefani, and Paribeni in 1903 as well as on similar pieces from Tylissos and Mochlos, none being from Phaistos. All of them are at present in the museum of Heraklea, under the care of Professor Josef Hazzidakis, to whose kindness I owe the photographs reproduced in figures 1–8. Similar inscriptions have come from Serra Ilixi (Sardinia), and are now in the royal museum of Cagliari. I have to thank Professor Taramelli, director of this collection, for his kindness in sending me the excellent paper squeezes of these scribings, which the reader will find reproduced in fig. 10.
Cairene Topography: El Qarafa according to Ibn Ez Zaiyat
Authors: Guest R.
Published: March 2011

El Kawâkib as Saiyâra, by Ibn Ez Zaiyât, was written in 804 a.h. = a.d. 1410, and published by the Egyptian Government Press in 1907. It is a guide in Arabic to the Qarâfa—the whole of the cemetery region situated south of the citadel of Cairo and between Fusṭâṭ and El Muqaṭṭam. Nothing appears to be recorded of the author beyond his name, but his book shows that he was well acquainted with the place himself and had studied the earlier works on the subject. Of these he names (p. 4) some thirty, of which not one appears to have survived. Several of them appear to be known only by his mention, while others are alluded to or cited by other extant authors.
Babylonian Prophylactic Figures
Authors: Woolley C. Leonard
Published: March 2011

Recent discoveries at Ur have thrown fresh light upon the Babylonian custom of burying beneath the floors of houses small figures intended to secure the houses and their occupants against sickness and evil spirits. There are texts giving instructions as to how such figures should be used, and examples of the figures themselves were already known, but now we have, to illustrate the texts, a far wider range of types and much more detailed information as to the manner of the actual ritual in connexion with them.
Corrigenda
Authors: Krenkow F.
Published: March 2011

Corrigenda to Pages 279-284 of the Journal (April, 1926)

I regret to find that several errors in the transliteration of the ancient fragments of the Arabic gospels, which appeared in the Journal for April, 1926, escaped my notice. These have now been pointed out to me by Professor Kratchkofski, and I therefore give below the necessary corrections.
Six Babylonian and Assyrian Seals
Authors: Langdon S.
Published: March 2011

The design on this seal confines its classification to the period of the Dungi and the Isin dynasty (2409–2075). The worshipper stands, with hands folded at the waist, before a seated deified king, and behind him stands the mother goddess with both hands raised (palms outward), imploring the aid of the divine king for her human protegé. This liturgical pose and design are characteristic of the Ur and Isin periods. See Delaporte, Catalogue des Cylindres Orientaux de la Bibliothèque Nationale, pp. 57–70, and Langdon, R.A., 16, 64–5. Compare, for example, Delaporte, ibid., 116. The deified king extends a small cup toward the worshipper with his right hand. In the field above are the lunar crescent and emblem of the stellar Ishtar (Venus).
Tibetan Documents concerning Chinese Turkestan. I: the Ha-za
Authors: Thomas F. W.
Published: March 2011

Among the Tibetan MSS. recovered by Sir Aurel Stein from the now famous hidden library of Tun-huang (Ch'ien-fo-tung) is a roll of thin paper inscribed on one side with a part of a text of a Buddhist sūtra in Chinese. The reverse contains a Tibetan document, which, as we may infer from many similar instances, was inscribed later. The Tibetan text, which consists of 254 lines of writing (plus the lower half of a preceding line) is a chronicle, covering without interruption a period of seventy-six years. Each entry commences with the name of the year according to the twelve-year cycle, and then appends a brief resume of the leading events, usually ending with the phrase “[so] one year“. The text contains a large number of names, names of peoples, places, and persons, including royalties, generals, and ministers, Chinese envoys and Turkish khagans: and the whole conveys a lively impression of Tibetan activities during the period, especially of incessant campaigns against all co-terminous states, the Chinese, the Hbrog (nomads), and other tribes of Tibet. Of special interest for Indian history are the indications of Tibetan domination in Nepal.
The Unknown Co-Founders of Buddhism
Authors: Davids C. A. F. Rhys
Published: March 2011

Research in old Eastern literary remains may yet come upon materials throwing new light on the beginning and first development of the movement which, in course of time, came to be called Buddhism. The only works, as yet in our possession, in which we may discern certain archaic records of this most early stage are, as we know, the first part or Mahā-vagga of the Vinaya Piṭaka and one or two portions of the five Nikāyas. As chronicles these do not give us all the light we fain would have. Those, especially of the Vinaya are a number of fragments relating to what led up to the founding of the “Order”, and to certain early stages in its progress. The narrative is always in very slight outline; much would seem either to have been forgotten, or suppressed, as not relevant to the formal registering of some Vinaya statute, and why it came to be. We get the impression that we are reading about persons and places which, for the compilers, are just names, bound up, it is clear, with an ancient and venerated tradition, but not belonging to any actual memories either in their possession or even in their own preceding generations. The places named do not seem to be places known. A few persons emerge, two in high, a few others in low relief. These are, respectively, the founder and his chief rival and adversary, then three laypatrons—two kings and a merchant—also the first layconvert, the founder's family, a few other converts, lastly a few associates who here and there appear as fellow-teachers.
Buddhist Miscellanea
Authors: Mironov N. D.
Published: March 2011

The Sanskrit name of this Bodhi-sattva, so prominent in the Mahāyāna church of Buddhism, has been a puzzle to several generations of scholars.

Though it seems rather simple (= past pass. part, oflok-ava, “to look [down]”—īśvara, “lord”), there are at least five or six translations, viz. “The lord of what we see (i.e. the present world),” “The lord whom we see,” “The lord revealed [contemplated],” “The master who is [was] seen,” etc.
Some New Notes on Babiism
Authors: Muhammad Khan Bahadur Agha Mirza
Published: March 2011

It has been my good fortune to secure the manuscript of a history of Persia, from the year 1212 (A.D. 1805) to 1286 (a.d. 1869), written in the Shikasta hand and consisting of 135 closely written foolscap pages, each page containing thirty-two lines. Most of the pages are annotated with copious notes. The author of this interesting volume is Aḥmad ibn Abul Ḥasan Sharif of Shīrāz; and his style is terse and easy. It appears that he had secured the manuscript of a history ending at the reign of Fatḥ 'Ali Shāh and decided to complete that volume and bring it up to his own time. As to the identity of the author, I was informed by a friend, who was himself an inhabitant of Shīrāz, that the author was Mīrzā Aḥmad Khān Vaqāyi' Nigār. On referring to the Fārs Nāma of Ḥājjī Mīrzā, Ḥasan Tabīb of Shīrāz, I find, however, that the Vaqāyi' Nigār was the second son of Ḥājjī Mīrzā Asad Allāh. He is not, therefore, the writer of the manuscript in my possession, who seems to have closely studied the conditions existing in Persia at the time he wrote, and expresses frank opinions about the evils which attracted his notice. His criticisms, though moderate in tone, must have been too bold for those times. With regard to this book, he states:— “In those times, I formed a resolution, despite my want of knowledge and information, and because of the mere fact that I can distinguish between black and white, to compose a history, to obtain matter as far as possible from different histories, and to correct and reduce to writing such important subjects as involve less controversy, from the time of His Holiness the Prophet's Flight to the present, in a manner which may give rise to no objection.