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

I have given in the following pages some of the results of a careful study of the text of Dhammapada, rendered necessary by the preparation of a Páli Dictionary. In endeavouring to elucidate some of the obscure or difficult points of this important text, I have given prominence to a few passages enabling me to test the theory of Nirvâna which I propounded last year in the columns of a periodical.

The eastern half of the Narbadda district, the Çoṇa, Orissa, Vanga, Suhma, Kalinga, Balkh, the Scythians, Greeks, Magadhas, Çabaras, Prâgjyotisha, the Chinese, Kâmbojas, Mekalas, Kirâtas, Viṭakas, the people beyond and within the Mountains, the Pulindas, the eastern half of the Draviḍas, the south bank of the Jamnâ, Campâ, Udumbara, Kauçâmbi, Cedi, Vindhya forest, Kalinga, Puṇḍra, Mounts Golângûla, Çrîparvata, Bardwân, the river Ikshumatî; moreover, robbers, Pârata, wildernesses, herdsmen, seeds, grains in husks, pungent substances (pepper, etc.), trees, gold, fire, poison, heroes, medicines, physicians, quadrupeds, ploughmen, princes, evil-doers, chiefs on march, thieves, beasts of prey, woods, renowned men and bravoes; of all these the Sun is the lord.

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

The portion of Rabadan's poem given in the present part of the Journal relates the history of Shaibeh or Abdulmutalib, the son of Heshim, and of his son Abdullah, the father of the Prophet. It contains a narrative of the offering up of Abdullah in sacrifice by his father, with regard to which see the following observations of Sir Wm. Muir, vol. i., p. cclix. That writer believes the story, because, as he says, “the simple desire to establish an analogy (between it and Abraham's intended sacrifice), had there been no facts to found the story on, would have led to a very different fiction; for Abraham was commanded to offer up his son, and the Mussulmans believe he acted piously in obeying; whereas they hold Abdulmutalib, who was borne out by no such divine order, to have been wrong both in the vow and in his attempt to fulfil it.” These observations are supported by this poem, for Rabadan does not appear to draw any analogy between the sacrifice by Abraham and that by Abdulmutalib, whereas by using similar expressions he seems very clearly to intend to point out the analogy between the Deluge and the end of the world. The opinion which Sir W. Muir describes as the prevailing one with respect to Abdulmutalib's act is here spoken by the sage Ykrama.

A writer remarks, “If men at the lowest as well as the highest stage of civilization enunciate the same truths, the fact goes to prove that these truths are unimportant.” I can hardly assent to the conclusion, even were the premiss correct, whereas it is not. Those familiar with proverbial literature have remarked that some aphorisms are common in matter, and a few even in actual manner and form, to almost all nations and languages. The Syrian, for instance, will say, “The egg of to-day, not the hen of to-morrow;” and “A live dog is better than a dead lion.” On the other hand, the points of difference are far more important. Setting aside the sayings which “bear the stamp of their birthplaces, and which wear the colouring and the imagery of their native climes,” we find that there are proverbs peculiar to every race—proper to it, as are its syntax and its idiom; that each people speaks out the truth or the half truth which is in it, and, consequently, that for the most part neither the idea nor the wording bear comparison. Moreover, were it a fact that all enunciate the same truth, it by no means proves the latter to be unimportant, except to the few.

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

This race, variously known by the terms Râbhar, Bharat, Bharpatwa, and Bhar, once inhabited a wide traot of country extending from Gorakhpur in Northern India to Saugor in Central India. Other tribes, such as the Cherûs, the Majhwârs, and the Kôls, were, in places, associated with them, or contiguous to them; but there is good reason to believe that the Bhars greatly outnumbered them all. They were very powerful in Oudh; and the country lying between Benares and Allahâbâd, on either side of the Ganges, a tract of about seventy miles in length, was almost exclusively in their possession. The entire district of Allahâbâd also was originally in their hands, and traces of them are still to be seen in every pargannah, more especially in those situated across the Ganges and Jamna. Their forts there, called Bhar-dîh, some of which are of vast size, are very numerous; and they have the credit of having excavated all the deep tanks which now exist. The pargannah of Khairogarh bears very abundant traces of their toil and enterprise. The stone fort of that name, of immense proportions, is said to have been their work.

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

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