The first definite statement with regard to a knowledge of the art of writing in Corea belongs to A.D. 372, the same year in which Buddhism was introduced from Tsin in Western China. The standard history of ancient Corea, known as the Tong-kuk-thong-kam, or, more briefly, the Tongkam, informs us that in this year “Kokuryö established a High School, in which pupils were taught.”

The stone which bears this inscription is in the wall of a small building which is close to some ruins about a mile east of Ghaṭayāla, a village situated about twenty miles north of the city of Jodhpur. It contains twenty-two lines of writing, which cover a space of about 2′ 2″ broad by 1′ 9″ high. The first twenty lines are well preserved; of the two others the greater part is effaced or broken away, together with any subsequent lines of writing which, the inscription originally may have contained. The size of the letters is about ⅝″. The characters are Nāgarī; they closely resemble those of the Jodhpur inscription of Bāuka, and have been drawn and engraved with the same care and skill. The language, up to nearly the end of line 20, is Māhārāshṭrī Prākṛit; the small remainder is in Sanskṛit; and the whole is in verse. In respect of orthography it will be sufficient to state that the letter b, when it is not combined with another consonant, is denoted by a sign of its own, not by the sign for v.

The following is a Chinese description of the kingdom of Bengal, written at the commencement of the fifteenth century, about eighty years before the Portuguese discovered the route round the Cape of Good Hope, and about sixty years or so after Ibn Batuta had visited those regions. This account is a chapter taken from a work, bearing the Chinese title Ying-yai--shêng-lan (a general account of the shores of the ocean), compiled by one Mahuan, an Interpreter attached to the suite of Chêng Ho, who was sent to the various kingdoms of the western ocean by the Chinese Emperor Tung-lo. The object of this expedition was, that the Emperor Yung-lo feared that Hui-ti, his predecessor, whom he had driven from the throne, was concealing himself in some country over the sea; he wanted to trace him, and at the same time to display his military force in foreign countries, in order to show that China was rich and strong.

Mīrzā Fath 'Ali, Akhwand-Zādeh, an officer of Tartar origin in the Russian Service at Tiflis, wrote a series of comedies in the Azeri-Tūrkī dialect, and this satirical tale, about the year 1858. These compositions were translated into Persian by Mīrzā Ja'afar of Karājah Dāgh, and these translations were lithographed and published at Tehran in 1874. The volume contains six Plays—

The Wazīr of the Khān of Lankurān, in four acts.

The Thief-taking Bear, in three acts.

The Miser, in three acts.

The Court-Pleaders, in three acts.

Mūllā Ibrāhīm Khalīl, the Alchemist, in four acts.

And the Story of Yūsuf Shah, which comes between the fourth and fifth Plays, and is written partly in narrative, partly in drama form.

In my former paper I endeavoured to set forth the principal events in the life of Ch'ü Yüan, the author of the Lî Sâo Poem, as they are related in the biography of him by the historian Sze-mâ Ch'ien.

Hsieh of Yin's mother was Chien Ti, who was one of the daughters of Yusung and the secondary wife of Emperor Ku. She was going with her two sisters to bathe, when she saw a dark bird drop its egg. Chien Ti picked it up, and swallowed it, and thus being with child gave birth to Hsieh. When Hsieh grew up, he was successful in assisting Yü to control the flood, and the Emperor Shun, directing Hsieh, said: “The people are wanting in affection for one another, and do not observe the live orders of relationship. You, as Minister of Instruction, should reverently inculcate the lessons of duty belonging to those five orders, but do so with gentleness.” He held in fief the principality of Shang, and was given the surname of Tzŭ (son). Hsieh flourished in the reigns of Yao, Shun, and the great Yü. His services were manifest to the people, who were accordingly at peace.

The bronze images and fragments figured in the accompanying plates are a few specimens taken from a large collection now lying at Bezwada, all of which were found, some time before the year 1870, by some labourers employed under the Public Works Department of the Madras Presidency while excavating a canal at a place called Buddhapād, or Buddhavāni, about 20 miles westwards from the right bank of the river Kṛiṇhnā, and 30 miles from the nearest mouth of its delta.

There are three Sinhalese sannas (grants of land) on copper-plate amongst the Sinhalese MSS. of the British Museum, catalogued under the press-marks Add. 11,555 a, b, and c. The sannas were presented to the British Museum by a Mr. J. Barlow Hoy as long ago as the 30th of March, 1839. But who Mr. Hoy was and how he got them I have not been able to find out. The two marked b and c are neatly engraved on smooth rectangular copper-plates, measuring by 2⅛″ and 12⅜″ by 2″ respectively, leaving in each, case a margin on the obverse side to the left, in which the royal symbol Çrī, signifying prosperity, is cut in large type. The other sannasa (a) is ornamented with a plain silver border running round the rectangular plate of copper, 16⅜″ by 3″ in size. The letters are well cut, with, kuṇḍali flourishes at the beginning and end of each line. On the left of the obverse is the usual margin, which is here separated from the text by a thin silver band right across the plate, so as to receive a large-sized Çrī engraved boldly.

Just thirty-five years ago, in 1860, the Government of India agreed to institute an Archæological Survey of Upper India, and thus to take an active part in the exploration of the numerous and extensive historical remains of the country, which task until then had been left to the desultory efforts (occasionally aided by grants from the public funds) of the learned societies and private individuals. Adverse circumstances, however, very soon counteracted the effects of this official recognition of the claims of antiquarian research to continued Government assistance and guidance. Already in 1866 financial pressure induced Lord Lawrence to stop the work which Sir A. Cunningham had barely begun. The Survey was abolished, and there followed a regrettable time of inaction, which lasted until 1870, when, in consequence of urgent representations from various influential quarters, and especially from eminent members of the Royal Asiatic Society, the Secretary of State and the Supreme Government of India consented to return to the principle laid down in 1860. The next result was the re-opening of the Archæological Survey for the Northern half of India, which was now organized on a larger scale, and the issue of orders by the Secretary of State for the registration and preservation of the historical monuments all over India. Soon afterwards, in 1873, the Government of Bombay was permitted to establish a survey of its own for the Western Presidency, and somewhat later the Government of Madras likewise directed its attention to the collection of notes regarding the antiquities of Southern India and to their scientific exploration.