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.

“Soon after my arrival in Nipál (now six years ago), I began to devise “means of procuring some accurate information relative to Buddhism: “for, though the regular investigation of such a subject was foreign “to my pursuits, my respect for sci ence in general led me cheerfully “to avail myself of the opportunity afforded, by my residence in a “Bauddha country, for collecting and transmitting to Calcutta the “materials for such investigation. There were, however, serious “obstacles in my way, arising out of the jealousy of the people in “regard to any profanation of their sacred things by an European, and “yet more, resulting from the Chinese notions of policy adopted by this “government. I nevertheless persevered; and time, patience, and “dexterous applications to the superior intelligence of the chief minister, “at length rewarded my toils.

The word śāsana means “a royal charter” and tāmra-śāsana “a royal charter engraved on a plate or plates of copper”. Revenue-free gifts, granted by ancient Indian rulers in favour of persons, deities, or religious establishments were usually endowed with a deed engraved on durable tāmra-paṭṭa, i.e. “a plate or plates of copper”. By lakṣaṇā, a tāmra-śāsana was sometimes called tāmra-paṭṭa. Often again the word indicating the deed or charter was applied, by lakṣaṇā, to indicate the land granted. But the expression tāmra-śāsana, in this modified sense of a gift of revenue-free land, was often indicated either by tāmra or by śāsana. The word śāsana in this sense is used not only in the medieval records of Orissa but even in modern Oriya. Numerous villages in Orissa still bear names ending with the word śāsana, indicating that originally they were gift villages. Besides the word tāmra-śāsana, early Orissan epigraphy knows of two other types of śāsanas. These are the deeds called kraya-śāsana and kara-śāsana.

The supreme importance of the Rig-veda in all questions bearing on the history of the Aryan mind, and on the development of the religious idea in man, gives interest to every attempt to throw light on that priceless heir-loom of India. Much has already been done by able scholars, in many ways, to investigate the language and ideas enshrined in the Rig-veda-sanhitâ; but no one has yet discovered the principle on which the hymns are arranged among themselves, or has advanced beyond the mere consciousness expressed by Prof. Max Müller in his History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, that “there is some system,” “some priestly influence,” “traces of one superintending spirit,” and such-like generalities. The object of the following paper is to show the principle which regulated the formation of the Sanhitâ, the aggregation of hymns into Maṇḍalas, the reason for the positions assigned to the Maṇḍalas, and the method followed in placing each particular hymn. If my deductions prove accurate, it is evident that a fresh impetus will be given to the study of these remarkable documents, for the clue to the labyrinth will be in the hands of future investigators.

His full name and title ran as-Sulṭánu'l-A'dham Mu'izzu'd-Dunyá wa'd-Din Abu'l-Ḣárith Sinjar b. Maliksháh Burhánu Amiri'l-Múminín. His motto (tawqí') was . His prime ministers were Mu'ínu'd-Dín Mukhtaṣṣ of Káshán, Shihábu'd-Dín Abu'l-Maḥásin b. al-Faqíhu'1-ajall (nephew of the Nidhámu'l-Mulk), Sharafu'd-Dín Abú Ṭáhir Mámísá of Qum, Yaghán b. al-Káshgharí, Qiwámu'd-Dín Abu'l-Qásim, and Náṣiru'd-Dín Ṭáhir b. Fakhru'1-Mulk. His chamberlains were the Amír Ghuzughlú cf. Bundárí, p. 185, 1.16, which has , Ḥusayn al-Ḥájib, Nidhámu'd-Dín Maḥmud of Káshán, and Falaku'd-Dín ‘Alí Chatrí (cf. Bundárí, p. 225,1. 1).

The only Pai. quotation connected directly with the Bṛh. is given by Mārkaṇḍeya (seventeenth century): Bṛhatkathāyām kupaci pisāḷam (Grierson, EPG., 134). Keith, HSL., p. 269, observes, “We really cannot be sure that we have a single relic of the Bṝhatkathā, still less that so late a grammarian as Mārkaṇḍeya actually had the text before him.” Pisālaṃ, moreover, is a neo-Indian form, which normally would not occur before the twelfth century, for the words in AMg pisalla (PG 595) and in Pkt. pisalla (Hem., i, 193) are normal Mid-Indian as contrasted with Mar. pisāḷeṇ “madness”.

One of the most interesting and valuable of all the objects-which were presented half a century ago by the late Sir Charles Nicholson to the University of Sydney, for the purpose of forming a nucleus of a “Museum of Antiquities”, is a stele inscribed in two kinds of writing, Egyptian and Karian.

[In the Hunterian MS. the following tractate is ascribed to Ibnu'l ‘Arabī, d. 638 A.H. = 1240 A.D. In one of the Berlin MSS., however, it is called Risālatu'l Balbānīyah, by Muḥammad al Balbānī (Ahlwardt, 3, 250); in another Suyūṭī is given as the author (Ahlwardt, 1, 830). In the British Museum MSS. (Arabic Catalogue, No. DCCCLXXXI, ix, and Supplementary Catalogue, No. 245, x) the author is given as Auḥad al Dīn ‘Abdallah al Balyānī, d. 686 A.H. These MSS. have been used in the Translation. The Librarian of the Royal Library, Berlin, most kindly sent the two mentioned above (as well as a third imperfect one) to the care of the Glasgow University Librarian.]

The new Has Shamra text published by Virolleaud is, despite better preservation, considerably more difficult to interpret than its two immediate predecessors, and in this regard resembles rather the fragments of 1929.

THE lofty chain of the Western Ghats bears much the same relation to the land of Bhārgava-kṣetra, a Sanskrit name of the coastal country of Kerala or Malabar, as the gigantic Himālayan range bears to the land of Bhārata-varṣa, or the Indian continent as a whole. This huge and impervious mountain-barrier, shutting off the low-lying seaboard region from the high table-land of the Deccan behind, has made it a separate world in every respect. The face of Nature, with its luxuriant growth of palms nurtured by the abundant tropical monsoons, differs from that of any other part of the Indian Peninsula. The language, Malayālam, though a branch of Dravidian speech, is confined to this region.