In his report on the Buddhist remains near Kasia (Allahabad, 1896) Mr. V. A. Smith adduced various arguments to disprove Cunningham's identification of Kasia with Ksinārā, and in a paper subsequently contributed to this Journal (1902, p. 139) the same author came to the conclusion that the scene of Buddha's death is to be sought in Nepāl territory. The finds of last year's excavations at Kasia—a full account of which will be published in the Annual of the Archæological Survey—include documents directly bearing on this question.

In the April number of the Journal (p. 413, ante), Mr. A. M. T. Jackson published a brief note stating that “the name Vyāghramuśa, read by Mr. V. A. Smith on one of his White Hun coins (see p. 95 of the January number of the Journal), is no doubt ‘Śrī Vyāghramukha of the Śrī Chāpa dynasty,’ under whom wrote the astronomer Brahmagupta.” I accept the correction in the reading of the name, which is clearly right. Not being previously familiar with the history of the Śrī Chāpa dynasty, I asked Mr. Jackson to explain his meaning. This he has kindly done, giving me references, which enable me to pursue the subject further. The shabby little coin which I published opens up side issues of considerable interest, which are worth following up.

With the barsom (now) brought [forward; it is here (at this point in the ceremony) brought forward and put upon the barsom-holder] together with the žoaθra water of Aūharmažd, the Creator, the resplendent, the glorious, and of the Amešaspends, and for their sake (I desire (or ‘I invoke’) the consecration of this H(a)oma plant). [⃜ It has (now) been prepared (as I speak). (Not at all impossibly meaning ‘it has now; as I pronounce the prayer for it to be consecrated in this present ceremony, —it has now been made ready.')]

The text of which the title is given below has recently been published as part 3 of vol. cli of the “Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Philosophisch-historische Klasse,” and as it is the first work in the Mon language that has ever been edited and printed in Europe, probably the readers of this Journal will be interested to have some information about it.

Mr. J. P. Rawlins, late of the Panjāb Police, who is well known to Indian numismatists as a successful collector of rare coins, some time ago sent me for publication a batch of curious copper coins which he obtained while serving in the Hoshyārpur District. These coins all come from a very remarkable locality, which has been explored by Mr. Rawlins, but seems to be unknown to other archæologists. It is described as the Plateau of Manaswāl, situated on the outer range of the Siwālik Hills, at an elevation of about two thousand feet, in the Hoshyārpur District. This plateau is extensive, being about ten miles in length and six in breadth. The principal village is Manaswāl, distant about thirty miles in a south-easterly direction from Hoshyārpur, between that town and Rūpar in the Ambāla (Umballa) District. Other villages, or hamlets, enumerated by Mr. Rawlins are Biniwāl, Hanand, Daleywāl, Kharali, and Bhawānipur. The whole region is full of ancient sites, marked by mounds, and all the villages named are included in the area containing the remains of ancient settlements, which may have formed one great city.

The last few years have seen the successful application to so many forms of religious belief of theories which at first sight appear to have no support in Vedic myth or ritual, that it is natural to ask whether this apparent peculiarity of Vedic religion is real or not, or whether there exist in the ritual as preserved traces of beliefs and practices which reveal a state of religious thought older than that presented to us in the main body of the ritual.

The alleged influence of Christianity on the early development of Hinduism has long been a subject of investigation and controversy. Weber summed up in a masterly manner all that had been said for the one side; while with equal acumen Barth criticised and denied his conclusions. The discussion has had the effect of restricting the controversy to two points, both connected in the main with the worship of Kṛishṇa. The first relates to the Hindu doctrine of faith, or bhakti, as an essential condition of salvation, and has been dealt with by Dr. Grierson in a recent number of this Journal. The second refers to the origin of the child Kṛishṇa, his legend, and his cult, and is the subject of the present essay.

On trouvera dans le Journal, 1900, p. 345, une description sommaire de la petite collection de MSS. que C. Bendall avait empruntés à la Bibliothèque de Kaṭhmaṇḍu et dont il m'a laissé de bonnes photographies. La maladio, hélas! ne lui a pas permis de la publier dans son ensemble: il n'en a fait paraître que deux pièces, d'ailleurs infiniment curieuses, un fragment du Cullavagga et une page du Bhikṣuṇīprātimokṣa de l'Eglise du Mahāyāna. Mais de nombreuses notes manuscrites faciliteront ma tâche d'éditeur, et continueront pour moi le charme mélancolique d'une collaboration qui fut naguères la meilleure joie de mes études.

In the Mahāvibhāṣā, the well-known commentary on the Jñānaprasthāna of Kātyāyanīputra, there is a short passage which is of importance in the history of Sanskrit epic literature. The great commentary mentions, as an example of the contrast between Buddhist and non-Buddhist books, the size and contents of the Rāmāyaṇa.

I had not intended to write anything more about the inscription on the Piprahwa relic-vase, treated by me in this Journal, 1906. 149 ff., until I should have completed my examination of the tradition about the corporeal relics of Buddha, and should be able to offer a facsimile of the record. And it is only recently that the occasion has arisen for presenting sooner any further remarks, as the result of the criticism of my interpretation of the record advanced by M. Senart in the Journal Asiatique, 1906, 1. 132 ff., and by M. Barth in the Journal des Savants, 1906. 541 ff. That two such distinguished scholars should differ from me so radically, is an important matter. And I wish that I had seen M. Senart's remarks sooner; but, though issued early in the year, they did not become known to me until towards the end of September. M. Barth's paper, issued in October or November,— in which he has reviewed all the principal previous treatments of the record and suggestions made regarding it, and has endorsed M. Senart's conclusions except in the grammatical analysis of the compound sukitibhatinaṁ,— reached me after the writing of this article, but in time for me to make a few additions to it.

In view of the inevitable delays which must always attend the publication of lengthy and illustrated reports in India, it was suggested to me a short time ago by the Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society that it would serve a useful purpose if I contributed to the Journal, from year to year, an account of the chief discoveries made by the Archæological Department in India. It is particularly satisfactory to respond to this suggestion at the present juncture, not only because the prospects of systematic and steady work in the field of exploration are brighter now than they have ever yet been, but also because the particular season that has just gone by has been more than usually productive of interesting results. My only regret is that it is not possible to present these results in a more adequate form. Government orders, however, permit only the publication of very short preliminary accounts in European journals, and I must be content, therefore, to give the following brief summary, referring the reader who wishes for further information to the descriptive accounts of the discoveries which will appear in due course in our official reports.

The tribes of Upper Burma and Eastern Assam known as Kachins have, both before and after the annexation of Northern Burma, attracted a great deal of attention from ethnologists and philologists. A considerable literature has accumulated on the subject since the time Colonel Hannay, in 1846, and Dr. Anderson, in 1868, gave us the first reliable information regarding these savage and warlike hill tribes. At present they occupy a large and fertile territory extending almost from 29° North latitude to 20° 30′. They number probably about half a million, of which one hundred thousand occupy independent territory, the larger part being under British or Chinese rule.

Certain well-known coins from the Panjāb (see the second part of this article), of which some present a Greek legend only and others present Greek legends on the obverse with legends in an Indian dialect and in the Kharōshṭhī or Kharōshṭrī characters on the reverse, give us a king whose name is not written quite in agreement in the two classes of legends. The Indian legends give the genitive Moasa, and yield the name Moa. The Greek legends give the genitive Mauou. The nominative of the Greek name may have been either Mauos, Mauas, or Mauēs. The last-mentioned form appears to be the one which has met with general approval.

The late Professor S. Arthur Strong, at the time of his lamented death, was engaged upon an edition (to be published in the Monograph Series) of the work of the celebrated historian Abu-l-'Abbās Aḥmad ibn 'Arabshāh entitled At-ta'lif aṭ-ṭāhir fī shityam al-Malik aḍh-ḍhāhir al-Qā'im bi-nuṣrat al-Ḥaqq Abī Sa'īd Jaqmaq, of which a unique MS. exists in the Library of the British Museum (Or. 3026). This treatise, a panegyric upon the Mamlūk Sulṭān of Egypt and Syria, al-Malik aḍh-Ḍhāhir Saif ad-dīn Jaqmaq (842–857 H.), was composed by the author in the year 843, when Jaqmaq had been less than two years on the throne, as an antidote (he says) to his previous work, the biography of that scourge of humanity, the great devastator Tlmūr the Lame, in order that, having set forth the career of a ruthless destroyer of mankind, he might draw also the picture of a just and righteous monarch, the father of his people and the terror only of the enemies of Islam.

The missing Elphinstone Codex of the Bābar-nāma having been found in the Advocates' Library by the Keeper, Mr. William K. Dickson, a first-hand description of it can be offered in supplement of the earlier notices published in the R.A.S. Journal in July 1900 and 1902, and in October 1905.