1. Great was the reputation of Aristotle in the Middle Ages. His sway was undisputed, and whatever bore his name was sure to be treated as the expression of the highest wisdom. But that fame rested mostly on Arabic translations and interpretations of his philosophical writings. Along with the genuine writings, however, also other treatises were circulated which were ascribed to Aristotle, with what justification has not yet been settled, but probably because some of the ideas put into his mouth seem to have been culled from his genuine writings and others reflected, more or less accurately, views and opinions contained in his writings. Among such pseudo-Aristotelian writings, none enjoyed wider circulation than obtained by the treatise which claimed to represent the “Politeia” of Aristotle.

This is a unique rhetorical work in Sanskrit literature, quoted by such eminent authors as Mammaṭa-Bhaṭṭa. In point of singular outspokenness, fearless criticism, and utter disregard of contemporary opinion, few rhetoricians can compare with Mahima-Bhaṭṭa. He wrote his wellknown work at a time when the critical spirit was at the highest pitch, and his courageous exposure of the prevailing schools of thought and his daring attempt to set up an original school in their stead are commendable. Though often referred to by later authors and quoted piecemeal, the Vyakti-vivēka, as a whole, has till now remained a sealed book to the public at large. A paper manuscript of the work that was available to me, as well as the Mysore Oriental Library copy to which I had access through the courtesy of the Curator, supplied the materials for this brief sketch.

The text of the Rummindēī inscription, styled at first “the Aśōka edict of Paḍariā,” appears to have been first published by Professor Bühler, in the Anzeiger for the 7th January, 1897, of the Philosophical and Historical Section of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, Vienna. A translation of it was given by M. Barth in the Journal des Savants, 1897. 73. The record was fully edited by Professor Bühler, with an excellent facsimile, in the Epigraphia Indica, 5. 1 ff.

At the end of an article on the Elphinstone Codex which appeared in this Journal in January, 1907, I expressed the hope of being able later to offer information from which to judge how it compares in wording with the Haydarābād Codex, the ultimate aim of the whole investigation being the establishment of a definitive text of the Bābār-nāma. Since writing that article I have ascertained, by collating the two manuscripts, that in the matter of wording one cannot be ranked higher than the other because, trifling divergence excepted, they are verbally identical.

Last winter's campaign of exploration opened in November with a small excavation near the village of Rāmpurvā, in the Champāran District of Bengal, well known for the Aśoka pillar discovered by Mr. Carlleyle in 1877. When Mr. Carlleyle first visited the spot, this pillar was lying in marshy ground, with its top and the bell-shaped capital attached, protruding a few feet above the surface; but the lion crowning the capital had disappeared. Proceeding to excavate around it, Mr. Carlleyle appears to have gone to a depth of some 8 feet, to have exposed most of the shaft, and to have copied the inscription on it. Nothing, however, was done either by him, or by Mr. Garrick who went to Rāmpurvā a year or two later, towards preserving the column, and the site remained undisturbed until last autumn, when I deputed my Personal Assistant, Pandit Daya Ram Sahni, to carry out some trial digging there. I was induced to do this in view of a proposal made by Dr. Bloch to re-erect the pillar; for I was anxious, before the work was taken in hand, to ascertain precisely, if possible, its original position, and also whether any other remains existed round about.

The inscriptions from the Buddhist Stūpa at Bhaṭṭiprōlu in the Kistna District, Madras, were discovered by Mr. Rea, Superintendent of the Archaeological Survey, whose account, with excellent illustrations, of the relicchambers, the relics found in them, and other interesting details, may be read in his volume entitled South Indian Buddhist Antiquities which was published in 1894,—ASSI, 6. 1–16, plates 1 to 10.

O ye men of knowledge and who understand riddles, who search by means thereof for precious object; lift up your eyes on high and read the book that is called the “Privy of Privies”, wherein there is contained the direction in the governance of the kingdom which Aristotle wrote for the great king Alexander.