Ever since the exact site of Aśoka's classic capital was determined for us by the keenness and sagacity of Colonel Waddell, it has been a dream of the Government of India in the Archæological Department to subject the site of Pāṭaliputra to an examination commensurate with its importance. Colonel Waddell had, however, so abundantly demonstrated, in his trial excavations, the difficulty and costliness of extended operations here, that the dream had, until recently, appeared remote of realization. The munificence of Mr. Ratan Tata of Bombay has made the undertaking possible, and his offer of twenty thousand rupees a year, for an indefinite number of years, has enabled the Archæological Department to take up the work on a scale that would otherwise have been far beyond our resources.

Some time ago when I bought for a good price a good copy of the 1669 edition of the English version of Mandelslo's Travels, my impression was that I had secured a rare book recording the experiences in India of a learned and observant traveller in the reign of Shāhjahān. In fact, I believed the current legend concerning the high value of Mandelslo's writings as given by Mr. Oaten, whose words may be quoted, so far as necessary—

“As a source of information on the political or social condition of the country, however, neither Methold nor Bruton can compare with Albert de Mandeslo [sic]. Murray truly says that he was one of the most active and intelligent travellers who have ever visited India. The editor of Harris's collection of travels says no less truly that he had ‘all the qualities requisite in such a guide, Knowledge, Diligence, and Fidelity’. That these encomiums are justified a very slight acquaintance with his book is sufficient to show. Being a scholar and a gentleman, and one already equipped with a considerable amount of knowledge about India, he entered on his travels with a stock of information which was calculated to render his observations peculiarly intelligent.”

Mr. H. Krishna Sastri has recently brought to notice a new and highly interesting record, of one of the early Gaṅga rulers of Mysore, which is incised on a set of three copper plates from Penukoṇḍa in the Anantapūr District, Madras. I have the record in hand for editing in the Epigruphia Indica; and in my paper on it I shall discuss fully its nature, its date, and its bearing on certain other records of the same series. As, however, its date can only be fixed on the palaeographic evidence, which in this case entails a somewhat long setting out so that my paper cannot be published at any very early time, and as an account of the record is awaited with eagerness in certain quarters, I give here a brief notice of it, and also deal with another matter which is connected with it.

On p. 111 of Ariana, Antiqua, under the heading “Tope No. 13 of Hidda”, we read as follows: “This tope is situated on the brink of a water-course, more than a mile from the village of Hidda. In our progress towards the centre we fell upon a small earthen jar, enclosing a stone wrapped in tuz-leaves. This simple deposit was perhaps the most useful that any of the many topes examined had yielded, for it was encompassed with a Bactro-Pali inscription, written with a pen, but very carelessly. Fearful that this testimony might become obliterated, or suffer in its journey from Kabul, I copied it at the time as well as I could, under the hope that, if necessary, a transcript would be serviceable.” Other references to the same find may be seen on pp. 60, 113, and 258–9.

For two reasons we give here the elements of Sumerian and Georgian–Lazian–Mingrelian–Svanian sound-changes: (1) to show how far the sound-changes in Sumerian correspond to the sound-changes in Georgian and (2) to justify our comparisons of Sumerian and Georgian words, i.e. to show that those comparisons are phonetically not impossible.

In these Notes the numbers refer to the similarly numbered phrases and sentences published in the January number of the Journal.

5. Here, and elsewhere on these bones, the word hsiang is always written with the once homophonous character for sheep, yang, both probably in ancient times being pronounced approximately tsāng.

The phrase ete ca amne ca bahukā mukhā dānavisagasi vyāpaṭā = ete ca anye ca bahukā mukhā (masc.) dānamsarge vyāpṛtāh, occurring in Pillar Edict VII–VIII, 6, is rendered by M. Senart “these functionaries and others are my intermediaries: it is they who are occupied with the distribution of my alms …” (Inscriptions de Piyadasi, ii, p. 97), and it is explained (pp. 91–2) that the employment of the word mukha is similar to that of dvāra in the sense of “means” (separate Orissa Edicts, i, 3).