The ancient Sanskṛit literature of India is attracting daily the increasing attention of Orientalists of Europe. Sanskṛit works, hitherto unknown, are being brought to the notice of the public by the labours of European scholars like Doctors Bühler, Cowell, Burnell, and others. Those labours, however, have been but very imperfectly extended to the purely Sanskṛit literature of Keraḷam or Malayâḷam in the South-Western extremity of India. In the blessed isolation which that Land of Paraśu-râma had for ages enjoyed, the cultivation of Sanskrit literature was far from being neglected. Poets have flourished who would yield superiority to none in the rest of India, except perhaps to the great Kâlidâsa and one or two others of the highest rank. It cannot, therefore, be labour wasted to bring some of the works left by them to the notice of European Orientalists. The manuscript here printed for the first time is a poem called “Śuka-sandeśa,” or “Śuka-dûta”— “Parrot-messenger.” It is very much on the plan of Kâlidâsa's celebrated “Megha-dûta,” so admirably translated into English verse by the late Professor Horace Hayman Wilson. The metre is the same—Mandâkrântâ.

The Etymology of Numerals, or the question what primary ideas originally furnished the names for the different numbers, is a matter of considerable obscurity and uncertainty in many languages. Professor Bopp, in his Comparative Grammar of the Sanscritic Languages, translated into English by Lieutenant Eastwick, says, in vol. i. p. 427: “I do not think that any language whatever has produced special original words for the particular designation of such compacted and peculiar ideas as three, four, five, etc.; and as the appellations of numbers resist all comparison with the verbal bases, the pronominal bases remain the only means by which to explain them.” To whatever extent this may be true respecting the Sanscritic languages, it does not apply to many others spoken in Africa and America; and from these some light may possibly be derived for the elucidation of the former. Even in Asia there is the extensive stock of Tartar languages, to which also the Turkish or Osmanli belongs, where the roots of words occupy so dominant a position, and can, with their primary meaning, be still so easily traced, that in regard to them the very reverse holds good of what Professor Bopp affirmed about the absence of connexion with verbal bases in the Sanscritic Numerals. Only so much is true, that also in the Tartar languages the Numerals were originally not designations for the abstract idea of numeric order, but expressions, still capable of being understood, to mark certain peculiarities of the fingers, with whose help people used to count.From being at first ordinary appellatives, they gradually passed into Numerals, or mere symbolic representations of numbers, when their primary signification faded away from the people's mind.

This subject was first mooted by Sir William Jones in the Asiatic Researches. Some of the most distinguished Scholars have at different times expressed opinions, totally irreconcileable with each other. New direct or indirect fragments of evidence have been contributed, sometimes narrowing, sometimes widening, the arena of the controversy. Last year Mr. Isaac Taylor summarised the facts of the case in his Book on “The Alphabet.” I myself contributed a paper on the subject to the Indian Section of the Sixth Oriental Congress at Leyden, in September 1883, which led to a lively discussion, occupying the best part of two days of the Session. In January of this year I again, brought the subject before this Society, and I now place the whole case before the Members of the Society in the pages of our Journal.

An important point in the study of the Yi king is the recognition of its existence before Wen wang's time. The elements of main difference between the Yi king of the early dynasties and that of Wen wang was in the order of the Kwa. The same names were current, and probably the admonitory remarks were, many of them, the same also. These remarks are all anonymous, and we are at liberty to guess who wrote them. The appendices are anonymous also, and they may have mainly been written by men before the time of Confucius. The three sages, Wen wang, Cheu kung, and Confucius, were all editors, and Fu hi the original author.

After the meeting of the Society on the 21st of Jan. 1884, to discuss the subject of the origin of the Indian alphabet, brought forward by me, a printed Missionary pamphlet and a lithographed Vocabulary of the Language of the Kor-kū, were found in the Rooms of the Society, left intentionally or by accident by some unrecognized visitor. From internal evidence they appear both to have been composed by Mr. Albert Norton, an American Missionary, working among the tribe at Ellichpúr. It appears to be a proper compliment to him to insert the Vocabulary and Grammatical Note in our Journal, as they are genuine, entirely new material, and a contribution to our knowledge.

The She King, usually translated the Book of the Odes, or the Classic of Poetry, is not so well known to the outside world as it deserves to be. It is one of the Classics or Canons of Chinese learning, and, like its companion books, is supposed not only to contain deep lessons of morality for the instruction of future ages, but to have been compiled, if not written, for the express purpose of their inculcation. The events recorded or alluded to in it are said to have taken place between 1765 and 585 B.C. Confucius himself is acknowledged to have been the compiler. Ssŭ Ma ch'ien states: ”The old poems amounted to more than 8000. Confucius removed those which were only repetitions of others, and selected those which would be serviceable for the inculcation of propriety and righteousness.” In other words he brought out a revised and expurgated edition. Constant allusions to the Odes are found in the Confucian Analects, the Master on all occasions expressing the highest admiration for the work, and enjoining on his disciples the necessity of a thorough study of it.

In the summer of 1860, I started from Simla to pass a few weeks at Chini, so as to avoid the rains. Chini is 16 marches about due east, which may be roughly put as being nearly 200 miles. Being just beyond the higher range of the Himalayan chain, the rain cloud is generally spent before it reaches the locality; still there is enough moisture to nourish vegetation, so that trees and flowers are plentiful. About two or three marches beyond this the rainless region commences, where trees are few and far between, and crops depend on the irrigation of small streams coming down from the melted snow of the higher peaks. Chini is about 10,000 feet above the sea, hence it is a most delightful climate in the summer; and few places in the Himalayas can present such a splendid view as the one looking across the Sutlej from the village. A bungalow had been erected at the time of Lord Dalhousie, and in it I put up for about two months; as I did my best when any of the people applied with ailments, they became friendly, and seeing me sketching, and taking an interest in their doings, they announced their ceremonies, and invited me to come and see them. I regret that my knowledge of the ordinary Hindostani was, at that time, but very small, so that I was unable to ask questions and collect information. from this cause my account of their Pujahs is far from complete.

I have the pleasure to announce to the Society the recent discovery at Kâñchipura, the capital of the Pallava Dynasty of Southern India, of some ancient temples, the importance of which in the history of Dravidian architecture it would, I think, be difficult to overrate. The present paper is put forward merely by way of notifying the existence of these temples, and of calling attention to them; there is reason to hope that ere long reliable details will be laid before the public in the shape of photographs, plans, and drawings, prepared by the Archæological Survey of Southern India under the superintendence of Dr. Burgess.

The Pariahs or Parayans (feminine in Tamil Parachi, in Malayalam Parayi) number 63,688, and are more numerous in the South of Travancore, though a few are found in almost every Talook (county). Of the whole, only 192 males, and no females, can read. Their general social condition is very similar to that of the other so-called “slave castes,” though, perhaps, not quite so low.

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.

Le terme maître, seigneur, entre fréquemment comme second membre dans les composés sanscrits. Il n'est pas toujours aisé de se rendre compte de la manière dont les deux parties du mot se sont soudées l'une à l'autre. Plusieurs cas présentent des difficultés qui ont mis la sagacité des grammairiens à la torture.

“The dry old stick,” as we heard at our last meeting, here affectionately designated that great Orientalist, Horace Hayman Wilson, knew Alexander Csoma de Körös well, and was in frequent correspondence with this Tibetan scholar, when the latter was pursuing his studies at the Buddhist monasteries in Zanskar, particularly at Pukhtar, and afterwards at Kanum in Upper Besarh.

The following songs are a portion of those collected by me last hot weather, when acting as Magistrate of Patna. They were written down for me in the heart of Bihār by Bābū Shiv Nandan Lāl Rāy, Deputy Magistrate, a gentleman born and bred in the neighbourhood of Ārā (Arrah), who takes a most lively and intelligent interest in his own beautiful native language. I have printed them exactly as they have been taken from the mouths of the reciters, a few obvious slips of the pen being alone corrected. I have allowed no theories of my own to interfere with the text obtained, and I have religiously abstained from consulting even competent native scholars as to probable or possible emendations. Natives in such cases are, as is well known, only too ready to invent readings which have never existed. They have no reverence whatever for the words or matter of songs in the vernacular, and feel themselves justified in making any alterations or additions on the spur of the moment, which may seem required by the metre, or more adapted to their present temperament.

I Believe that the short paper on this subject which I propose to read to you will be interesting to this ancient association for the cultivation of Oriental research in all its branches; but, for it, I lay no claim to any special qualifications for its discussion; on the contrary, I approach it with much diffidence, in the presence of men my seniors in science and erudition. This consideration, however, is the main ground of my encouragement; for, according to the Arabic adage “Indulgence is an innate quality of the liberal,” I feel assured beforehand of a lenient judgment from you.

The Gwamba language belongs to the South-Eastern Branch of the Bántu family of languages, according to Dr. Bleek's system of classification. But this language was never known, under its true name, until the Swiss missionaries settled among the Ma-Gwamba people and studied their language. In his Comparative Grammar Dr. Bleek calls it by the name of Tekeza; and, complaining of the scanty materials which he could get, he says (§ 32): “Tekeza dialects are known to us only through short vocabularies.”

There are several passages in the Si-yu-ki that deserve more notice than can be given in a foot-note by a translator. To some of these I will call attention in this paper. My remarks may appear in some cases too discursive; but I trust this may be pardoned, as they are but “Gleanings.”

Cinquième partie du Livre contenant les vertus des aliments et des remèdes par le cheikh éminent Diâ ed-dîn ‘Abd Allah ebn Ahmad ebn Mohammad, le botaniste, de Malaga, connu sous le nom d'Ebn el baytar.