When the various tribes of Mongols and Kalmuks were definitely converted to Lamaism in the sixteenth century it was not unnatural that the Lamaist monks, who formed their only literary class, should have tried to affiliate their famous heroes and their princely families to the old royal stock of Tibet, which had become for them a sacred land. Hence we find the two Mongol chronicles, one known as the “Altan Topchi” and the other generally quoted from the name of its author as Ssanang Setzen, and the Kalmuk legend derived by Pallas from the Tibetan work called the “Bodimer,” all concurring in a pedigree for the Mongol royal race which traces them first to the early Tibetan kings, and through them up to the alleged Indian ruler Olana Ergükdeksen, and through him again up to Sakiamuni Buddha himself. This pedigree was probably the invention of the author of the “Altan Topchi.”

The coins which are dealt with in the present paper fall under three divisions. First, the coins of the Early Licchavi Sūryavaṁśī dynasty, whose capital was at Mānagṛha, the present Kāṭhmāṇḍū, and those of the Ṭhākurī dynasty who were ruling at the same time over the western portion of Nepal, with their palace at Kailāśa-kūṬabhavana, situated in another part of the same city. Second, the coins of the three Newār Malla dynasties, who reigned contemporaneously over the three kingdoms of Bhātgāon, KāṬhmāṇḍū, and Pātan, or Lalitāpur.

Frašoštar, the holy, asked of Zartūšt, the saint: give me the answer, (O thou) foremost Zartūšt (most pre-eminent in authority and initiative), [that is to say, before this Dēn, O Zartūšt, thou didst come:—

(2) Which is the full recital of the liturgies ? which is the summarised-celebration of the Gāθas ? (3) Thereupon said Zartūšt: to Aūharmazd, the Holy Chief of A(r)ša (as the Ritual), do I sacrifice.

Kanauj, the most famous of Indian cities during the period extending from the early years of the seventh to the close of the twelfth century, undoubtedly was founded in very ancient times, but when, how, or by whom it is impossible to ascertain. The city is mentioned not only in both the great epics, the existing texts of which date from many different ages, but also in the Mahābhāshya of Patañjali, which is known to have been written in or about 150 B.C. Its foundation, therefore, must be anterior to 200 B.C., but nothing more definite can be said on the subject.

A Peculiar fate seems to be hanging over the Samaritan literature. Although it is very old, and parts of it go back to centuries before the Christian era, yet one may say that it remained unknown to our very days. It was a continued discovery, one book after the other turning up haphazard, the first discovery dating only from the end of the sixteenth century. Since Scaliger came in contact with the Samaritan community in Cairo, the knowledge of Samaritans and Samaritan literature began to penetrate into Europe.