Southern Iouthern abounds in prehistoric remains, mostly of the neolithic, but some few undoubtedly of the palaeolithic age; and of all the districts of the Madras Presidency none is more remarkable in this respect than the country about Bellary. The present area of this division comprises the old capital of the Vijayanagar kingdom, now usually called Hampe, from the name of alittle village on the Tungabhadra River, which in the old palmy daysconstituted a small fraction of the great city. On the south of the districtthe territories of Maisūr form the boundary. The fine old rock-fortress of Adoni lies near its eastern frontier, and on the north the Tungabhadra River divides it from the country belonging to the Nizām of Haidarābād. Within these boundaries are seen in every direction rocky hills with a very sparse covering of vegetation, standing boldly out of the level plain, some singly, some in ridges, and in a few tracts massed together into confused heaps extending in all directions for many miles.

This manuscript, which is now in my possession, has unfortunately lost anumber of pages at the beginning. Neither title nor author's name occurs in the text, but inside the cover an old Oriental penman has left the following inscription: , “The Preservation of Health, composed by Imām Fakhru' ddīn Rāzī — may God make bright his tomb! “The colophon is: Hājī Khalīfa (under ) ascribes to Hippocrates a work with this title, addressed to King Antiochus, but does not mention the translator nor the language into which itwas rendered.

At the International Congress of Orientalists held in Paris in September, 1897, I had the honour of submitting to my fellow-students there assembled a scheme for the publication of a series of Persian historical and biographical texts, to be inaugurated by a critical edition of Dawlatshah's Tadhkiratu'sh-Shu'arā, or “Lives of the Persian Poets.” The carrying out of this scheme was made conditional on the promise of so much support as should ensure the sale (at a price less by one-third than that at which the volume would subsequently be sold to non-subscribers)of atleast 200 copies. It is a matter of some disappointment to me that during the year which has elapsed since this announcement was made the number of subscribers has hardly reached the quarter of this modest minimum; in spite of which discouraging fact I have resolved to proceed with an undertaking of the necessity of which I am more than ever convinced. The arrangements for publication are completed: the texts will be printed by Messrs. Brill at Leyden with the Beyrout types (adapted to the Persian usage by the addition of the four supplementary letters required by that language); and Messrs. Brill and Luzac will act as joint publishers. It is hoped that the first volume of the series may be ready in time to be laid before the Congress of Orientalists which will meet at Rome next October.

There is no work to which a student who wished to study the doctrine of Soul as set forth in the Upanishads could be referred. There are excellent popular accounts of later Indian beliefs. Professor Deussen has written a very complete and scholarly exposition of the views of the great Vedantist Śankar Āeārya. And Professor Garbe has now given us an equally valuable presentation of the Sānkhya philosophy. But Śankara is of the eighth century of our era (about 760–820 a.d.); and the earliest corresponding commentary on Sānkhya—that of Gandapāḍa—is approximately dated by Garbe between 700 and 750 a.d. The very curt texts which these old commentators expound, though of quite unknown date, are probably at least three centuries earlier. What the student would want would be the views on the subject current in the Valley of the Ganges 1,200 years earlier, before the time when Buddhism arose.

These drawings were first brought to notice by the late Mr. Archibald Carlleyle and myself, and were discovered by us independently of each other in 1880, he working in Rewah and Mirzāpur and I in Banda. I took up the subject from the anthropological and zoological side entirely, Mr. Carlleyle from the antiquarian or philological side. He evidently had made some important discoveries of ancient records, but, as he desired to work them himself, he imparted no information on either the nature or the localities of his discoveries, and his knowledge has died with him. The first scientific paper on the drawings was by myself published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for 1883, and was entitled “On the recent existence of Rhinoceros Indicus in the North-West Provinces, and a description of an archaic rock painting from Mirzapur, representing the hunting of this animal” (Journ., lii, part 2, 1883, pp. 56 to 64, with two plates). This article excited much interest in Europe, and great things were expected from the discovery. I regret that I have no copy of the paper. A short paragraph is also devoted to the subject in the Gazetteer of Mirzāpur. There is a further paper in the Proc. Asiatic Society, Bengal, for 1884, on the durability of haematite drawings on sandstone rocks, by myself also. Shortly afterwards Mr. A. M. Markham, C.S., noticed a few words written in this pigment in ancient characters at Chachaie Koond, or the Falls of the Tons in Rewah.

This lady was one of Akbar's nurses, and is said to have watched over him from the cradle to the throne. She must have been a notable woman, for she acquired great influence over Akbar, and was for a time the administratrix of his kingdom. It was in great measure through her intrigues that Akbar emancipated himself from the control of Bairām Khān. There has long been a mystery about her status and about the paternity of her children. She had two sons, Bāqī Khān Kōka and Adham Khān Kōka, but their father's name is never mentioned. Abū'l - faẓl, Niẓāmu - d - dīn, Badāōnī, and other writers, always speak of them as the sons of Māham Anaga, but give no hint as to their father's identity. Hence Mr. Blochmann concluded that Adham Khān, the more celebrated of the two, was “doubtless a royal bastard.” Professor Dowson demurs to this view on account of the great respect with which Māham Anaga is always spoken of, but admits that there is a mystery about the paternity. If, however, an illuminated MS. in the possession of Colonel Hanna is to be trusted, the mystery is cleared up, for its author states that Māham Anaga was the wife of Nadīm Khwāja Kōka, the sherbet-provider (sharbat-bardār) or butler of Humāyūn. The statement occurs at p. 9b of the MS., in telling the story (also given in the Akbarnāma) of how Akbar, while still an infant, comforted his nurse Jījī Anaga.

Nûr-îli-šu has built for his god the temple of Lugala and Šullat. One šar (is the measure of) the temple of his god—he has dedicated it for his life. Pî-ša-Šamaš is the priest of the temple. Nûr-îli-šu shall not make a claim against the priesthood (i.e., demand the restitution of the property he has given). The curse of the Sun-god and Suma-îla (shall be upon him) who brings an action.