In the first nine maṇḍalas of the Rigveda there is hardly anything which deals directly with local government or which, even indirectly, could give us an idea of the constitution and working of local government institutions of the period. The only terms which we find used in the sense of a locality of some sort are: (1) Gaya, (2) Gṛha, (3) Pastya, (4) Harmya, (5) Grāma, (6) Pūr, (7) Viś, and (8) Rāṣṭra. Of these the first four are all used in the sense of a house or household. The term Grāma is used both in the sense of a village (that is a locality) and a body of men (that is a division of the Āryan people). The term Pūr, though understood by some to mean a town, is distinctly used in the sense of a fortification.

The Paripāḍal, which belongs to the Eṭṭuttogai collection, is of unique interest in that it enables us to fix the Saṅgham age accurately, by a careful consideration of its astronomical data. The data are contained in the following opening lines of the 11th Paripāḍal of Nallanduvanār:—

virikadir madiyamoḍu viyal viśumbu puṇarppa

veriśaḍaiyeilvēan talaiyenak kīirundu

teruviḍaippaḍutta mūnṟonpadiṟṟirukkaiyu

ḷurukeu veḷḷivandēṟṟiyal śēra

varuḍaiyaip paḍimagan vāyppap poruḍeri

pundi mitunam porundap pular viḍiya

laṅgiyuyar niṟpa vantaṇan paṅguvi

nillattuṇaikkuppāleyda viṟaiyaman

villiṟkaḍai makaramēvap pāmbollai

madiyamaḍaiya varunāḷil vāynda

podiyin munivan puraivaraikkīṟi

mitunamaḍaiya virikadir vēni

ledirvaravu māriyiyaikena vivvāṟṟäṟ

puraikeu śaiyam poimaaitāa.

The Chandonukramaṇī forms a part of the Vārāhapariśiṣṭas. As is evident from the text given hereunder, it is of immense importance. This little booklet is unknown from any other source. Few scholars know of its existence. The original MS. is in the Baroda library, and was discovered by my friend Mr. R. A. Sastry.

The copper coin (fals) shown in the plate was unearthed recently during work for irrigation on the lesser Zâb. Mr. W. Allard, Director of Irrigation in 'Irâq, has kindly allowed it to be photographed for publication. The inscriptions on the coin are:—

Obverse

Centre

Border

Creed.

The unpublished text K. 2505 has been partially utilized by the late Professor Zimmern in a few entries communicated by him to Professor Meissner for the Nachträge to the latter's Seltene Assyrische Ideogramme. It was obvious from the few extracts available in this important book that K. 2505 contains much valuable and new material, and I am grateful to the Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities of the British Museum, Mr. Sidney Smith, for permission to copy and publish this text. It throws much new light upon the forms and uses of Sumerian verbs. I cannot discover any duplicates in the extensive incantation literature, although the fragment obviously belongs to a long and an important text of the utukkê limnûti series.

The question of the Arabian influence on the music of Western Europe has been considerably stressed of recent years. In the practical art, the minstrel class of the Middle Ages not only adopted the actual instruments of the Arabs, such as the lute ('ūd), rebec (rāb), guitar (kaithār), and others, but also the actual musical devices of the performers on them. In the theoretical art, clues in the Mediaeval Latin treatises on music enable us to follow a track which leads us to the conclusion that the teachings and writings of Arabian or/and Mozarabian theorists of music also had some influence on the theory of music of Western Europe.

In 1927 an inscription of the Vannic King Rusas I was discovered by the Armenian Archæological Commission at Nor-Bajazet on Lake Gotcha. Its decipherment has been attempted by several Armenian and Russian Vannic scholars and it has been made the subject of an interesting article by one of our leading Hittite decipherers, Professor Friedrich (Archiv Orientálni, iii, 2, p. 257). Unfortunately the younger decipherers do not always show themselves acquainted with the older work on the subject or with the script and character of other forms of cuneiform. Nor do they always remember that common-sense is a necessary preliminary to any attempt at the decipherment of ancient texts.