The common view of adoption in pre-Islamic times is that it was widespread, that adoptees were the legal equals of biological sons, and that the institution was abolished with the advent of Islam. In the first part of this study I question the first two of these views. In the second part I argue that adoption, acknowledgement of paternity and false genealogical claims are three distinct practices, although scholars often confuse one with another. I explain the differences between them, and identify the sources of the confusion. Finally, I briefly mention Islamic alternatives to adoption.

The products derived from the balsam tree (probably a cultivar of Commiphora opobalsamum [L.] Engl.) were employed extensively in medicine during the medieval period. This article presents a preliminary survey of the Arabic and European texts which discuss the varied medical uses of balsam. The analysis of the medical applications of balsam is organized into broad categories according to groups of illnesses and treatments. Although other sources of medicinal oleo-resin were available in the medieval period, the balsam gathered from the trees in the walled plantation at Matariyya in Egypt enjoyed a pre-eminent status. It is argued that the great regard shown to balsam in medieval medicine must be seen in the wider context of the history and legends associated with Matariyya and the earlier plantations in Palestine.

The present paper provides new evidence to support recent suggestions that a significant transformation of early Vedic culture was promoted by the kings of the Kuru dynasty, and argues that this transformation was fundamental to the establishment of the śrauta system of rituals. The evidence in question concerns a number of verse mantras in śrauta liturgies which, contrary to the rule, have no parallels in the Rgveda. It is suggested that the reason why new verse mantras were composed in these limited cases is that the rites for which they were intended were all rites of sovereignty through which the Kuru kings proclaimed, legitimized, and consolidated their hegemony.

In this paper a newly discovered copper-plate grant, dated year 8 of the Harsa era (A.D. 614–15), along with the seal, of mahārājādhirāja Harsavardhana of the Pusyabhūti dynasty, has been deciphered, edited and studied for the first time. Discovered in a village in the Nabha district, Punjab, the inscription is the earliest of the three known epigraphs of this ruler and the only one from Punjab. The other two—the Banskhera copper-plate (year 22) and the Madhuban copper-plate (year 25) are from Uttar Pradesh. This is the only one of Harsa's inscriptions that has been discovered along with the seal that was attached to it. The grant refers to the donation of a village named Pannarāngaka in the Darikkāni visaya of the Jayarata bhukti to a Brahmin named Ulūkhasvāmin of Bhārgava gotra for the increase of merit and fame of Harsa's parents and elder brother Rājyavardhana.

The Shenxian zhuan is a biographical (or hagiographical) collection of great importance to our understanding of the formation of the Taoist religion in the early centuries of the Common Era.