The recently discovered Līlātilaka, containing as it does the oldest known observations upon the grammar of the Malayalam language, has naturally won for itself a position of importance; and although there has perhaps been a tendency to exaggerate its merits, the evidence which it offers will certainly be of interest and value to students of the history of the Dravidian languages. Nevertheless, although it has quickly achieved fame in its own country, it has remained all but unknown in the west. So far as I can ascertain, only a solitary copy of the edition of the Sanskrit sutras with Malayalam translation of the original Sanskrit commentary, by A. Krsna Pisarati (Trivandrum, 1092 = A.D. 1916) has reached this country; and even this did not reach the British Museum until 1938. The chief aim of the present paper, therefore, is to render accessible the text of the sutras.

An etymology long current among Indo-Europeanists runs as follows: Gk. “ the dark underworld ” ( “ dark, gloomy ”, “ black, dark ”), Goth, riqis “ darkness ” (riqizyan “ to become dark ”, riqizeins “dark”) Arm. erek “evening”, Skt. rajas “darkness, dimness; dark space, space; dark mist, mist, cloud, atmosphere; dust, dirt; pollen; arable land (as black); the darkening quality, passion, emotion; the second of the three gunas whose nature is active, urgent, and variable ”. As far as the first three languages are concerned the equation is simple and straightforward; but the Sanskrit word creates difficulty on account of the extreme variety of meanings which it is said to possess, and the semantic problems which this involves.

In the Mid. Ind. stage, represented by the Prakrits, though not in the North–west, Sk. ā, ī ū before two consonants (homorganic or heterorganic) coincided with Sk. a, i, u before two consonants, for in both cases Mid. Ind. showed ā ī ū before double consonants, e.g. Sk. kāstha– > Pa. Pk. hattha–; Sk. tīrtha– > Pa. Pk. tittha–; Sk. pūrna– > Pa. Pk. punna–; just as Sk. lajjā– > Pa – Pk. lajjā–; Sk. mitra– > Pa. Pk. mitta–; Sk. śuddha– > Pa. Pk. suddha–.

On the hills in the angle formed by Assam and Bhutan2live the Hruso, called by their neighbours Aka or Angha, a band of “ bold and daring robbers and cut-throats ” who exert great influence on the powerful and numerous clans of the Midzi tribe on the southern slopes of the Himalayas. The Hruso act as intermediaries for the Midzi in contacting the peoples of the valley of Assam.

Before coming to the main argument I should like to place before the reader some general observations which have taken an ever firmer hold of me the more I have had to do with literary productions of the past.

In Le Maître Phonétique for April-June, 1940, I gave some notes on the pronunciation of Mr. Su Cheng, a native of Fengtuhsien, Szechuan. I have recently been able to make further observations in his case, and also to study the pronunciation of Mr. Chao Che Shen, a native of Ipin, Szechuan, which lies some 200 miles to the west of Fengtuhsien.

Most of the available specimens of Paiśācī are recorded in Lacote′s Essai sur Gunādhya et la Brhaikathā, pp. 201 f., and in my article “ The Mysterious Paiśācī”, JRAS., 1943, 217 f. They comprise about a hundred words. I am now able, by the courtesy of Muni Punyavijayajī of the Svetambara Jaina Dharmasala, Baroda, who has sent me photostats of an early MS., to publish the longest extract extant in Paisaci from an unpublished portion of the Kuvalayamālā.

270. In order to understand the somewhat bewildering vowel-alternation in Arabic-Swahili verbs and their derivatives, it is first necessary to have before one the behaviour-pattern of the verb in Arabic. Taking a verb with three radicals as paradigm, we find it has ten possible forms, i.e. a “ fundamental ” form and nine “ derived ” forms.

The document here edited is one of the large collection of papers presented by B. H. Hodgson to the library of the India Office, being vol. 29, no. 8 (34/3), ff. 48–51. At the top of the first page is written, presumably by Hodgson,“Ethics and Ritual of Buddhism”; but the word“Ethics”here refers simply to the fact that the text is followed (ff. 52–53) by the standard lists of the ten kuśalas, the ten pāramitās, the four brahmavihāras, the thirty-seven bodhipāksika-dharmas, and so forth, the first two lists being given also in the body of the text. The main text gives in outline the chief rites of Buddhism, daily, monthly, and annual ceremonies (forming, so to speak, a Buddhist “Church′s Year ”), followed by accounts of the thirteen sacraments.

Most modern systems of law find it convenient to impose a limit to collateral succession. The average man of to-day knows little and cares less about his distant cousins; and, if he will not even take the trouble to execute a will in their favour, the State which has protected him and his fortune and taken an ever increasing interest in his welfare, has, it is thought”, a stronger claim to his goods at death than those who were strangers to him in life and whose title is only what Lord Thurlow called “the accident of an accident ”.

Kalhana′s Rājataranginī contains an important account of an event probably unique in the history of Hindu India. The dissolute king Harsa or Harsadeva (A.D. 1089–1101), when in financial straits, was advised by his evil counsellor Lostadhara to restore his fortunes by looting the temples and melting down the images of the gods. After some persuasion he agreed to taking this course, and pursued a policy of iconoclasm so vigorously that, among the larger images in his kingdom, only four, two Hindu (those of Ranasvāmin and Mārtānda) and two Buddhist, were spared. The work of temple-looting was carried out so thoroughly that Harsa appointed a special official named Udayaraja as “superintendent of the destruction of the gods (devotpātananāyaka) ”.