No death in India in the present generation has been more universally deplored than that of the Honourable Mr. Justice Kasinath Trimbak Telang. This widespread regret gives us in some sense a measure of his great worth to his country and to learning, of his personal charm, and of the influence he exercised in helping unnumbered disciples to take larger views and lead purer and nobler lives. Amid the manifold activities to which the needs of life and his public spirit led him, his high aims and his passionate desire for the moral elevation of his countrymen gave to his conversation and character a loftiness, a singleness of purpose, and a tender consideration for the weaknesses of others which, combined with his wide range of information and his penetrating intelligence, made his presence almost fascinating to all for whom he lifted the veil of his reserve. It was a reserve consistent with a polished urbanity, and even outside the veil there were ample stores to furnish forth the discussion of all common topics on the accepted lines; but his inner nature was in a great degree that of a meditative Saint enamoured of purity and holiness, and filled with longing aspirations for the progress of mankind, but especially of the Hindus, towards perfection in knowledge, wisdom, and purpose.

In the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for October, 1887 (p. 655), I gave the text of a tablet of the Babylonian Chronicle referring to the period immediately following 747 B.C. Since then I have copied and studied the rather difficult text of an earlier tablet of the series, of which I now give a rendering, accompanied by the Babylonian text, a transcription, and notes.

The two Suttas entitled Mahāvedalla and Cūḷavedalla are the 43rd and 44th in the Mūlapaṇṇāsaṁ, or first division of the Majjhima Nikāya, the second book of the Sutta Piṭaka. This book embodies the whole of the Dhamma or Buddhist doctrine “considered in a series of long and short conversations, the principal interlocutor being usually Gotama himself, but occasionally Sāriputta, or some other of his principal disciples.” In the Mahāvedalla Sutta it is Sāriputta who answers questions on matters mainly psychological put to him by Mahāk Koṭṭhito, another member of the Order. In the Cūḷavedalla Sutta, Visākha, treasurer to the Buddha's kinsman and convert, King Bimbisāra, of Rājagaha, raises a number of miscellaneous philosophical problems—psychological, logical, ethical, metaphysical—in the course of an interview with Dhammadinnā, a lady, erst his wife, now a member of the Order, who has attained to Arahatship, and is about to become renowned as the first among the women-preachers of the Buddhist doctrine. If I dwell on the present occasion more upon the contents of the latter Sutta than upon those of the former, it is because readers of this Journal have recently had their attention directed to Dhammadinnā and to her dialogue with Visākha by the articles which Mrs. Bode has contributed on “Women Leaders of the Buddhist Reformation,” consisting of selections from Buddhaghosa's Commentary on the Anguttara Nikāya.

In connection with the story of Paṭācārā I had occasion to refer (J.R.A.S. 1893, pp. 869–871) to a series of parallels in Eastern and Western literature, one of which was the life of St. Eustathius Placidus. The second half of this Vita contained those incidents which made me connect it with the cycle of which Paṭācārā seemed to be the prototype. The first half, however, was totally different, and must have been added to the other portion by the compiler of the Life. That “Life” was worthy of being put up as an example to the pious, which contained a greater number of temptations successfully withstood, of sufferings meekly borne, of miracles wondrously wrought. Therefore the miraculous and pathetic portions were enlarged and specially dwelt upon.

The Sutta of which the Pāli text and commentary, together with a translation, are here given, is No. 84 of the Majjhima Nikāya. In addition to the interest which attends every addition to our knowledge of the great canonical books of primitive Buddhism, this Sutta may claim a twofold interest of its own, derived (i.) from the form in which the dialogue is cast, and (ii.) from its subject.

Apart from its importance as an illustration of the earlier intellectual life of humanity, the Buddhist Ontology, the most wonderful, perhaps, the world has seen, possesses a paramount interest for all who would arrive at a right understanding of the religion and ethics with which, it is associated.