The earliest annals of Mysore are of much interest, and round up a critical period of Indian history long wanting in authentic records. The inscriptions discovered at Śravana Bejgola in Mysore have brought to light detailed accounts of events that transpired in connexion with Chandragupta, contemporary with Alexander the Great, and founder of the Maurya dynasty. Moreover, we have in conjunction with him full notices of Bhadrabahu, the greatest leader of the Jains at the time. Opinions have been credulous as to their value, but their validity is coming to be recognized.

The existence of parallelisms between a number of the stories contained in the Jataka portion of the Buddhist literature and those embodied in the epic literature is an admittedly interesting fact, and is by now a commonplace of Post-Vedic studies. The canker of chronological uncertainty, however, that generally runs through the history of Indian literature and antiquities here also unfortunately prevails, and detracts much from the value of what would otherwise have been a highly decisive means for judging of the priority of the one to the other. Indeed, because of this particular disqualification, viz. chronological dubiousness, the issue often tends to appropriate wrong proportions, and generally a satisfactory solution of the diverse aspects of the problem thus presented in a double form becomes increasingly difficult.

Although a great deal has been written concerning St. Thomas's connexion with India, it has so far resulted only in barren controversies and inchoate theories. The finding of the “Gondophares.” coins in the Cabul region raised great hopes of a final settlement of the problem; but apart from the (itself doubtful) identification of a single name in the Ada Thomae, it has shed little light on the mysteries of Christian origins in India. Nay, it has had positively injurious results, inasmuch as it diverted the attention of scholars into fields far remote from the familiar haunts of the Thomistic tradition. South India is the quarter from which we should expect fresh evidence: the north has no known claims to any connexion with the Apostle. In the south live the Christians of St. Thomas—the so-called “Syrians” who for more than a thousand years have upheld their descent from the Apostle's disciples. There also we have what has been believed from immemorial antiquity to be the tomb of St. Thomas, with various lithic remains of pre-Portuguese Christianity around Madras. South India has a remarkably ancient tradition of St. Thomas; and it is a living tradition, not a dead legend. It can be traced back at least to the sixth century a.d., and it still lives in popular memories, not only of Christians, but of others not recognizing the claims of Christianity. The existence of this tradition is known and recognized; but no organized attempt has yet been made to explore it.

The great poet, whose Mathnawí and Díwáni Shamsi Tabríz are well known to students of Persian mysticism, is said to be the author of a prose work entitled Fíhi má fíhi. Riḍá Qulí Khán mentions it in the preface to the Tabríz edition of the Díwán, remarking that it is addressed for the most part to Mu'ínu'ddín, the Parwána (Lord Chamberlain) of Rúm, that it is equivalent to 3,000 verses in extent, and that manuscripts are rare. I have not met with any further account of it. The only copies of which the existence has yet been announced are the two at Constantịnople referred to by M. Louis Massignon in his Bibliography of Ḥalláj, which was published last year. Since then, however, an Indian scholar, Mr. 'Abdu '1-Majíd, of Daryábád, Bara Banki, has brought to my notice three more copies, one in the Hyderabad State Library, one in the Rampur State Library, and one in Nawáb Sálár Jung's Library at Hyderabad, Deccan. Mr. 'Abdu'1-Majíd, who proposes to edit the Persian text, is having these MSS. transcribed for his own use, and a few weeks ago he was so kind as to lend me for a short period his copy of the manuscript belonging to the Hyderabad State Library. I am glad to take the opportunity of thanking him for this and other important services which he has rendered me in connexion with my work on the Mathnawí. So far as I can judge at present, the Fíhi má fíhi throws a good deal of light on the meaning of that immense and difficult poem; but the question is one that it would be premature to discuss now.