The second part of this paper will be occupied by an attempt to show how the ancient Indian system of numeral signs, described in Part L, was simplified. In other words, it will be attempted to show how this old system became the parent of that now used in India, which employs only nine units and a zero,—indeed of that system as used not in India alone, but now almost universally both in eastern and western countries

That an extensive old literature exists in the Kannaḍa (or so-called Canarese) language is admitted by more than one eminent writer on Oriental subjects, but of the nature and history of that literature little or nothing is known, beyond the fact that it was of Jaina origin. The sectarian titles of many of the works, taken as being a sufficient key to their probable contents, may perhaps have stopped inquirers—if any there have been—from going further. Following up the clue obtained from the writings of Pampa, further researches have enabled me to throw some light on this hitherto virtually unexplored subject.

The following poem was written by a native of Bengal, named Pûrnânanda Chakravartin. Nothing is known as to his date; if the work were identical with the poem of the same name mentioned in the account of the Râmânuja system in Mâdhava's Sarvadarśanasamgraha, it would be, of course, older than the fourteenth century, but this is very uncertain; I should be inclined to assign it to a later date. The chief interest of the poem consists in its being a vigorous attack on the Vedânta system by a follower of the Pûrnaprajña school, which was founded by Madhva (or Ânandatîrtha) in the thirteenth century in the South of India. Some account of his system (which in many respects agrees with that of Râmânuja) is given in Wilson's “Hindu Sects;” but the fullest account is to be found in the fifth chapter of the Sarvadarśanasamgraha. Both the Râmânujas and the Pûrnaprajňas hold in opposition to the Vedânta that individual souls are distinct from Brahman; but they differ as to the sense in which they are thus distinct. The former maintain that “unity” and “plurality” are equally true from different points of View; the latter hold that the relation between the individual soul and Brahman is that of a master and a servant, and consequently that they are absolutely separate. It need not surprise us, therefore, to see that, although Râmânuja is praised in the fifty-third sloka of this poem as “the foremost of the learned,” some of his tenets are attacked in the eightieth.

For the origination of this line of investigation we are mainly indebted to M. Vivien de Saint-Martin, who, in his “ Étude sur la géographie et les populations primitives du Nord-Ouest de l'lnde, d'après les Hymnes Védiques,” correctly defined one of the leading peculiarities of those chants, “ c'est que les indications géographiques des hymnes du Véda se rapportent à peu près exclusivement à des rivières.”

The main interest of the world's history centres so indisputably in the doings of the Aryan and Semitic races, that even those whose attention has been chiefly devoted to other areas of human development cannot but concur in the judgment which assigns to the object of their studies a secondary place. At the same time, the second place, and even the third, has a claim to some hearing; and if we grant (as we are bound to do) the second place to China as the intellectual, and to some extent the political leader of Eastern Asia, the third place will perhaps be allowed to belong to Japan. Pending the settlement of the disputed Accadian question, Japanese literature takes us back many centuries further than the oldest documents of the Mongols, Mantchus, Turks, Finns, or any other nation of the Altaic stock; and, as the Archaic Japanese language may, on account of its superior antiquity, lay claim to the title of the Sanskrit of the Altaic tongues, so, also, is it to be presumed that the early Japanese civilization and religion present us with the most original features of Altaic thought and life.

Professor Wilson left Calcutta in 1832, having been appointed to the Boden Professorship of Sanskrit at Oxford. He had been one of the leaders of the Orientalist party in the General Committee of Public Instruction, as opposed to the pure “Anglicists”; and since each party held extreme views as to the respective value of Eastern and Western learning, his departure was naturally regarded as an evil omen to the cause of Sanskrit by the students and teachers of the Calcutta Sanskrit College. My old Pandit, Rámanáráyana Vidyáratna, was a pupil in the College at that time; and he has often described to me the scene when the pandits met to bid Wilson farewell, and one of them addressed him in a Sanskrit śloka, which is still well remembered by every native scholar in Calcutta. The college tradition is that Wilson's stern face was softened to tears, as he heard its pathetic appeal.

The design of this paper, in the first instance, was confined to the description of a remarkable coin, communicated to me, in photograph, a year or two ago, by M. Wold Tiesenbausen, whose comprehensive work on “Les Monnaies des Khalifes Orientaux “ placed him in the front rank of Oriental Numismatists. Subsequently, the owner of the piece, M. le Comte S. Stroganofif, was so good as to risk the dangers of International Postal deliveries, and to send me the original coin itself for more exact and critical scrutiny.

Every race has in the course of time endeavoured, as the want of new expressions made themselves felt, to enlarge its vocabulary according to its turn of mind, or what is called its genius, either by mere agglutination or by affixes, etc. The Greeks, for example, have multiplied the number of their verbs in combining them with prepositions: the Semites seem to have followed a similar, though not identical process, which, however, has till now resisted all analysis. I propose, therefore, in this paper to examine those formatives which, with the verbal stems, have given birth to the voices. It must be remembered that the word “voice” is not used here as in the Aryan Grammars, but is. used to designate the various modifications suffered by the stem and altering its meaning.

Place-names, it is now acknowledged, form one of the most reliable sources of information as to ancient and prehistoric times, and are among the most enduring and unaltering records of the past. In all the older countries of the world the names of the mountains and rivers, of the fields and the valleys, of the farms and villages and towns, as well as of all other geographical features, reveal the existence and successive occupation of the soil from remote epochs by many different races of mankind. And in the newer countries the names given to places tell in the plainest terms of their discoverers, and often fix the date of their becoming known to the civilized world.

Hiouen-Thsang, towards the end of the lOth book of the Si-yu-ki, alludes to a celebrated mountain called Potakara, on which Avalokitesvara was accustomed to reside.

The question of the origin of the worship of this deity by the Buddhists is so interesting that I was led, when engaged in the translation of the Si-yu-ki, to inquire further into the subject. I gladly submit my conclusions to the notice of this learned Society.

The following account of the early relations between the countries east and west of the Halys is the result of a journey made from Smyrna by the Hermus valley, Doghanlu, Angora, Boghaz Keui, and Euyuk to Sivas (May 13 to June 29, 1881), on which Col. Sir Charles Wilson kindly invited me to accompany him. The Roman roads of the district were a frequent topic of conversation; and the knowledge of the routes, on which this article rests, has been gained from his skill. I afterwards found that the information I had thus acquired from Mm of the Roman roadsystem had an important bearing on the early history of these countries.

I propose in this paper to consider the claims of Cingalese Buddhism. What these claims are had better be stated at starting, from the writings of Dr. Rhys Davids, the most prominent advocate of these claims. We are, I think, indebted to him for priceless translations: but a linguist is not always infallible as a reasoner. Professor Beal has given us still more valuable linguistic contributions; and he has taken Dr. Rhys Davids to task. He says that the allegations that Buddha preached “atheism, annihilation, and the nonexistence of the soul,” are “more easily made than proved.”

In tracing out the very crooked story of the history of Central and Eastern Asia, in which we have to deal with a succession of empires founded by a number of races, which have necessarily overrun its more desirable areas, there is only one method of inquiry which seems to be at once safe and fertile. This is to commence with the latest revolutions. To gradually unravel the tangle into which the story has been twisted, by first understanding the latest changes, about which we have abundant evidence, and then to work back to that earlier and more obscure period which must always have a great interest and romance for those who speculate on the origin and early history of our race. This is the method I have ventured to adopt in the series of papers on the Northern Frontagers of China, which I have been permitted, by the favour of the Royal Asiatic Society, to commence in the pages of its Journal, and in which I hope, if allowed, to pass in review the different races who have dominated over Central Asia and China from the earliest times.

Will you allow me to supplement Professor Julg's very interesting account of the authorities and materials available for Mongol history and philology by some additional notes upon two works overlooked by him. By far the most important of these is a work published by the Archimandrite Palladius in a Russian translation in the fourth volume of the Memoirs of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission at Peking, and which he styles the Yuan chao mi shi. The syllable mi being the popular pronunciation of the character pronounced pi in the Mandarin dialect, Dr. Bretschneider has adopted the title Yuan chao pi shi, in which I have followed him in a detailed account of Chinghiz Khan and his Ancestors, which I have been publishing for some time in the Indian Antiquary, and in which the contents of this work are incorporated. The Yuan chao pi shi is in every way a remarkable work and contains the most valuable materials for the earlier life of Chinghiz Khan, and for that of his ancestors, which are available anywhere.

In 1875, the Secretariat Press of British Burma printed a collection of six Páli texts with a vernacular commentary and exposition. The fifth and most difficult, but, at the same time, the most interesting of all, is the one I am attempting to translate. The lack of critical editing and the general corruption of the text is sufficiently shown in the title Namakára, which may stand either for Namakáya ‘a collection of panegyrics,’ or Namakkára (Sansk. ) ‘Reverence, worship.’ The first stanza is a curious example of archaie punning. This “ekatthá,” or tautological repetition, as it is called by the learned author of the “Subodhálaṅkara,” is only permissible when it is desired to express fear, anger, or laudation. It is employed again in the 8th, 9th, and 22nd stanzas.

When I promised to write a paper for the Royal Asiatic Society on Chinese Laws and Customs compared with the primitive Laws and Customs of the Latin, Teutonic, and Indo-Germanic Eaces, I was not aware that my friend Mr. E. H. Parker had already written on the same subject (China Review, vol. viii. p. 67). I have now read Mr. Parker's paper with great care and attention. Though he only deals with Comparative Family Law, yet this is so large a portion of my subject, and Mr. Parker's views are so in accordance with my own, that I doubt whether he has left me enough to say so as to form the subject of a full paper. I therefore propose, on this occasion, only to make a few observations.