The recent publication of The Cambridge Encylopedia of the World's Ancient Languages provides an occasion for assessing the present state of our knowledge of ancient languages. Any assessment, however, will inevitably be influenced by methodology and point of view, depending upon whether the reader is a linguist or a philologist. The present author would broadly define the difference in the following way, at least as far as ancient languages are concerned: linguists tend to focus on the rules of language and general theories about language which can be generated from these rules, while philologists, although concerned with formal grammar, tend to scrutinize the textual evidence upon which a grammar is based. These two approaches are sometimes difficult to reconcile.

The Golden Window above the Golden Door of Caukoṭ Darbār, a building on the western side of the (former) Royal Palace complex, is a major attraction in the city of Patan (Nepal). The gilt window panel features a representation of Avalokiteśvara in his form as Sṛṣṭikartā (“creator”) emanating Hindu divinities from his body. The sides, base and tympanum of the window likewise display Hindu divinities. The construction of the window has been ascribed to different kings of the late Malla period (1483–1768) and is said to illustrate their support for the Buddhist practices of their subjects, while providing a Hindu interpretative framework for such practices. In this paper I identify the divinities on the window and examine textual and visual sources that shed light on the date of the window's construction, including the inscriptions above and at the sides of the Golden Door. I show that there is no evidence for such an early dating of the window and that the Golden Window was probably constructed sometime in the nineteenth century in either the Śāh period (1769–1846) or, more likely, the Rāṇā period (1846–1951). I conclude with some thoughts on the possible significance of the peculiar configuration of divinities surrounding the Bodhisattva on the window.

Ordeals (by fire, by water, etc.) are a judicial institution in which defendants try to prove their innocence by divine judgement. In a recent law and economics paper, Leeson (2012) suggests that (medieval) ordeals “work” because, and if, ordeal takers have sufficient belief in them and because the priests administering ordeals “manipulate” them in an appropriate manner. We find that Leeson's theory also helps us understand Indian ordeals. Interestingly, some dharma texts require that the accuser agrees to the ordeal too, a requirement absent in Leeson's theory. We extend Leesons's model accordingly.

DANS un livre, écrit en langue néerlandaise et qui a paru pendant la guerre,1 M. H. Wagenvoort, étudiant les traces du concept “primitif” de mana chez les Romains, a fait des observations intéressantes sur l′usage du mot latin gravitas. L′expression gravis auctor, qui se trouve fréquemment, n′a pas seulement la signification de “auteur ou informateur important ou compétent”, mais aussi celle de “homme d′influence et qui prend l′initiative”. La qualité la plus saillante de Vauctor, mot qui à l′origine a du signifier “celui qui augmente”, est celle que nous désignons par le terme “prestige”. Et comme auctor est un mot “mana”, c.à.d. un mot exprimant un concept relatif à l′ensemble des idées primitives et sémi-primitives qui se groupent autour du “mana”, M. Wagenvoort cherche à démontrer qu′il y a aussi des traces de “mana” dans l′usage du mot gravis. En preparant son expose sur gravis etc. il m′a demande quelques renseignements sur le mot Sanskrit guru- “lourd, etc.”, et sa question a attiré mon attention sur la signification primitive de guru- “maitre” et sur la croyance, répandue dans l′antiquité classique, que les dieux et les etres surhumains en général ont, en vertu de leur mana, un poids extraordinaire.

The Girnar Inscription of Skanda Gupta,1 read in conjunction with the Bhitari Inscription of the same king,2 shows that Skanda Gupta came to the throne while the Gupta Empire was in great difficulties as a result of the invasion of the Hunas and the mysterious Pusyamitras. On pacifying the country Skanda gave much thought to the choice of governors for the outlying provinces, and decided to appoint one Parnadatta as governor of Surastra.

I N 1508 the Mediterranean port of Bādis, located on the coast of the Rīf on approximately the same meridian as Malaga, shared with Salé and Azemmour on the Atlantic the distinction of being the only Moroccan ports not occupied by either the Spanish or Portuguese. Subject to the Wattasids at Fās, at about the beginning of the sixteenth century Bādis had been granted by the reigning Wattāsidto a cousin, who for some years ruled almost independently there. Because of its geographical situation the port was of considerable interest to the Republic of Venice, two of whose merchant fleets had occasion to call there in the course of their voyages along the coasts of the Mediterranean.

Venetian interest in Bādis is illustrated by two Arabic documents: a treaty and its covering letter addressed by the Amīr of Bādis to the Doge of Venice, written in the year 1508 and concerning the establishment of commercial relations. The originals of these two documents are preserved in the Archivio di Stato di Venezia (ASV) where also, in the Libri Commemoriali, transcripts of their contemporary Italian translations are to be found. These translations are reproduced here together with the Arabic texts.

In an earlier study, ‘Assimilation, and the definite nominal particle in Balti Tibetan’ (Sprigg, 1972), I dealt with vowel harmony in words in which the noun is colligated with the definite nominal particle, a particle that has the constant phonetic form po when in junction with the final syllable of a noun ending in a consonant (-Cpo), e.g. smenpo ‘the medicine’ sman, but variable phonetic features where the final syllable of the noun ends in a vowel: a share in the features of the resulting word-final long vowel, either -o: or -u: according to vowel harmony.

Although the presence of Nestorian Christianity in China under the Tang dynasty is a familiar enough matter to students of religion, many scholars in Chinese studies were until very recently reluctant to undertake substantial research into this topic, for the very good reason that they had been expecting the appearance of posthumous work on one of our main sources for this episode by Paul Pelliot (1878–1945), who was probably the greatest Asianist of the twentieth century. In 1984 Pelliot's translation of the source in question, the ‘Nestorian stele of Xian’, originally erected in 781 but first rediscovered in the seventeenth century, was actually published as part of a posthumous publication by another scholar, J. Dauvillier, who had been concerned primarily with the Syriac portions of the stele inscription. Since, however, Dauvillier's volume did not include any of Pelliot's copious notes to his translation, sinological scholarship was not substantially advanced by the appearance of this monograph.

Im Jahre 1928 erschien bei Luzac in London ein Buch unter dem Titel Munda–Magyar–Maori. An Indian link between the Antipodes. New Tracks of Hungarian Origins. Der Verfasser dieses Buches, Herr W. F. von Hevesy, der sich hier unter dem Pseudonym F. A. Uxbond verbarg, verehrte mir ein Exemplar (15. 1. 29) mit seiner persönlichenx Widmung und bat mich, darüber eine Besprechung zu veröffentlichen. Obwohl ich die schöne Alliteration des Titels “Munda-Magyar-Maori” und den grossen Mut, den der Verfasser bei der Konstruktion seiner Theorie zeigte, anerkennen musste, konnte ich mich doch nicht entschliessen, der Sache näher zu treten.