These two sculptures decorate the pedestal of the Koppeśvara Temple at Khedrapur, south-west of Miraj in the Deccan. Though mentioned in H. Cousens' Chāluhyan Architecture, this temple has so far hardly attracted attention, badly disfigured as it is by later restorations. In a.d. 1231 it was repaired by the Yadava king Singhanadeva. Nothing else is known about it, and the temple poses knotty problems for the art historian. Its sculptures are among the masterpieces of Mediaeval Indian art.

Mr. ST. H. STEPHAN began to study this monument but died before he had finished the work. He made the following acknowledgments:—

“I have to thank the Director of Antiquities, Cyprus, Mr. A. H. S. Megaw, and Mr. Loizos Philippou, Hon. Curator of the Paphos District Museum for information and kind permission to publish this article. My thanks are also due to Mr. P. Dikaios, Curator of the Cyprus Museum, to Miss A. Paschalidou, Keeper of the photographic records in the Department, and to the Librarian, Mr. D. Daniel.”

One does not expect absolute fidelity of outline or intricacy of structure in any delineation to be found in the so-called industrial arts, but because of the scarcity of miniatures and other paintings and drawings in Arabic manuscripts, one has to fall back on this medium frequently for our ideas of the outline and structure of instruments of music at various periods of history. Indeed, some of our earliest iconographical specimens of instruments come from this source.

The date of Joseph Pitts's visit to Mecca, the first known to have been made by an Englishman, has not been satisfactorily determined hitherto. It appears from his own book that he was captured by Algerine pirates in 1678. Cruel treatment at length drove him to profess Islam. His third master took him on pilgrimage to Mecca and there gave him his freedom. Some time must have elapsed before this happened, for Pitts states: “I remain'd several Years a Slave after my Defection.” The next date he mentions is 1688, when he was at the siege of Oran.

Research undertaken recently at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has resulted in the discovery of a number of fresh documents which throw light on the relations between Georgia and France in the early eighteenth century, and in particular on the journey to Versailles of Sulkhan Saba Orbeliani. The objects of this mission were to secure French intervention in favour of King Wakhtang VI of K'art'li, since 1712 detained by the Persian Shah at Isfahan, and to arrange for the dispatch of French missionaries to Western Georgia, whence the Theatines had been obliged to withdraw towards the end of the seventeenth century.

Tibetans inhabit three major regions, Tibet proper, Khams, and A-mdo. Tibet is the region so marked on the maps; Khams is the province marked as Sikang; A-mdo does not exist as a political entity, but is divided into a number of Hsien (counties) in the north-western part of Szechwan, the south-western part of Kansu, and the area inhabited by Tibetans in Ts'inghai or Kokonor. My four years' field experience of Tibetan culture was in A-mdo on the Kansu-Ts'inghai border. My study of Tibetan folk-law, therefore, is based on conditions in A-mdo. The appended translation of “Rules of Punishment for Tibetans” (promulgated by the Manchu Imperial Court in 1733) applies mainly to Tibetans in A-mdo and secondarily to those in Tibet and Khams.

Whatever one may say about Rabāb, Umm Nizār, Nāzik, and other poetesses, the laurel undoubtedly belongs to the uncrowned queen of modern verse, 'Ātika Wahbī al-Khazrajī.

Purandhar is a hill fort to the south-west of Poona, not far from Sāsvad. It has become famous in Indian history by the siege A.D. 1665 undertaken on behalf of the emperor Aurangzēb by mahārājā. Jai Singh I of Amber (Jaipur) which forced Śivājī to surrender to the Mughals. Its fortifications were constructed by the Bahmanīs and Nizāmshāhīs; but there are vestiges of earlier fortifications and sanctuaries, probably of the Hindu Middle Ages, in one case possibly of even earlier date.

In Malay Poisons and Charm Cures by the late Dr. J. G. Gimlette (London, 1929, pp. 79–94 and 274–280), and in Danses magiques de Kelantan, by Jeanne Cuisinier (Travaux et mémoires de l'lnstitut d'Ethnologie XXII, Paris, 1936, ch. 8), there are descriptions of a propitiary ceremony to cleanse that Malay state (pūjā něgěri) by séance, dancing, and sacrifice, conducted by a male or female shaman termed for the occasion “princess” (putrī). Who was this “princess” ? Folklore speaks of a putrī Sadong adopted by a queen of Kelantan 600 years ago and also of a putrī Sakdom.

It is well known that most of the tales which make up the Divyāvadāna collection are to be found here and there in the Tibetan and Chinese translations of the Sarvāstivādin Vinaya. Cowell and Neil noted in the introduction to their editio princeps of 1886 that “although these (Tibetan) versions are often faulty and corrupt, yet without continual reference to them it would be impossible to give a satisfactory English translation of the Divyāvadāna”. Students of the Vinaya will probably agree that these editors, whose acquaintance with the Ḥdul ba seems to have been based upon English renderings of selected passages supplied by Léon Feer, here did less than justice to the skill and fidelity of the Tibetan translators and to the reliability of the Sanskrit manuscripts from which they worked. The extensive fragments of the Sanskrit text of the Vinaya published in the Gilgit Manuscript Series show on the whole a very close correspondence with their Tibetan counterparts, and a detailed comparison of about 200 pages of Cowell and Neil's text with the corresponding portions of the Ḥdul ba has satisfied me that where they diverge significantly the fault generally lies with the former.

In 1928 the publishing firm of Philip Allan and Co., of London, brought out a volume called Tales from the Gulistan or Rose Garden of the Sheikh Sadi of Shiraz, translated by Sir Eichard Burton. The identity of the editor was not apparent, the Introduction carrying only initials R. F. B. and the date 1888. When two years ago I sought to discover who the editor was, a letter from Mr. Eric Finlayson, receiver for the firm of Philip Allan and Co., defunct since 1937, explained that because of dispersal of company records during the war it was impossible to establish his identity. The information is important in determining the grounds upon which the translation was attributed to Burton.