The term maliah, or malo, rendered “hill tracts,” is a corruption of the Sanscrit word “mala,” signifying “a garland;” and is applied to the continuous jungles which cover the surface of the Eastern Ghauts. The words “rajio,” or “deso,” signifying “a principality,” or “country,” are employed to designate the zeinindaries which surround them; while the open country, stretching from their bases to the coast of Orissa, is called “tolo deso,” or “low country.” The above terms belong to the Uriya language. The Kondh calls bis own country “Kui Dina,” or “Kui Pruti” and that inhabited by Uriyas, he designates “Sasi Dina.”

The origin and duration of the empire of the Medes, which occupied 80 important a position in early Asiatic history, has been the subject of attention to many recent writers. The Lectures of Niebuhr on the Medes and Persians are probably familiar to us all. Dr. Leonard Schmitz, the translator of Niebuhr's works, has recently published his matured views on the same subject. Mr. Johannes Von Gumpach in 1852, Professor Brandis in 1853, and Jacob Kruger in 1856, have also expressed their views upon Median history and chronology; and within the last twelve months, the works of Marcus Von Niebuhr on Assyrian and Babylonian history, and the translation of Herodotus by the Rev. George Rawlinson, have appeared, embracing and commenting upon the early history of the Medes.

Philostratus, in his life of Apollonius Tyanensis, has given an account of that philosopher's visit to India; and as he professes to have drawn his materials from the note-book of Damis, Apollonius's fellow traveller and friend, as indeed he professes to have edited that note-book much as Hawkesworth edited the journals of Cook, we may fairly assume that he has given an original and authentic account of India, and the only one that has come down to us from the olden world in a complete state. Again, as Apollonius was the only Greek who up to this time had visited India for other purposes than those of war, negotiation, or commerce; as he visited it to make himself acquainted with its rites, discipline, and doctrines; and as he travelled unincumbered by a retinue, and was welcomed by its kings, and was, with Damis, for four months the guest of its Brahmans; he, and Damis with him, had every opportunity of familiar intercourse with all classes of its population, and of thus acquiring much and accurate information on matters beyond the reach of ordinary travellers. Philostratus's account, then, is full of promise; and I propose to give a condensed translation of it, and afterwards to examine into its authority and value.

In an appendix to the publication of the translatíon of the Travels of Fa Hian, the Foe Koue Ki, was added an itinerary professing to be that of another Chinese traveller, Hiouen Thsang, who visited India in the first half of the seventh century. As it was an extract from a geographical Encyclopædia of comparatively recent compilation, some doubt was suggested as to the degree of confidence to which it was entitled, although enough of interest was obviously attached to the account, and it was most desirable that we should have access to the original through the medium of a translation into some familiar idiom. The eyes of European scholars were naturally directed to the most eminent of sinologues, M. Stanislas Julien, who, in compliance with their wishes, undertook and has now completed the task. Some notice of the result of his labours will be, no doubt, acceptable to the Royal Asiatic Society, although the limited space that is compatible with the extent of the Journal compels me to a more summary review than a careful and minute analysis would require.

In the volume of the Journal of the Royal Asiatio Society for the year 1848, is to be found a paper descriptive of such coins of the Sultáns of Ghazní as chanced to form part of the varied numismatic accumulations of Mr. Masson, gleaned, under his personal superintendence, chiefly to the northward of the metropolitan province from which the dynasty takes its name.

The sixteenth volume of the Journal of our Society, has given insertion to a communication made by me, on the supposed authority of the Vedas, for the burning of Hindu widows, in which I have shown that the passage quoted as enjoining the practice, and as published by Mr. Colebrooke, in his Paper in the Asiatic Researches, upon the “Duties of a Sati or Faithful Widow,” had been either purposely or accidentally wrongly read, and that so far from authorizing the rite, its real purport was the reverse; and that it expected the widow to repress her affliction and return to her worldly duties. This view was entirely confirmed by the explanation of the passage given by the celebrated commentator, Sayana Acharya, and by the precepts of Aswalayana, cited by Professor Maximilian Miiller, published in continuation of my remarks on the same occasion. The revised reading has not proved acceptable to the Pandits of Calcutta, and the following letter is the expression of their sentiments. The writer, a friend of many years, Raja Radhakant Deb is well known as a leading member of the Native Society of Calcutta, who adds to the distinction of rank and station, that of a foremost place amongst Sanskrit scholars, as evinced by his great Lexicon or Literary Encyclopaedia of the Sanskrit language, in seven quarto volumes; the Sabdakalpadruma, which enjoys a European as well as Indian celebrity. Any opinion coming from him on subjects connected with the ancient literature of hia country is entitled to the greatest deference. The question of the authority for the Sati cremation is now, as he rightly observes, a matter merely for literary discussion, but as it is not without interest for the historian and antiquarian, his remarks will, I doubt not, be highly acceptable to those scholars who are engaged in the investigation of the ancient religion and history of the Hindus; and as he has no objection to their being laid before the public, I have thought it advisable to request a place for them in the Journal, although, as I shall subsequently explain, they have not induced me to modify in the least my opinions on the subject, as my esteemed correspondent seems t o anticipate.

In the number of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal last received, No. III., of 1858, is a short article by Bapu Deva Shastri, Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at the Government College of Benares, in which he has undertaken to show, that Bháskaráchárya, an astronomer who flourished at Ujjayin in the twelfth century, was fully acquainted with the principle of the Differential Calculus, one of the most important discoveries of the last century in Europe.

It is less my object in the present paper to give national characteristics than traits of individual character. To attempt the Former with the twenty one nations and twenty-one languages of India, and in the absence of trustworthy history, could only mislead, but with the latter, the richness of the field offers the assurance of a plentiful harvest. Nevertheless, as the twenty-one nations belong to the great family of man, there will necessarily be certain features common to them all, and I will give a running commentary upon such of these common features as occur to me. And, first, with respect to the long-received and constantly-iepeated opinion of Western nations, of the immutability of the customs, habits, and opinions, whether religious or moral, of the nations of India; or at least of the Hindús. No doubt since the institution of caste, classes of men have been fettered and confined within certain rules, prescribing to them not only modes of action, but modes of thought. Nevertheless, we find that natural impulses, by leading to the irregular intercourse of the sexes, have broken down these conventional barriers, and that state of society which comprised only four great divisions, Brahman, Rajpút, Vaisya, and Sudra, has ramified into scores of castes, each with its own exclusiveness, its own habits, its own polemics, and its own intermarriage limitations. Here has been ceaseless change, and ceaselessly is it going on.

The work that I am about to read is called the Niti Kyan, signifying ”a sacred writing.” It is a short code of ethics compiled from selections from various authors, and is one of several that I have translated from the Burmese language, which are themselves translations from the Pali. The present work is taught in the Burmese monasteries to the daily scholars and resident novices. The necessity of learning and the advantages of education are impressed upon the youthful population from an early age, and the consequences of ignorance are contrasted at the same time. It may perhaps be interesting to notice briefly the system of education adopted in Burmah; this is so simple in its practical application that I can explain it in a few words. The clergy receive no pay, and are not connected with the State, but entirely supported by voluntary contributions of food and other necessaries, a small quantity from each meal being set apart for the priests; but this custom is so general, and the portion so freely contributed, that there is generally a surplus of food at the monasteries, sufficient to feed the poor. In return, the poongyees, or priests, educate the whole of the male population without charge or fee of any description, their vocation precluding them from touching money.

On the western shore of the Gulf of Cambay, a few miles to the north of Bhaonagar, among a range of granite hills which, lying in a country level as an immense unruffled lake, appear like a cluster of islands floating on the waters, nestles the little township of Chamardi. Overhanging this village on the eastern side is a rugged peak dedicated to Màtà Kodiar, at almost the pinnacle of which a huge boulder of granite, bearing at a distance some resemblance to a kneeling human form, is worshipped by the rude villager as the image of that potent goddess. To the summit of this hill it is proposed to conduct the reader, who may he inclined to contemplate the prospect which thence meets the eye of the observer.

The present paper will fall into two divisions; the first of which deals with the name and date of Priyadarsi as they appear in the Edicts, whilst the second, will take notice of the doctrines introduced ab extra; by which is meant the hypotheses connected with the names Asoka and Chandragupta. The reasons for this separation are cogent. In the first place the degrees of confidence with which the author expresses himself are different. In the one series of questions he is, to a great extent (though not altogether) in the position of the biblical historian, who, although he be ignorant of Greek and Hebrew, has, nevertheless, a sufficient store of facts in the standard translation of the Old and New Testaments to put him, for nine points out often, on an approximate level with the professed scholar. The Edicts themselves are not only accessible to the general reader through the translations of Prinsep and Wilson, but the data that bear immediately and decidedly upon them are accessible also. So far as they lie in the coinage of the Bactrian Kings they are to be found in the pages of the Ariana Antiqua and the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.

In the following pages I propose, first, to give a short account of the locality in which the remarkable inscriptions which accompany this memoir were found, and of the circumstances which led to their discovery, and then to offer a few remarks on the nature of the inscriptions themselves, and of the method I have employed in endeavouring to decipher them.

On the 10th May, 1855, Brigadier C. Russell, Commanding at Rangoon, reported to Captain Thomson, the Assistant Adjutant-General of the Pegu Division, for the information of Major-General Sir S. W. Steel, K.C.B., Commanding the Division, that on the 13th April, 1855, some labourers employed at Rangoon in levelling a Buddhist temple for the future site of European barracks, had met with the gold relics enumerated in Brigadier Russell's letter. They, no doubt, had been placed under the floor of the temple, as was the practice in the Stupas, in the Punjab, in Afghanistan, at Sarnath, and elsewhere.

Nicolaus Dicolaus, in a fragment preserved by Strabo, relates “that at Antioch Epidaphne, he fell in with three Indian ambassadors, then on their way to the court of Augustus. They were, as their letter showed, the survivors of a larger embassy, but to the others the length of the journey principally had proved fatal. Their letter was written on parchment (διØθɛρα) and in the name of Porus, and in Greek. It set forth that Porus, though Lord over 600 600 kings, much valued the friendship of, and was ready to open his ‘dominions to, Caesar, and to assist him on all just and lawful occasions. The presents they brought with them were in the charge of eight well-anointed slaves, naked all but their girdles, and consisted of a youth whose arms had been amputated at the shoulders in childhood, a sort of Hermes, some large vipers, a snake ten cubits long, a river tortoise of four cubits, and a partridge somewhat larger than a vulture. With the ambassadors was that Indian, who burned himself at Athens, not to escape from present ills, but because hitherto successful in every thing he had undertaken; he now feared, lest any longer life should bring him misery and disappointment, and so smiling, naked and perfumed, lie leaped into the burning pile. On bis tomb was placed this inscription:—

Considerable attention has been attracted of late years to the astronomical instruments of the people of Asia. Many of these instruments, though far from modern, are remarkable for accuracy and beauty of workmanship, and not a few present admirable specimens of delicate engraving, inlaying, and ornament. The Sedillots, father and son, and others, have done much to elucidate the subject; but it is still far from exhausted, and every addition to our present materials for its illustration cannot fail to be of interest.