The article provides an edition and translation of eight early Islamic acknowledgment (iqrār) deeds written in Early New Persian, which are preserved in the National Library of Israel. The acknowledgment deeds are part of a rich trove of manuscripts known as the “Afghan Genizah”, reportedly found in the area of Bāmiyān in central Afghanistan. Dated between the years 395–430/1005–1039, the eight discussed acknowledgment deeds are probably the earliest extant legal documents written in New Persian. This implies that Islamic legal documents were drawn up in New Persian in the area of Bāmiyān—and perhaps in other eastern Iranian territories—as early as the beginning of the 5th/11th century. Furthermore, a thorough examination of the formulaic structure of these acknowledgment deeds reveals their reliance on Arabic legal formulae, which may reflect an early stage of legal writing in New Persian.

The two principal terms of lineal measure adopted by Fa-hian, Yuan Chwang, and other Chinese pilgrims, in their narratives of the different countries in India and on its frontiers, are the yojana and the li.

Much, of what I shall say to-day will be familiar to those members of the Society who have lived in Northern India. A good deal has been written about Tulasī Dāsa, but it has always been addressed to a comparatively small audience—those directly interested in the details of modern Indian folk-religion. I therefore gladly take this opportunity of repeating on a larger stage what has been said before. Tulasī Dāsa is surely deserving of more notice than is usually bestowed upon him in histories of the development of the religious idea in India. He was not merely a reformer who stirred the emotions of his contemporaries and then went his way. He wields greater influence at the present day than when he died two centuries ago. Modern Hinduism has many forms and many beliefs, and yet the character of every Hindu of Upper India has been moulded in part by his teaching.

The Greco-Buddhist sculpture of Gandhara has for a long time been of singular attraction for students of Indian art. These sculptures of greyish-blue schist found in such quantities in the inaccessible valleys of the Indo-Afghan frontier, have from the outset been noted for their classical affinities, and many were brought to Europe by art-loving dilettanti. The particular qualities distinguishing them from all other Indian sculpture were duly extolled; they came to be recognized as the earliest examples of new ideas which changed the whole development of Indian art and propagated Western influence throughout the Buddhist world. But the rôle so enthusiastically assigned to them has not remained unchallenged. A younger generation, more eager to discover the truly national qualities of the arts of Asia, maintained that the only reason for this admiration was that on account of their Greek affinities the Gandhara sculptures were less strange to Europeans than Asiatic art proper. They considered Greco-Buddhist sculpture a weak and provincial offshoot of Western art, without much influence in the East, and for the most part of a quality which could not compete with the broad current of the Indian tradition. Even those iconographical innovations with which the sculptors of Gandhara had generally been credited, such as the creation of the Buddha image, were attributed by these scholars to other and more “national” schools. To this day no satisfactory solution of the problem has come forward.

In the present essay, it is my intention to treat of the heretical systems of Jina and Buddha, as proposed in the first essay of this series on the philosophy of the Hindus; and to notice certain other Indian sects, which, like them, exhibit some analogy to the Sánc'hyas, or followers of Capila or of Patanjali.

The writer of this paper is fully sensible how difficult it is to discover that which is studiously concealed, under the sanction of oaths, curses, and the (supposed,) impending vengeance of the gods; and how liable one is, even after the utmost care, to be mistaken in tracing the progress of any set of principles and schemes, which the fortunes or lives of the parties who have adopted them are concerned to hide, to varnish, to distort, and to misrepresent. He therefore offers the following remarks, not as the result of firm and unhesitating conviction, but as having a good deal of probability to support them, and as containing the substance of the best information procurable in his situation. He begs then to say a few words on the name, objects, government, initiatory ceremonies, secret signs, and seal of the said association, and to conclude with a few miscellaneous remarks.

In travelling through the eastern part of the province of Kattiawar, and in that division of it called Goheilwar (See Fig. A), after having traversed an extensive, perfectly level, and for the most part a desert plain, in a course from the north-west to the south-east, I found myself suddenly passing through a jungly tract of country, the vegetation of which, with the exception of gramina, was entirely composed of pílu bushes or trees, as they are named in the north-west of India—the ark, of the Arabs (Salvadora Persica of Linnæus). The surface of the country, through which my route had previously lain, was dotted here and there with a solitary tree of the Acacia Arabica, and consisted of a very deep alluvial soil, as evinced by the banks of several nalas and small river-courses, many of these containing a good volume of water; but from the almost complete level on which they run, all are very sluggish in their movements. Most of these streams, and also of the soil, are impregnated with salt, which in some parts covers the surface of the earth with an efflorescence like that of a strong hoar-frost. These streams all run to the eastward, to empty themselves into the gulf of Cambay; but, long ere reaching it, most of them are lost in the soft sandy soil in the vicinity of that arm of the sea.

During my residence in North Hampshire, in the years 1819–20, I was led to pay considerable attention to a race of vagrant men, who, roaming about the high roads and lanes in the vicinity of Waltham, Overton, and Whitchurch, appear almost to be out of the protection of the law (whether in this or any other country), and are known throughout the world under the varied names—

Certain passages in the Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra and the reading of the inscription on the Māṇikiāla stone, published in this Journal for 1914 (p. 641), have invited some attention to the question how time was measured, marked, and told for ordinary use in ancient India; and Dr. Fleet has recently discussed the ancient Indian water-clock fully (p. 213 ante), showing how time was measured and marked by it. This paper continues the subject, dealing with the marking and telling of time for ordinary use. I have to thank him for drawing my attention to the passages in the Arthaśātra, the Jyotiṣaratnamālā, and the Divyāvadāna, and to the notice of the Jain muhūrtas, and for some criticisms and suggestions.

According to recent research, after the Song dynasty, there was a transformation of the political culture in imperial China according to which Confucian elites and dynastic rulers ceased to construct political legitimacy by interpreting prophecies. By examining the process of how Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming dynasty, utilized a popular prophecy and how he concealed his utilization of this prophecy after enthronement, this article offers a more nuanced narrative of the transformation. It shows that during the Yuan-Ming transition, rulers sought to employ prophecies to construct their image as sovereigns favoured by Heaven, but, ironically, in official writings rulers tended to hide their utilization of prophecies so as to highlight their virtues which deserved the Mandate of Heaven. This article argues that after the Song, the role of prophecies changed in the political arena—not from important to unimportant, but from officially recognized to officially concealed.

The following notes upon the Vegetable Productions of the island of Ceylon have been thrown together in the hope that, although devoid of any originality, they may be deemed worthy the honour of a reading by this Society. The writer has been led to draw up this paper chiefly from the many inquiries made of him, as the Commissioner for Ceylon at the Great Exhibition, in reference to the produce of that colony. It would appear that whilst the larger articles of coffee and cinnamon are well enough known as staples of the Ceylon trade, but few have any knowledge of the less prominent produce of the island, more especially of those articles which are cultivated for local nse only, or for export to the neighbouring Indian states.

In January, 1862, Mr. A. A. Roberts, of the Bengal Civil Service, presented to the Society two copper plates inscribed with Bactrian Pali characters, said to have been found at Hussun Abdal, near Rawal Pindee, in the Punjab. These plates were submitted to the examination of Mr. Norris, and that gentleman at once picked out the names of Takhaśila nagara (Taxila) and Śákyamuni, proving the inscription to be one of more than ordinary importance. Having made a transcript of the document, he wrote a few notes upon it which were read at one of the Society's meetings, and he then suggested that the plates should be sent to me. The interest I had taken in these Bactrian inscriptions from the time of our joint labours on the Kapur di Giri edicts was well known to him, and was sufficient to ensure a careful if unsuccessful consideration of the newly-discovered inscription. In this recommendation the Society acquiesced and placed the plates at my disposal for examination and report. I now propose to state the results of my investigation.

In 1839 the British Government committed itself to an undertaking which practically amounted to the conquest, military occupation, and civil administration of a remote mountain land, inhabited by a savage and warlike race, animated by the strongest feelings of nationality. Yet it was all but wholly unprovided with the means of acquiring or imparting a knowledge of the difficult and peculiar language in which that nationality found its strongest expression and support. Such knowledge, indeed, was not absolutely indispensable for the purposes of official or social intercourse and correspondence. The requirements of current business were sufficiently met by the employment of Persian, generally known among the educated classes of Afghans, and strictly vernacular with that large population of Afghanistan which is Persian in its origin and Shiah by religion. But the inner life and distinctive character of the Afghans remained a sealed book for want of a knowledge of Pushtu. A vocabulary inserted at the end of Mounstuart Elphinstone's travels, a translation of the New Testament into Pushtu, and a brief grammatical sketch and vocabulary by Major Leach, constituted at that time the whole of the materials accessible to the English or Anglo-Indian student desirous of making himself acquainted with this language. These were scanty in amount, of little use for practical purposes, and of not much intrinsic value. The translation of the Testament was executed with haste and carelessness; and, though every allowance must be made for the zeal of the translators and the difficulties of a little-known, and, to them, uncultivated language, with the literature of which they were evidently unacquainted, such an error as the often-quoted rendering of “Judge not, that ye be not judged”, by words meaning “Do not practice equity, lest equity be practised towards yoū”, was more than mere inaccuracy in Pushtu, as it indicates fundamental ignorance of the real meaning of insāf, a word universal and of quite common and vernacular use in every language spoken by Mahometans. Leach's grammatical sketch goes a very little way in facilitating the student's progress, being slight, imperfect, and not always accurate or consistent in rendering Afghan sounds into Roman letters; but his dialogues are original, animated, and apparently idiomatic. An ode of Rahman, subjoined to his sketch, is so disfigured with bad misprints that it is of no use to any one who is not proficient enough to restore the text by means of the translation at the side: in other words, it is useless to a learner. As this work bears the official countersign of Mr. Torrens, certifying it to be a “true copy”, the responsibility of these misprints must be borne at least as much by the censor as by the author. The late Dr. Leyden appears at one time to have turned his attention to Pushtu, and to have succeeded in adding some knowledge of that language to his other great and varied accomplishments. A memoir by him on the Roshenian sect, in the 11th volume of the Asiatic Researches, contains some extracts from the Makhzan i Pushtu, the earliest extant work in the language, and the main authority for his subject. This, however, was not philology, and he added nothing to our knowledge of the language. A gallant and distinguished officer, Lieutenant Loveday, whose barbarous murder, at the instigation of the dispossessed Khan of Khelat, caused a deep and painful sensation in England at the time, is understood to have contemplated a systematic study of Pushtu, with a view to publishing the result; a project which was abruptly stopped by his untimely death.