The various Brahmanical creeds prevailing among those Hindus who worship Vishnu and Siva have been amply illustrated by Colebrooke and other eminent scholars. When I was in England in 1836 the learned H. H. Wilson desired me to ascertain and describe the peculiarities of the Jangams or anti-brahmanical worshippers of Siva, whom he had but slightly noticed in his Essay on Sects, in the seventeenth volume of the Asiatic Researches.

That the extensive island of New Guinea (by the Malays denominated Tanah Papūah or land of people with frizzled hair) should be less known to Europeans than almost any other part of the Eastern Archipelago, may be chiefly attributed to the savage manners of its inhabitants, whom the more civilized race of people in the neighbouring islands have always represented as cannibals; but of the justness of which imputation no direct proofs have hitherto been furnished by our navigators. How far the following detail of circumstances may warrant a belief that a practice well ascertained to exist in Sumatra and New Zealand, prevails also in a district of this country, the reader will form a judgment for himself, upon estimating the degree of credit to which it is entitled. The evidence of what is so abhorrent from our nature ought, doubtless, to be free from the suspicion either of credulity, or of a disposition to the marvellous; but on the other hand it may be questioned whether those who, from attachment to preconceived opinions, endeavour by captious arguments, or by ridicule, to discredit what is supported by unexceptionable testimony, are not equally enemies to the cause of truth, with those who by plausible relations give colour to what is false.

The author of the Tohfat-al-Giráni states, that “the country of Sindh takes its name from Sind, the brother of Hind, the son of Noah. It is reckoned the forty-third of the sixty-one countries of the universe. The line of the second climate passes, from the north, directly through its centre; and although Sindh is situated in the five first climates, it nevertheless chiefly appertains to the second, and, consequently, lies in the region of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.” It would be difficult to discover where the author quoted has found these grandsons of the patriarch; indeed, as is usual in such genealogies, they are probably altogether imaginary. The Hindú writings may, perhaps, afford some more satisfactory explanation of the name; but I have not been so fortunate as to meet with it. As far as I can learn from such sources, this country was called Sindhúdès, or “the country of the ocean,” alluding doubtless to the river Indus, which receives that dignified appellation in their sacred writings. The same authorities also state Sindh to have been governed by a Xhuthi, named Jayadrat'ha, who was slain in the civil wars of the Pandús; and it has, in consequence, sometimes received the name of Jayadrat'hadès, after that chieftain.

Dozy's Dictionnaire des Noms des Vêtements long ago settled the meanings of the great majority of the terms used for clothes and clothing in Arabic. Texts not available at the time of its compilation have come to hand in the meanwhile, and, further, something still remains to be said on the social and historical aspects of the subject.

It is a matter for some surprise, that, of the scholars who have been engaged in public in the attempt to settle the date of Kanishka, none should have noticed the existence of a member of his dynasty who ought to have been recognised at least eight years ago. The case is as follows.

The aim of this article is to describe and assess those political changes occurring in the Godavari region of coastal Andhra (i.e. the districts of Srīkākūlam, Rajamundry, and Elluru) as a result of Mughal conquest in the later 17th century. Previous to that event, the Muslim kingdom of Golconda with its capital at Hyderabad had ruled this predominantly Telugu-speaking region. But imperial occupation did not carry with it increased political and administrative consolidation. On the contrary, extension of the boundaries of the empire brought about a perceptible decline in Muslim state power as exercised from Hyderabad. At the same time Telugu warriors who had served the king of Golconda as troop commanders and local administrative intermediaries became self-sufficient rājas.

[Since the publication in this Journal of Paṇḍit Bhagvānlāl's article on the Western Kshatrapas, a period of no less than four years has elapsed. The delay in issuing this, the final portion of his notes, is due to the fact that a study of these notes convinced me of the impossibility of publishing them in anything like their original form; and my task was postponed, until Dr. Bühler most generously undertook to revise the most important part of the Paṇḍit's work, viz. that which deals with the inscriptions engraved on the Lion Capital. Dr. Bühler's results, which are published in another article in the present number, have enabled me to deal with the rest of the work. While I have been obliged to omit some portions and to correct others, I have endeavoured, as far as possible, to give a concise and connected exposition of the Paṇḍit's own views.

Annette Susannah Beveridge (1842–1929) was one of the outstanding oriental scholars of the early twentieth century. The work which established her reputation is her translation of the Bābur-nāma, the autobiographical memoir of the first Mughal emperor, published in 1922 by the Royal Asiatic Society. It was the first English translation from the Chaghatai Turki in which Babur wrote his famous account. A monumental work of scholarship, it is all the more remarkable for having been completed at a time when Chaghatai language studies were in their infancy. The translation is characterized by utter reliability and precision, exhaustive footnotes and numerous appendices: Western and Asian scholars continue to consult it as the standard translation of this classic Timurid text. Yet, despite the stature of her work, little is known about Beveridge herself, an unusual figure in the British orientalist landscape if only because she was a woman who raised four children and learned oriental languages when she was past the age of 50.

Just thirty-five years ago, in 1860, the Government of India agreed to institute an Archæological Survey of Upper India, and thus to take an active part in the exploration of the numerous and extensive historical remains of the country, which task until then had been left to the desultory efforts (occasionally aided by grants from the public funds) of the learned societies and private individuals. Adverse circumstances, however, very soon counteracted the effects of this official recognition of the claims of antiquarian research to continued Government assistance and guidance. Already in 1866 financial pressure induced Lord Lawrence to stop the work which Sir A. Cunningham had barely begun. The Survey was abolished, and there followed a regrettable time of inaction, which lasted until 1870, when, in consequence of urgent representations from various influential quarters, and especially from eminent members of the Royal Asiatic Society, the Secretary of State and the Supreme Government of India consented to return to the principle laid down in 1860. The next result was the re-opening of the Archæological Survey for the Northern half of India, which was now organized on a larger scale, and the issue of orders by the Secretary of State for the registration and preservation of the historical monuments all over India. Soon afterwards, in 1873, the Government of Bombay was permitted to establish a survey of its own for the Western Presidency, and somewhat later the Government of Madras likewise directed its attention to the collection of notes regarding the antiquities of Southern India and to their scientific exploration.

Mr. Golénischeff has just published in the Transactions of the Russian Imperial Society of Oriental Archæology (vol. xiii) a new Vannic inscription of considerable interest and importance. As my memoir on the Vannic Inscriptions is not likely to be continued after the publication of the rich materials collected by Drs. Belck and Lehmann during their exploration of Armenia and Kurdistan, I will deal with this inscription separately, and provisionally number it LXXXVI in continuation of my former notation. The stone on which the inscription is engraved was found in the church of St. Gregory, four versts east of the monastery of Eshmiadzin, and is 2·70 metres high, 63 cent, broad, and 36 cent, thick. It will be seen that it is a record of Ruśas, the son of Argistis, whose existence, first asserted by Dr. Belck, but doubted by myself (J.R.A.S., Oct., 1894, pp. 705, 706), is thus certified.