To the life and doctrines of the famous founder of the Ḳādirī Order a certain amount of attention has already been devoted in Europe, yet scarcely sufficient to render further investigation of the subject unnecessary.

The Fárs-Námeh-i-Náṣirí (lith. Tihrán 1313/1895–6) contains much valuable information regarding the various nomad tribes of the province.

The Kharoṣṭhī inscription here published (in private possession) has been referred to me by an interested friend for a reading. The Kharoṣṭhī script, and the North-West Prakrit language written in it still remain problematic, so that as usual the following translation is preliminary. The accompanying photographs (Plates II and III) will offer specialists in Kharoṣṭhī the necessary basis for study.

The inscription is on the halo of a standing Buddha (height 96.52 cm). Two photographs are given so that the letters behind the head can be seen.

Fire and water are natural symbols, individually and in combination, in mythologies throughout the world. They assume a unique meaning in the Indian context, where tradition has attached particular significance to each element. Together, as an apparent conjunction of opposites, fire and water resolve some of the major paradoxes of Indian—especially Śaiva—mythology. The most striking instance of this symbolism is the image of the mare who wanders beneath the ocean, breathing fire.

The circumstances under which these inscriptions were discovered are detailed in my Archæological Report for 1862–3, par. 159–184.

Professor Dowson's translations were handed over to me in the end of April last, and I read them at a meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society on the 5th of July, just four months before the receipt of Bâbu Râjendralâl's translations, which appeared in the Bengal Asiatic Society's Journal for 1870, p. 117–130. But the Bâbu's translations are confined to the inscriptions which I first made known to Mr. E. C. Bayley in November or December, 1860, by the copies which are now engraved in the Bengal Journal. Mr. Bayley visited Mathura early in April, 1861, and made independent copies of most of these inscriptions; and in 1863 a considerable number of the inscribed stones were forwarded to Calcutta, where Bâbu Râjendra had the opportunity of studying them at leisure. The Bâbu mentions that the inscriptions which he has translated are taken from my transcripts, “with such corrections and emendations as a careful examination of the original and comparison with Mr. Bayley's transcripts would warrant.”

Among the most interesting exhibits at the Rijks Ethnographisch Museum at Leyden are the Meccan musical instruments presented by the well-known Arabist and traveller, Professor Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje. They are displayed, in a special case containing other Meccan objects, in the bureau of the Director, Dr. H. H. Juynboll. These instruments, Dr. Snouck Hurgronje informs me, were not collected by himself personally, but by a Jidda friend who, unfortunately, omitted to supply the requisite data for scientific registering. Even their names are denied us. Yet with the help of the donor, both by conversations and correspondence, and the courtesy of the Director of the Museum, the present writer is able to submit an account of these instruments, which comprise a lute, two viols, three rustic reed-pipes, an oboe, a flute, and a tambourine.

Kanauj, the most famous of Indian cities during the period extending from the early years of the seventh to the close of the twelfth century, undoubtedly was founded in very ancient times, but when, how, or by whom it is impossible to ascertain. The city is mentioned not only in both the great epics, the existing texts of which date from many different ages, but also in the Mahābhāshya of Patañjali, which is known to have been written in or about 150 B.C. Its foundation, therefore, must be anterior to 200 B.C., but nothing more definite can be said on the subject.

The aim of the present paper is to give some idea of what is known of the ‘Vernacular Literature and Folklore of the Panjáb.’ It lays no claim to be the result of original research. It is, in fact, little more than an epitome of information collected from books, periodicals, and official records, or gathered from the lips of Indian friends. Moreover, the task of collecting information has been greatly simplified by the appearance, within the last year, of a remarkable work by a rising Indian civilian. I refer to the Report of the late census of the Panjáb, by Mr. Denzil Ibbetson. The Report is a monument of elaborate research, is written in a most attractive style, and has been justly described by high authority as a “mine of information,”— not only regarding census operations—but also concerning the history, races, languages, and literature of the Panjáb. For the first portion of this paper free use has been made of the contents of that valuable work. I shall conclude by a few observations on the effects of thirty-five years of British rule on the development of vernacular literature and the intellectual condition of the people.

Destitute of the prospect of leisure to complete a general description and comparison, long since undertaken, of the cave-temples and excavations, Boodh, Jain, and Brahminical, on the western side of India, involving also the placing in juxtaposition the various inscriptions in unknown characters, to be found in these excavations, I am happy to anticipate a distant period, and at once to lay before the Society some inscriptions obtained lately from the Boodh excavations in the neighbourhood of the town of Joonur in the Poona collectorate. The multiplication of Boodh inscriptions in the hands of the learned, and the early introduction of any new inscriptions to the notice of the profound Orientalists in Europe, may facilitate the attempts now making to understand the lithographic records of a mighty people, who, equally with their language, have disappeared from India, leaving, however, such multitudinous and stupendous monuments of their industry, taste, power, wealth, and numbers, as to excite the most unlimited astonishment in the contemplative mind, that a great nation should have gone down the stream of time without leaving a tradition even of its existence in its native country, the present inhabitants of Western India being more ignorant of the origin of these mighty works of art, than the European stranger who visits them from curiosity.

A writer remarks, “If men at the lowest as well as the highest stage of civilization enunciate the same truths, the fact goes to prove that these truths are unimportant.” I can hardly assent to the conclusion, even were the premiss correct, whereas it is not. Those familiar with proverbial literature have remarked that some aphorisms are common in matter, and a few even in actual manner and form, to almost all nations and languages. The Syrian, for instance, will say, “The egg of to-day, not the hen of to-morrow;” and “A live dog is better than a dead lion.” On the other hand, the points of difference are far more important. Setting aside the sayings which “bear the stamp of their birthplaces, and which wear the colouring and the imagery of their native climes,” we find that there are proverbs peculiar to every race—proper to it, as are its syntax and its idiom; that each people speaks out the truth or the half truth which is in it, and, consequently, that for the most part neither the idea nor the wording bear comparison. Moreover, were it a fact that all enunciate the same truth, it by no means proves the latter to be unimportant, except to the few.