Tamil literature, particularly the earliest writing, is notoriously difficult to date. The body of factors influencing a decision in the matter is complex, and the degree of parochialism of the writer is not always the least important. Age is often assumed to be a synonym of quality, and it therefore appears desirable to push the beginnings as far back in time as possible if quality is to be proved. Without such efforts, however, an objective observer can safely say that Tamil contains literary works of a high standard dating from a period much further back in time than any other Indian language apart from Sanskrit. How far back is another question.

A preceding essay on Indian philosophy contained a succinct account of the Carma-mímánsá. The present one will be devoted to the Brahma-mímánsá; which, as the complement of the former, is termed uttara, later, contrasted with púrva, prior, being the investigation of proof deducible from the védas in regard to theology, as the other is in regard to works and their merit. The two together, then, comprise the complete system of interpretation of the precepts and doctrine of the védas, both practical and theological. They are parts of one whole. The later mímánsá is supplementary to the prior, and is expressly affirmed to be so: but, differing on many important points, though agreeing on others, they are essentially distinct in a religious as in a philosophical view.

The first five objects described in this note are the property of Squadron-Leader M. Blaymires, R.A.F., and are at present on loan to the Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery. I am much indebted to Squadron-Leader Blaymires for permission to publish them, and to Mr. Oswald, Keeper of Archaeology and Local History in the Museum, for the facilities which he has afforded me of examining them.

A number of Frenchman stayed behind in Siam in the wake of the Chaumont-Choisy embassy of 1685. The best known are the Chevalier de Forbin and the engineer La Mare: Forbin was appointed governor of Bangkok, admiral and general of the King of Siam's armies, and La Mare was to produce numerous plans, sometimes implemented, of Vaubanesque fortifications at various places including Bangkok, Mergui, Songkhla, and Phatthalung.

The inscription under notice is engraved on an outcrop of the Aravallis to the south-east of Delhi in a colony now being developed on the south of Srinivasapuri, a government residential colony on the Ring Road (South). The inscription is within the village limits of Bahapur, west of the modern Kalkajee Temple.

The circumstances in which this inscription has been discovered are stated by Mr. Marshall on p. 1053 f. above; and a reproduction of it is given in Plate I, a, with a reading and translation by Dr. Bloch. I edit the record, as an accompaniment to Mr. Marshall's remarks, from a photograph and an ink-impression received from him: owing, however, to the manner in which the record had been covered with paint, the ink-impression does not help much beyond the photograph. The writing covers an area about 1 ft. 10 in. wide by 1 ft. 8½ in. high. The size of the letters, that is, of those which are formed between the top and bottom lines of writing without any projections above or below, ranges from about 1⅛ to 1⅞ inches.

Iron ore is found chiefly in the north-west quarter of the Peninsula. The result of my inquiries gives the number of six foundries working at one time, during the fair season, throughout the province, and two or three more occasionally. The extent to which the metal is manufactured will be given in the body of this Report. I have visited only two foundries, those at Ranawao and Ranpoor in the Ranas and Jam's Talookas respectively; but I understand a description of one applies alike to all, their construction being rude and simple.

The religion of the Hindus of the Dekkan seems to me to consist of four constituent parts; 1st. Pure Brahmanism, as contained in the Vedas and Puranas; 2nd. An ante-Brahmanical worship, consisting in the adoration of painted stones, which are not acknowledged as objects of worship by the Brahmans, but considered as the representatives of demons; 3d. Buddhism, or that modification of it which subsists among the Jains; and under which heads falls the worship of the Pandharpur Vitthoba. 4. A local superstition based on Brahmanism, and consisting of the worship of remarkable persons who have arisen in the Maratha country in times comparatively modern. It is to these modern local deities that I now solicit attention.

For the origination of this line of investigation we are mainly indebted to M. Vivien de Saint-Martin, who, in his “ Étude sur la géographie et les populations primitives du Nord-Ouest de l'lnde, d'après les Hymnes Védiques,” correctly defined one of the leading peculiarities of those chants, “ c'est que les indications géographiques des hymnes du Véda se rapportent à peu près exclusivement à des rivières.”

In Egypt there is a very curious popular instrument. The rattledrum (“Rasseltrommel” in German, “tambour aux boules fouettantes” in French) has been considered up till now to be an instrument of purely Asiatic origin. The works of C. Sachs, A. Schaeffner, and Cl. Marcel-Dubois, illustrate its distribution everywhere in Asia. It is widely spread in India, Mongolia, China, Japan, and Korea. There is also a special variety in Tibet, as mentioned by A. Schaeffner (see plate xv). Yet it has not been pointed out that the instrument also occurs in Africa. In Egypt it must be a relatively recent importation, since it was unknown to the ancient Egyptians.

Henry Miers Elliot's first specifically historical work on India appeared one hundred and forty years ago in 1849. Four years later his small book on the Arabs in Sind was published. Between 1866 and 1877 appeared the magnum opus with which Elliot's name has since become identified, the History of India as told by its own Historians (8 vols.), edited, arranged and completed by John Dowson.

“The tendencies of Apabhraṃśa in phonetics and grammar help to bridge the gap between typical Prakrit and the modern languages.” A. Woolner expressed this view in 1928 when comparatively few Apabhraṃśa texts had been published and the remarkable continuity of the Indo-Aryan languages was accepted as a fact. Since then their general pattern of development, which appeared with simple clarity to Woolner, has often been obscured by the wealth of linguistic material of the Middle Indo-Aryan period that has come to light.