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AUGUST, 1875.]
forward to enable us to test them. Meanwhile, for want of any such evidences as I have adduced above in support of the identity of the Yavanas with the Greeks, we have at present no choice but to stick to that. And the historical origin of this denomination is, moreover, close to hand. We know from the cuneiform inscriptions of the Achæmenida that they had no other name for the Greeks but Ya-u-na (the Ionians of Minor Asia having been the first Greeks with whom they came in contact, they called the Greek nation in general by their name). Maybe already at that time the name had come over to India through the medium of a few of those Indian auxiliary troops in the army of Darius that escaped its general defeat and returned safely home. But the real notoriety of the name in India dates first from the time when Alexander waged war against her, as it was no doubt by Persian interpreters that the communications between the two parties (Greeks and Hindus) were carried on, and from these. Persians the conquered people at large learned the name of their conquerors. The political supremacy of the Greeks in the north-west of India lasted for about 250 years, during which their culture and their name took deep root and left deep traces; when they ceased to be independent, their name passed, together with their sovereignty, titles, coinage, &c., to their rivals and successors, the Indoskythians (Sakas), and after. wards from them step by step to the other foreign nations reigning in the north-west of India,-to the Parthians, Persians,-and finally to the Arabs and the Moslems in general.
CORRESPONDENCE AND MISCELLANEA.
With regard to my own paper mentioned above, I beg to call attention to a very interesting communication of M. Julien Vinson in the Revue de Linguistique, VI. 120 ff. I had incidentally observed (II. 147 n.) that I did "not think on was connected with éikhin also the word togei, supposed to be Malabarian, can scarcely have originated from sikhin, but is rather perhaps some Dakhani word, which in that case might very well be the root of the Hebrew word." M. Vinson starts from this my remark and shows that togei is really a Tamil word meaning "plume de paon, queue de paon, paon," and is radically connected with other Tamil words and roots. Thus he arrives at the result: "Si les marins de Salomon sont réelle ment allés dans l'Inde, s'ils ont débarqué sur une terre dont ils ont transcrit le nom 'Ophir, s'ils ont rapporté des paons de cette terre, si cette terre est celle habitée par les Abhira, non loin des bouches de l'Indus, il est nécessaire d'admettre que ces anciens Sémites ont eu affaire, soit au pays même des Abhira, soit sur un autre point de la côte occidentale de l'Inde, avec des
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peuplades Dravidiennes, et que c'est de celles-ci qu'ils ont reçu les paons appelées par elles probablement tokei, peut-être tóki. Il n'y a pas loin de cette forme aux leçons de la Bible." This agrees perfectly well with the Malayalam derivation of the Sanskrit Sringavera (tyyßept), ginger,' given by my honoured friend Dr. Burnell in these columns, vol. I. p. 352.
2. The Mahabhishya.-I have given in the Indische Studien, XIII. 293-502, a detailed exposition of the religious, historical, geographical, social and literary dates resulting from the contents of this highly valuable work, introduced by a discussion of the critical questions relating to its age and composition, and to the authority and evidence-power of the words and passages it contains. Some of these points have been discussed meanwhile also in your columns, and others added, which I had failed to notice. At the end of my paper (pp. 497-502) I have already answered the objections of Prof. Bhandarkar (Ind. Ant. vol. II. pp. 238-40), but I beg to return here to some of them. I have first to state that in the principal passage as to the age of Patanjali, viz. the scholium to Pânini III. 2. 123 (vartamáne lat), the 3rd pers. plur. bhavanti as given by Bhandarkar in vol. I. p. 300n. (fense), and repeated thus by myself, Ind. Stud. XIII. 309, is to be changed to the nom. sing. bhavanti, the present tense, as the Banâras edition really has. The sense of the passage itself is however not altered by this correction, and with regard to that I must concede indeed that Bhandarkar's remark, that the purport of the passage Pushyamitram yájayamah "is exactly similar to arunad Yavanaḥ Súketam, the historical value of which is admitted by Prof. Weber," hits the very point of the question. But on the other hand I have to draw attention to the possibility that both passages may perhaps be considered as not at all test-evidences for Patanjali's own age; but may belong to the so-called múrdhabhishikta uddharana which he found already in the traditional vritti of Pânini's text, in which case they ought very probably to be considered as test-evidences for the age of Pánini himself (Ind. Stud. XIII. 315, 319, 320, 498). I have further to retract my opposition to Bhân. darkar's taking the word yathá laukikavaidikeshu as a vârttika, for I am informed by Prof. Kielhorn that he has got hold of a manuscript of the várttikapátha (a great desideratum as yet for the right understanding of the Bhashya), and that according to this MS. the work of the vdrttikakára really begins with the very words in question, siddhe-vaidikeshu. In his "Allusions to Krishna in Patañjali's Mahábháshya," (Ind. Ant. III. 14-16) Bhândarkar has added one metrical passage more which had escaped my notice (VI. 3. 6, Janárdanas tv
