________________
252
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
three gates and most of the railing. The local zamindars have presented the sculptures to the Indian Government, and it is hoped that they will soon be safely lodged in the Museum at Calcutta. The great merit of these sculptures is that the sculptor has been kind enough to label nearly all of them, so that they are easily identified. A large number of them represent scenes from various játakas, or stories of Buddha's former existences. Amongst other interesting pieces of sculpture is the medallion bust of a "Raja of Himavat," whose name, unfortunately, is lost.
NOTE.
A story similar to that quoted against "Persianized Hindi" at page 189 of the June part of the Antiquary is charged against the Vâniya method
GENERAL REPORT on the Administration of the Bombay Presidency for 1873-74. Printed at the Government Central Press: Bombay, 1875.
[AUGUST, 1875.
of writing Gujarati. The message received was કેકે અજ મર ગમ છ ન કેક કટ છ
which was read as
કાકા આજ ભી ગા છે. ને કારે છે.
(Uncle has died to-day, and aunt bewails him.) But it should have been
કાકા માજમેર ગ છે ને કાકી કાઢે છે.
(is at Kot).
The red-letter chapters of last year's Report, which contain most of the matter interesting to readers of the Indian Antiquary, are not republished this year, which as regards the article on Physical Geography is perhaps prudent. Dr. Wilson's paper upon castes and languages, which we republished last year (vol. III. pp. 221 ff.), is one of those thus omitted. This year's Report, however, dontains a paper upon the climate of Bombay by Mr. Chambers, F.R.S., Superintendent of the Observatory at Kulâbâ (p. 294), which is interesting in many ways, and remarkable for an extraordinary derivation of the term "Elephanta" applied to the thunderstorms which occur pretty generally throughout the Presidency (except in Sind) at the close of the monsoon (Mr. Chambers is mistaken in applying it to the "mango showers" which usher it in, and which are called Rohinichi pâni), "from the fact of their reaching the town of Bombay from the direction of the island of Elephanta." The name of the island was given by the Portuguese, from the stone elephant which formerly stood there, and whose disjecta membra now ornament the approach to the Victoria Museum. The name of the storms is derived from the Haste Nakshatra, or lunar mansion under the sign Haste, commonly called by the Marâthâs Hatti Nakshatra.' The Portuguese translated the vernacular term literally, and we have inherited it from them.
The Archæological section (p. 568) we reprint
C. E. G. C.
[The joke alluded to in p. 189, note, has also several forms. There is an epigram of (we think) the younger Scaliger upon
"#
Gascones Queis nihil aliud est vivere quam bibere"
BOOK NOTICES.
and we remember having read somewhere of certain Trebizondian envoys who gave unintentional offence by the greeting"Semper bibat Imperator."-ED.]
nearly in full, to show what has been accomplished and may be hoped for from the liberality of Government in this direction.
"The Bombay Sanskrit Series, edited by Dr. Bühler and Dr. Kielhorn, has been enriched by three new numbers published during the year. Two of these contain new critical editions of works which have been published both in India and in Europe, and the third is the last number of Dr Kielhorn's edition of Någoji-bhatta's difficult and famous grammatical work.
"Dr. Bühler went on a three months' tour in
Rajputâna to search for Sanskrit MSS., and visited Jodhpur, Jesâlmir, Bikaner, and Bhâtner. He appears to have been particularly successful in Jesâlmir and Bikaner. In the former town he gained access to the ancient library of the Oswal Jainas, which enjoys a great reputation among na. tive scholars on account of its supposed extent and importance. Dr. Bühler says regarding it:
The MSS. which are now found in the Bhândar belong to three classes. The first consists of palm-leaf MSS., the oldest of which is dated Samvat 1160, or A.D. 1104, while the youngest belongs to the beginning of the 15th century. To the second class belong a number of very old and beautiful paper MSS. dating from the 14th and 15th centuries, which, according to the special lists accompanying them, are votive offerings given by rich pilgrims. The third class contains modern paper MSS. which formerly were the property of monks who died at Jesâlmir without spiritual descendants.
