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coins, whereas Mr. Thomas would read all those, round the edge with the heads of the letters at least on the later groups, as running from the pointing inwards. One date, viz., 814, he admite horse's head towards its feet, and as representing has been mechanically copied on later coins; but in more or less corrupt forms one uniform date, other similar cases are found in later Indian viz., 617, which he considers the initial date of coinages. Samanta's accession in the Gupta era (318+617) In a postacript, Sir Edward shows that the dates or 935 A.D. Sir Edward thus reads the dates in of the Gupta inscriptions given by General Cun. a direction different from the legend on the other ningham, Arch. Sur. Reports, vol. IX, pp. 9-16, side and from the monograms on the same side which the author tries to reconcile with an initial of the coins. But on the earlier series there are epoch in 167 A.D., agree much better with the dates written in both directions, and on Gupta epoch of 190 A.D. for the commencement of the coins the legends sometimes read round the edge Gupta era. He further suggests that 319 A.D. with the heads pointing outwards, and in the area - the initial year of the Valabhi era, would thus perpendicularly-one letter above another; and onbe 129 Gupta and the date of Kumkragupta's the coins of Toramana the king's name is written death.
ASIATIC SOCIETIES. The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for done in Asiatic research during the preceding October 1882 is largely occupied by the continua year. tion of Prof. Sayoe's decipherment and translation The part for January 1883 opens with Part 2nd of the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Van. (See ante, of Sir E. C. Bayley's “Genealogy of Modern VOL. XI, p. 300.) This is followed by the Sanskrit Numerals," being on the "Simplification of the text of the Siksha-patrt of the Svami-Nariyana Ancient Indian Numerals." (Ante, vol. XI, pp. 299 sect, edited with a translation, by Prof. Monier and 268). Here the author has to deal with the Williams. The author observes that his version questions treated of in detail by Moritz Cantor is the first made by any European scholar; and in his Mathematische Beiträge (Halle, 1869), and though he notices the English version by Bho- Woepeke in his Traité sur l'Introduction de gilâl Pranjivandas in Briggs's Cities of Gujardsh. l'Arithmétique Indienne et Occident (Rome 1859), tra, he seems not to be aware of another English and Sur la propagation des chiffres Indienne, version that appeared many years ago in the in the Journal Asiatique, Ser. VI, tome I. He Diyanodaya. It may be noted that in the notices the abacus and its use in computations, Siksha-patrí, the works approved of as authorita- with the principle it involves of the values of tive for the sect are :-The Vedas, the Vedanta- position;' and he contends that the value of sútras of Vyåsa, the Bhagavata-purdna, the thou. position among the numerals and the invention sand names of Vishnu in the Mahabharata, the of the 'zero' were both of Indian origin, and that Bhagavadgitd, and the precepts of Vidura, the the invention of the former preceded the latter Vasudeva-Mahatmya from the Vaishnavá-khanda by a century or two. It was about 773 A.D. that of the Skanda-purdņa, and the Smriti of the Arabs became acquainted with the Indian Y&jfavalkya. The Sikshd-patrí was written in numerals and notation. Aryabhata (born at 1826.
Kusambhipura, 475 A.D.) describes a mode of The next paper is a short one by Stanley Lane numeration based on the value of position; he Poole, on "The successors of the Seljuks in implies the same in his mode of extracting roots, Asia Minor," in which he gives tables of the ten and he uses the word sthana = place,' to signify dynasties that rose from the ruins of the Seljaky the position of the numeral signs, which may kingdom, and were afterwards absorbed in the indicate a knowledge of fixed places in a decimal 'Othmanly empire (A.D. 1300-1472).
series. Again, Vardha Mihira (died 587 A.D.) The last 35 pages are occupied with the first uses the word búnya (a void), in a way that seems part of a discussion on the Yh-King-"the oldest to imply that he knew the modern system. On book of the Chinese and its authors, "-by Terrien this Dr. Bühler says :-"If a man expresses de la Couperie.
(Brihat Samhita, viii, 20) the number 3750 by the This part is accompanied by the Annual Report words--the nought (emptinese), the arrows, the read in May 1882, occupying 151 pages, and mountains, and the Ramas-it seems to me that giving a very complete outline of all that was he must have thought of 3750, and cannot have
• See Ind. Ant. vol. XI, pp. 321-324. · Ind. Ant. vol. VI, p. 48; and vol, X, p. 183; and
Jour. Asiat., ser. VII, tome XIII, pp. 397, 405-8.
