________________
262
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[SEPTEMBER, 1883.
had in his mind M (or 3000 + 700+50) one referred to by Sir Wm. Jones-also by Prof. if he had the latter before his eyes, he would
Cowell. The next paper is by the Rev. James have said or used words equivalent to the three
Sibree, on Malagasy Place-Names." H. L. St. thousand, the seven hundred, and the fifty. There
Barbe, B.C.S., contributes the text of the Burman are of course hundreds of similar instances in the Namakkara, with translation. The poem is Brihat Sanhita." But the use of the terms búnya,
entirely in praise of Buddha. 0. Gardner conkha, vyöma, viyat, ambara, (empty), does not neces.
tributes an account of “Chinese Laws and sarily imply the use of a sign for zero,' but only Customs;" and Terrien de la Couperie gives the a vacant space in the abacus table. The Valabhf conclusion of his paper on the Yh-King--the grants and some others are dated in the early oldest book of the Chinese. system of figures, and the earliest example of the
The first Number of vol. LII of the Journal of modern decimal system is the date of the Dhiniki
the Asiatic Society of Bengal has appeared late, and plate of 738 A.D. When once the zero was intro- contains five papers. The first is a collection of duced this system seems at once to have super- folklore, songs, and snatches from Eastern Gorakh. Beded the older, except in the extreme south of pur, collected by Hugh Fraser, C.S., and edited India, among the Tamils and Malayalams. The with notes by F.H. Fisher, C.S., and G.A. Grierson, only inscription yet known containing old figures, C.S. The second paper, by Surgeon- Major Bidie, after 738 A.D. is that of Govinda III. of $. 730, is on the Pagoda or Vartha Coins of Southern in which a modified form of the symbol for 20 India, illustrated by 30 drawings of coins, some of occurs. The author then argues from what we them copies from Elliot's illustrations. Dr. Bidie know of Muhammad bin Musa al Khwarizmi's repeate the mistake so often made that Kalyana work, that the Hindug used the abacus in the was the capital of the Chalukyan, and on other form of the tableau à colonnes, before the inver.
pointa he relies solely on statements in Rice's tion of the zero figure. On the extent and
Mysore Gazetteer and Inscriptions, which are not character of the Greek system of Arithmetic he supported by satisfactory proofs. It is desirable cites the treatise of Delambre and the excellent
we should have fuller accounts of the coins of article by Sir John Leslie in the Edinburgh
Southern India, and we welcome this contribution Reviow, vol. XVIII (1811); showing that they
to our knowledge. The next paper is a further came very near to the decimal system, but pro
supplement to Thomas's Chronicles of the Pathan bably did not feel the want of it. The rest of
Kings of Dehli, by C. I. Rodgers, in which he the article is devoted to rebutting the claims of
describes and figures 35 new coins. General Cun. the Neo-Pythagoreans to the discovery of our
ningham gives a very short continuation on the present system.
"Relics from Ancient Persia," found on the banks The second paper is a short one on “Parthian of the Oxus, illustrated by two plates. And and Indo-Sassanian Coins," by the accomplished
lastly, Dr RajendralAla Mitra has a long "Note on Oriental numismatist, Mr. E. Thomas. The third a Sanskpit inscription from Lalitpur district," of is on the "Early Historical relations between
| A.D. 1424. It is a Jaina dooument. Phrygia and Kappadokia," by W. M. Ramsay, to An Extra number for 1882, and separately paged which he adds an account of the rock-sculptures has also been published, containing a Chrestoof Boghazkeui and Euyuk, and of some archaic mathy and Vocabulary of the Maithilf language Phrygian inscriptions.
of North Bihár, by G. A. Grierson, B.C.S. This In Part II, for April, the first article is a is a scholarly compilation, and with the Grammar, copy of the Tattva-muktavalt, of Gauda-Parna- also published as an Extra number for 1880, gives nanda-Chakravartin, a native of Bengal, by an excellent and very complete and accurate Prof. E. B. Cowell. It is an attack on the presentation of this interesting diale
presentation of this interesting dialect, reflecting Vedanta system by a follower of the Parna-prajña
much credit on the painstaking industry and school of Madhva, described in the 5th chapter accurate scholarship of the author. Such separate of the Sarvadarbanasangraha. The text of publications, however, would be much better disthe poem in 122 slökas is accompanied by a sociated from the Society's Journal, which they translation. This is followed by two Sanskrit are not paged to bind up with, nor are the two parts slokas-one addressed to Prof. H. H. Wilson, and in this case paged consecutively to bind together.
See Jour. Asiat. ser. VII, tomo XVI, PP. 448, 463 ; also ser. VI, tomo I, p. 284; Nouv. Jour. Asiat. tome XVII, p. 16; Kosmos, vol. II, pp. lxxxi, 184.
Ante, p. 152; and conf. vol. XI, pp. 110-112. • Ind. Ant. vol. VI, p. 59.
Ind. Ant. vol. XI, p. 327.
