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118
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(XARCH, 1891.
(9) Ra, in composition is represented by,
(a) a small ra appended, as in 7 p, saura (sarva);
(b) the same ra written cursively, as a curved line, .g., y o praja, (priya)drati. In both these words the sign has hitherto been read as anusvdra; and
(c) more commonly, a short stroke added straightly or obliquely to the base of the ver- tical line. When the stroke is oblique, and the vertical line has also the left-hand upwards stroke noted in No. 1, it is difficult to decide whether anusvdra or ra is intended to be read, e. g., s drafanan, which some have read dariéanam; 93 z prachanti. Sometimes the ra-stroke is curted, e. g., Pt7 athrasa; and sometimes it is appended to the right limb of ka and bha.
(10 and 11) These refer to compound and double consonants.
(12) It is not very difficult to distinguish between ta and ra, da, na and na. In the ShAbbaz. gashi inscription ta is much broader and lower than ra, and da is much shorter than na. Na is also shorter than pa, and the curvature of its head is much more pronounced.
Prof. J. Barth, of Berlin, opens Part II. of the same volume, with a study on the l-imperfeot in North Semitic. He is followed by Dr. P. Jensen on the noininal prefixes m (-a, -i, -u), and (-a, -i, -1) in Assyrian, and by Dr. Bacher on the scientific works of Elija Levita. None of these essays have connexion with Indian literature.
We have next a continuation of Dr. Bühler's Ossays on the Asoka Bock Ediots. In this paper he deals with the Mansahra version. As already eaid, he has had the advantage of consulting some new and very perfect rubbings from Dr. Hurgess. Text and translations of the first twelve edicts are given, preceded by a study of the Northern Alphabet, as exemplified in this version. The new points in the last (in addition to the re- marks about tha, tha, and sta, which have already been given for Shâbhâzgasbi) are:
(1) The letter ja has usually the horizontal base which we find in the coins, thus, Y. The form is especially common in the word raja.
(2) Ta is three times written and once y. (3) Dha several times appears as 7.
(4) The dental nasal, especially in the form me, closely resembles da, and is only distinguished
from it by the greater length of the vertical stroke.
(5) Sa has sometimes an abnormally large head, with a small vertical stroke, and in one instance the latter disappeats entirely, so that we have u. The form noticed at ShAbhazgashf also occurs.
(6) Annavdra is more frequently than in ShAbhêzgarht expressed by a straight stro reually at the foot of the vertical line, by which it is divided into two equal parts. Sometimes, e. g. in Tsagran, it is only on the left-hand side of the vertical stroke, and is then indistinguishable from u. If the line has another appendage, the anusodra stroke is asnally set above it, thus $ in athran : on the other hand, we have 7 in (Stay&Joan. Altogether abnormal is a yan in ya.
(7) Ra in composition is mostly represented by a curve turned to the right; all the other forms, however, which have been mentioned under the bead of ShAhbazgashi also occur. Mansabra is peculiar in sometimes representing the letter by a high-placed horizontal stroke, e. 9., in 7 ora.
(8) The following consonantal groups have peculiar forms in the Mansahrá version, - bhya, mya, rta, vra, spa.
Dr. Bühler's article is followed by two tales from the Rasavahint, edited and translated by Dr. Sten Konow. Spiegel published the first four tales in his Anecdota Palica. The present paper gives the fifth and sixth. The work is a collection of Buddhist legende, originally composed in Singhalese, and translated into PAli by the monk Rathapala, which translation was subsequently revised by one V6d6hattheru. It contains 103 stories, of which the first forty refer to India and the remaining 63 to Ceylon. The first story given, the Ahigunthikassa vatthun, should be especially interesting to Indian scholars. It narrates how the life of a heretic snake-charmer was saved by his involuntarily ejaculating the name of Buddha. The Hiada story of the wicked Ajamila, who called for hin Bon Nårdyana on his death-bed, and thereby obtained salvation, will be immediately recalled to the mind of the reader.
Prof. Hübschmann follows with a short article on kinship marriage amongat ancient Por. sans, in which he criticises and partly agrees with Dastur Peshotan Sanjana, who maintains, in his Next-of-kin Marriages in Old Iran, that the evidence of the Greeks as to the customis
