400 A.D. Samudragupta's reign came to an end sometime before Hence Kâkusthavarman, too, would seem to have ruled in the second half of the fourth century, and Mr. Rice's new inscription probably belongs to the beginning of the fifth. Its characters exactly resemble those of Kâkusthavarman's copper-plates, which Dr. Fleet long ago assigned to the fifth century on palæographical grounds. The two estimates thus agree very closely, and mutually support each other. In addition to these valuable results, Mr. Rice's new inscription furnishes an interesting contribution to the religious history of Southern India. As all the land grants of the early Kadambas are made in favour of Jaina ascetics or temples, and as they begin with an invocation of the Arhat, it has been held hitherto that these kings had adopted the Jaina creed. Kubja's Prasasti makes this doubtful, and shows at all events that they patronized also Brahmans and a Saiva place of worship. An incidental remark in the .concluding verses, which describe the temple of Sthâna-Kundûra, proves further that Saivism was in the fifth century by no means a new importation in Southern India. Kubja mentions Sâtakarni as the first among the benefactors of the Saiva temple. This name carries us back to the times of the Andhras, and indicates that Saivism flourished in Southern India during the first centuries of our era. Mr. Rice's two other finds are older than the Prasasti, and possess, in spite of their defective preservation, very considerable interest. They are found on the one and the same stone pillar, and show nearly the same characters, which are closely allied to those of the latest Andhra inscriptions at Nasik and Amarâvatî. The upper one, which is also the older one, contains an edict in Prakrit of the Pâli type, by which the Mahârâja Hâritîputta Sâtakanni, the joy of the Vinhukadadutu family, assigns certain villages to a Brahman. This Sâtakanni is already known through a short votive inscription, found by Dr. Burgess at Banavâsi, which records the gift of the image of a Nâga, J.R.A.S. 1895. 58 a tank, and a Buddhist Vihâra by the Mahârâja's daughter. The new document, which contains also an invocation of a deity, called Mattapattideva, probably a local form of Śiva, teaches us that Sâtakanni was the king of Banavâsi; and it furnishes further proof for the early prevalence of Brahmanism in Mysore. It certainly must be assigned to the second half of the second century of our era. For the palæographist it possesses a great interest, as it is the first Pâli document found in which the double consonants are not expressed by single ones, but throughout are written in full. Even Hâritîputta Sâtakanni's Banavâsi inscription shows the defective spelling of the clerks. The second inscription on this pillar, which immediately follows the first, and, to judge from the characters, cannot be much later, likewise contains a Brahminical land grant, issued by a Kadamba king of Banavâsi, whose name is probably lost. Its language is Mahârâshtrî Prakrit, similar to that of the Pallava land grant published in the first volume of the Epigraphia Indica, and Sanskrit in the final benediction. It furnishes additional proof that, at least in Southern India, the Mahârâshtrî became temporarily the official language, after the Prakrit of the Pâli type went out and before the Sanskrit came in. This period seems to fall in the third and fourth centuries A.D. The numerous and various points of interest which the new epigraphic discoveries in Mysore offer, entitle Mr. Rice to the hearty congratulations of all Sanskritists, and to their warm thanks for the ability and indefatigable zeal with which he continues the archæological explorations the province confided to his care. To the expression of these sentiments I would add the hope that he may move the Mysore Government to undertake excavations at SthânaKundûra, or other promising ancient sites, which no doubt will yield further important results. G. BÜHLER. 905 NOTES OF THE QUARTER. (July, August, September, 1895.) I. CONTENTS OF FOREIGN ORIENTAL JOURNALS. 1. ZEITSCHRIFT DER DEUTSCHEN MORGENLÄNDISCHEN GESELLSCHAFT, Band xxix, Heft 2. Philippi (F.). Das Alifu'l Wasli. Goldziher (I.). Ueber umschreibende Zahlenbezeichnung im Arabischen. Jacobi (H.). Der vedische Kalender und das Alter des Veda. Seybold (C. F.). Sujuți's al Munà fi'l kunà. Steinschneider (M.). Arabische Lapidarien. Huth (G.). Nachträgliche Ergebnisse bezügl. der chronologischen Ansetzung der Werke im tibetischen Tanjur, Abtheilung mDo (Sūtra). Bd. 117-124. Windisch (E.). Maha-Ariṭṭha. Hillebrandt (A.). Zu Oldenberg's Religion des Veda. Nöldeke (Th.). Einige Bemerkungen über das Werk Gamharat ašar al 'Arab. Socin (A.) and Stumme (H.). Nachträgliches zum arabischen Piūt. Fraenkel (S.). Zu Aus b. Hágar. Hartmann (M.). Armā. Der Nağaši Aşhama und sein Sohn 2. JOURNAL ASIATIQUE. N.S. Tome v, No. 2. Sauvaire (H.). Description de Damas (suite). Durand (A.). Le pronom en égyptien et dans les langues sémitiques. Carra de Vaux (M. le Baron). L'astrolabe linéaire ou bâton d'Et-Tousi. II. OBITUARY NOTICES. Professor von Roth.-Sanskrit learning has suffered a severe loss by the death of Prof. Roth, the leading Vedic scholar of Germany. Only a year ago we had to record in the pages of this Journal the decease of one of his most distinguished pupils, Prof. W. D. Whitney, the chief of the Vedists of America. Both these great scholars were honorary members of this Society. Rudolf Roth died on the 23rd of June at Tübingen, having been one of the teaching staff of that University for exactly half a century. He was born at Stuttgart on April 3rd, 1821. Matriculating at Tübingen, he passed through the regular course of Protestant theology. Subsequently he, for a time, held a curacy (ricariat) somewhere in Württemberg. At Tübingen Roth turned his attention to Oriental studies under the guidance of Heinrich Ewald, who, though famous as the greatest Semitic scholar of the century, was also a Sanskritist in the earlier part of his career. The eminent comparative philologist, August Schleicher, born in the same of Ewald at the same time. Ph.D., Roth repaired to Paris. stimulating influence of the Eugène Burnouf, who was not merely the only scholar at that time possessing a comprehensive acquaintance with Vedic literature, but an eminent pioneer in Avestic research. Another distinguished pupil of those days who owed much to the teaching of Burnouf was Prof. Max Müller. From year as Roth, was a pupil After taking his degree of Here he came under the great French Orientalist, Paris Roth came over to England, where, at the East India House and the Bodleian, he devoted himself to the examination and copying of Vedic MSS. Returning to Tübingen. in 1845, he settled there as Privatdocent for Oriental Philology. In the following year he published a small volume containing three treatises on the Literature and History of the Veda. This was an epoch-making work, and became the starting-point of Vedic research. The information here given by Roth is almost entirely based on his study of MS. material, for till then the only portion of Vedic literature published was the first eighth of the Rigveda, edited a few years before by Rosen; and the only account of the Vedas was the essay published in 1805 by Colebrooke, the true pioneer of Sanskrit philology. In 1848 Roth became extraordinary professor. In 1856 he was promoted to an ordinary professorship, being at the same time appointed chief of the University library. He already bore among Orientalists a distinguished name, which spread the fame of Tübingen to every country where the ancient language and literature of India is studied. He had, in 1852, published, with valuable elucidations, an edition of Yaska's Nirukta, the most ancient Vedic commentary in existence, dating perhaps from the fifth century B.C. The first volume of the great work with which Roth's name will ever be associated had appeared in 1855. This was the large Sanskrit Dictionary printed under the auspices of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg. The seventh and last volume was not completed till 1875, about a quarter of a century after the work was first taken in hand. The responsibility for the classical Sanskrit portion of the dictionary was assumed by Dr. Böhtlingk, who, from his vast knowledge of the literature of the post-Vedic period, was better qualified for the work than any other scholar of the time. Roth undertook the task of dealing with the Vedic period. His share not only forms the most important and valuable contribution hitherto made towards solving the great difficulties of Vedic interpretation, but |