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 JANUARY 5, 1872.]

MISCELLANEA.

discovered at Harchoka in the Chota Nagpur Tri butary Mahal of Chang Bhokar. Tracings, plans, and inscriptions were exhibited, and Captain Sa muells has promised to send descriptive notes for the next meeting. There appear to be several rock-cut temples in the neighbourhood. Captain Blunt, in 1795, visited those at Mara, a village in Rewa. COIN OF FIRUZ SHAH ZAFAR.

IN March last, Mr. E. C. Bayley presented the Asiatic Society of Bengal with a unique coin bear ing the name of Firuz Shah Zafar. A woodcut had just been prepared when the first copy of Mr. Tho mas's Chronicles of the Pathan Kings of Delhi reached this country. Mr. Thomas (p. 300) enu merates four coins that bear the name of that prince, among them one gold coin, a “unique specimen in the possession of Col. Guthrie,” and “one silver coin, a new variety, belonging to Mr. Bayley,” &c. They are all posthumous coins, as Zafar died before his father. The original is identical with Col. Guthrie's specimen, of which, however, the margin has been cut away. The coin bears date, A. H. 791, which agrees with the third coin described by Mr. Thomas. During the year 791, Abubakr, son of Zafar, succeeded to the throne of Delhi, which ac counts perhaps for the issue, or re-issue of coins with Zafar's name. The weight of the coin cannot be determined, as it is attached to a necklace.

It

bears the following legend : “The great Sultan Firuz Shah Zafar, son of Firuz Shah, the Royal, in the time of the Imam, the Commander of the Faithful, Abdullah, may his Khilatfat be prepetuated "

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with Chaldee), Syriac and Arabic might be taken as the best representatives of the first group. It seems superfluous to urge the importance of an accurate knowledge of Hebrew in a great Christian University ; this study has always flourished to some extent at Cambridge, and it is hoped that many who have already devoted themselves to it might be induced to extend their researches to the sister dialects. The connection of Syriac with the early Christian Literature, and the revival of its study in the present generation, to which the large addition of Syriac MSS. to the British Museum has in no slight degree contributed, would justify the position proposed for it in a Semitic examination. In Arabic, the intricacies of the Grammar and the

extent of the Vocabulary render an early systematic training especially necessary. Its literature is rich and varied in poetry, history and science, and indispensable to all who would fully understand the spirit of the Muhammadan religion. Not only is Arabic the spoken language of that part of the East most interesting to Europeans, but it enters

largely into the composition of Persian and Turkish. In the Aryan group, Sanskrit holds the first and foremost place. Independently of its vast literature which embraces the authoritative theological works of the Brahmans, it is the eldest sister of the Indo

European tongues, and is now acknowledged to be an indispensable aid in unravelling the structure of Greek and Latin as well as of the Germanic, Keltic and Slavonic tongues. It is the parent of most of the spoken languages of Northern India, and also of Pali, the sacred language of the Buddhists. Persian also possesses an extensive literature of

ORIENTAL STUDIES AT CAMBRIDGE.

THE Board of Oriental Studies at Cambridge has presented the following Report on Oriental Studies to the Vice Chancellor. (Dated Nov. 8, 1871). “The Board of Oriental Studies are unanimously of opinion that the time has now arrived for assign ing to the Oriental languages a more prominent position among the studies of the University. These

especial value for historic and theosophic inves tigations; it is cultiyated by the Muhammadans in India, as well as in Persia itself ; and might ther

efore be introduced with advantage into this Tripos. The Members of the Board feel that it wonld

be presumptuous to expect any great result from the establishment of Oriental Triposes, until these studies have won a

due share of the College

form at present the only great branch of learning which, though long recognized in the University by the foundation of Professorships, fails to take its proper place in our great examinations. The impulse given in the last few years to the Moral and

Natural Sciences by the establishment to Triposes suggests to the Board similar examinations in

their department as the best method, in accordance with the present University system, for fostering

the early growth of Oriental Studies.

endowments; yet they confidently hope that the University will grant, as far as lies in its power, a fair field for the growth and development of studies so intimately connected with Biblical and Ec clesiastical Literature, with the Religion of our Indian fellow-subjects, with the Science of Language, and the history of the human Mind. The Vice-Chancellor invited the attendance of Mem

bers of the Senate in the Art's School, on Monday, Nov. 20 at 2 p.m., for the discussion of this Report

As the Oriental Languages, now represented in the

University, naturally separate into two main groups the Board beg to recommend the establishment of

REVISION OF THE SINHALESE BUDD HIST SCRIPTURES.

two independent Oriental Triposes : (1) the Semitic, and (2) the Aryan. In each of these two great

IN the year 1867, through the exertions of a Sin halese nobleman named Iddamalgoda, a Synod of the Buddhist clergy, was convened at the town of Palmadulla for the purpose of correcting the Tripi faka. The Synod was under the joint presidency

divisions, it would probably be found expedient to confine the attention of the student to a few of the

leading languages rather than to encourage a superficial knowledge of many. Hebrew (together

of two eminent prelates, Sumairgala and Dhiránanda,