54 Address. [Feb. 



Undei' this head we have a paper by Mr. C. H. Tawney, c. i. e., 

 on some ancient Indian Methods of electing 

 ^History, Ethnology, Kings, published in the Proceedings of November 

 1891 ; and another by Mr. W. P. Driver on 

 some interesting Kolarian tribes of Chutia Nagpur and the borders 

 of Orissa, published in Part I of the Journal. There is also an interest- 

 ing paper in the Journal by Dr. Waddell on " Place and River Names in 

 Sikhim," in which an account is given of the different ethnic elements 

 of the population of this tract, and the etymology and meaning of 

 names derived from different sources are determined. 



In the Indian Antiquary we find papers by Mr. J. F. Fleet, c. i. E., 

 on the Chronology of the Eastern Chalukya Kings, and on the computa- 

 tion of Hindu dates ; by Major R. C. Temple, on the Burmau system 

 of arithmetic, a cumbrous system which, in a modified form, is still in 

 vogue among Hindu astrologers all over India ; by Professor Kielhorn, 

 an examination of questions connected with the Vikrama ei*a, and a 

 paper on the Saptarshi era ; and by Dr. Hoernle, two pat tavalis of the 

 Sarasvati Gachchha of the Digambara Jains, — the first publication of 

 a complete series of the Pontiffs of the Digambara section of the Jains. 

 There is also a series of papers on Indian folk-lore, by G. F. D'Penha, 

 Pandit Natesa Shastri and Putlibai D. H. Wadia. Professor Biihler 

 publishes a paper in Vol. V., Part 3, of the Vienna Oriental Journal, on 

 the origin of the Gupta Vallabhi era, in which he proves, against Fleet, 

 that the Gupta era is not a Nepalese but an Indian era, marking 

 the epoch of the accession of Chandra Gupta I to imperial rule. The 

 Journal of the German Oriental Society contains several papers of value 

 on Indian Subjects. 



The Tribes and Castes of Bengal, by H. H. Risley, c, I. E., c. s. ; 4 

 volumes. — This extensive work, consisting of 4 volumes, gives us the re- 

 sults of the ethnographic inquiry instituted by the Government of Bengal 

 in the beginning of 1885. The inquiry was originally intended to extend 

 to the whole of India, but ultimately it was not found possible to go be- 

 yond Bengal. Mr. Risley, who was placed in charge of the inquiry, has 

 succeeded in these vol nines in bringing together what appears to be an 

 exhaustive account of Bengal with reference to the tribes and castes 

 inhabiting it. In the first two volumes he gives an enumeration and 

 description of them in alphabetical order in the form of a glossary. In 

 the last two are put. together bhe tables of anthropometric data, on 

 which Mr. Ris ley's ethnographic generalisations are based. These he 

 sets out in the introduction bo the first volume, and they form not the 

 least important or interesting part of his work. The conclusions at 

 which he arrives are briefly these : The whole of India LB inhabited by a 



