32 Profesnor 0. Bendall. , [FeB. 



and the Jfinayrina or "small vehiL-lo." The books of those two sects 

 are written respectively in a mixed Sanskrit dialect, also called Gatha 

 dialect, and in Pali. Tiie latter hooks have been hitherto found only 

 in Ceylon, Burma, and Siani, and Piili is <;enerally believed to have dis- 

 appeared fi'om India proper at an eai'ly date in the history of Buddhism. 

 The discovery, however, of a frao^ment in Gupta writing' of the 9th 

 century A.D., containing' part of the GiiUavagga from the Vinnya-sec- 

 tiou of the Pali Tripitaka, shows that the Iiitherto universally accepted 

 theory as to the early disappeai'ance of Pali fiom India cannot be 

 any longer upheld. This MS. is the first Pali book found on the con- 

 tinent of India. 



The discovery of early MSS also tends to settle questions of 

 literary history. Thus the extant Puranas have been pronounced by 

 most critical scholars to be quite modern compilations, the oldest of 

 them not earlier than the 9tli centuiy A.D. In (his connection it is of 

 gi-eat value that a MS. of a considerable portion of the Skcmdnpum/ia, 

 written not later than the 9th century A.D., has come to light in Nepal. 

 The interesting MS. has been acquired by Haraprasad f'astrl for your 

 collection, and you may expect to hear from my learned friend more 

 about the inipoi tance of the book on the general history of the Puranas. 



Another valuable find is the discovery of two old copies of Vidydpati's 

 poems. The works of this famous author have hitherto been chiefly 

 known from bad, modernized editions which Avere of no value for lingu- 

 istic purposes. The new manuscript pi-obably will prove of great 

 importance for settling the difficult question as to what the language 

 used by Vidyapati actually was. 



In connection with history, I must mention the great importance 

 for historical purposes of Colophons of ancient dated MSS. What is 

 wanted for the history of India previous to the Muhammadan period, is 

 a series of contempoi'aiy evidence of scribes as put down in those 

 Colophons of MSS. Of such dates bearing kings' names I have been 

 able to collect for Nepal a series of not less than sixty, ranging from 

 1000-1600 A D., thus giving a fairly complete outline of the history of 

 these centuries. 



For Inscriptions Nepal has already proved an excellent hunting- 

 ground. Bhagvanlal Indraji in 1873, I myself in 1884, Prof. S. Levi 

 in 1897, discovered a lark'e number of most valuable epigraphical 

 documents. In addition to those, my recent journey has yielded about 

 fifteen new Inscriptions, most of which are of considerable antiquity 

 and im[)ortanoe for the history of Ancient Nepal. 



Modem Nepal, its population with their customs and superstitions, 

 also is a promising field to the student of ethnology or folk-lore. 



