1899.] Philological Secretary— Palm-leaf MS. from Nepal. 69 



guide. It was quite lively when dug out, and has never to my know- 

 ledge eaten anything since. It seems equally indifferent whether its 

 residence is in a bag, a basket, an empty cartridge box or a pail of 

 •water. I saw the shells of several others lying about, but whether 

 they had met their end by jungle fires or other causes I could not find 

 out. 



Mr. Finn also exhibited a head of the clucking Teal {Ne.ttium 

 formosum), from a specimen shot in India recently, and made remarks 

 upon it. 



The Philological Secretary read the following Note on the date 

 of an ancient Palm-leaf MS. from Nepal : — 



At the March Meeting of this Society, Mahamahopadhyaya 

 Haraprasad Shastri exhibited an old Palm-leaf MS. of the Astasahas- 

 rika-prajiiapai'amita which he had just acquired for the Society during 

 his recent stay in Nepal. The MS., as pointed out by him, was written 

 in Nalanda, the famous seat of Buddhistic learning, in the sixth year 

 of Mahipala, the son of Vigrahapala. The date, according to him, is 

 expressed moreover in the year 303 of an unknown era. As this state- 

 ment, if correct, might be of considerable interest, I feel compelled to 

 publish my reading of the Colophon of the MS., which is as follows : — 



^?m^V 5^T^T^T^*T^Tf^5f: cnfe^f%TTf Tf^^^Ti^^ ^^t%l^T * 



It is evident that the words read by Haraprasad Shastri as 

 ahhilikhtjamdne patrdrjhe and referred to the number of the page about 

 to be written, actually are abhilikhyamane yatrarjhe, and that they must 

 be taken as synonymous with such phrases as : yatraijpepi, a.rjkato'pi, 

 etc. There is one instance only known to me, where the same phrase 

 occurs in a date, viz., in No. 365 of Prof. Kielhorn's List of Inscriptions, 



* This should he either Tddadfji-mahavihdnya-(^uhjacdrya-, or Tddivddi- 



mahavUidr-dvaatJiita-rdkydcdrya-, 



