1903.] Report of the Xlllth Congress of Orientalists, Hambury. 67 



The Philological Secretary read abstracts from a report by Sir 

 Charles Lyall, the representative of the Government of India at the last 

 Congress of Orientalists, which was held at Hamburg in September, 1902. 

 A copy of the report was forwarded to the Society by Government : — 



6th December, 1902. 



Sir, 



I have the honour to state that, in accordance with the request con- 

 veyed in your letter of the 3rd June, 1902 (R. and L. 7231 1902), I attend- 

 ed the Xlllth Congress of Orientalists, held at Hamburg from the 4th 

 to the 10th September inclusive. 



Although I was the only official representative of the Indian 

 Government present, the Congress was attended by several gentlemen 

 either now or lately in Indian service. On the whole, however, the 

 number of representatives of India present was less than at previous 

 Congresses. 



The business of the Congress commenced with an informal meeting 

 on the evening of the 4th September, followed by a formal opening on 

 the morning of the 5th, after which the sectional sittings proceeded un- 

 interruptedly (with the interval of Sunday the 7th) until the 9th inclu- 

 sive. The 10th was devoted to the final general meeting called to con- 

 sider the resolutions passed in the Sections. The time available was thus 

 rather short — only half that allotted to the Xllth Congress at Rome in 

 October 1899— and it was not possible, as on the last occasion, to attend 

 continuously more than one Section. I was able, however, to be present 

 at most of the sittings of the Indian Section (II. A), and at some of 

 those of the Islamic Section (VI) . 



In the Indian Section on the afternoon of the 5th September I read 

 Dr. G. A. Grierson's Report on the present stage of his work on the 

 Linguistic Survey of India (copy attached), and presented to the Con- 

 gress the two volumes (No. III. Tibeto-Barman : Bodo, Naga and 

 Kachin languages, and No. VI. Indo- Aryan : Eastern Hindi) which had 

 been completed since the Xllth Congress was held at Rome in 1899. 

 A vote of thanks to the Indian Government for the organization of this 

 splendid work was' unanimously passed by the Section, and their best 

 wishes were ordered to be conveyed to Dr. Grierson for the successful 

 completion of his great undertaking. 



On the afternoon of the 6th September, before the combined Indian 

 and Central Asian Sections, Dr. M. A. Stein delivered a lecture on his 

 journey of archaeological exploration in Eastern Turkestan, and exhibited 

 a number of beautiful lantern views of the scenes visited and objects found 

 during his expedition. He also showed a select collection of the antiquities 



