1889.] Address.. 59 



he lias added an elaborate introduction, discussing the historical ques- 

 tions connected with king Yasovarman of Kananj whose exploits are 

 related in the poem. With regai'dto the Jaina Prakrit, Dr. A. F. Rudolf 

 Hoernle's edition of the Uvdsagadasdo in our own B ibliotheca Indica 

 deserves attention as being the first complete edition of a Jain 

 work, furnishing in full the Prakrit Text, Sanskrit commentary, and 

 English translation with explanatory notes. The work is the seventh 

 of the earliest sacred books (or Agamas) of the Jainas, and sets forth 

 the rules of conduct incnmbent on a Jain layman. A most valuable 

 contribution to the study of Jainism is Professor A. Weber's " Cata- 

 logue of Jain MSS. in the Royal Library of Berlin." 



Zend and Palilavi. — With reference to Zend your attention may be 

 drawn to Dr. Karl P. Geldner's standard edition of the " Avesta, the 

 Sacred Books of the Parsis," the publication of which is making satis- 

 factory progress. I may also note Mr. H. D. J. Jamasp-Asana and Mr. 

 E. W. West's joint edition of the Pazand Sanskrit Text together with a 

 fragment of the Pahlavi, (in the Bombay Sanskrit Series), to which the 

 editors have added a comparative vocabulary and introduction. 



Arabic. — The most noteworthy publication in Arabic literature is 

 Professor E. Sachau's English Translation, with notes and indices, of 

 Alberuni's ' India,' the Arabic text of which has been published a year 

 before. The same scholar, in his Indo-Arabische Sttidien, makes an in- 

 teresting contribution to the elucidation of the pronunciation and history 

 of the Indian Vernaculars in the earlier half of the eleventh century as 

 evidenced in Albiruni's 'India.' W. E. Gasselin's French- Arabic Diction- 

 ary, is making satisfactory progress. I may also note W. C. Salemann's 

 edition of the Miyar-i-Jarnali, a full account of which the editor has 

 given in Vol. XXXII of the Bulletin of the Imperial Academy of Sciences 

 of St. Petersburg. The issue of the first volume of the second edition 

 of the Catalogue of Arabic MSS. in the Library of the Leyden Academy, 

 by M. J. de Goeje and M. Th. Houtsma, is also deserving of notice. 



Modem Indian Literature. — The progress made in Modern Indian 

 Literature in general may be best seen from the ' Catalogues of Books 

 printed in British India,' which are published quarterly in every Province 

 under the provisions of Act XXV of 1867. It is a very large and inter- 

 esting subject, but I can only briefly refer to it in this place, and so far as 

 the catalogues have been available. In general, it may be said that there is 

 a kind of family likeness observable in the lists of Vernacular and English 

 works published in the various provinces. The majority of the writers 

 are Hindus, brought up under very similar circumstances and influences. 

 In Bengal, the Xorth-West, the Panjab, Bombay and Madras, the provin- 

 ces which have any considerable literature, they are inspired by the 



