74 Annual Address. [Feb. 



In all 28 temple inscriptions, 6 inscriptions on cannon, 48 copper- plates 

 and 69 coins have been found and examined, the earliest of which dates 

 from IS'M A.D. The information obtained from these sources has been 

 utilised for checking the information recoided by Kafinafch ; and so far 

 as they go, the result has been to confirm the accuracy of his chronology 

 in a remarkable degree. The majority of the coins collected were in 

 the Sanskrit language and Nagari character, but some of them were in 

 the Ah5m language and character. These latter, which have long been 

 a puzzle to numismatists, were deciphered by the Ah5m translator, and 

 the readings were published by Mr. Gait, in 1895, in our Journal, 

 together with information on the Ahom system of chronology. In the 

 same volume of our Journal, Mr. Gait also gave some account of the 

 coinage of the Koch king§.S7 



Previous to these enquiries, verj? little was known of the history 

 of the Rajas of Jaintia who ruled over the Jaintia Hills and the portion 

 of the Sylhet district which lies to the North of the Surma river. 

 Some traditions regarding these kings have been collected, and ten coins 

 and five copper plates have been found, which prove the accuracy of a 

 traditional list of twenty kings, so far as the last fourteen names in it 

 are concerned, and furnish materialsfor forming a fairly accurate estimate 

 of the dates when they ruled. The results arrived at wei e published by 

 Mr. Gait in 1895 in our Journal. ^^ 



The state chronicles of the kings of Manipur have been translated 

 under the order of Colonel H. St. P. Maxwell, C. S. I., the Political Agent 

 and Superintendent of the State. The chronicles professedly commence 

 with the birth of the first king of Manipur in 334 A.D., but cannot be 

 relied on for a narrative of actual fact until the eai ly part of the fifteenth 

 century. 



In addition to the above, a number of manuscripts containing 

 traditions of old rulers, legends and mythology, have been collected and 

 translated, and a list has been prepared of all known books and papers 

 bearing on the history, etlmology, &rj., of the Assam Province.^Q 



Since the publication in 1880 of my Comparative Grammar of the 

 Gaudian Languages, no material progress has been made in our general 

 knowledge of the Sanskritic languages of JNorthern India. In some 

 points of detail, however, there has beeji a considerable advance, and 

 this has been almost wholly due to the researches of my colleague in 

 these studies. Dr. G. A. Grierson, CLE. They principally concern tiie 



8T See our Journal, Vol. LXIV, pp. 237 and 286. 

 S6 See Vol. LXIV, p. 242. 



86 The account- of the Assam Survey is based on a note kindly supplied by 

 Mr. Gait. 



