1900.] Annual Address, 25 



dealing with set formulas — creeds, prayers, or incantations, or whatever 

 one may call them, — possibly or probably Buddhistic, — the virtue of 

 which was supposed to be in f)roportioii to their repetitions." As 

 regards the genuineness of these books, which has been doubted; Dr. 

 Hoernle, after careful consideration of tlie evidence, decides in favour of 

 all or almost all of the books examined by him. 



At the last annual meeting, we had the pleasure of listening to an 

 account by Professor Bendall of the results of a tour made by him and 

 Mahamahopadhyaya Hara Prasad Shastri in Nepal in search of Manu- 

 scripts and Inscriptions. One of the results of this journey was the 

 discovery of an old Manuscript of tiie poems of Vidyapati, which 

 in many important points differs widely from the versions now 

 current in India, An edition of this interesting Manuscript is now 

 being prepared by Mahamaliopadhyaya Hara Prasad Shastri for the 

 Bibliotheca Indica Series. He also has published in the Proceedmgs of 

 the Society a notice of another interesting Manuscript discovered by him 

 in JN'epal. It is a Buddhistic work, the Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita, 

 which was written in N^alanda, the famous seat of Buddhistic learning 

 in Behar, during the time of Mahipala, in the beginning of the eleventh 

 century A.D. 



In connection with Manuscripts, I may mention that a list of all 

 the Sanskrit Manuscripts kept in the Society's Library has been pre- 

 pared by one of the Society's Pandits. It has been compiled on the 

 same lines as the Catalogues of our Persian and Arabic Manuscripts, 

 and it is published under the supervision of the Philological Secretaries. 

 During the last year the first fasciculus has been issued. As no 

 catalogue of our Sanskrit Manuscripts existed, it is hoped that the 

 present list will supply a decided want, and that it will be welcomed 

 by all those who take an interest in Sanskrit studies. 



In the Bibliotheca Indica Series, a number of new publications, 

 besides those already referred to, have been taken up during the last 

 year. Among them is an English translation of Merutunga's Prahan- 

 dhacintamani, by Professor Tawney. This work, among many legendary 

 tales, contains some valuable historical information about the kings of 

 Malwa and Gujarat, and is often referred to in Forbes's Ras Mala. The 

 Upamiti-hhava-prapanca-katha is the oldest collection in India of alle- 

 gorical stories. It was composed in Sanskrit by a Jaina author, 

 Siddharsi by name, in the 9th century A.D. An edition of the same 

 was begun by Professor Peterson ; but, unfortunately only two fasciculi 

 and the greater part of tlie third fasciculus had been finished at the 

 time of his death. The work is now in the hands of Professor Jacobi 

 of Bonn, one of the greatest living authorities on Jaina Literature. 



