46 Address. [Feb., 



that in its old age it lias lost little of the vigour of its youth, and I 

 congratulate you on the result. 



Bibliotheca Indica. — The fourth issue of our Society is the 'Bibliothe- 

 ca Indica ' in which are published texts or translations of hitherto unpub- 

 lished or untranslated works. The scheme was formulated and accepted 

 many years ago chiefly through the exertions of our late member, Mr. 

 J. W. Laidlay, and we have abundant testimony to the fact that it has 

 well subserved the advancement of Oriental learning throughout the 

 world. Its parts, as published, are sent free not only to nearly all the 

 Oriental Societies and principal Universities in the world, but to many 

 distinguished scholars, who would not otherwise, perhaps, be able to obtain 

 them. Thirty-eight numbers were issued during the year, of which 11 

 belong to the Persian- Arabic series, and 27 to the Sanskrit series, bring- 

 ing the total issues to nearly 600. All the parts of the Persian series are 

 continuations of works previously sanctioned, and include Mr. Lowe's 

 welcome translation of Badaoni. The parts of the Sanskrit series are also 

 chiefly continuations, and for them we have, in addition to our able local 

 staff, secured the services of several well-known European scholars, such 

 as Professor Jacobi of Kiel, Professor Julius Jolly of Wiirzburg, and Pro- 

 fessor A. Hillebrandt of Breslau. 



In connection with the Bibliotheca Indica, I may here mention that 

 amongst the matters that engaged the attention of your Council 

 during the year was the furtherance of a scheme for furnishing aids to 

 the study of Tibetan. The very valuable collection of Tibetan MSS. 

 presented to the Society by Mr. B. H. Hodgson has been rearranged, and 

 the contents collated, by a Buddhist Lama from the Tibetan district of 

 Hor-tol : the catalogue formed is in the press and will be printed under 

 the supervision of Babu Pratapa Chandra Ghosha. Steps have also been 

 taken to publish without, at present, any attempt at editing, selections 

 from these manuscripts and thus open this long-neglected source of 

 knowledge to European students. There are few in Europe and fewer 

 still in India who make Tibetan a special study, and the principal reason 

 is, I believe, the absence of texts. The first difficulty was the want of a 

 good fount of type, for that used by Csoma de Koros for his dictionary 

 and grammar, the only one at present in India, is in some respects 

 defective. Mr. Thomas, our printer, has liberally come forward and 

 relieved us from this difficulty by ordering a special fount from Europe, 

 which is expected to arrive at an early date. Many of these Tibetan texts 

 were translated from the original Sanskrit by Indian pandits in the tenth 

 to the twelfth centuries, and, I am told, appear to possess a purer and 

 more correct version in some cases than can now be found in India, whilst, 

 for others, the Sanskrit original is still unknown. 



