66 Address. [Feb. 



The Oriental Congress. — The Oriental Congress, held at Vienna 

 from the 27th September to the 2nd October last, is one of the events to 

 which this Society looks forward with particular interest and we 

 were fortunate to have as delegate Dr. Hoernle, our Philological 

 Secretary, whilst he and Mr. G. A. Grierson were present as delegates 

 from the Government of India and Dr. Bhandarkar from the Chiefs 

 of Kathiawar. Amongst the papers of interest to Indian students 

 read at the Congress, mention may be made of Mr. C. Bendall'a 

 paper on a manuscript procured by him in Nepal, which appears 

 to be a fragment of a rare work on grammar used by the Bud- 

 dhists in Nepal, and in a hitherto apparently unknown character. 

 He also noticed an inscription in the Indian Mnseum in an unknown 

 character, probably one of those alluded to in Buddhist works. Pro- 

 fessor Jolly, known to you as Tagore Law lecturer, read a short note 

 on his forthcoming edition of Manu's Institutes, of which so many 

 reprints have appeared of late. I have no doubt that the learned Pro- 

 fessor will make his issue an editio princeps, so far as careful editing and 

 annotation is concerned. Dr. Hoernle, too, gave an account of an old 

 manuscript found in the Panjab, which he shows to be a work on arith- 

 metic in the so-called Gatha dialect. Mr. G. A. Grierson read a paper 

 on the mediaeval vernacular literature of upper India with special refer- 

 ence to Tulsi Das, the translator into Hindi of the Ramayana. Captain 

 Temple, who is known to us for his labours in connection with Indian 

 archaeology and folk-lore, read a paper on the Panjabi epic Rira rdnjha 

 by Waris Shah, and urged the publication of a correct text. I trust that 

 on your behalf I may be able to say that we should gladly publish a clas- 

 sical work of the nature if we could find a competent editor. Captain 

 Temple also brought to notice that the Government of India had abo- 

 lished the appointment held by Mr. Fleet as official epigraphist. In the 

 discussion which followed it was agreed that this action of the Indian 

 Government was a real loss to science. 



Next followed a lecture by Dr. Stein on the Paropamisus or 

 Hindu Kush in ancient records. Guided by the oldest Greek form of 

 the name Pamasos, as given by Aristotle, he was enabled to identify it 

 with the mountain Upairagaena of the Zend Avesta. The meaning of 

 this latter name is ' higher than the flight of an eagle,' and, curious to 

 say, in a story given by Hiuen Tsiang, the mountain is said to be too high 

 for birds to fly over so that they have to cross it on foot. A similar 

 legend is recorded by Marco Polo, the Emperor Baber, and, in our 

 times, by Burnes. Dr. Stein considers that much information on the an- 

 cient geography of Afghanistan may be gleaned from the Zend writings. 

 Dr. Kuhn also gave a note on the dialects of the Hindu Kush from 



