44 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Jan. 



In Mr. Wheeler's interesting " History of India," mention is made 

 of " the discovery of a manuscript translation of the more important 

 portions of the Malta Bharata, which was lodged in the Library of 

 the Asiatic Society of Bengal many years ago nnder a wrong title ; 

 and which," it is said, " there is reason to believe, was drawn up by 

 the late Professor H. H. Wilson" (p.vii) As this MS. has snpplied 

 the bulk of the extracts published in Mr. Wheeler's work, a short 

 account of it will perhaps not be uninteresting to the Members of the 

 Asiatic Society. 



The MS. is a foolscap folio, and was originally half bound in calf. 

 The first eight folios are blank, and bear the late East India Company's 

 water-mark stamp, and the date 1813. The first blank page has, in 

 pencil, the words : " Translation of the Bagavita, a Sanskrit Religious 

 Book;" then, in a new line, the words "Enquire of Mr. Charles 

 Wilkins India House," and a little below, in ink, the words " Index 

 &c. N. B. The Gita commences at sheet 165." These notes evidently 

 led to the work being taken for a translation of the G'ita and to its 

 being entered in the Society's Catalogue under that title. 



Interspersed in the volume, and at the end, there are several sheets of 

 blank paper of 1813 and 1814. But the MS. itself is written on Govern- 

 ment paper of an earlier date, viz. 1809 and 1810. The writer, who seems 

 from the nature of his stationery to have been a Government servant, 

 wrote his work on loose sheets, dating and numbering each sheet as he 

 went on, and then got the whole bound in 1816. At that time, some 

 sheets were found so written, that they could not be stitched without 

 injury to the writing, and these, therefore, were put in recesses 

 made by joining with wafers two blank leaves into the form of a case. 

 Small slips containing notes have been at different places, pasted on the 

 pages, but the number of these is not large. One of these slips is written 

 on the fly-leaf of a private letter which contains the remnant of the 

 address, N. B. Hal — (?) A little slip pasted on this, is another 

 portion of the same letter, and has the words : " returned. 



I am, Dear Sir, 

 Truly yours." 

 The note written on this slip bears date the 7th July 1816. Another 

 fly leaf of a letter inserted opposite the 102nd sheet and first noticed by 

 Mr. E. C. Bayley, has 



