3 
1903.] 0. Bendail— History of Nepal and surrounding Kingdoms. 
To the number of extant native chronicles the Maharaja’s library 
contains an important accession 1 in the shape of a small palm-leaf 
MS. of a Vaipsavali discovered by me shortly before I left Nepal. 
Since my return to England owing to the kind negotiation of Col. Loch? 
I have not only received an excellent copy of the MS., but also the favour 
from H.H. the Maharaja of the loan for three months of the original, so 
that I have been able to collate and photograph all important passages. 
My use of the chronicles has been adversely criticized 2 * by some 
scholars, though countenanced by others ; 8 but I venture to think that 
the discovery of the present MS. puts matters in a somewhat new 
light. 
Though written continuously in a single handwriting correspond¬ 
ing with the time (reign of Jayasthiti-malla, A.D. 1380-1394) 
at which the chronicle ends 4 (see the Plate annexed, figs. 3-10), the 
new Vam^avali really contains three distinct chronicles, designated 
accordingly in the present essay V 1 , V 2 * , V 8 . 
V 1 is in the form of brief annals of the successive reigns not unlike 
the other Varpsavalis, but giving a much greater number of dates, in 
addition to the lengths of the reigns. The leading events of each reign 
are also noticed in some cases with dates, at first in words and later on 
in numerals. 
The leaf-numbering begins at f. 17 and this portion ends with 
30 a . The language is no doubt intended for Sanskrit, but in obscurity 
and a perfectly wild absence of syntax 6 it rivals the worst colophons of 
Nepalese MSS. that I have seen. I thought at first of printing the 
whole, but after studying my transcript aud taking the advice of friends 
1 came to the conclusion that I should either have to print the whole 
without spaces, which would be misleading and unsatisfactory, or to 
publish facsimiles. For the division of words and even sentences, 
1 As the present Catalogue gives no description of the MS. the following notes 
may be of interest. No. 1231. Palm-leaf; 11 by 1^ inches, leaves 17-63, with an 
extra leaf not numbered, thus 48 in all. 
2 “ Journey,” p. 93. 
8 eg., in M. S. Levi’s investigations as to the eras of Nepal. 
4 The latest dates are N.S. 508, occurring at fol. 63b. and 509 at 68a. It 
will be seen both from my Cambridge Cat. (c/. Intr. p. xxxi), and from the present 
Catalogue that palm-leaf MSS. become rare (owing to the general use of paper) 
within about a century from this time. 
8 Scientific students of the vernaculars may probably find ‘method in its 
madness.’ The frequent locution or for ^ or cer * 
tainly suggests the familiar Hindi ^ Towards the end (ff. 29 b, 30) 
*■ r 
it drops into a form of langunge which is practically Newari with an unusually 
large allowance of words borrowed from Aryan sources. 
