Khan Quraishi, the most famous of the Moghal Governors of Bihar. In the struggle between Shah Jahan's sons Daud Khan fought at first on the side of Dara Shik oh, but after Dārā's cause had become hopeless, he transferred his allegiance to Aurangzeb. He fought on Aurangzeb's side against Shah Shujah; and when the latter retreated eastwards he was made Subadar of Bihar. Daud Khan took an active part in the campaign which ended in the final defeat of Shah Shujah. His next enterprise was the invasion of Palamau (1660 A.D.) where he captured without difficulty the Chero Kaja's wellknown forts near Betla. On his return journey he founded, on the bank of the Sone, the town of Daudnagar, where his descendants still have their home. After holding charge of Bihar for five years, Daud Khan was transferred to the Subah of Khandesh where he took part in the operations against Sivaji. He subsequently held charge in turn of the Subahs of Berar and Allahabad.

The Khan Bahadur has also given an account of the life and writings of Golam Ali Rasik, who lived at Patna in the latter half of the eighteenth century. A complete collection of this poet's voluminous writings is to be found in the atna Oriental Library.

The June number of our Journal contains two papers by Mr. D. N. Sen, Principal of the Bihar Miscellaneous. National College. In one of these papers Mr. Sen discusses a number of sites in Rajgir, which are associated with Buddha and his disciples. Many of these sites have now been definitely identified, thanks to the labours of Sir John Marshall, Mr. Jackson and others. In the other paper Mr. Sen examines the relationship between Buddhism and Vedantism, and shows that both arose out of the same movement of thought, resulting in the one case in the doctrine of a Transcendent Being in the background, and in the other of a transcendent state of being, in which the finite, the unreal and ephemeral ultimately lose themselves. The Vedantist attains salvation by contemplation and the Buddhist by right conduct.

In a paper in the June number Mr. Sikdar reviews all the references to education which are to be found in the Jatakas. From the frequency with which Taxila is mentioned, he infers that that place was the chief intellectual centre of the age, to which students flocked from all parts of northern India. Benares came next in importance. There were also numerous hermits who gave instruction to their disciples in the great forests with which the country at that time was covered. Most of the students lived in residence, those who could afford to pay the fees being treated as sons; while those who could not, performed menial luties in return for the instruction which they received. Discipline was strict and corporal punishment was in

vogue.

Rai Bahadur Joges Chandra Ray has described the sugar industry in ancient India. He says that while there is no mention in the Vedas of any saccharine substance other than honey, the occurrence of the word ikshu shows that the sugarcane was known, and as it could not have grown wild in northern India it must already have been cultivated there. The art of manufacturing gur and other products was already known in the fifth century B.C.

The Patna Muscum, in the cstablishment of which our Society took a prominent part, continues to Patna Museum. develop satisfactorily, and it already contains a large number of very interesting exhibits. The most valuable is perhaps the beautiful polished stone statue of a female, which was mentioned in Mr. Walsh's address last year. Dr. Spooner's paper on this statue has been somewhat delayed, but it will appear in the next issue of the Journal. Thanks to Mr. Walsh's intervention, the Museum has recently obtained from the Indian Museum in Calcutta a number of statues which had been sent there from Bihar many years ago. The Museum has also received from Dr. Spooner the valuable collection of 231 seals found by him at Basarh. The inscriptions and emblems on these seals convey much valuable information for instance they confirm the identification of Vaiśāli with modern

Basarh. We hope shortly to get also the seals, coins, terracotta figures, etc., which were dug up by Dr. Spooner in the course of the excavations at Kumrahar which were paid for by the late Sir Ratan Tata, whose name will be permanently associated with this collection. In this connexion I cannot refrain from mentioning the remarkable discovery just made by Mr. Jayaswal that the inscriptions on two figures which were found a century ago in a field near Kumrahar and are now in the Calcutta Museum, show that they represent two kings of the Śaisunāka line who lived in the fifth century B.C. namely Udayin, who founded the city of Patna, and his son, Nandi Vardhana. I wish it were possible to get back these statues and set them up in the city where they ruled more than 2,300 years ago. If I may be permitted a further digression, I would mention that the Patali tree (stereospermum suaveolens) to which Patna owes its name, has recently been found growing in the neighbourhood of Kumrahar, and I am taking steps to have this tree, which bears a yellow trumpet-shaped flower, planted out in various parts of the city.

To revert to the Museum. It now contains as good a collection as is to be found anywhere in India of ancient stone and copper implements. It also contains a fair collection of articles of ethnographic interest and specimens of many different minerals. The hilly portion of Bihar and Orissa is rich in mineral wealth, and it is therefore very desirable that special attention should be paid to the mineralogical section of the Museum My friend Dr. Hayden has recently inspected our collection, and has promised to depute an officer of the Geological Survey to prepare a proper catalogue of it and to make arrangements for filling in the gaps which still exist.

The collection of coins, though still a small one, is steadily Coin Cabinet, growing. The Hon'ble Mr. Walsh is now in charge of the coin cabinet. He has arranged every coin in a separate envelope, on which he has recorded its description, and has prepared a register in which all particulars regarding each coin are given in a very complete form. This register already contains about 900 entries.

Work of the Archeological Survey.

Another matter to which the Society has devoted attention is Search for Sanskrit the systematic examination of SanManuscripts. skrit manuscripts in private libraries. The importance of this measure was urged upon the Local Government by the Council of our Society, with the result that two Pandits have been appointed to work in Orissa and Tirhut, respectively. The Orissa Pandit was appointed about two years ago. His work has been supervised at intervals by Mahamahopadhyaya Hara Prashad Shastri, and it was recently inspected by Mr. Jayaswal. The Pandit has now catalogued nearly 6,000 manuscripts including 300 of works yet unpublished, and has discovered several of considerable importance, including one of the Prakrita Sarvasva by Markaṇḍēya. This manuscript which belongs to Mahāmahopadhyāya Pandit Sadasiv Misra of Puri, has been lent by that gentleman to Sir George Grierson, who after photographing it has just returned it to the owner. Sir George Grierson is publishing a critical edition of this important work. Another valuable discovery is a metrical history of the Ganga dynasty which was composed in 1441 A.D. A Vedic grammar (chhandōvyākarana) by one Javadāsa and a new commentary on the Rāmāyana by Hari Pandit have also come to light.

During the year which has elapsed since his appointment the Tirhut Pandit has catalogued 1,680 works of which 175 are unpublished. In 22 of these manuscripts the colophons contain the names of kings of Mithila. Amongst the unpublished manuscripts is a work on politics by Chandeśvara entitled Rajanīti Ratnākara which is now being edited by our Secretary. A manuscript in the poet Vidyapati's own handwriting which recently came to light has been purchased by the Maharaja of Darbhanga. Another interesting find (in Patna) is that of a paper copy of the Bhagavata Purana dated Samvat 1146 (1188 A.D.). This is probably the oldest manuscript on paper yet discovered in India.

Dr. Spooner has continued his excavations at Nalanda. He has driven a broad trench 1,500 feet long from south to north, crossing the whole series of stupas, which promises to lead to fresh

discoveries of inter st. It has already resulted in the discovery of a splendid stone statue of Avalokitesvara. Another find of interest is that made by Mr. Panday at Salempur near Hajipur of the capital of a Mauryan pillar; it is of fine-grained sandstone and consists of two pairs of bulls set back to back. Mr. Panday has also found the head of a stone lion which appears to belong to the Mauryan period and is possibly the capital of the pillar near Maɛarh in the Shahabad district which Hiuen Tsang mentioned as bearing an inscription. If so, there is hope that the pillar itself with the inscription may be found in the sa ne locality. Arrangements have recently been made with the Director-General of Archæology for the deputation of the Curator of the Museum to make a further examination of the traces of human habitation in the caves and ruddle drawings at Singanpur, which form the subject matter of Mr. Anderson's paper mentioned by me above, and also of some other caves which have been reported near Rhotas and Harchok. Good progress is now being made with the preparation of an archæological atlas for the province showing by means of conventional marks the places where ancient monuments of various kinds (prehistoric, Buddhist, etc.) are to be found.

In conclusion, Gentlemen, I would appeal once more for fresh recruits and research workers. To the archeologist, the historian, the anthropologist and the geologist alike, our province is one of the most interesting in India. There is a wide field for research, but the real workers are still very few in number, while the number of members who have contributed brief notes to the section provided at the end of the Journal for miscellaneous contributions has been extremely small. I would again invite the attention of all our members to what I said on this subject in my first annual address.

There is one more matter to which I must refer, and that is the fact that our Vice-President Mr. Walsh is shortly going on leave preparatory to retirement. Mr. Walsh has a high reputation as a scholar, and for many years past he has rendered valuable services to the cause of Indian research. He has done