imperial forces from Shahjahanabad towards Sirhind and Patiala and commenced war with the Sikhs. The war had not ended when Abdullah Khan Kashmiri received a letter from His Majesty to the effect that the Prince should return from the place. He was therefore obliged to come back to Shahjahanabad. After sometime Amirul-Umra Najaf Khan Bahadur having obtained the consent of the King, imprisoned Abdul Ahad Khan Kashmiri and escheated his house and property. A few years after this Amirul-Umara Najaf Khan died and the Mahrattas came into power. Madhoji Scindhia became supreme in matters of administration. But Gholam Qadir Khan, son of Zabita Khan, after the death of his father made his appearance at Shahjahanabad with a large force, captured Shah Alum, and sent him to prison. The villain not remaining satisfied with imprisoning the King he also blinded him. Madhoji Scindia who proceeded to the Deccan, returned to Hindustan proper and having heard of the cowardly and diabolical act committed by the miscreant Gholam Qadir Khan, resolved to meet out exemplary punishment to him. After many struggles he succeeded in catching Gholam Qadir Khan alive whom he killed after inflicting many bodily tortures on him. Madhoji Scindhia then took Shah Alum out of prison and installed him on the throne, in which condition he reigned for a long time till through the exertions of General Lake the British East India Company could establish their influence in the metropolis of India.

It is not possible for the author of this little book to give a detailed account of the journey of General Lake and his army from Calcutta towards Shahjahanabad and the countries on this side of the Sikh territory, of his fight with Holkar and Daulat Rao Scindhia, nephew of Madhoji Scindhia, of the besiege of the fort of Bharatpur and of the recognition of British supremacy in those parts of the country. In short, during the regime of the British East India Company, King Shah Alum and the residents of Shahjahanabad lived in perfect ease and comfort. On the 7th of Ramzan 1221 Hijree Shah Alum breathed his last, having reigned for 48 years and 4 months.

On the 9th of Ramzan 1221 on the death of Shah Alum, the British East India Company placed Mohammad Akbar Shah on the throne in succession to his father. They spread the news of his installation far and wide. They struck coins in his name and prayers were offered on his behalf from the pulpit. They fixed an allowance for his personal expenses and he passed his life in perfect ease up to the present, that is the year 1227 Hijree. Mohammad Akbar Shah has been reigning at Shahjahanabad, the British supremacy having been recognised all round it.

V.-Note on the Discovery of Neolithic Writing in India.

By Ramaprasad Chanda, B.A., F.A.S.B., Superintendent, Archæological Section, Indian Museum, Calcutta.

The discovery of Neolithic writing in India was almost simultaneously announced by Mr. Panchanan Mitra in an article entitled "New Light from Pre-historic India" in the Indian Antiquary of 1919 (pages 57-64) and by Professor D. R. Bhandarkar in a paper entitled "Origin of the Indian Alphabet " read at the Poona Meeting of the Oriental Conference which has already been published thrice.1 The theory of these archæolo gists has been adversely criticised by Professor Hemchandra Das-Gupta in an article entitled "On the discovery of the Neolithic Indian Script." Quite recently Professor R. C. Mazumdar of the Dacca University has lent his support to the theory by declaring that the "facts and figures" produced by Professor Bhandarkar " go a great way towards demolishing Bühler's theory" of the Semitic origin of the Brahmi script.3 Therefore Professor Bhandarkar's " facts and figures" deserve serious consideration. Professor Bhandarkar writes :

"It may be mentioned here in passing that the prehistoric pottery (bearing 130 different kinds of marks, five of which are identical with the characters of the earliest type of Brahmi lip idug out in the Hyderabad cairns is associated with the Megalithic structures which cannot be later than 1500 B. C., and that some of the pottery exhibited in the Madras Museum

1 Calcutta Review of January 1920, pp. 21-39. Proceedings and Transactions of the First Oriental Conference, Poona, Vol. II, Poona, 1922, pp. 305-318 with additions and plates in Sir Ashutosh Mukerji's Silver Jubilee Volumes, Vol. III, Part I, pp. 494-514.

" Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, New Series, 1921, Vol. XVII, pp. 210-212.

3 Ibid, Vol. XVII, 1922, p. 231.