The letter which is about to be read, not having been prepared for submission to the Society, may require a few introductory explanations.

Bámíán, a site of considerable fame in the travels and expeditions of the last sixty or seventy years, stands at a height of some 8500 feet, in a valley of the region occupied by Hazára tribes, on the chief road between Kabul and Turkestan, and almost close to the northern base of that part of the Indian Caucasus which is known, from one of its prominent peaks, as Koh-i-bábá.

Of all the known languages of the world, Sumerian may undoubtedly be regarded as the oldest. We possess now inscriptions (e.g. of the ancient Chaldean King Ur-ģanna of Sigrulla) which are of an even earlier date than the timeof the half-mythical Egyptian King Menes. Our sources for the knowledge of this language—the language of the founders of the Babylonian civilization—are twofold, namely: a long series of bilingual incantations, hymns, psalms, etc., preserved in late copies, giving the original text, line for line, with its Semitic (Babylonian or Assyrian) translation; and a great many inscriptions, in Sumerian only, of the early kings, most of them very short, but some of considerable length.

In his “Tree and Serpent Worship,” our late honoured Vice-President, James Fergusson, called attention to the similarity observable between certain symbols found on the Buddhist Topes of Sāñchi and Amarāvati, and others found on sculptured buildings and coins of Western Asia and Eastern Europe; and in doing so he expressed a hope that this subject would be taken up and developed by other writers. Discussing the origin of the object known as the triśula he said, “It is curiously like the sign of the planet Mercury, or the caduceus of the god of that name; and, if it were not rank heresy even to hint at such a thing, I would venture to suggest that, after all, there may be some connexion between at least the symbolism of the East and West.”

Assyriology offers such a vast field still unexplored that it is hardly possible to open a new tract without falling on some unexpected discovery. That is how, studying Babylonian astronomy, a subject so difficult that few scholars have ventured to take it, I arrived, after many doubts and hesitations, at the conclusion that, when the Akkadians appeared in Mesopotamia, the country was already occupied by a Semitic population possessing a certain degree of civilization and the art of writing.

Exactly two years ago it was my good fortune to lay before this Society my discovery of the system on which the hymns of the Rig-Veda were arranged,—a discovery of the highest interest to the student of the Vedas, not only by throwing unexpected light on ancient philosophical theology; but by giving back to the world the Liturgy of the ancient Brahmans,—all knowledge of the true character of which had been lost, even in India itself, for about 3000 years. Again I appear before you in the character of Veda-Vyasa, in order to lay before you the system on which the hymns of the Adi Granth are arranged.