CORRESPONDENCE.

1. LE THÉÂTRE PERSAN.

June 10, 1890.

SIR,-M. Montet's letter in the April Journal is one of considerable interest-involving no less important a question than the regeneration of Persia. There is much that could be said or written in support of the views enunciated, but I will confine my remarks to a brief comment on his theory of the Religious Drama in contradistinction to the very secular "Comédies" of Mirza Fath 'Ali.

I fully agree with him in his assertion that "la religion est le souverain bien de l'homme:" also that the t'aziya "peut, sous l'influence de circonstances que nous ne saurions prévoir, circonstances religieuses avant tout, devenir le point de départ d'un mouvement patriotique, d'un relèvement national, d'une rénovation sociale." Moreover, that the particular plays recently translated from the Turkish, "n'apartiennent qu'indirectement au théâtre persan, d'autant plus qu'elles ne paraissent point avoir été jouées en Orient, où elles n'ont eu qu'on médiocre succès de lecture;" and "ne sont qu'une imitation, un pastiche, des comédies européennes."

But what is the probable reason why these plays have not been acted, nor the teaching of them encouraged in Persia? May it not be that they touch too keenly the sore points of the Persian character, and interpret too plainly the national vanity which kills every germ of enlightenment obtained from outside influences? They lay bare for the first time in Oriental literature a painful Truth, acquaintance with which is the first step to reformation. My humble opinion is that a drastic treatment such as this would open the minds of the

more simple-minded native to the wretched shams which he has been taught to acknowledge as Justice and equitable government, and to the real character of those whose decisions he has been trained to respect and obey-consequently, to the consciousness of power to rise from his self-imposed abasement and become a free and thinking creature.

The religious drama, unlike the teaching of Western Christianity, has nothing to impart to its student regarding himself; nor does the sympathy evoked in his breast for the first martyrs of his Faith find vent in practical relief of the distress of his fellow-men, or cause him to give attention to his surroundings, and see whether he can suggest a remedy for their bodily wants and moral shortcomings. If Mirza Fath 'Ali's plays do not attempt high teaching, they are at least suggestive of a healthy innovation, which many Persians now living are capable of turning to good account, both for themselves and their countrymen. As to their value for English students of the language of S'adi and Háfiz, I can only express my belief that nothing can approach them in usefulness for colloquial purposes among all the books hitherto recognized by the Government of India.

The Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society.

F. J. GOLDSMID.

2. DERIVATION OF THE WORD "GANGA."

SIR, I suggested in p. 542 of the present Number of the Royal Asiatic Society's Journal the possibility of there being some connection between the ancient name of Bengal, Vanga, the river Veh of the Zendavesta encircling the sacred land of the Aryans, and the goddess Ashi Vanguhi; and further pointed out that it might be possible that the Kusikas of Iran, when they settled in India, should have extended their sacred Veh or boundary river from the Indus to the Ganges.

It has since occurred to me that a further argument in support of this contention might be derived from the name of the sacred river Guñgā.

The name Gangā appears among a list of goddesses in Rigveda ii. 32. 7, in the form Gungu (Grassmann, Rigveda, vol. i.

p. 223), where it is said by Sayaṇa to mean the full moon, and again in Rigveda x. 48. 8, where Indra is said to have led the Atithigwa (a name of the Tṛtsus) to the Guñgū, and here it must mean the river.

Grassmann derives Gañgā from "gam" gam" to go, and the name is usually said to mean "the goer." But the termination "gu," which is a Dravidian nominal suffix, seems to point to a Dravidian origin of the name, and neither the Maghas, the sons of the great Akkadian goddess, the mother earth, nor the sons of Kuş, who were the joint rulers of the Gangetic valley, spoke an Aryan language.

The derivation of the name of the sacred river, the mothergoddess of the Hindus, from the root "gam" to go, seems unmeaning, nor is there any apparent reason why a name meaning the "goer" should be transferred to the full moon; but if we turn to Akkadian roots, which must have suggested the name given to the sacred river by the Akkadian Maghas, we find the root "gan" to enclose, which as a noun is applied in the Bible to the Garden of Eden. This, as the sacred garden of God, answers to the Vara of Yima in the Zendavesta, where the seeds of life are sown and is called Gan-Edin. The root "gan" would, with the addition of the Dravidian nominal suffix, as in Bhrigu, where "gu" is added to the root "bhri," mean the encloser, or the sacred mother who enclosed in her womb the holy land, which was first sacred to the mother of the Maghas, and afterwards to the moongoddess, the special patron of the sons of Kuş, who was made by them the measurer of the year.

The Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society.

J. F. HEWITT.

NOTES OF THE QUARTER.

(April-June, 1890.)

I. GENERAL MEETINGS OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY.

21st April, 1890.-Sir THOMAS WADE, President, in the Chair.

The election of Dr. Bang as a non-resident member of the Society was announced to the meeting.

Professor Sir M. MONIER-WILLIAMS read the paper, a full report of which is published in this Number. After a discussion, in which Mr. Thornton, Professor Bendall, Mr. Lyon, and Mr. Hyde Clarke took part, it was resolved to request the Council to appoint a Committee chosen from all members of the Society to consider the best method of carrying out the proposals put forward by the lecturer.

19th May, 1890.-The anniversary meeting of the Society was held on Monday, May 19, at the premises of the Society, 22 Albemarle Street, London, W., Sir Thomas Wade, the retiring President, taking the chair at the commencement of the proceedings. Among the other members present were the Right Hon. the Earl of Northbrook, G.C.S.I., F.R.S., the Right Hon. the Earl of Powis, LL.D., D.C.L., the Right Hon. Sir M. E. Grant-Duff, G.C.S.I., F.R.S., Major-General Sir H. C. Rawlinson, G.C.B., D.C.L., F.R.S., Sir Monier Monier-Williams, K.C.I.E., D.C.L., Gen. Robert Maclagan, R.E., F.R.S.E., and Mr. Howorth, M.P.

The election of Mr. L. van Deventer as a non-resident member was announced to the meeting.

The SECRETARY having read the minutes of the last meeting,

The CHAIRMAN said: To proceed at once to the business part of our proceedings, I am delighted to report that the Society's condition, although not triumphantly prosperous, is exceedingly healthy. We have a larger number of members than we have ever had since the foundation of the Society, namely, 441, including 27 honorary members. On the 1st of June there will be published, for the first time, a list showing the proportions of the different classes of members, resident and non-resident, ordinary and honorary. The absence of that information makes it somewhat difficult properly to estimate our present position from a financial standpoint, but I may state with confidence that we have a respectable credit. Our income, as you are aware, is made up of a Government. grant of £200, of subscriptions from members, and of profits resulting from the publication of our Journal. We supply copies of the Journal to members, but large numbers are taken in addition by public libraries and other institutions. In regard to the Journal, a considerable improvement has been effected in the system of publication adopted, especially as affects the advertisement branch. Formerly we received only half of the proceeds of the sale of the Journal; we now receive 90 per cent. And whereas formerly we received nothing for advertisements, we now get £100 a year. Under the new rules non-members are allowed to subscribe to the Society's Journal, an innovation intended chiefly to accommodate libraries. Under this arrangement eleven libraries have already been entered in the list of subscribers, seven of which joined in the course of the financial year now under review, while thirty-seven subscriptions were received from various booksellers on behalf of other libraries. It is hoped that this source of our receipts, which is always so encouraging, will steadily grow in the future. As to our balance-sheet, we are out of debt, and have nearly the same amount to our credit as last year, and this although we have already paid the expenses of five quarters' publications. We have been in the habit, at least for the past few years, of not paying these expenses of our October quarter until the following January. This year, by paying five quarters in one year, we have put