Sir John Marshall in the Annual Report of the Archaeological
Burney of India for 1916-17 (Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing, 3s.) says that the famous Ajanta frescoes are decaying, and that an Italian expert has been asked to carry oat measures for their preservation. The excavation, at the early Buddhist city of Taxila, in Northern India, were continued ; a curious casket containing relics was found, and Sir John Marshall made a special journey to Kandy, at the instance of the Viceroy, to hand over the relics to the Buddhists of Ceylon, who, with much ceremony, placed them in a golden casket beside the relic which is called Buddha's tooth.—The Survey has also published an elaborate work by Mr. G. R. Kaye on The Agro- nomical Observations of Jai Singh (same publisher, M.). Jai Singh, Maharaja of Jaipur, who was born in 1686 and died in 1743, was an ardent astronomer, and built observatories at Delhi, Benares, and other cities as well as in his own capital. Mr. Kaye shows that the Maharaja possessed the best European treatises of his time, but that he was mainly influenced by the mediaeval Arabian astronomers, and especially by Ulugh Beg of Samarkand. He thus missed the opportunity of founding a modern school of astronomy in India, and his enthusiasm and wealth were spent to little purpose.
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