I glanced down a list of lectures to be read in the symposium on epigraphy and Shaivism. Nearly all the papers are really interesting. One has to wait for several years until the papers appear in the book form.

There are two papers relating to Nepal. 1) ' Wanton Women and Their Property: an insight into a Licchavi inscription' and 2) 'Amshuvarman and the Rise of Pashupati as the Tutelary Deity of Nepal'.

On both topics much has been written already, and I hope the authors have taken into their consideration the contributions of their predecessors. Unlike in India, in Nepal most of the first-rate research publish in the native language, in that case in Nepali. I hope the author of the second paper is aware of this fact.

In the paper, ' Wanton Women...', I presume, the author takes the same topic which Gautam Vajracharya took 21 years ago (Gautam Vajracharya, 'SHE IS BAD: A Study of Change and Continuity in the Lifesytle of Women in Ancient Nepal due to Sanskritization', in Sally J.M. Sutherland, ed., Bridging Worlds: Studies on Women in South Asia (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992), pp. 53-69.

Mahes Raj Pant.