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3 today, for the first time took to a settled life and laid the founda- tion of a rudimentary form of democratic government. It was here that two of the great religious movements of the world— Brahminism and Zoroastrianism—took their origin. Again it was here that two of the great religious classics (the Rigveda and the Avesta) came into being. From the archæological point of view, the country is a most remarkable storehouse of antiquities, only partly touched by the hand of modern science. The Buddhist monasteries, carved out of rocks, are still the wonder of tourists and scholars. The glory of Bamian is inexhaustible. It was a great seat of culture, similar to those well known to the Indologists in Nalanda, Ajanta, Ellora, Odandapura, etc. The remains of Balkh, the "Mother of Cities" when properly unearthed, might reveal the treasures of Greco-Bactrian culture that are still hidden in the soil of Bactria. The same may be said of the valley of Bagram in Kohistan, which has finally been identified with the spot occupied by the city of Capissa made famous by Ptolemy and the Chinese pilgrim, Huien Tsang, in the seventh century A.D. Numismatic and epigraphic evidence is also very prominent in Afghanistan. The numerous varieties of ancient coins that are found here give the impression that there is no country in the world having such rich numismatic treasures. The coins that one comes across are of unusual variety—Greek, Bactrian, Thracian, Sassanian, Kushan, Hindu, ancient Afghan, Mogul, modern Afghan, etc. The inscriptions known hitherto are not very mumerous, for some parts of the country are not properly excavated as yet. Naturally, most of these are in Arabic or Persian, but there are also inscriptions in Greek, Sanskrit and Pali, and even in Aramaic in the Southern Province.