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'Unto us a Child is Born' - a manuscript documenting the story of the rise and fall of a supposed miracle or holy child in a village near the Indo-Afghan border. The narrator describes himself as a junior officer serving in an administrative capacity. The story is of interest to him for its potential disruption to the area as people took sides believing or negating the child, who showed his holiness by wanting his father rather than his mother. The incident occurred a little while after Halley's comet had been visible in the night sky which some took to be a portent. The matter died down once the child started preferring its mother.

The story would seem to be related by somebody in the nineteenth century, but the document is from the mid-twentieth century. There are no identifiers as to the author or the narrator, so it is possibly a transcription of an earlier text or a work of fiction.

Documents of Marathi history dating to the eighteenth and nineteenth century presented to the Royal Asiatic Society by Sir Alexander Malet in 1828 and by General John Briggs in 1874. The papers donated by Briggs are predominantly correspondence from the Peshwa Court at the time of Nana Fadnavis and were given by Nana Fadnavis' widow to Briggs in 1825. Those from Malet were collected by his father, Sir Charles Warre Malet, during his political career in India and are predominantly handwritten accounts of Marathi history.

Each of the documents also has a description provided by Simon Digby when Honorary Librarian at the Royal Asiatic Society from 1970. The documents written in Marathi are in modi script.

Twelve notebooks containing the author's notes on India, its religions and inscriptions, mainly extracts from, and comments upon, published authors' works.

A series of accounts or response forms concerning Indian districts. These are handwritten on Indian paper and the accounts are accompanied by letters. One of these has been identified as an 'arzee' or response form from a junior to a senior. The junior identifies himself as Syed Mehdi Hasan and he is responding to a question posed as to whether or not the provinces demarcated in the Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Faz still exist. The response is that there are many changes which Syed Mehdi Hasan then lists. This letter is dated to 1844.

Further material has yet to be identified. One sheet bears the English words 'Benares and Mirzapore' (Varanasi and Mirzapur).

"Diccionario Grandonico Malabar Portvguez" - a dictionary of Malayalam and Sanskrit words written in Malayalam script, explained in Portugese. The title page is printed and dates the book to Verapoly, 1745. A Malayalam and English inscription on the title page states that the book was purchased by Lieut. M.S. Osbourne from J. de Santos, Sheristadar, of Tellicherry Adaulatt, in 1795. The volume is bound with marbled cover. The front board is loose from the spine. With the book is a typed label with an identifying description.

Rubbings of 8 inscriptions made by Archibald Campbell Carlleyle from an ancient temple which he calls Uncha Pahar. He visited this in January 1872 as part of the Archaeological Survey of India. Each of these are labelled, signed by Carlleyle, and dated January 1872:

• Ornament, and inscription at the bottom of the octagonal lower portion of the shaft of the unique round pillar in the pillared vestibule in front of the "Sanctum" of the ancient ruined temple, "Uncha Pahar".
• Inscription in entrance of vestibule, of ancient ruined temple "Uncha Pahar".
• Inscription on a pillar at left side of doorway of "Sanctum" of ancient ruined temple "Uncha Pahar".
• Inscription in two lines on a stone leaning against a wall below the old temple "Uncha Pahar".
• No. 10 Inscription Above first statue on the left hand "Santum" of ancient temple "Uncha Pahar".
• No. 13 Above central statue of "Agni" in "Sanctum" of ancient temple "Uncha Pahar".
• No. 15 Inscription Above central statue on Right hand wall In "Sanctum" of ancient temple "Uncha Pahar".
• On stone bench at the right side in entrance to Vestibule of ancient temple "Uncha Pahar".

A translation into the Braj Bhasha dialect of Hindi of Raja Niti, a version of the Hitopadesha, a series of fables. The translation was undertaken for John Gilchrist by Lallūjī Lāl Kavi and the scribe was Siva Prasanna Diivedi. it is dated to V.S. 1858/ Sāka 1825 which equates to 1802-3. The work was made for John Gilchrist when he was principal of Fort William College, Kolkata.

Pasted inside the front cover is a handwritten explanation of the Hitopadesha taken from 'Colebrooke's Preface to the "Hitopadesa" in the original Sanscrit'. The last front paper bears an English description of the work, the signature of John Romer, dated 1804, the Royal Asiatic Society stamp, and that the work was presented to the Society by John Romer. Also within the volume is a more modern label giving identification details and where it is noted as being a very early edition of the work.

Please note that the boards and some pages are loose from the binding and the book spine is no longer present. The boards are covered in red leather.

A Maldivian Nakaiyterikaṅ (astrology) manuscript. At the commencement of the manuscript it is titled in English, "Nek-ket Were-ingay foy which means our conjuring book". This is followed by an explanation of its use, e.g. in consulting before undertaking a voyage. This copy was made in September 1817 by Nalle Tandy, a "Chitty man" who was the interpreter of the Maldivian language.

A series of discourses on Muslim doctrine and ethics, said at its beginning to be the Kalām of Murtada (Murtaza) Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib which has been translated from a Persian rendering of the original Arabic into a dialect of "Western Hindustani" in a variety of the Khojki Sindh script. This information is obtained from a typed note which has been pasted into the volume and signed by Lionel David Barnett, dated March 1931.

Copies, transcripts and translations of Indian stone and copperplate inscriptions made by George Legrand Jacob. Each inscription is labelled as to its location. These include: Edicts of Ashoka, and other inscriptions, Junagadh, Girnar Hills. Inscription on a copperplate dug up near the Machchhu River, Gujarat. Inscriptions from the "Geernan" Temple. Inscription from a black marble slab in an old well within Mangrol. Inscriptions at the Somnath Temple, Prabhas Patan. Inscriptions from temple at "Billawal". Inscription taken from the [Tulao of Ooua]. Inscriptions on copper plate dug at [Neroor] in he Korodal Division of the [Sawunt Waree] State. April 1848 with transcriptions in Balbodhy and translation into English.

These are contained within a bound volume with red leather covering. Please note the frond board has come away from the spine.