Select Asokan Inscriptionsby Sachchidananda Bhattacharya

Select Asokan Inscriptions by Sachchidananda BhattacharyaReview by: E. B.Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 81, No. 4 (Sep. - Dec., 1961), pp. 461-462Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/595732 .

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Brief Nottces of Books Brief Nottces of Books Brief Nottces of Books Brief Nottces of Books Brief Nottces of Books Brief Nottces of Books Brief Nottces of Books Brief Nottces of Books Brief Nottces of Books 461 461 461 461 461 461 461 461 461

OF PARISTAN, 1960. The manuscripts ( puthis ) of this collection have provided and will continue to provide valuable information for the study of Mid- dle Bengali Literature. The Muslim authors drew upon Arabic and Persian sources, as well as the oral and written literature of the Indo-Pakistani sub-continent, for their themes. Their products reflect the influence of the VaiCnava literature and the Mangala Kavya of that time. They represent a social documentation which must be fully exploited for a balanced understanding of the period and the people of the area. ( E. B. )

The SamkEya Rarika of Issarakrsna. By Radhanath Phukan. Pp. vii + 165. Calcutta: FIRMA K. L. MUSHOPADHYAY, 1960. The author remarks in the Preface: ' Eere, as it were, I have framed an issue and am submitting it to a court of learned Pandits for a decision. The issue is: ( 1 ) VVhether the Samkhya Philosophy is atheistic and without clear meaning; or ( 2 ) whether it is precisely scientific on " Psycho-Physics for God-realization." '

(E. B.) Naikas and Naikdas. A Gxjarat Tribe. By P. G. Shah.

Pp. ii + 87. Bombay: THE GUJARAT RESEARCH SOCIETY, 1959. This study presents the author's results of a program of investigation ' to provide comprehensive Research Material for preparing schemes of amelioration for the tribes (in Gujarat); the plan . . . was dropped by the Government of Bombay, but has been independently followed by the Gujarat Research Society.' This is one in a series of studies on the tribes of Gujarat to which the author has devoted himself unsparingly. ( E. B. )

Indo-Aryan and Hindi. By S. K. Chatterji. Pp. viii + 329. Calcutta: FIR1W[A K. L. MUSHOPADHYAY, 1960. A second edition, revised and enlarged, of the standard work on the subject by one of the fore- most scholars in the field. ( E. B. )

A Bibliography of Indology. Vol. I. Indian Anthro- pology. Compiled by J. M. KANITEAR. Edited, and enlarged by D. L. BANERJEE and A. K. OHDEDAR. Pp. ix + 290. Calcutta: NATIONAL LIBRARY, Gov- ERNMENT OF INDIA, 1960. The Srst volume of a basic bibliography covering all aspects of Indian culture. This takes a great step towards filling a long-felt need. The authors note that " except in a few important cases . . . journals have been spar- ingly drawn upon for analytic entries ' and refer to David C. Mandelbaum's Slaterials for a Bibli- ography of the Ethnology of India (mimeographed for limited circulation ) and Elizabeth von Furer- Haimendorf's An Anthropological Bibliography of South Asia. See JAOS, 79 ( 1959 ), 203-204 for Dorothy M. Spencer's review. ) ( E. B. )

Select Asokan Inscriptions. By Sachchidananda Bhat- tacharya. Pp. xvi + 114. Calcutta: FIRMA K. L. MUKHOPADHYAY, 19 60. A Second edition with re- visions and additions. Appendix A contains trans- lations of fourteen edicts not included in the Srst edition and Appendix B the English translation of

























































studied or taught those languages with the aid of existing Dictionaries.' Eis work proved an indis- pensable tool over the years. The Oxford Un*er- sity Press is to be commended for making its con- tinued availability possible. ( E. B. )

Ring Jfongkqzt of Siam. By A. B. GRIswoLD. Pp. 60. New York: THE ASIA SOCIETY, 1961. The author's aim is to place in its true perspective the life and works of the monarch 'hardly known in the west except in a series of grotesque caricatures presented under such names as Anna and the King and The Rsng and I.' This is an expansion of the author's article, "Ring Mongkut in Perspective," which appeared in the Joqzrnal of the Siarn Socrety, Bangkok, Vol. XLV, No. 1, April, 1957. (E. B.)

Gems from Sanskrit Literattzre. ( Stzktimaldi ) By Aryendra Sharma and E. V. Vira Raghavacharya. Pp. 83. ( Sanskrit Academy Series No. 5. ) EY- derabad-Deccan: THE SANSKBIT ACADEMY, OSMANIA UNIVERSITY, 1959. A selection from Sanskrit (and, in one instance, Prakrit) literature of maxims and aphorisms the range of which touches upon all aspects of life. E. g., 'An ignorant person is easy to please; still easier to please is a learned person. But the Creator himself cannot please one who is foolishly puffed up with his little knowledge ' (p. 3). Even a strong person is looked down upon unless he makes his strength felt; fire latent in wood can be stamped under foot, but not if it is ablaze ' (p. 7). 'A piece of glass, if set in gold, acquires the lustre of emerald; so does a fool acquire skill by associating with the wise ' ( p. 19 ) . ' A mean fellow knows how to ruin others' interests, but not in how to help furthering them. The wind is competent only in felling a tree, not in raising it ' (P. 25). 'Fire burns all the more brightly when the fuel is stirred; and a serpent expands its hood when irritated. Generally, all beings rise to their full height when provoked ' (p. 29). ' One should not make friends with or have affection for a wicked man. A charcoal, if live, scorches; if cold, it blackens the hand' (p. 31). 'The wise should accept right words even from a child. In the absence of the sun, does not a small lamps give light? ' (p. 41 ) . ' Where there are no scholars, even a person of little knowledge is honored. In a country without trees even a castor plant is ac- claimed as a tree ' (p. 47) . ' A lion roars in reply to the thunder of clouds, not to the howl of a jackal. It is not wise to have straight dealings with the crooked' (p. 69). 'The reader can, if he cares to, learn a great deal from them which would be of use in life. But even if reading for pleasure, he will not be disappointed.' (Introduction, p. 1).

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A Descriptive Catalogt4e of Bengali Mantzscripts. By MUN SHI ABDUL KARIM and AHMAD SHARIF. Eng- lish edition with Introduction by SYED SAJJAD EUSAIN. ( Asiatic Society of Pakistan Publications No. 3. ) Pp. xxviii + 589. Dacca: ASIATIC SOCIETY




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462 462 462 462 462 462 462 462 Brief Notices of Books Brief Notices of Books Brief Notices of Books Brief Notices of Books Brief Notices of Books Brief Notices of Books Brief Notices of Books Brief Notices of Books

the bilingual edict ( in Greek and Aramaic ) recently discovered at Kandahar in Afghanistan by Italian archaeologists. ( See L. A. Schwarzschild's review of G. Pugliese Carratelli and G. Levi Della Vida, Un EJditto Bilingue GJreco-Aramaico di Asoka, in JAOS, 80 (1960), 155-157) . ( E. B. )

Social History of the Buslims in Bengal. ( Down to A. D. 1538. ) By ABDUL KARIM. Pp. XViii + 252. Dacca: THE ASSTIC SOCIETY OF PARISTAN, 1959. The author's Ph. D. thesis for the University of Decca in which he examines the formation and development of Muslim society in mediaeval Ben- gal. The date 1538 A. D. marks the close of the period prior to the intrusion of Pathan and Mogul influences. The work is fully documented, drawing for source materials upon Persian chronicles, inscriptions, coins, contemporary accounts of foreign travellers, and the local literature and tradition.

(E. B.) Ilistorical Development of IndiarL Busic. By SWA1W[I

PRAJNANANANDA. Pp. xxxii + 483 and 17 plates. Calcutta: FIRMA K. L. MURHOPADHYAY, 1960. An analytical and comparative study. Among the topics covered are the evolution of Indian music, the evolution of the ragas, raga vasanta, d hd tus (music parts), development of classical music and the musical literature of Bengal, rhythm and tempo, evolution and development of the veena. An appendix discusses the development of the notes and scales of Vedic music. ( E. B )

Aspects of Sanskrit Literature. By S. K. DE. PP. 308. Calcutta: FIR1WA K. L. MURHOPADHYAY, 1959. A collection of studies written between 1925 and 1955, concerned with certain features of Sanskrit literature. This supplements the author's History of Sanskrit Literature. (E.B.)

Descrip tive List of Butiny Papers in the National Archives of India, Bhopal. Vol. I. Pp. v + 67. New Delhi: NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF INDS, 1960. The first volume in a series compiled to make available materials from the records of the late Bhopal State. ( E. B. )

Studies in Ilindu Political Thought arLd its Betaphysical Foundations. By V. P. VAR191A. PP. iV + 332 + Vii. Delhi: MOTILAL BANARSIDASS, 1959. A second, revised and expanded, edition of the work which first appeared in 1950. ' The fundamental point in the methodology pursued in this book is to make a sharp distinction between history and concept. ... we have historical examples in ancient India of actions which, in modern terminology, can be char- acterized as illustrations of the exercise of sovereign power but this does not mean the formulation of a theory of sovereignty in ancient Hindu political thought.... Perhaps this book of mine is the first book on " Political Philosophy of the Ancient Hindus." It tries to capture that Platonic-Cice- ronian-Augustinian orientation of viewing things political in the framework of a fundamental meta- physic which is also the characteristic of a large


















































body of ancient Eindu political thought.' ( Preface to the second edition, p. iii.) (E. B.)

Palaeoliths from the Beas and BarLgarLga Valleys, Punjab. By B. B. LAL. Reprinted from Ancient India, No. 12, 1956, pp. 58-91, Plates XVI XL. 16 Text Figures. This paper gives an account of the discovery of four Sohan sites, namely Guler, Dehra, Dhaliara and Kangra in the Kangra Dis- trict of the Punjab in June 1955, and of the explora- tion of the sites by the author with the assistance of four other collaborators. Under each site is given an account of it, the formation of the river terraces and the tools. The tools from the principal site of Guler are classified typologically and the terraces and tool sequences examined. Numerous photographs and drawings of tools illustrate their description. The author concludes the paper with a general discussion in which has been examined the relationship between the chopper-chopping tools, forming the great majority of the implements discovered at these sites, and the hand-axes and cleavers which predominate at sites in South India. In this discussion, similar palaeolithic implements found in Africa and Southeastern Asia have been taken into account, but the results arrived at, as is usual in such cases, are not conclusive. This paper is an important addition to the literature on the Palaeolithic industries of India in particular, and its Prehistory in general. ( S. P. )

Kangra PaintirLgs of the Bhagavata Purazna. By M. S. RANDHAWA. Pp. 99 + 20 color plates and 10 illustrations. New Delhi: NATIONAL MUSEU1W OF INDIA, 1960. The monograph is devoted to a connected series of paintings in several Indian collections of the Bhagavata Purana. The more than a hundred and twenty paintings are assigned to 1790-1806. Randhawa follows Archer in singling out the paintings illustrating the Rasa Llla (plates XIII-XVI) as outstanding and painted by a master whose work by far excells that of the other paintings. Mr. Randhawa does not attempt a critical analysis of the paintings, his approach is devotional and emotional. He gives his personal reaction to each painting and describes its subject in detail. The notes on the plates are preceded by a text meant for the general reader who is introduced to the evolution and development of the Krishna cult, Vaish- nava literature and the Bhakti cult; to an account of the several types of illustration of the Bhagavata Purana outside the Kangra School, and to a survey of Kangra painting. The drawings which are inter- spersed through the text vary in quality as much as the splendidly reproduced paintings with their Fra Angelico like sweet purity or doll-like pretti- ness. The text written at the back of each painting and its translation are given in full length. This beautiful album will, it is hoped, be followed by other monographs of Kangra painting published by the National Museum of India for the delight and education of a rapidly growing public in India and outside. ( S. K. )
























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Select Asokan Inscriptionsby Sachchidananda Bhattacharya