Indian Antiquary Vol 04

SR No.: 032496
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 410
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1875.
THE DELUGE.
Chinose, and the various nations of the East The subjoined extract is taken from an unpub- concur with them. Some, however, of the Persians lished translation of Albiruni's Athar al Bakiya, adınit the fact of the Deluge, but account for it now in course of preparation for the Oriental in another way, as it is described in the Books of Translation Fund by Dr. E. Sachau, Professor the Prophets. They say a partial Deluge occurred of Oriental Languages at Vienna :--
in Syria and the West in the time of Tahma"The Persians and the great mass of the Magiansrash, but that it did not extend over the whole of deny the Deluge altogether; they believe that the the then civilized world, and only a few nations rulership (of the world) has remained with them were submerged in it. It did not extend beyond the without any interruption ever since Gay ô. Peak of Holwan, and did not reach the countries marsk, Gilshah, who is, according to them, the of the East."-E. THOMAS, in The Academy, 17th first man. In denying the Deluge the Indians, April 1875.
BOOK NOTICES. CENSUS OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY taken on the 21st Feb s well the total in that district; and the natural
ruary 1872. Government Central Press, Bombay, 1875. though totally false inference would be that there
On a former occasion (Ind. Ant. vol. III. p. 331) are none in Pund or Ahmadnagar. Yet we had occasion to notice the value of the Madras these Kolis might be considered worthy of some Census Report as a source of information upon notice, if only for the fact that military aid has been many points interesting to readers of the Anti- required for the last fourteen months to keep them quary, and especially upon matters of cthnology in order. Similarly, the number of aborigines The three volumes now under review, though of given for Thånd is 25, and for KulAb A none. about equal size, and referring to a population little Even setting aside the coast Kolis as a doubtful more than half that of Madras, have taken a year race, the region (North Konkan) comprised in longer to compile and publish; and now that we these two districts is one of the richest in aborihave them they are, we regret to say, almost gines in the whole Presidency, both for number valueless from this point of view.
and variety,-containing Kolis of the Hills, The elaborate tables which set before the reader Warlis, Katkaris, Th&kurs, &c. in such of Dr. Cornish's Report all possible statistics re- number that large tracts have hardly any other garding the ethnology of the Madras Presidency inhabitants. And so on through other districts. are to be sought for in vain in Mr. Lumsdaine's Yet knowledge on this subject was available, if compilation, though we are indeed furnished with only from the brief but valuable remarks of many particulars in decimal fractions as to the Dr. Wilson. on page 111, though they are disvarious sects of Christians, which the changes figured by the clumsy misprint of Kalkari' for of a single year will render as inaccurate as they Kåtkari.' are unimportant. Perhaps this is the less to be Similarly, on the same page the point of a neat regretted as the little ethnological information antithesis between Kshetrapati,''the owner of a contained in the Bombay Report is calculated field,' and 'Chhatrapati,' the lord of an umbrella,' chiefly to mislead. Take, for instance, page 103, has been improved by spelling both words the where Mr. Lumsdaine informs us that "Aborigines same way. do not need special notice." This is fortunate, Instead, again, of the commentary rendered for they certainly have not got it. In the table valuable by the research and acumen of Dr. immediately below, the District of Khandesh Cornish, and by many extracts from the best is shown as having an aboriginal population of authorities in Madras, we have in this Report only 122,092, Násik 115,910, Abmadnagar 6,228, Puna the one paragraph above mentioned from Dr. 192, Kaládgi 1, and the remaining districts of the Wilson; a few pages extracted bodily from "Steele's Dekhan none at all. The rapid decrease in their Castes of the Deccan" (a good work, but old and numbers as we pass southwards would be remark- not very practical); an account of the Swayamable to any one who did not know that the vara of Sanjogta Kumari, Princess of Kanouj, from highlands of Ahmadnagar contain about 40 vil- Mr. Talboys Wheeler's History of India; and lages, and those of Purê 199, almost exclusively some fine but vague writing of Mr. Lamedaine's inhabited by Kolis with a few Thakure. It own about the early Aryans and a festival which appears, from a passage on the same page relating he saw at the castle of the Rahtor." He does to Nåsik, that Mr. Lumsdaine knows that Kolis not specify the name by which this castle is now are an aboriginal race, and that 68,302 of them known to mortals, but from the context it would