Indian Antiquary Vol 56

SR No.: 032548
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1986
Total Pages: 286
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 13 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
DECEMBER, 1927
QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE MYTHIC SOCIETY,
(Bangalore), vol. XVII, No. 3, January, 1927.
This issue contains an interesting and suggestive article from the talented pen of Mr. O. C. Gangoly on The Cult of Agastya in Southern India and in Indonesia. We are conducted from place to place in South India and across the sea to San, Cambodia and the islands of he Malay Archipelago as far east as Bali, showing how deep had been the veneration felt for, and how wide-flung the influence cast by, this famous "pitcher-born "muni. We are told that Agastya is still popularly known in Java as “Sive. guru", the preceptor of Siva, or "Bhattarake guru " the revered preceptor, and that his name is "used to this day in all oath formulas, in Java and Bali." Mr. Gangoly considers he has proved that the worship of Agastya was an established cult in Java long before the seventh century, and that it must have come from South India. It would have enhanced the interest of the story had it been possible to cite evidence of the cult from Sumatra, which, as the "first Java", was in all probability affected at an earlier date than the islands further east. Such evidence might, moreover, afford some clue as to the origins of the kingdoms of Srivijaya and Malayu in that island, our knowledge of which has been 80 amplified by the researches of Monsieur G. Ferrand. The uniformity of type and detail between the images of Agastya at Vedåranyam and Chidamba. ram and those of siva-guru found at different sites in Java is very striking, thus tending to corroborato the view taken by Mr. Gangoly. At the same time it may be noted perhaps that these images bear a curious resemblance in some respects to the sculptured figures of rather unusual type found at Garhwa in the Allahabad district and at Pampapura near Mirzapur, which sherring (Tribes and Castes, I, 3571.; JRAS., 1871, p. 376 f.) described as "bearded Bhar figures."
C. E. A. W. OLDHAM. PAVANADUTAM OY DHOYI, published by the Sang krit Sahitya Parişad, Calcutta.
This is & Sanskrit poem on the model of the well. known work of KAlidåse, the Meghadata. The existence of a manuscript of this work was brought to no. tice by that veteran manuscript collector, Mahama hopadhyâya Haraprasad Sastri. It was published first of all in the proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1905 from a single manuscript. The new edition is based upon three manuscripts, the earliest of them being datable in the first quarter of the eighteenth century, and the other two belonging rather to the middle of the nineteenth. The previous editions are also made use of for the purpose. Notwithstanding the fact that the edition still leaves much to be de sired, it is a great improvement upon ite predecessor,
This is a work referable to the court of the last great Séna ruler of Bengal, Lakshmanasena. All that we can say about the precise date of the work, accord. ing to the learned editor, is that the poet belonged to the twelfth century, and the work was composed before A.D. 1205, when it got to quoted by others.
In regard to the matter of the work, it is more or less conventional in character, and even tho geographical information that it contains does not corapare very favourably with that of the Meghadata itself. The work han, however, its worth, at least for the sake of comparison, and careful study of it will onable industrious students to pick out details of value. The editing and publishing of the poem are both creditable, and we congratulate Mr. Chakravarti on the result of his labours. S. K. AIYANGAR. JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY, vol.
46, No. 3, September, 1926.
In Some Misunderstandings about India, being the Presidential Address delivered before the Society At Philadelphia in April, 1926, Mr. W. E. Ciark draws attention to the exaggerated emphasis so often placed upon the spiritual and religious elements in Indian life, and inakes a strong appoal, supported by sound argument, for the devotion of more attention to the huge mass of literature that has come down to us on subjects of "a practical and worldly nature" --to the "neglected subject of Indian realien." He adverts to the special importance of the inscriptions, and pleads for an adequately edited compilation of such as have been found to date, in a form that will enable them to be readily used by research workers. He also urges the need for fuller study of the part played by guild organizations and of the references to ses voyages, as we now know, largely from the researches of French and Dutch scholars, that the Indians were "one of the greatest navigating and colonizing peoples of antiquity." This sug. gestive address is commended to the notice of that rapidly increasing body of Indian scholars interested in the past history of their land, to whom perhaps further acknowledgment is due. It may be added that the extensive Jaina literature, hitherto so in. adequately studied by Western workers, is likely to prove a most prolific and valuable mine of information, that merits systematic working.
In The Original Ramayana Mr. E. Washburn Hopkins compares several passages in the North-Western Recension text with the Bombay and Bengal versions, with special reference to the question whether there ever was an Adi-Ramayana. He comes to the conclusion that it is vain to hope to reconstruct any Adi-Ramayana by working back from the textual variations in the recensions available to us. If it had been & case of manuscript copy-makers such a condition as now exists would have been almost impossible. He thinks, therefore, with Jacobi, that the text must have been handed down by word of mouth, and that the bards who transmitted it were responsible for the variations. "At some vague period," he adds, "these oral versions were reduced to writing according to the local authorities and the written texts still hold the divagations of various ancient bards." His long critical study of the epics inveets Mr. Hopkins' views with exceptional value and interest for all students of the Raidyana.
C.E. A. W. OLDHAM.