Book Reviews

Author(s): J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong

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REVIEWS
in the spring of 1942. Otto Stein was born in 1893 and at the age of 45 an end was put to his scholarly activities. This volume of his Kleine Schriften shows at the same time how much he had achieved and how much more he could have done if he had been able to escape to England before the Germans occupied Prague in March 1939.
After his first publication, Otto Stein continued his study of Megasthenes and Kautilya. For Pauly's Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft he wrote a long article on Megasthenes which was published in 1931. Apart from some smaller contributions, he also wrote for the same work the articles on Taxiles (1934) and Nysa (1937). In many articles he makes use of the Arthaśāstra. Of special importance in this respect are his article on the śāsanādhikāra (ZII 6, 1928, pp. 45-71) and a series of articles in which he compared the information regarding fortifications and town-planning in the Arthaśastra and the Silpaśāstras ('Arthaśāstra and Śilpaśāstra', I-IV, 1935-1938, ArchOr VII, pp. 473-487, VIII, pp. 69-90; VIII, pp. 334-356; X, pp. 163-209).
Otto Stein's excellent knowledge of Greek enabled him to write several articles based on Greek sources: 'Die Wundervölker Indiens bei Skylax' ('Enctuußlov Heinrich Swoboda, 1927, pp. 311-319); “Māyā in a Greek Papyrus?' (JPTS 1924-27, pp. 251 -257); 'Indien in den griechischen Papyri' (Ind. Prag. 1, 1929, pp. 34-57); 'Klearchos von Soloi' (Philologus 86, 1930, pp. 258-9); "Graeco-Indian Notes' (BSOS 7, 1933, pp. 55–68). He made use of both Greek and Indian Sources in his long-article on Sūpuys and surunga (ZII 3, 1925, pp. 280–318;4, 1926, pp. 345-347).
Another special interest of Otto Stein's was the study of Indian numerals, cf. 'The Numerals in the Niya Inscriptions' (BSOS 8, 1936, pp. 763-779); “The Numeral 18', (The Poona Orientalist 1, 1936, pp. 1-37;2, 1937, pp. 164-165). The index lists all passages in which numbers were studied by Stein.
. Many other fields of study attracted Stein. He examined Sanskrit texts: 'Uber zwei Ausgaben der Saptašati' (WZKM 33, 1926, pp. 252-274; 34, 1927, pp. 6–29); 'Ein Yogaprahasana' (Ind. Prag. 1, 1929, pp. 9–33); wrote on epigraphy: Yavanas in Early Indian Inscriptions' (Indian Culture 1, 1935, pp. 343-357); and studied the Trikāya doctrine in the Pali canon: 'Notes on the Trikāya-Doctrine' (G. Jha Commemoration Volume, Poona, 1937, pp. 389–398).
In a series of three articles, Stein critically examined publications by Indian scholars (S. C. Sarkar and V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar) on the early social history of India and on the polity of the Mauryas: 'Neuere Forschungen zur altindischen Sozialgeschichte, Rechts- und Staatsrechtsliteratur'; (ArchOr 3, 1931, pp. 49-86; 5, 1933, pp. 246-269; 6, 1934, pp. 15-49). Many other publications relating to almost all branches of Indology were reviewed by Stein. They are all listed in the bibliography and some of the most important ones are reprinted in this volume.