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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[APRIL, 1875.
diffusam, colligeret in unum, et redigeret in corpus, is profecto non dissentiret a nobis. Sed hoc nemo facere, nisi veri peritus ac sciens, potest: verum autem non nisi ejus scire est, qui sit doctus a Deo."
But the Christian Scriptures, while necessarily exhibiting a theory of morality, differing however in its completeness and unity from that of any other system, present themselves not as a revelation of morals, but of life and power, bridging over the gulf between the saying and the acting out of noble sentiments, and claiming to be able to transform even the bad.
LA LANGUE ET LA LITTERATURE HINDOUSTANIES EN 1874. Revue Annuelle. Par M. Garcin de Tassy, Membre de l'In
stitut, Professeur à l'Ecole spéciale des langues orientales vivantes, &c. (Paris. Maisonneuve & Cie, 1876.)
We welcome with much pleasure the latest number of this interesting annual review, which M. Garcin de Tassy has compiled for a long series of years with such regularity and assiduity as to deserve the thanks not only of his own pupils, for whom it appears to be chiefly designed, but even of people in India who wish to possess a compact account of the chief publications issued, and of the literary movements which have occurred during the past year, connected with the Hindustäni language.
It is well known that for several years a contest has been going on in the upper provinces of India, where Urdu and Hindi are most current, as to which of these two rival idioms deserves the preference. The illustrious professor continues to defend Urdu against Hindi, and adduces authori. ties to support his opinion. There is no doubt that whatever part Government has taken, or may in future take, with reference to these two languages, its influence can never extend further than its own documents, and that those who have hitherto used Hindi in the Devanagari character, or Urdu in the Persian, will continue to do so in spite of any Government orders to the contrary. Such things must be decided by the people them. selves.
Besides extracts from Indian newspapers concerning the rivalry of the sister idioms, the review contains others on the present state of literary composition, chiefly poetry, and accounts of literary societies such as the Aligarh Institute, and the Anjuman of the Punjab, which held a meeting called Musha'ara when pieces of original Urdu poetry were read by their authors under the presidency of Mr. Holroyd, the Director of Public Instruction, and under the patronage of the Panjab Government.
of the books published during the past year, the most notable are the Tarikh-i Hindustan, or History of India, by Munshi Muhammad Zuka ullah Khan, at present Professor in the Muir College at Allahâbâd ; Façana-i Hamid, the romantic adventures of Hamed, by Sayyid Ghulam Haydar Khân, who is pointed out by the Nativo press as one of the best authors of India; TibbRahim, “the medicine of Rahim," containing 540 pages, and which has been adopted as a text-book by the Medical College of Lahor. The other works are of minor importance, or more translations from the English, and a few are controversial works of small bulk published as usual both on the Muhammadan and on the Christian side.
It appears that the fines lately inflicted on some booksellers of LÄhor for dealing in obscene books have so frightened the rest, that Pandit Krishra Lal, a member of the Literary Society of the Panjab, who was desirous to buy some books he required, says he could not in all the shops ho visited find anything but almanacks, or works referring to laws and regulations.
"India together with Barmah possessed in 1873 not less than 478 journals; namely, 255 in the Native languages, 151 in English, and 67 bilingual ones, i.e. English and vernacular. In Bombay there were more than in the Bengal Presidency, as the former had 118 and the latter only 99. There were 84 in Madras, and 73 in the N. W. Provinces, 40 in the Panjab, and only 3 in Rajpûtânå."
Besides the old journals in Urdu, nearly twenty new ones are enumerated this year, but the most remarkable must be the Shams unnahar, "Sun of the day," edited by Mirza Abdulali at Cabul, as that place never before produced anything like a newspaper,--an evident pioneer of civilization, to which even Afghanistan must shortly open. In that turbulent country neither authors nor patrons of literature seem to exist, but in India we have several Native princes who take a lively interest in the advancement of the country; the Maharajas of Pattiala, of Jaypur, of Kashmir, and of Travankor are mentioned as founders of schools and encouragers of literature.
Acoording to his usual custom, the venerable professor terminates his review for the year with a necrology, which consists, happily, of only four names :-H. H. AzimshAh Bahadur, prince of Arkat, who died at the age of 72; Kája Kali Krishna Bahadur died at Banaras on the 18th April, aged 70; our lamented townsman Dr. Bhku Daji on May 30; and Babu Pyari Mohan Banarji, November 10th, 1874.
E. R.
