Indian Antiquary Vol 07

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 286

236
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
funeral pile, which on her approach was kindled; she then distributed her apper apparel and jewels among her friends and acquaintances, of whom she took her last farewell with a great deal of ceremony, and the pile being in full flame, and the carpets taken down, she leaped into the midst of
BOOK NOTICES.
MEMOIR on the HISTORY of the TOOTH RELIC of CEYLON, with a preliminary Essay on the Life and System of Gautama Buddha. By J. Gerson da Cunha, M.R.C.S., &c. Bombay, 1875.
Dr. Da Cunha's Memoir on the Tooth Relic of Ceylon is now two years old-which is as much as to say that in the light of later researches there is no difficulty in finding faults, particularly with the chronology. It is, however, a useful little pamphlet for any one approaching the subject as a beginner; and the conclusion, viz. that the tooth is bogus,' is incontrovertible except by a good Buddhist relying upon faith as against reason. The photographs, though not original, are good enough; and the index is more than we usually expect in so modest a work.
THE ENGLISH and their MONUMENTS AT GOA. By J. Gerson da Cunha, M.R.C.S., &c. Bombay, 1877.
Dr. Da Cunha has compiled into a pamphlet of 28 pages an account of transactions almost forgotten, although they took place within the memory of men still alive. His knowledge of the Portuguese language gives him an unusual advantage in this ground, of which he will, no doubt, be found in sole possession if the course of political events should ever bring the subject before the public.
MODERN INDIA AND THE INDIANS: being a series of Impressions, Notes, and Essays. By Monier Williams, D.C.L. London: Trübner & Co., 1878.
[SEPTEMBER, 1878.
the fire; her friends then poured quantities of oil over her, which soon suffocated her, and reduced both corpses to ashes, which were carefully gathered and put into an urn, to be conveyed to their relations in India."-P. H. Bruce's Memoirs, 4to ed., pp. 252, 253.
Professor Williams has collected and remodelled a number of papers communicated to this and other less exclusively Oriental periodicals in a modest octavo volume-perhaps, of all works of recent Indian tourists, that most suitable for the Griffin' who is not also a Philistine.' His long study of Oriental subjects has enabled him to assimilate and reproduce with unusual success his impressions de voyage; and no Old Indian who remembers how little he knew of the country after an equal time spent in it will be hypercritical in respect of the errors into which our author has here and there fallen. We are glad to see a book so different from most of the rubbish with
which the press was inundated immediately after the Prince of Wales's tour, and shall be prepared to welcome the further volume which Professor Williams promises us, as the result of his "researches into modern Indian religious life." A good many of us know too well the extreme difficulty that attends such inquiries to hope for any very important results from those of Professor Williams, conducted under the least favourable circumstances; but we can rely upon his recognition of the danger of hasty generalizations, and may fairly expect that his forthcoming volume will be suited for students of a somewhat larger been written. growth than those for whom the present work has
THE HINDOO PILGRIMS. By M. A. Sherring, M.A., &c. London: Trübner & Co., 1878.
The title of this work led us to expect a treatise upon the curious phenomena of the Hindu mania for pilgrimage-the contrast between isolated expeditions undertaken in consequence of a vow, or even to spend a holiday, and the lives of travel spent by regular devotees in wandering from end to end of the peninsula; the strange ceremonies of the holy places; and the legends which account for or create their sanctity. The subject would be most interesting, and Mr. Sherring has already given proof that he could deal with at least a portion of it. It is not, therefore, without considerable disappointment that we find his pilgrims and their travels a mere connecting thread for a series of legends interesting themselves, but conveyed in the most prosaic verse imaginable, and supposed to be recited over the camp fires of their nightly halting-places. Our readers would hardly thank us for samples.
EASTERN LEGENDS and STORIES in English verse. By Lieut. Norton Powlett. London: H. S. King & Co., 1873.
This modest little collection of poems does credit to the author, and is a good sign of the times. There is perhaps hardly a classical scholar in England who has not tried to render in verse the Odes of Horace; and the young Artillery Officer