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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
ern India. So far as the undertaking has already progressed, we have no hesitation in saying that, upon the whole, the work has been done very judiciously. In the first department, we have already had one very interesting Bakhar completed. It gives a connected narrative of the careers of all the Peshvâs from Bâlâji Vishvanath down to the last Bâjîrâv, and has been called the "Peshot's Bakhar." The other, which is now in process of publication, and which has been named "Bhdu Saheb's Bakhar," relates to that most important period of Marathâ history, the period of the battle of Pânipat. The principle adopted in printing the first was rather an uncritical one, as the Editors permitted themselves to make sundry alterations in the text of the Bakhar in order to render the narrative more perspicuous. In printing the second Bakhar, however, they have abandoned that principle, and we trust they will not act on it again with reference to any of the other documents they may publish. And this the rather, that, as the Editors themselves observe, these Bikhars, besides supplying the raw material for History, are also of high value as specimens of the old style of Marathi prose.
The Editors mention sundry other Bakhars as being in their possession, and they are also on the look-out for more. We trust that their efforts in rescuing from oblivion these valuable records will prove successful. The duty of contributing to a trustworthy and complete history of the Maratha power belongs especially to us in Western India. But no systematic attempt had been made in this direction till the publication of the work before us. Individual members of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society have often talked about the matter at meetings of the Society, but nothing tangible has yet come out of such talk, while the Society still continues to receive from Government a sum of nearly Rs. 300 per month, which was originally intended, we believe, to be applied towards the publication of documents illustrative of Maratha history. We hope that those who have the control of the affairs of the Society will look into this matter betimes.
In the second department of the publication before us, we have already had one or two small pieces by the poet Vâman and one or two by other and less known writers. The works now in process of publication are, firstly, the Vana Parva of Muktesvara, whom, the late Mr. Krishna Sastri Chiplonkar used to regard as the best among Marathi Poets, and secondly the Púrna Mantra Bhagavata of Moropant, which is remarkable, like most of that author's performances, for a very ingenious verbal contrivance, by which each stanza contains the letters नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय in that order,
[FEBRUARY, 1880.
"
although other letters intervene. The letters, it will be perceived, make up a sentence meaning Salutation to the venerable Vasudeva," which is the Mantra from which the work takes its name. In this department, the Editors have also collected together some useful items of information regarding the three great poets whose works are embraced in it, namely, V & man, Muktesvar, and Moropant.
The third department contains unpublished Sanskrit poems. In this part, the place of honour, if we may say so, was given to a work called Mukundananda Bhana. We own that we have been utterly unable to wade through the whole of that work. And we do not think we can be charged with squeamishness in our taste, if we say, that we consider the work so exceptionable, as not to be entitled to any place whatever in such a publication as the present, let alone the place of honour. We can only express our great regret that the Editors should have thought it worth while to preserve such a performance in print. The other pieces are, however, good ones. The first, Aparokshanubhuti, is a work ascribed to Sankaracharya, and the other is a Rámdyana by the famous Marathi post Moropant, which is curious as showing, among other things, the same verbal ingenuities as those which mark his Marathi poetry. This work has not yet been completed.
Upon the whole, we trust we have said enough to show that this publication is a very meritorious one, and deserving of the patronage of all who take an interest in Sanskrit and Marathi literature and in the history of India-especially the history of the Marathas. It is at present conducted on a scale smaller than is required by the nature of the subjects it deals with. At the present rate, it will take years before even a fairly large number of Bakhars can be published. And the same thing may be said of the large mass of Marathi literature which still remains unprinted. As to Sanskrit, the call for such work is not urgent, because there are many other agencies at work directed to the publication of old Sanskrit pieces. But as regards the other two departments, the publication before us is almost the only one in the field. A few years' delay, and we fear there will be no harvest to reap at all.
We have been informed, that the only difficulty in the way of enlarging the size of the present publication is the vulgar one-money. We trust that the public will patronize the work so as to get rid of this difficulty, and we shall be glad if our notice serves to introduce the publication to the knowledge of a larger circle of readers than it commands at present.
K. T. TELANG.
