________________
SEPTEMBER, 1889.]
BOOK NOTICES.
two.
stances, the former hypothesis, resting upon the rejection of the syllable ba as part of the date, may be considered the more acceptable of the But, whatever opinion may be held on this point, the very specific expression used in formulating the details of the date, viz. "the new-moon day between the months Vaisakha and Jyêshtha," an expression which cannot possibly be interpreted as meaning anything but the new-moon of an amánta month, in this case Vaisakha, shews that the calculator, working,
NOTES AND BOMBAY SOCIAL CUSTOMS; PREGNANCY. On eclipse days, whether the eclipse be of the sun or of the moon, a pregnant woman is strictly prohibited from cutting anything asunder by means of a knife or any other cutting instrument, lest on her delivery she should have the child, then in her womb, injured.
Bombay.
R. JAGANNATHJI.
SOCIAL CUSTOMS; DEATH. In Bombay.
One of the funeral rites amongst the Parsis is to carry a dog into the presence of the dead a certain number of times, from the time of death to the time the body is carried away. The dog's eyes are made to turn in the direction of the face. of the dead. Does this custom bear any reference to the dog-hound,' the Kerberos of the Greeks? Mandalay.
H. E. B.
In Kasmir.
With reference to Indian Notes and Queries, Vol. I, notes 333 and 917, most Musalman
287
BOOK MASNAVI-I-MA'NAVI, THE SPIRITUAL COUPLETS OF MAULANA JALALUDDIN MUHAMMAD-I-RUMI; translated and abridged by E. H. WHINFIELD, M.A. late B.C.S., London. Trübner & Co.
In issuing a judiciously abridged translation of this work, so widely celebrated and respected throughout the East, Mr. Whinfield has added to the laurels already gained by his charming rendering of the quatrains of 'Umr Khayyam.
The Masnavi of Jalalu'ddin Rumi, which Mr. Whinfield rightly calls the Divina Commedia of Islam, is well deserving of a rendering into English, and we may congratulate ourselves on the task having fallen into such competent hands. We may further congratulate ourselves on the judiciousness that has reduced its 26,000 couplets to a readable size, without detracting from the
as is proved by the palæography of the grant, at a time when the amánta arrangement of the lunar fortnights had probably been adopted for all purposes in Southern India, not only used that arrangement for his work, as was proper enough, but was distinctly under the impression that it was valid for the civil reckoning in a period when, as we have already found (ante, Vol. XVII. pp. 141, 142), the purnimanta arrangement was used with the Saka years, even in Southern India.
J. F. FLEET
QUERIES.
tombs in the valley of Kasmir have oblong hollows on the top, whether the tombs of men or women or children. The friends of the deceased are accustomed to meet round the grave once a year when the roses are in bloom, and to pour water and about a ser of rose-leaves into these hollows. A few prayers are then offered and the company depart.
Srinagar.
J. HINTON KNOWLES.
MADRAS SOCIAL CUSTOMS; PARTURITION. In South India, before a woman is confined, the room, in which her confinement is to take place, is smeared with cowdung, and in the room at the outer gate, to the height of four or five feet from the floor, are fixed small wet cowdung cakes. These cakes are stuck to the wall and are then covered over with Margosa (Hindustani nim, Sanskrit nimba) leaves and cotton seeds. The cakes with these leaves and seeds are supposed to have a very great power in averting evil spirits from entering the room and doing mischief to the new-born baby or the lying-in woman.
Madras.
S. M. NATESA SASTRI.
NOTICES.
value of the abridgment as an exponent of Eastern philosophical thought.
The philosophy of Jalâlu'ddin Rumi was that the true basis of religion is love, and that all faith and piety not based on love are false. In illustrating at interminable length his doctrine that the visible universe is but what medical science would call the "symptom" of the spiritual reality within, the great poet took as his bases the Qurán, the Hadises, and the writings of the theologians and of the Safts. By his "Love" ('Ishq) the poet, as Mr. Whinfield insists at some length, meant the "Love," the "Charity" of the New Testament, and his "Knowledge" (Gnosis) is the result of this Love. "The more a man loves, the deeper he penetrates the purposes of God."
