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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1896.
BOOK-NOTICE. THE HARVARD ORIENTAL SERIES. expensive, for the cheapness of the series is The University of Harvard, and Prof. Lanman, another of its features. Six shillings for a are to be congratulated on the successful com
handsomely-bound book of 250 large pages of mencement of the series of Oriental works thick paper cannot be called excessive. now being issued under the above name.
Of Dr. Kern's edition of the Jataka-Mala, it We have here three important books dealing | is sufficient to say that it is worthy of its author. with Oriental subjects, printed in a style which, It is a valuable contribution to the hitherto some. in neatness, clearness, and general get-up, has
what scanty collection of published texts dealing never been surpassed, and rarely approached, and
with northern Buddhism. edited with the care and accuracy which we are Professor Garbe's edition of Vijana-bhikshu's entitled to expect from Mr. Lanman and his well-known Sankhya-pravachana-bhashys is distinguished associates. Each volume, too, is a fitting complement to his German translation a sample of what America can do in very of the same work which appeared in 1880. Dr. F. different styles. One volume contains a Buddhist E. Hall's edition of the text, which appeared in the Sanskrit text printed in beautiful Devanagari type. Bibliotheca Indica, has long been out of print, The next is a Sanskrit philosophical treatise, and the reprints which have been turned out in printed in the Roman character. The third is a the Calcutta Bazar can only be called piteous
eries of English translations selected from the specimens of Bengal scholarship. I would call Buddhist PAli scriptures. It is true that the special attention to Prof. Garbe's introduce editor of the first hails from Holland, and of the tion to the present edition, in which he discusses second from Prussia, but America has shewn that Vijana-bhikshu's views regarding the Sámkhya she too has Oriental scholars, not only in the editor system of philosophy, and his attempts to recon. of the entire series, but in the author of the third. cile it with the Vedanta.
There is one point about these books, indeed, Mr. Warren's Buddhism in Translations is about all other Oriental books published in an altogether different kind of book from the Boston, which is deserving of general imitation. two foregoing. It is an account of Buddhisin It is the absolutely perfect clearness of the told by itself. The author has selected passages Devanagari printing. Page after page may be from various Buddhist scriptures, and has searched, and not a worn letter - not even a arranged and classified them, so that, read in the broken T, that bug-bear of proof readers - can order in which they stand, the student can gain be detected. Such perfection rouses feelings of | a clear conception of both exoteric and (real) envy in the heart of one who, like the present esoteric Buddhism. The work is divided into writer, has suffered many things at the hands of five chapters, occupying in all some five hundred Calcutta compositors. I have had the curiosity pages. The first chapter deals with extracts to find out how it is done. The secret is simple from passages describing the Buddha's life, and enough. The type is never printed from, and hence contains a complete record of the authorised is never worn out. As soon as the proof is passed account of his lives, from his previous existence for the press, an impression is taken in wax, on as a Bodhi-sattwa, to his death as the Buddha. which an electro-type plate is made, from which The second chapter similarly deals with the the actual printing is done. The type is then Buddhist doctrine of the Sentient Existence, and distributed to its cases uninjured, and the electro- the non-existence of the Ego. The third deals type plates remain stored for ever, available for l with Karma and Re-birth the fannth wit further editions when the first is exhausted. tation and Nirvana; and the fifth with the There is no hurry about printing off. There is no Buddhistie Orders. A word of praise must be cry against authors that type is being kept stand. given to Mr. Warren's translations of the metrical ing for unconscionable periods, and the out-turn texts. He has selected an easy unrhymed quatrain is — well as excellent as what we see in the as the medium of his version, which well reproHarvard Oriental Series. Why cannot Indian duces the unelaborated ewing of the original. Presses follow this good example P It cannot be Bankipur, 13-8-96.
G. A. G. 1 HARVARD ORIENTAL SERIES, edited with the co- by Arya-, edited by Dr. Hendrik Kern. Price operation of various scholars by CHARLES ROCKWELL 6 shillings. 1891. LANMAX, Professor of Sanskrit in Harvard University. Vol. II., The 84 hkhya-Pravachans-Bh Sahya, by VijilPublished for. Harvard University, by Ginn & Co., pabhikshu, edited by Ricbard Garbe. Price 6 shillings. Boston, Mass., U. S. A., London: Ginn & Co., 87, 1895. Bedford St., Strand, W. C.
Vol. III., Buddhism in Translations, by Henry Clarke Vol. I., The Jataka-Mala, or Bidhisattvävadana-Mali, Warron. Price 5 shillinge. 1896.
