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DECEMBER, 1910.)
BOOK NOTICES.
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The Brahat territory is adjacent to the area of what Sir Herbert Risley calls the Scytho-Dravidian type, in which a Dravidian element must be contained. This Dravidian substratum has perbaps once also been found over large areas now peopled by tribes speaking Rajasthani and Bhil dialects. It might even be suggested that the use of a cerebral I in Gujarati, Rajasthani, Pañjabi and Marathi might be due to the influeuce of such a substratum and have something to do with the curious cerebral in Dravidian and Brahui. On the whole, I think that the general history of Indo-Aryan vernaculars cannot be understood if we do not assume a strong influence of one or more non-Aryan substrata, which have exercised their influence on their phonology and grammatical system. A thorough analysis of a mixed dialect like Br&hui will probably throw much light on many obscure points, and we may congratulate ourselves that this analysis has been undertaken by so able and so enthusiastic a scholar as Mr. Bray.
STEN KONOW.
A very full Brahat grammar, one of the very best grammars published by the Indian government. It will in future be necessary for everybody who wants to study the Bråbåt language, to consult this work and to consult it thoroughly. And I do not doubt that most scholars will adopt the author's view about the linguistic affinities of the Bråhi language, i.e., of its old base.
If we accept the theory that Bråhot was originally a Dravidian form of speech, as I think we must do, the remarks about the outer appear. ance of the typical Bråhui reproduced above, get more important. It would be highly interesting if any of the Bråhui characteristics could be comparable with such as are found among the Dravidas proper, and here there is a rich field for the Ethnographical Survey. In this connexion I would also remind of the fact, that the Dravidian race has not as yet been thoroughly examined from an ethnological point of view. I have not myself the slightest doubt that it contains individuals whose ancestors have from the beginning belonged to two different races, and it is still an open question whether traces of two different types can still be shown to exist somewhere within the Dravidian area. If that is not the case, one of the two types must have disappeared and its only traces are now to be found in one of the two linguistic groups between which the Dravidian race is, at the present day, divided. Language is not, of course a test of race. But if we find one race speaking two different languages, which have no philological connexion with each other, and one of which is distributed over a very wide axea and spoken by tribes presenting different racial characteristics, we have a strong indication that the race in question is not unmixed. Now we find many variations in the typical features within most Dravidian tribes, as will be apparent from a glance at the table in Sir H. H. Risley's Ethnographic Appendices, pp. 22, f. Such variations are very interesting, and some day they will be studied with the same interest as that now brought to bear on the study of dialects and mixed languages. A thorough investigation of the Brahat tribe in this respect will no doubt yield interesting results. If, after all, the Brfhais should turn out to be identical in race with the Balochis but to speak a language which in its base is Dravidian though the races are quite distinct, we shall have to infer that the original Brahat stock has become 80 mixed that no anthropological traces are left of its origin.
Geographically, the connexion of Brahois and Dravidians does not, perhaps, present so great difficulties as would appear at the first glance.
TANTRAKHYAYIXA Die älteste Fassung des Pafcatan.
tra. Nach don Handschriften beider Rezensionen zum ersten Male herausgegeben von JOHANNES HERTEL. Berlin 1910. 4° XXVII+1C6 pp., 2 plates. Abhandlungen der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. Philologisch-historieche Klasse. Neue Folge Band XII. Nro. 2, Mark 24.
DR. HERTEL's edition of the Tantrākhyāyika is the last of a long series of papers and books in which he has given the results of his thorough study of the history of the Panchatantra and other collections of Indian folklore. Thanks to his indefatigable zeal, we are now in a position to judge about the various questions connected with this important branch of Indian literature with comparative certainty. Dr. Hertel has taken infinite pains in comparing all available manuscripts of the different recensions of the Panchatantra, and the result is that the current opinion about the history of the work has had to be modified in important points. In his introduction the author gratefully acknowledges the assistance rendered him by various scholars and institutions. Thanks are especially due to Dr. M. Aurel Stein, who has again added to the record he holds for kindness and unselfishness in assisting fellow-scholars in providing manuscripts and other materials for their work, and to Mr. F. W. Thomas, the Librarian of the India Office, who has made it possible to obtain the loan of numerous manuscripts from India and London. The author has thus been able to make use of almost the whole available material
