Indian Antiquary Vol 40

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 10

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JANUARY, 1911.
and so forth. One passage from this booklet, which occurs at the end, is 80 superb that Dr. Bhandarkar last year gave, by reading it out, a finishing touch to his lecture on the "Fusion of foreign tribes in Hindu Society during the pre-Muhammadan period." It runs thus :-" It remains to refer to certain kinds of mental bias that are apt to affect the judgment in questions of Indian history. There is in the first place, what may be called the patriotic bias, though it is shared more or less by European as well as Indian scholars. It shows itself in a tendency to exaggerato the freedom of India from foreign influences, and to claim entire originality for such inventions as the Indian alphabet, which bear their foreign origin on their face. This school loves to trace the leading castes of the present day to an Aryan origin, and to accentuate the Hinda orthodoxy of the kings and conquerors of old. When these are looked upon as Hindus from the beginning, the most important fact in Hindu history is overlooked. I mean the attractive power of Hindu civilisation, which has enabled it to assimilate and absorb into itself overy foreign invader, except the Moslem and the European. Those Indians have indeed a poor idea of their country's greatness, who do not realise how it has tamed and civilised the nomads of Central Asia, so that wild Turkoman tribes have been transformed into some of the most famous of the Rajput Royal races.”
How thoroughly conversant Mr. Jackson W88 with Sanskrit literature may be seen from his paper on Epic and Paranic Notes," which is published in the centenary memorial volume of the Bombay Asiatic Society. In this connection may also be mentioned his short, but most thoughtful note on the flarivansa, which he contributed to the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, London, for 1908, page 529 ff. He had also contemplated writing an article on a passage from the Nirulta, In one of his letters to me he says: "I am also at work on a passage of the Nirukta which seems to me to have been misunderstood by German scholars and to be one main source of their prejudico against Sayaņa and the native commentators generally." But Mr. Jackson was not spared to complete this paper. He, however, did far greater work in the field of epigraphy and ancient history of India. His erudition and soundness of work are patent to any one who reads the notes which, as I have said above, he wrote in the body or at the close of almost every chapter in the Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. 1., Part I. Appendix VI to this volume, which is devoted to the Early Greek and Roman references to Western India was also written by him, contains several original and thoughtful remarks, and is always worth reading in conjunction with McCrindle's translations. In Appendix III, he establishes the existence of great Gurjara Empire, and suggests the Gurjara origin of some of the greatest Rajput classes. This paper interested me most, and set my thoughts going, which were finally reduced to writing in two papers, the views expressed in which have now been countenanced by all antiquarians of repute. I cannot but think that if I had not read this article of Mr. Jackson's and not written these two papers of mine, his views would not have attracted the attention they deserved, and I am, therefore, very glad of being thus the instrument of disclosing the "hidden jewel.” When our theory about the Gurjara kingdom was accepted by scholars in Europe, he wrote to me once saying "Our Imperial Pratthâra kings are coming to their own again at last,"
I cannot, bowever, help saying that his head contained far more information critically sifted and carefally stored than any papers he found leisure to writo. This was always the impression of those who had either a personal conversation or correspondence with him. To show that his knowledge far transcended that actually embodied in his notes or papers, I shall cite two or three instances, knowing for certain that they will be useful to antiquarians. When I was engaged