Indian Antiquary Vol 41

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

Page 132

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
of figures of speech such as Upamá, Dipaka, Ślesha, Jati (or Svabhávokti), Utpreksha, etc. We know that Bana lived in the first half of the 7th century A.D.
128
The Bhaṭṭikavya devotes four sargas (10-13) to the illustration of topics that rightly belong to the art of poetry. The author gives examples of two Alankaras of word, viz., Anuprása and Yamaka and of thirty-six Alamkaras of Sense. He must have had before him some work defining the figures of speech. He tells us that he lived under king Dharasena of Valabhi. We know four Valabhi kings who bore the name Dharasena. Therefore Bhatti must have flourished at some time between about 500 and 650 A.D., the dates of the first and the fourth Dharasenas.
In this section we have tried to prove that the simple figures of speech, such as Upama and Rupaka, were named and defined long before the Christian era and that the centuries immediately following that era witnessed the evolution of a number of figures of speech. From the 7th century onwards we have a host of writers on the Alankara-Sastra, whose dates can be obtained with great exactness. (To be continued.) MISCELLANEA.
INDIAN AND CEYLONESE BRONZES. The six fine bronzes from the Tinnevelly District, Madras, exhibited in the Indian Court at the Festival of Empire, 1911 (case 69, Nos. 438443) by Lord Ampthill throw light on the origin of the remarkable set of similar images found in 1907 and 1908 by the Archæological Survey, Ceylon, in a trench outside the Siva Dewâlê at Polonnaruwa. Those images evidently belonged to the Saiva temple, which is absurdly known as the Dalada Maligawa, or 'Shrine of the Tooth Relic,' and had been hidden in the ground outside on the occasion of some revolution (Hist. of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, p. 51, note 2). They have been fully described by the Honourable Mr. P. Arunachalam in Spolia Zeylanica, Sept. 1909, and selections from the find have been published by Dr. Coomaraswamy and the writer
of this note. They are heavy, massive castings, the largest being three feet high, and the best are of high artistic quality. Lord Ampthill's set is exactly similar to the Ceylonese images and, like the Polonnaruwa find, includes a spirited Dancing Siva (Nataraja) and figures of Tamil saints.
BOOK-NOTICE.
TA-TANG-HSI YU-CHI. Original text, with preface and variants collected from ancient manuscripts and modern texts. two Vols. in Japanese and Chinese characters. College of Literature, Imperial Univer sity, Kyoto, Japan.
[MAY, 1912.
Two small, but very well printed and nicely bound volumes contain the original ancient text of the Ta-Tang-Hsi-yu-chi or in Japanese, the Ta-To-Sai-iki-ki, being the first publication of the Faculty of Letters in the Imperial University of Kyoto. The work is in two parts, the first containing the text with a preface in Japanese, and the other all the variants, which the Editors have
When the Ceylonese bronzes were discovered the question naturally arose whether they had been executed in the island or on the mainland. Dr. A. Willey, F. R. S., sometime Director of the Colombo Museum, declared that they are Polonnaruwa bronzes for better or for worse, and certainly not imported from India, but unfortunately did not assign reasons for his strongly expressed opinion. On the other hand, Mr. H. C. P. Bell, the experienced Archæological Commissioner of Ceylon, is convinced that the Polonnaruwa bronzes came from India. The discovery of Lord Ampthill's set in the Tinnevelly District strongly confirms Mr. Bell's view, and it may well be that the Polonnaruwa castings were produced in that district. The Saiva
religion is a Tamil importation into Ceylon,. and it is antecedently more probable that costly and artistic Saiva images should have been made on the mainland rather than in the Buddhist island.
V. A. S.
been able to find from the collation of the oldest MSS., which exist in the ancient monasteries of Japan, with text already published upto-date in China, Corea, and Japan. The second volume contains identification of personal and place names by Beal, Julien and Watters. The object of the work is to preserve this ancient text. We congratulate the University on the fruit of our labour." appearance of what the Editors call "this modest
R. C. TEMPLE.
32 Haranti kai mojjvala. Dipak-Opamair-navaiḥ padarthair-upapaditaḥ kathah | Nirantara Slesha-ghna sujatayo mahasrajas-champaka-pushpakairaiva II :-Kadambar.
3 Three of Lord Ampthill's bronzes have been reproduced by the Indian Society in Eleven Plates represent ing works of Indian Sculpture, chiefly in English collections (Griggs and Sons, for 1911).