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the Sufis were the chief exponents. Abu'l-AIA, from the social and physical condition which governed his life, expounded the ideas generally afloat in the philosophic air about him in a way that was his own, and detached himself from the usual method favoured by the Sufis of presenting his philosophy in esoteric terms adopted from erotic poetry, where it expresses human and carnal love. Omar Khayyam, living in very different conditions, followed the fashion of the writers about him. It may be objected, however, that Abu'l-ala was not a Sufi :-probably not, but he knew the doctrine and the method. He did not quite escapo it. Witness Mr. Amoen Rihani's first two quatrains ;--why I say Mr. Rihani's quatrains will presently appear :--
The sable wings of night pursuing day Across the opalescent hills, display The wondrous star-gems which the fiery
suns Are scattering upon their fiery way. O my companion, Night is passing fair, Fairer than aught the dawn and sundown wear;
And fairer too than all the gilded days of blond illusion and its golden snare. On the whole, it will, I think, be safest to say that there is no proof that Omar Khayyam consciously followed Abu'l-'alâ, but that both, each in his individual way, were influenced by the learning of the centuries in which they existed in the res. pective lands of their birth.
I have spoken above of Mr. Ameen Rihani's quatrains. His selections from Abu'l-'ala are given in a form which is a direct challenge to Fitzgerald's version of Omar Khayyam's Rubd'ydt. As Fitzgerald infused himself into Omar Khayyam, so has Mr. Rihani infused himself into Abu'l-'AlA. Neither work is a translation, but both are adap. tations, intending, and no doubt honestly, to give the real sense of the original in the verse of a foreign tongue. As Fitzgerald has boen successful with Omar Khayyam, so in my personal judgment has Mr. Rihani been with Abu'l-'Ala. His quatrains are all extraordinarily smooth, and they read like the production of an Oriental mind and convey the Near Eastern manner of composing captivating verse. Mr. Rihani is no mean poet, as is shown by his lines to Abu'l-'Ald with which his book opens, and he has the advantage of a training, for all his fine command of English, which is apparently Near Eastern. He is also honest with his author, for Abu'l-'AIA lashed out at all whom he thought were humbugs-Christian, Muhammadan, Sec.
tarian-great and small, and Mr. Rihani does not hide his invective at all
Muhammad or Messiah ! Hear thou me, The truth entire nor here nor there can be ; How should our God, who made the sun
and moon, Give all his light to one, I cannot see. Abu'l-'AlA was accused of infidelity and of loan. ings towards Hinduism. He was a vegetarian and a great opponent of wine-drinking, and ex. hibited extraordinary tenderness towards animals. All this is brought out, and some of it echoes Indian philosophic ideas :
The life with guiltless life-blood do not stain--- Hunt not the children of the wood, in vain Thou'lt try one day to wash thy bloody
hand : Nor hunter here nor hunted long remain. HiA verse was also full of the doubt that was then so much the fashion
The way of vice is open as the sky, The way of virtue's like the needle's eye;
But whether here or there the eager Soul Has only two companions-Whence and Why. His infirmities and his poetry affected all his life and are reflected in his verse, and the last quatrains given by Mr. Rihani are specially pathetic, as they show that behind his despair of the world and his cynicism he held on to the hopes inculcated by the faith in which he was brought up
But I, the thrice imprisoned, try to troll Strains of the song of night, which fill with dole My blindness, my confinement and my
flesh The sordid habitation of my soul. How beit, my inner vision heir shall be To the increasing flames of mystery,
Which may illumine yet my prison's cell, And crown the ever living hope of me. Mr. Rihani has produced a great book which deserves to be well and widely read by those who would understand something of the perennial Oriental mind.
R. C. TEMPLE,
EARLY HISTORY OF VAISHNAVISM IN SOUTH INDIA
by Professor S. KRISHNASWAMI AIYANGAR. Madras University Special Lectures. Oxford University Press : Madras. pp. x and 112.
This little book is the outcome of a suggestion from Sir George Grierson that Vaishnava Literature should be made better known to the European public, and in effect is a critical exami. nation of Sir R. G. Bhandarkar's Vaishnaviem, Saivism and Minor Religions, conducted in the
