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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
( AUGUST, 1921
Vaidika, who knows by heart and teaches to his disciples one or several Vedas, which he still understands at least in part, is superior to the sectarian Guru, with his unintelligible Mantras, his amulets, and his diagrams; the Yājnika, who possesses the complex science of ancient sacrifice, must be ranked above the illiterate attendant of a temple and an idol; and the Agnihotrin, who, while diligent in his own business, keeps up his sacred fires, and with his wife and children, conforms to the prescriptions of his hereditary ritual, is a more serviceable and moral being than the Fakir and even the Buddhist monk."
BOOK-NOTICES. EPIGRAPHIA BIRMANICA, vol. I, Pt. Il. Monat proving that he belongerl to the recognised Inscriptions, Rangoon, 1920.
dynasty. It is the familiar story of Alleged illegi. The second issue of Epigraphia Birmanica is
timate clesoont attaching to a recognised acion As valuable as the first, which dealt with A quadri.
of a royal line. Mr. Blagden gives the outline of lingual inscription, including version in the
the logend As retailed to him by Professor Duroi.
selie, and says, “It would be worth publishing in Pyu Language. What that issue did for Pyu,
full in another place." this one does for Mon, or Talaing as it is more
I cordially agree, for the
renson that in the versions theroof in the accounts familiarly known.
given to me of the legends of the Thirty Seven The author is obviously Mr. C. Otto Blagden,
Nats (ante, vol. XXIX, pp. 117 ft.), the story is and how much he has advanced the knowledge
told of other kings of the period connected with of these tongues can perhaps be only appreciated!
the cycle of legends that have gathered round the by those who, like myself, have seen the rise of
revered name of Anawrahta (or Anawrahtázaw, it, As it were from the beginning, nearly half a cen.
88 he is quite as often called). tury ago. Of Pyu thers was no knowledge in those days, and Haswell's Peguan Vocabulary was "just
If the Epigraphia Birmanica continues as well out" in 1874, when I endeavoured, in a now for as it has begun, it will be as important A Jourgotten pamphlet, to assintilate it to the Jonesian
nal of Oriental Research as any of its con(afterwards familiar as the Hunterian) system of transliteration. Twenty years later, in 1893, when
R. C. TEMPLE. concocting an article on the Antiquities in Rampiñadosa (ante, vol. XXII, pp. 327 ff.) I well
ANNALS AND ANTIQUITIES OF RAJASTHAN, by recollect the difficulty of getting any European or Lt. Col. JAMES TOD. Edited with an IntroducTalaing in Rangoon or Pegu to read and translate
tion and Notes, by William Crocke, C. I. E, Mon Inscription. Nowadays, thanks to Mr.
Oxford University Press, 1920.1 Blagden's efforts, students have no longer to face
This is a reprint of Tod's famous Rajasthan, the old difficulties.
now nearly 100 years old, brought up to date Mr. Blagden sticks to his system of translitera through an Introduction and Notes by a thoroughly tion, letter for letter, though of course he is well
competent student of Things Indian." Aware that Mon orthography, like Burmese and
Tod had opportunities of studying his protégés, English, constitutes, to use his own expression,
the Rajputs, denied for many reasons to his suc"an elaborate tangle of conventions." The tangle
cessors in office, of which he had a natural aptiis greater than in Burmere or English, and is not
tude for taking full advantage ; and though his improved by transference from the native to Roman
official career was not a success, his bent of mind, lottere.
his wide reading and devotion to the study of the Historically, the Inscriptions now published are
people he so loved in their every aspect, enabled of great value in fixing the date of the accession
him to produce, to use bis editor's words, "the of the important king Kyansittha in 1084-1085
most comprehensive monograph ever compiled A.D. His reign of 28 years has been usually taken
by British officer describing one of the leading as ending in that year. The significance of the
peoples of India." rectification to general Burmese history will thus at once be seen. Like the other outstanding rulers Tod wrote his great quarto a century ago and of that time, Anarwatha and Alaungaithů, kyan- put into it all the oriental learning of his day, eittha is the hero of much legend, chiefly aimed perforoo consisting largely of speculation, which
1 Reprinted from Man, 1921
