Indian Antiquary Vol 52

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 392

362
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[DEOVMBER. 1923
ordered to ring a bell. This used to serve as a signal for them to dress and receive their meals. One day out of ouriosity she did not ring the bell and entered the enclosure, whereupon supernatural will intervened and turned the parties into stone, in order to cover their shame. The people of the plece do not understand Jainism, and the story related above is a local explanation of the curious sight of naked figures, apparently borrowed from the Gondi ides of sanctity, required at the time of the preparation of their God. Their God is made of a piece of cloth, which they require to be woven by a naked weaver, who has cleaned himself in water, and who must not, during the period he is working, spit, or answer calls of nature. If he feels a necessity for these, he has to stop work for that day and begin again next day in the same state. Again, as works of art are considered by wild people to be accomplished by magic, which is most effective when done in a state of nudity, the explanation of the naked state of the so-called Nângar and Bhongar may have been influenced by this idea aleo.
Further east lies the village of Kajli, which was certainly a quarter of Kanoja formerly. Here there is a big heap of ruins with beautifully carved stones and figures in bas relief. This seems to have been a grand shrine dedicated to Vishnu, whose broken statue has now been removed to Betul and is placed under a tree in front of the Government Treasury. It is an exquisitely carved statue in black stone. Some of the bas reliefs in the heap of ruins of Kajli are those of the four-handed Vishnu, carrying the conch, the mace, the lotus and the disous. The vandalism of railway contractors has deprived the ruins of many of its valuable sculptures. Kajli was apparently the Vaishnava quarter. There are several old tanks, on the banks of which temples were constructed, but they are all now gone, and only pieces of sculpture lying here and there show from their style their antiquity and the greatness of the town, within which they were originally constructed.
A NEW CRITICISM OF BHAVABHUTI.
BY PANDIT BATUKNATH SHARMA, M.A.
It is encouraging to note that, together with a healthy appreciation of literature, a determination to subject the works of all poets to critical analysis has also manifested itself in India. Admirable as this spirit of criticism is, it is occasionally apt, unless strictly controlled, to lack impartiality and to give a one-sided view of the matters in issue. We have a good example of this modern criticism in a peculiarly interesting article by a great Bengali scholar, who is well-known to almost all students of Sanskrit, especially to those who are constantly consulting notes on their prescribed texts. Principal Sardaranian Roy, to whom I refer, hes published an article in the Asadha and Sravans numbers of Vangavani, a wellknown Bengali Magazine, on Bhavahhutir Pratipatti, the Fame of Bhavabhuti. Special interest attaches to his article by reason of his endeavour to prove that Bhavabhuti was not a very great poet and that Uttaracharita in particular is not his best work. In sup. port of his opinion, Principal Roy has discovered' a number of blunders in the technique of Uttararamacharita. My object here is simply to give a brief résumé of his learned paper, without at present venturing on any critical comment of my own.
Principal Roy starts with the conviction that Bhavabhuti, in spite of his great admiration for Valmiki, could not bring himself to believe in the story of Rama, exactly as it is given in the Ramayana. Bhavabhuti could not conceive how Kekai. the daughter of a famous family, the daughter-in-law of a Solar ruler and the mother of such a saintly person as Bharata, could indulge in such a mean intrigue for banishing the well-beloved Rama