Indian Antiquary Vol 53

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

Page 71

MARCH, 1924 ]
BOOK-NOTICES
BOOK-NOTICES. THE LAY OF ALHA. Partly translated by the late, a veteran : Sir Charles Elliott, Mr. Waterfield, Mr. WILLIAM WATERFIELD, B.O.S., with introduction Vincent Smith, and Sir George Grierson. In this And abstracts of the untranslated portion by SIR Journal the last of them published a portion as long GEORGE GRIERSON, K.C.I.E. Oxford University ago as 1886. Mr. Waterfield also produced in verso Press, 1923.
a portion of it in the Calcutta Review many years ago, This valuable little book brings before us in entic and after his death in 1907 his MSS. and papers inggarb the well-known Alh-khand, the great ballad came before Sir George Grierson. Sir George found of the Rajputs, recounting the stories that have many more parts of it done into verse, and he has come down in connection with Rai Pithaurâ or now published all these, adding abstracte in prose Prithivi Raja, the Chauhan, the last Hindu Ruler prepared by Sir Charles Elliott and himself of the of Delhi before the advent of Muslim rule under remainder of the ballads. Mr. Waterfield's version Shahâbu'ddin Ghori in 1192. Rai Pithaurd's
is in English ballad verse, well suited to convey the
is in English hallad varna. wall miter best known action was the cause of the defeat of original. Being great scholar, Oriental and the Hindus before the Muhammadans at that European, his translation is not only accurate, time. He carried off the daughter of the great but lives and reproduces the full force of the poetry King of Kanauj, Jaychand, and the feud that of the Indian ballad singers. Those who would arose between them in consequence, so weakened know the Rajput and the feelings that sway hiny the power of the two great Hindu Rulers on what will do well to study his pages, guided by the inform. was then the frontier of Hindustan that the Hindus ing introduction given by Sir George Grierson. cloprived themselvop of the power to withstand They will find many things to surprise them which the encroachment of their western neighbours of are worth knowing. The professed anthropologist A strange religion. India went down before Islam, will also see much to study, especially in the marriago and Rai Pithaura's abduction of his neighbour's ceremonies described at length. daughter became a turning point in Indian history.
R. C. TEMPLE. The situation has long held a fascination for the present writer and made the relation of the deeds of the Rajputs of those days a study of extraordinary SIR SUBRAMANYA AYYAR LECTURES ON THE HISTORY interest.
OF SRI VAISHNAVAS, delivered by the late MR. It has come down to modern days in two great
T. A. GOPINATHA RAO, pp. 61 (1923). Published rescensions--the Prithirdj Rasau of Chand Bardai,
by the University of Madras. Price 10 annas. the warrior poet who died with his master in the The first attempt at a serious study of the his.
Great Battle of A.D. 1192, an epic of portentoustory and literature of Vaishnavism may be traced length in true Indian fashion, and the Alhkhand, back to the days of the late Bishop Caldwell and the property of illiterate minstrels handed down | Professor Seshagiri Sastriar, with whose strange from generation to generation. They tell the tale and misleading conclusions on the age and relative with many incidental interpolations from the positions of the Alvârs and AchAryas all students point of view of Delhi, i.e., of Rai Pithaura, and of of South Indian History are fully familiar. Since Kanauj and Maheba, .e., of Jaychand, respectively, then, several other South Indian scholars have and so in a fashion we get both sides of the story. | studied the subject, some of them confining their
The incident of the abduction of Jaychand's attention to parts of the subject, such as the de. Klaughter is, however, outside the main tale, which termination of the age of individual Alvârs. Among is really an account of the fall of Mahoba before Rai these may be mentioned the names of Dr. 8. KrishPithaura. Mahbâ lay in Bundelkhand, and at naswami Aiyangar, Mr. M.Srinivasa Aiyangar, the time of the story was ruled by Parmal, the Pandit M. Raghava Aiyangar and the late Mr Ohandel. The Alkhand is a long cycle of ballads T. A. Gopinatha Rao, and Mr. K: 8. Srinivasa Pillai. rocounting its destruction at the hands of Rai The latest, the most comprehensive and authori. Pithaurà.
tative publication on the subject is Dr. S. The great hero of the Alhkhand, the Lay of Alha,
Krishnaswami Aiyangar's "Early History of is Alh & the Banâphar, of doubtful Rajput origin,
Vaishnavism in Southern Inuis" (1920), in which but, with his brother Odan, the great upholder of
he has embodied the results of his research on the Mahoba. They both met their death in its subject carried on for the last twenty-five years, Jefonoe. Their story is told at great length in 23
parts of which he had already published in his Cantos. It is indeed a saga of Rajput chivalry,
earlier works. alling the Rajput life of the time, and is therefore The present work on the "History of Sri Vaishof the highest anthropological value.
navas by the late Mr. T. A. Gopinatha Rao" comIt has been fortunate in attracting the attention prises two lectures delivered by the author before of four great enquirers into India, its ways and its the University of Madras, when he was appointed languages, three of them now dead and the fourth to deliver the Bir Subramanya Iyer Locture for