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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
belief of those students of prehistoric India who declare that a kernel of actual fact, albeit small, is enshrined in the tales and legends of the vanished past. For example, Dr. Barnett, confesses his conviction that the Bharata war, though obscured by fable, was a real historical event; and speaking generally, scholars are more inclined to adopt in relation to Indian tradition the views which Caxton once expressed in relation to the legend of king Arthur. It will not do, he said in effect, to dismiss summarily all Arthurian traditions as so many old wives' tales. They are too wide-spread and persistent not to have some basis of solid fact underlying them besides, the people who believe them, love them, and write of them, cannot all be credulous fools. These words might be applied with equal force to the story of the Great War and several other Indian traditions.
Dr. Law's work is frankly an attempt to present a detailed account of the ancient Indo-Aryan tribes, which occupied the valley of the upper Ganges and its tributaries in pre-historic times. Starting from tradition, as embodied in ancient Sanskrit and Pali works, and checking it with other literary and archeological material, Dr. Law gives all the information obtainable about the Kurus, who appear as the Bharatas in the Vedic age and are connected with the Panchalas in the Brahmanas; the Panchalas, who were originally termed Krivis and are mentioned both in Buddhist literature and in the Arthafastra of Kautilya; the Matsyas, orthodox followers of Brahmanism, who are mentioned in the Rig Veda and the Brahmanas, and are associated with the Chedis and Surasenas in the Epics and Puranas; the Surasenas, who are first mentioned as skilled warriors in the Code of Manu, and whose capital, Mathura, was at one time the centre of Krishna-worship and later the cradle of the Bhagavata religion; the Chedis, who also date back to the Vedic age and later were divided into two branches, one of which occupied Bundelkhand and the other Nepal; the Vasas or Vatsas, a Rigvedic tribe, whose capital Kausambi, not far from the modern Allahabad, became a great trade-centre in a later age; the Avantia, who are mentioned for the first time in the Mahabharata and were connected with the Yadus and Kuntis of western India; and the Usinaras, about whom little or nothing is known.
Despite the difficulties of his task, Dr. Law has contrived to compile a most interesting work. As Dr. Barnett remarks, he has spared no effort to make an exhaustive and careful collection of the materials that Indian tradition offers, together with many relevant data from other sources that will aid in the construction of a critical history. Dr. Law's book needs no higher recommendation than this.
S. M. EDWARDES.
[DECEMBER, 1925
TALES FROM THE MAHABHARATA, by STANLEY RICE, with illustrations by FRANK C. PAPE. Selwyn and Blount. London, 1924.
This is a charming little book, containing renderings in verse of eight of the noteworthy legends
enshrined in the Mahabharata. Mr. Rice has chosen his tales well-the Dice Match, the Birth of Sakuntala, the Story of Nala and Damayanti, the Death of Bhisma, the Legend of the Flood, the Story of Savitri, the Vision of the Dead, and the Descent into Hell. It is these talos, and others from the same vast store-house of legend and tradition, which, as Mr. Rice rightly remarks in his Introduction,
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are living and throbbing in the lives of the people of India, even of those illiterate masses that toil in the fields or maintain a drab existence in the ghettos of the towns." And who knows but what some, kernel of truth and hard fact underlies the two great Epics of India? Many scholars are now disposed to believe that a skeleton of real history underlies the huge mass of epic legend, and that the great war between the Kauravas and Pandavas, though much obscured by-fable, was a real historical event. If this be so, the more obviously legendary tales which embellish the course of the Mahabharata narrative acquire additional meaning and import. ance. Moreover such stories as those which Mr. Rice has embodied in easy-flowing verse, which closely follows the meaning of the original, inculcate a high moral and are worthy to rank with the ethical teaching of any country. The stories of Nala and Damayanti and of the death of Bhisma should be known to everyone. One can only hope that Mr. Rice will publish further volumes of these tales in similar form. The story of Dhruva, which has been described as "the very jewel of starmyths," would surely lend itself to treatment. And if future instalments of the tales are embellished with illustrations, such as those which Mr. Pape has contributed to the present volume, the series will deserve a place in any library.
S. M. EDWARDES.
IDENTITY OF THE PRESENT DIALECT AREAS OF HINDUSTANI WITH THE ANCIENT JANAPADA, by DHIRENDRA VARMA. Allahabad 1925.
This useful little pamphlet of the Allahabad University takes the statements of Sir George Grierson's Linguistic Survey, and shows therefrom that the modern dialects of Hindustani coincide almost completely with the ancient Janapadas of Madhyadesa. That is to say, it shows that the people and their languages have not changed during all the times of which there is any history. It is an interesting study.
R. C. TEMPLE.
