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100
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(MAY, 1926
With these inadequate remarks I close my obeerv ations on one of the fullest books on history that it has been my fortune to peruse. I should add these there is an excellent index for which scholars will no doubt be grateful.
R. C. TEMPLE
Arayamuthan suggests that he was a Moukhari of Magadha. This sets him on a spocial enquiry, in cluding a valuable review of North Indian history from B.C. 320 to A.D. 650. It also leads him to an examintion of the history of the Kåvêri with re. ference to Mukari as a possible place name, and he decides that "Mukari" cannot be one. Mr. Aravamuthan thon goes into the obscure history of the Maukhari clan of Magadha and their possessions, with the patience that distinguishes the rest of his work.
The above is the veriest outline of the substance of this extraordinarily full book, and I now turn to notice some of the notes. First, there is an exceed. ingly ingenious footnote to p. 31 to show that Adityasena, the Later Gupta, invaded the Chola kingdom in A.D. 674 with Vikramaditya I, the Western Chalukya. This note is well worth study. Another note equally worth attention is one (p. 41) on a suggestion that the cult of Pattini Dovi, Our Lady of Chastity spread to Eastern Malwa. Then there is a well thought out note on the names Satavahana and Satakarni as those respectively of a race and its kings, both meaning possibly "& hundred ships"-a new equivalence for them. To these must be added the whole story of the Kåvēri River and its changes, which is admirably told. In read. ing this, sight should not be lost of the long footnote on Pp. 118-122 on Palaikaveri and Palaiyara.
nd Palaivara. So far Mr. Aravamuthan has himself drawn at. tention to his notes, but I would add one or two more on my own account. On p. 28 there is an identification of Vajra as kingdom mentioned beside Magadha and Avanti. As to the latter there is no difficulty, but Vajra presents many, though it may fairly be accepted now as having extended from the banks of the Son in a south-easterly direction to the Bay of Bengal, so that it touched the sea and skirted the Son.
At pp. 101-102 is a remarkable suggestion which I merely quote in full in order to draw attention to it. It gives a probable origin of Harsha's great. dese: "The possibility of the Maukharis having been able to control all these territories during a period when the Vardhanas of Thanesar are not known to have been very powerful, and the circumstance that the Vardhana line comes to the fore. front on the extinction of the Maukhari dynasty, suggests a rather startling conclusion in respect of the origins of Harsha's greatness. If the Maukharis had before Grahavarman's days extended their power over the major portion of North India, if before Harsha the Vardhanas of Thanesar were in. conspicuous rulers-which there is no reason to doubt-And if Harsha ostensibly placed GrahaVarman's widow, Rajya-Sri, on the throne and him. self professed to be only a Kumara), we have adequate basis for a belief that Harsha came into an empire by stepping dexterously into the shoes of the Maukharis."
PANTSCHAKUYANAWARTTIKA, vollständig verdeut
scht von JOHANNES HERTEL 1923, Verlag : H. Haessel, Leipzig.
The booklet under review is the sixth volumeof a well-known German series Indische Erzähler. The former volumes of this series contained translations from Sanskrit, but this one is from Old Gujarati, & novelty inasmuch as it is the first complete attempt of the kind. The original text was edited by the same learned scholar in 1922 (Markert and Petters, Leipzig. The book can also be had of Harshachand Bhurabhai, Benares) and its contents have been made known to the publie by him still earlier, in 1914, in his well known work on the History and spread of the Pafcatantra. The chief interest of the book lies in the fact of its being quite popular. The stories have been taken, as Hertel has shown, not only from the Pa.Icatantra but also from other sources, They depict the actual conditions of Indian life Among common classes. Again the style is not at all learned, but very simple : just one suited to the people. And the translator has tried to imitate it in his German It goes without saying that it is very difficult to edit and translate a text written in an unknown language, especially when the MS. is full of mistakes and when the words are not separated therein. Mistakes in the edition due to haste have been corrected in the translation. Some of them have been noted in the second appendix of this work, and the careful reader will find that others too have been silently corrected. It is no wonder therefore if the writer of these lines suggests some corrections elsewhere. Numerous footnotes deal with grammatical and exegetical points. The introduction touches upon the author and the language of the text, the latter subject being continued in the first appendix with detailed discussion upon some words. The whole book gives a fair idea of manners and customs, beliefs and superstitions of India not very old, and some pieces are really charming as stories. Thus it is both interesting and instructive. Its importance to the students of the Old-Gujarati language cannot be too much emphasized. Prof. Hertel has prepared grammatical and glossarial studies on this and other old Gujarati works. Their publication should no longer be delayed, and we hope that the learned author will soon find time for it.
J. O. TAVADIA.
