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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(MAY, 1927
Pitinikne or Pitenikas cannot be identified with the inhabitants of Pratishtana or Paithan on the Godavari, he got regards them as distinct tribe or people. Presumably, therefore, he does not scept Dr. Bhandarkar's ingenious suggestion that this word, used in conjunction with Rathikas' and BhdjAs, is an adjective signifying hereditary." The voluine and the plates are excellently printed.
S. M. EDWARDES.
JOURNAL OP INDIAN HISTORY, vol. IV, part II.
Serial No. 11. Edited by PROF. S. KRAHIN ASWAME AIYANGAR, Madras, 1925.
The September (1925) issue of the Journal of Indium History contains some notable articles. Mr. Radha Kumud Mookerji, in thoughtful cominunication entitled Laley Cupla History arl Chronology, touches on the same question As that raised by Mr. T. G. Arayamuthan in his The Kaveri, the Maukharis and the Sangam, dealing with the days of Harsha, and the two 18pects thereof may well be read together.
In the noxt artiole, Pulakesi and Khuaru II, hy Prof. R. C. Majumdar, we have one of those reversele of old ideas which are so trying to old scholars in relation to Indian history, but to which they cannot object, as it is in this way that true ancient history is hammered out. Wo are now asked to believe that it was not Pulakesin II the Chalukya that received the well known embassy from the Sasanian Khusru II of Persia, but his contemporary and enemy Harsha of Kanauj. Prof. R. C. Majumdar producou much cogent evidence in support of the new view, which of course upeets the well-known interpretation of a famous pioture at Ajanta.
Then, iu a remarkable paper by Dewan Bahadur L. D. Swamikannu Pillai there are produced bevon new facta concerning Indian Astrology such as only he could bring forward. Here we have a paper that all students of Indian chronology should study.
There are other useful papers in this issue, but the mere mention of those above alluded to shows that the editor of this Journal is keeping it up to a high mark
R. C. TEMPLE
styles "geometrical Arabesque." Dr. Hankin explains that the method of constructing these latter patterns has long been forgotten, but that by & lucky chance he discovered in a small Turkish bath attached to Jodh Bai's palaco in Fathpur Sikri the faint remains of the polygons which form the actual construction lines of this class of pattern. Evidently the original artist, when he had completed his decoration of the dome, carelosely forgot to obliterate his construction lines, which thus after a lapse of three and a half centuries offer the only clue hitherto obtained to the ingenious and often beautiful decorations which distinguish Muslim architecture. Dr. Hankin's memoir has been edited by Mr. Blakiston, who has included among the illustrations two photographs of the Club at Agra, showing the designs which Dr. Hankin furnished for its interior decoration. He the result of his invostigations into this by path of Saracenic art.
The second Memoir, No. 20, embodies an inquiry into "The Origin und Cult of Tara" by Mr. Hirananda Shastri, who reviews her position and charac. teristics in Brahmanical mythology, in inscriptional records, in Tantric literature, in Jaina works, in Buddhism, and in sculpture, and thunco deduces the conclusion that this goddess is of Buddhist origin and was first introduced into India from Tibet vid Nepal, and that originally she was a goddess of navigation, invoked to grant a safe crossing of rivers and also protection from floods. Hor worship commenced about the fifth century A.D. and had become very popular by the seventh century, when she was introduced as a minor deity into the Hindu pantheon. Thereafter she gradually roso to the position of the socond Mahavidyi-the chief deity for the salvation of men froin the troubles of this mundano existence. The Memoir contains several good illustrations of images of the goddess.
The third Memoir, No. 27. by Mr. Charles Duroisel lo, contains reproductions, one coloured and the rest in black and white, of the pictures in a Burmese parabaile or folding-book, depicting" The Pageant of King Mindon, leaving his l'aluco una visit to the Kyauktawgyi Buddha imago at sadalay (1865)." The author explains that the clocurnent, from which the plates are reproduced, is a raro one. and is one of the few extant specimens, well sol carefully executed, of pure Burmese Art, beforo that art became sensibly influenced by western models and tochnique a few decades afterwards." The pictures present a display of the Burmese standing army at Mandalay in full drear, together with princes, princesses, ministers, and elephants, horg88, War-chariots and so forth-and each pictur! is accompanied by an explanatory commentary. In brief, the Momoir provides a most interesting sidelight on the pomp and circumstance of the Court of Mandalay in the nineteenth century.
S. M. EDWARDES,
JIEMOERS OF THE ARCHÆOLOGICAL SURVEY OF
INDIA, Nos. 15, 20, and 27. Government of India. Caloutta. 1926.
Those thrve Memoirs exemplify the wide scopo of the work performed by the Archeological Survey of India. The first, No. 15, by Dr. E. H. Hankin, M.A., deals with "The Drawing of Goometric Patterns in Saracenic Art," and explains with the help of excellent diagrams the plan and constructional method, not only of the patterns formed on hexagonal and octagonal bases, which are comparatively easy to draw, but also of the important type of patterns in Saracenic art which the author
