Indian Antiquary Vol 56

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 98

80
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ APRIL. 1927
early Vijayanagara inscription of Harihara II, and sions is remarkable. Mr. Jackson has added to
notion of the coronation of Achyuta at KAlahasti Buchanan's text some valuable appendices and of many of his officers. The inscriptions of the which have already been published in the Journal of Chapi chiefs are of great interest and so is one of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society. These which Sarfðji Maharaja of the Maratha kings of Tanjore, comprise notes on Old Rajagriha, the Barabar. Hills containing an account of a trial by ordeal. It etc., are so interesting from an antiquarian standreonrds an agreement that "if any one of the res. point that one wishes the editor had found time to pondente," in a temple dispute, "dipped his fingers annotate Buchanan's text more fully. Apparently in boiling ghee in the temple unscathed” the
this was the original intention ; but, as was the case appellant would wave his righta. "This was agreed with so many other proposals, the War obliged to and one of the respondents did dip his fingers
Mr. Jackson to forego his plans. Even as it is, in the boiling ghee and remained uninjured, and
this edition of Buchanan's Journal is sure of a warm the appellant then made over the said land to the
welcome from students of the history and antirespondents as agreed." There is, morever, an
quities of Bihar.
S. M. EDWARDES enormously long inscription of the Bhonsle family,
MEMOIRS OF THE ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. giving a very valuable genealogy, and a remarkably
No. 28. BHASA AND THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE ornate Musalman inscription at Suruguppa trans
THIRTEEN TRIVANDRUM PLAYS. By HIRANANDA lated by Mr. Yazdani "for the peculiar style and
SASTRI. Calcutta, 1926. high sentiments that it is clothed in." Finally an account is given of those inscriptions that allude to
The controversy regarding the authorship of the the ancient administration of criminal justice in
thirteen plays discovered by Mr. Ganapati Sastri South India.
of Trivandrum in 1912 and published by him in the Altogether one must congratulate the Superin
Trivandrum Sanskrit Series, bids fair to rival the tendent of the Epigraphical Department on producing
Shakespeare-Bacon controversy in England. The volume of real value to all searchers in South
discoverer himself ascribed the authorship to the Indian history.
famous Bh&sa, and his view found favour with many R. C. TEMPLE
European and Indian pandits, including Dr. F. W.
Thomas, Opposed to them are Mr. Bhattanatha JOURNAL OF FRANCIS BUCHANAN (afterwards Svami, Dr. L. D. Bamett, and Professor Sylvain
HAMILTON) kept during the Survey of the Districts Lévi. A new combatant now enters the Arena in of Patna and Gays in 1811.12. Edited with the person of Mr. Hirananda Sastri, who states Notes and Introduction by. V. H. Jackson, that he has been prompted to investigate the whole Superintendent, Government Printing, Bihar and! question of authorship by the perusal of drama Orissa, 1926.
of Saktibhadrs named Ascharyachdddmani, which This Journal, which is published for the first
bears close resemblance to the thirteen plays ascribed time, forms & small portion of the manuscripts
to Bhasa. After summarising and examining the relating to Buchanan's great Statistical Survey of
arguments put forward by what I may for the Bengal, carried out between 2007 and 1815. It moment call the 'pro.Bhasa school, he investigates represents the official daily journal which he kept various points of dramatical technique, which bear during his tour of the Patna and Gava districts, directly on the question at issue, discusses the title and must be distinguished from the corresponding
of the Svapnanalakam, and deals Jucidly with the official reports which he submitted as the outcome
structure of the plays, with the archaiams found in of his survey. As Mr. Jackson, the present editor,
them, with the relation of the Charudatta to the pointe out in an excellent Introduction. Bucha
Mrichchhakatikd, with the epithets of Bhasa, and nan's Journals form, very useful supplement to
with the evidence of anthologies. I must leave his published Reports, and they provide a detailed
those interested in the question to study the author's description of the route which Buchanan followed detailed arguments themselves, and content myself thus enabling the modern enquirer to identify some with recording his final conclusion that tho Trivan. of the hills, mines, quarries, caves etc., described in drum plays cannot be the work of Bhies and that the Reports. Buchanan was a most careful and the arguments in support of this opinion can all be painstaking enquirer, and as Mr. Jackson remarks, shown to be ativydpta or wide of the mark. seems to have adopted the principles of modern! Published as a record of the Archaeological Survey scientific research, always testing the truth of any of India and thus bearing the seal of official approval statement made to him, whenever the opportunity Mr. Hirananda Sastri's investigation is bound to occurred. Considering that he had no works of re. carry considerable weight among Orientalista, who, ference to aid him in identifying the antiquities of even if they remain unconverted, must pay tribute Bihar and no reliable maps to guide his wanderinge, to the scholarly character of his thesis. the general accuracy of his statements and conclu.!
S. M. EDWARDES.