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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JONE, 1928
To understand the Hindu caste system, and especially the unchallenged supremacy of the Brahmans, we must not expect to find a clue in their traditional intellectual superiority as law-givers and priests, but in their rôle as magicians, for magicians they undoubtedly were ; the very word Brahman derives its origin from brahmana "a magic spell "46. Nay, not only was the Brahman a magician in the hoary past, but he is so in our own days. He is not simply a priest performing his daily duties in the temples, but he is a wizard who, with his curses and incantations, can make or mar all around him. Is not the picture of an enraged Brahman with his right arm outstretched, holding in his hand the sacred upavita, and cursing a terrified individual familiar to all who have spent some time of their lives in the "magical land” of India ? Can it be possible that at last we are on the threshold of the long-lost mystery of the origin of the caste system in India ? It is only a hypothesis to be followed or rejected as subsequent researches may direct us. 46
..BOOK-NOTICES. ASCARYACOPĀMANI, by ŚAKTIBHADRA, published by he finds this influence, nor does he point out whether Śri Mala Manorama Press, Mylapore.
it is quite decisive. In regard to the date of Sakti. This is a dramatic work based on the story of the bhadra himself, the learned professor is of Opinion Randyana and has been brought into prominent that he was an immediate disciple of the first notice in the discussions on the authenticity of the Sankaracharya, circa A.D. 788-820. But he notes, works of Bhåsa, the thirteen dramas published by none the less, that rhetoricians like Bhâmaha and the lato Mahảmahopadhyâya Ganapati Sastrigal of Jagannatha do not quote from him. In trying to Trivandrum. It is published by collation of six fix the downward limit, he places Saktibhadra manuscripts and with a commentary. It has an anterior to the Travancore sovereign, Kula sekara introduction by Mahamahopadhyâya S. Kuppu. Varma, the author of Tapati Samavaranam, Subhadraswami Sastrigal in English, and is, on the whole, Dhananjayam and of a third work, Aécharya brought out creditably so far as the printer's part Manjarikatha. Two histrionic directories are said of it is concerned, although it does not reach up to have been compiled in his reign, namely, Krama. quite to the level of the Nirnaya Sagara Press. dipika and Agaprakaram. The latter work men. The story begins with the Aranyakanula of the tions fourteen plays, of which the first five include Ramayana and carries it almost to the end. The the two dramas by Kulasekara himself, Nágånanda plot is modified to suit the taste of the author, or of Sri Harsha, Acharya Chudamani and Kalyana perhaps dramatic needs according to him, and the Sangandhika. The sixth is an anonymous work. peculiar feature is the almost mimculous powers Sri Krishna Charita. The remaining eight are of the two jewels concerned in the story, the signet included in the thirteen dramas ascribed to Bhasa. ring of Rams and the head-jewel of Sità. It would Here comes in the contribution of this drams to be remembered that in the Ramayana, Hanuman the discussion of the authenticity or otherwise of carries the signet ring as evidence of his character Bhasa. Since this drama figured so much in the as messenger from Rama and returns to Rama with discussions, one would have expected that the the head-jewel of Sitä as evidence of his having seen opportunity would be taken advantage of by the her. There they are treated as ordinary jewels. learned professor to consider the Bhâsa problem as Hore they are given a somewhat miraculous a whole, and restate it in the light in which it is character, probably with a view to producing won. placed by the publication of this work. Although dermont in the treatment of the plot. The intro- the Bhisa problem was started by the late Pandit duction is interesting and informingAccording to Gapapati Sastri, it has long since ceased to be the professor, the commentator must have lived entirely a question of his own. The mere pointing about the end of the sixteenth century and the to weak spots in his arguments or overstatement in beginning of the seventeenth, as he quotes from the respect of particulars cannot settle the question. Srimat Bhagarata. This by itself cannot make Nor is it fair criticism to state that everybody that him so lato, but the professor couples with it that took the viow of tho late learned editor of these he was influenced by tho work Narayaniya of ono plays has takon it on trust and has been gulled into Narayana Bhatta of Malabar, whose dato is A.D. his belief. Theo quoction stands on entirely another 1590. But he does not give any roference to where footing now, and the problem must be considered
45 0. Schrader, Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde, Strassburg, 1901, pp. 637 sq. ; (Sir) J. G. Frazer, The Magic Art, vol. I, p. 229.
4. Only the Aryan population (see however my Ethnologie du Bengale, Introduction, p. xli; Appendix A, "Cartee Ethnographiques," Map No. 1 ; Appendix B, "Tableaux Anthropométriques," Nos. 2, 3) of Bengal has been dealt with in this article. An account of the magic and taboo of the Kolarian and Dravidian tribes will be given later.
