Indian Antiquary Vol 59

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

Page 132

120
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JUNE, 1930
owing to indications given by Roth; and it seems somewhat curious that so far no systematic investigations have been carried on in Southern India, the native land of the Yajur Vedas. Anyhow, it would certainly be very valuable if a thorough and systematic collection of all the quotations from Vedic texts in the Mimms scriptures were brought together.
The quotation panca pancanakha bhakrydh. mentioned on p. 33, has been exhaustively dealt with by Professor Lüders, ZDMG., 1xi, 641 f. It occurs in Jataka 537, as gatha 58, in MBh., xii, 141, 70, in the introduction to the Mahabhd ya and in various passages of the law literature (cp. also Dr. J. J. Meyer, Die altindischen Rechtsschriften).
Professor Edgerton has, through several highly accomplished works, earned the gratitude of his follow-scholars. His last contribution to Sanskrit scholarship, upon which he is to be warmly congratu. lated, is certainly not the least.
JARL CHARPENTIER.
and pellucid introduction and several very useful indexes. He has also given us & reproduction of the Sanskrit text itself, which will be the more welcome as Indian editions of it are very seldom seen in Europe. Thus Professor Edgerton has in every way put his colleagues under a deep obligation.
The Mimamsa system has certainly not been exhaustively studied in Europe ; and the present writer-probably much like many other scholarshas not felt very greatly enlightened by the explications of it given by Profoshore Keith, Das Gupta, Radhakrishnan, etc. It is, therefore, most welcome to have got, from the experienced pen of Professor Edgerton, a trustworthy translation of one of the most highly valued hand-books on the Mimarså system. Abstruse as it undoubtedly appears to European minds, it is none the less of great interest as going back to very remote timos; and its method of reasoning has been of high importance for the development of Hindu legal literature. The principle of the Mimarns that the dnarthakya, the senselessness, should overywhere be ruled out of the Veda is upheld with great vigour throughout the codes of Hindu law.
TO & scholar who knows little of Hindu philo. sophy and still less of the special tenets of the Mim Amad, the most interesting point is perhaps the one concerned with the Vedic quotations found in Sabarasvåmin's Bhagya and in subsequent treatises of the Mimâmsakas. It is quite obvious that the chief authority of these ritualistio philo Bophers consisted of the various Yajus texts. And it is extremely interesting to know that some of the quotations from such texts cannot be found in those now known to us; also that some others are found, but only in a more or less divergent form. We are at ance reminded of Patañjali's notice concerning the existence of more than & hundred Yajur Vedas. For, even if that be an exaggeration, there can be no doubt that the four versions, together with fragments of a fifth one, of which we are now possessed, do not exhaust the possible number of Yajus Texts. We cannot but remember how the Paippalada version of the Atharva Veda was happily unearthed in Kashmir
DJAWA. TYDSCHRIFT VAN HET JAVA-INSTITUUT.
Vol. IX, Nos. 2 and 3, May 1929.
Secretariat Van Het Java-Instituut, Kadipolo, Solo.
The whole of this issue is taken up with an article of 120 pp. by B. Van Tricht entitled Living Antiquities in West Java. It is divided into two parts (1) The Badoejs, (2 Goenoeng Segara. The information contained in the article was obtained during an expedition undertaken by Prof. J. Boeke, Prof. C. D. de Langen and the author, in the hope of making a medical examination of the Badooje in South Bantam, whose secular isolation must have had important anthropological and physiological results. From this point of view, however, the expedition was a failure, owing to the passive regis. tance of the people. Many interesting facts, how. ever, about the religious belief and worship, the social organization and the ethnography of this interesting people were observed and are recorded in this article.
J. M. B.
NOTES AND QUERIES. DOUBLE RING HAFTING.
It is desired to ascertain as accurately as possible The Indian Research Committee of the Royal
the geographical distribution of this type of hafting Anthropological Institute seek the following infor
and the whereabouts of specimens in museum col.
lections. Any information, together with sketches mation :
of the specimens referred to, should be sent toA primitive method of hafting a flat sxe blade (i.e., & blade without hole or socket) survives in K. DE B. CODRINGTON, Esq., South India. The blade is inserted in a cleft stick,
Honorary Secretary, which is prevented from splitting by two rings, enciroling the haft, one above and one below the
India Research Committee, blade, so that the shock of a blow falls on one or
Royal Anthropological Institute, other of the rings, instead of on the wood.
82, Upper Bedford Place, London, W. C. 1.