Indian Antiquary Vol 59

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

Page 67

MAROK, 1930 ]
BOOK-NOTTOES.
65
BOOK NOTICES. VIDIMOUN MYTHOLOGTM, vou Allrod Hillebrandt; and aoma- (or canulu) turidi roos, to which thu
second and revised edition in 3 vols. ; vol. I, proudeat oluns in India yot trnce thoir ancostry. 91 x 61' ; pp. 547. Breslau, 1927.
In Appendix II. Professor Hillebrandt deals very All Sanskritists are familiar with the late Pro- exhaustively with the questions of the identity fessor Hillebrandt's long pursued and deep study and domicile of the Panis, go often referred to of the Vedas. This is a second and revised edition in the RV., and he has conclusively established of his Vedische Mythologie. The matter has been as has in fact been generally accepted-that Pani ro-arranged and many improvements made in was the name of a people or tribe, and not merely the manner of presenting it, while several portions a term for a 'miser or non-giver' or 'unbeliever. have been rewritten. After preliminary sections The further suggestions of a goographical nature on Uşas, the Asvins and Agni, the main portion made in this appendix as to the locale of certain of the volume is devoted to the elaboration of tribes mentioned in the RV., such as the Panis, his well-known views on the importance, or even Påråvatas, and Bruayas, and the original Saras. predominance, of the moon in the religion of Vedic vati river, are, as he himself justly claims, of widetimes. The many developments in research and reaching import: and when the Ancient history criticism that have been made since he first pro- of the area between India and Iran has been pounded his ideas on this subject have not caused more fully elucidated by Archeological exploration, him to change his opinion to any substantial his views may prove to be well founded. extent, nor convinced him that any of his critics The work has been excellently printed, and the had come to more correct interpretation. If indexes provided are most useful. The second the soma element of the sacrifice (the plant and volume is now appearing. its juice that supplied the ampia) be rightly ac
C. E. A. W.O. copted as a symbol or synonym of the moon-80
THE DOLMENS OF THE PULNEY HILLS, by the Rev. A. intimately Asociated in early mythology with
ANGLADE, S.J., and the Rev. L. V. NEWTON, S.J. immortality and resurrection-We must admit
Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. the importance of lunar beliefs at the time, and
36; pp. viii + 14, with 7 plates. Caloutta, 1928. we are disnosed to agree with M. Augusto Barth that
Fifty yeare ago the 'rudo sono monuments of Trofessor Hillebrandt has correctly equatod soma with
South India were much in fashion, but archeologists the moon : but it in doubtful whether some other
seem to have grown shy of the awkward probleme equations proposed can be considered as established. Since Professor Hillebrandt first formulated
they present. Meanwhile the monuments them.
selves are vanishing under the ruthless march of his conclusions on this subject, the investigations
"civilization"; the road contractor is fast convert. of several students of the past have disclosed the
ing them into road metal. Fathers Anglade and great antiquity of moon worship and its possible
Newton deserve thanks for retrieving a few facta Bacendancy oven over that of the sun among
from the wreckage. The megaliths of the Palni primitive peoples. The influence of old moon
Hills (80 usually spelt) are in several features unique. myths may perhaps survive in the frequent re
Wisely concentrating on the monuments of a limited forences to 'prersers and non-pressers' (of the
area, the authors of this monograph have done a very noma) and the insistence upon the importance
thorough piece of work. Digging and theories they of securing the aid of Indra, who was so devoted
leave to experts; but their evidence, set forth by to the ambrosial juice, with which he is even identified. We have abundant evidence Also,
map, plan, photograph, and concise description, is a
record of solid value. of course, in the RV. of the high importance attached
Sewell's Lists of Antiquities (vol. I, 1882), contain to the power and influences of the sun, no less than ten hymns being devoted to Surya as the
much information regarding the distribution of sun-god. We must not, as Professor Hillebrandt is
megaliths in 8. India, but his lead has not been fol. careful to point out, regard the RV. as a mythology
lowed. The publication of this Memoir is & welcome of primitive times (Urmythologie) nor even as the
augury of reviving interest. Many secrets of India's beginning of Indian mythology, but only as a
past are locked up in these ancient monuments, and,
even if they be deemed unworthy of the law's prosection, or reach, in the ever-flowing stream of mythological conceptions. The primitive mind
tection, « descriptive list of those that survivo incorporated new ideas with the old traditions,
would be a useful basis for future research treating them as new aspects or attributes, till
'F. J. RICHARDS. the old myths gradually became overlaid or
BIBLIOTHEQUE DES GROGRAPHES ARABAS, Tomo transformed. To cito single example, Indra
I, Introduction & l'astronomie nautique arabe, himself lonce his pre-eminent position, surviving
par Gabriel Ferrand. 04' X 6t": Pp. xi+-272. the Vedie period as the patron deity of the Paris, Paul Geuthner, 1928. Ksatriyas. To-day he is almost insignificant, M. Ferrand is rondoring a paramount servior though still regarded as the rain and storm god in to students of the history of geographical knowledge popular belief. Traces of the old distinction between by making available to those not aoquainted with the followers of the sun and moon cults are probably Arabio the most important toxta of the early Arab to be found in the ethnic divisions of the suryavansi' geographers. He is thus supplementing the work