Indian Antiquary Vol 59

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

Page 68

56
THE INDIAN ANTIQUAR
MARCT, 1930
done by the learned M. J. de Gooje of Leyden RÅVANA and Hanuman also began to spread amongst in editing tho original Arabic texts in his Bibliotheca tho inhabitants of Java and Bali, whose monugeographorun arabicorum. No moro competent inents and literature aliko testify to iheir great scholar could be found for this task than M. Torrand. ! popularity with the inhabitants of those island. who has already done so much to elucidate the Somo years ago (1925), Dr. Stutterheim, in his book geographical knowledge of the Chinese and Arabian Rama-Legenden und Rama-Rcliefe in Indonesien, gave and other early travellers and writers in his works, An excellent contribution towards our knowledge of Le K'ouen-louen, l'Empire sumatranais de Crivijaya, Indonesian Râmn lore. At the present moment Voyage du marchand Sulayman, le Tuhfat al-albab, Dr. Ziesenirs, of the University of Hamburg, has foletc. In the present volume the editor has incor. lower np Ruch researches nlong independent lines porated the results of the researches of another And has tried to form a distinct opinion on the
rent Orientalist, the late M. Léopoll de Sa:93111e, origin and development of Javanese Råma legends. * brilliant member of a famous scientific family That the Rama talos should have been carried to and perhaps the best authority on the subject Indonesia from Bengal And Coromandel as well as of the early Chinese knowledge of astronomy. In
from the Western coast of India Reeme possible fact M. de Saussure's Commentaire des instruction
enough. And Dr. Ziesenine seems to have made suela nautiques, recorded in response to certain references
a theory entirely probable. Perhaps his argumente made to him by M. Ferrand on points that seemed at first sight to defy interpretation, is one of the
would have carried still more weight had he made most valuable documents that has yet appeared in
more profound researches in the available Indian this connexion. From it, for example, we obtain
materials as well as in the older European literature
dealing with Indian mythology, Polier, whom he a clear explanation of the exact meaning of the torms iba', dhubban, tirfa and básht, so frequently
repeatedly quotes, is a good and generally reliable
source, but there are older ones of far greater interest used in the Arab sailing instructions and so often
and value. Concerning Indian versions of the misunderstood. This volume constitutos an in.
Ramayana, two articles by Sir George Grierson in dispensable introduction to the study of the records
PSOS., iv, 11 ng., v, 28.5 ., might have been of use of the Arab navigators. We congratulate the learned
to the author ; but the later one was perhaps not editor on its publication, and look forward to the
available when his book went into print. appearance of the other volumes of the series now
We are not quite at one with the author in his in the press or in course of preparation.
| arguments concerning the date of Hikayat Sri Rama C. E. A. W. OLDHAM.
(p. 112 f.), as they seem scarcely quite cogont. DIE RAMA-SAGE BEI DER MALAIEN, IHRE HERKUNFT
However, we cannot enter upon such a problem UND GESTATTUNG. (Alt-und Neu-Indische Studien
here, and wind up with expressing our hope soon herausgegeben vorn Seminar für Kultur und Ges.
Again to meet with Dr. Ziegeniss in a field of re
search where he is apparently perfectly at home. chichte Indiens an der Hamburgischen Universität. I.) 123 pp. By A. ZIESENISS. Hamburg, 1928.
JARL CHARPENTIER. The Mahabharata, through the magnificent ex. ertions of the Bhandarkar Institute and its able
DJAWA. TIJDSCHRIFT VAN VET JAVA-INSTITUUT.
Vol. IX. Nos. 9 and 3, May 1929. Secre. leaders, is now being critically edited, by which many of its central problems will obtain their final
tariaat van het Java - Instituut, Kadipolo, Solo. solution. For the second groat epic, the Ramayana, Thewhole of this issue is taken up with an article of nothing like that is being done or could, perhaps, 50 120 pp. by B. Van Tricht entitled Living Antiquities far be done.1 Its versions are manifold and differ in West Java. It is divided into two parts-1) The so strongly that we may well fool diffident whether | Badoojs, (2) Coenoeng Ségara. The information at any time they could be proved to derive from one contained in the article was obtained on an expedition and the same original. But probably there existed undertaken by Prof. J. Bocke, Prof. O. D. de Langen a quite old cycle of legends connected with Rama, the and the quthor in the hope of making a medical ex. son of Dasaratha, the main part of which was at an amination of the Badoejs in South Bantem, whose early date set into immortal verses by the Adikavi. secular isolation must have had important anthroFrom this common stock were derived Northern,
pological and physiological results. From this point Southern and Eastern Ramayanas, which cannot, of view, however the expedition was a failure owing of course, represent exact counterparts of the epic
to the passive resistance of the peoplo. of VAlmiki, but which, though mostly of a decidedly Many interesting facts, however, about the reli. late origin, may well have preserved older materials | gious beliefs and worship, the social organization and not known to or discarded by the poet of yore. the ethnography of this interesting people were
With the spread of Hindu culture to the Eastern i observed and are recorded in this article. Archipelago the tales of Rams and Laksmann. Sita.
M. J. B. It should be clear to everyone that I am not hera speaking of the Valmiki-Ramayana but of the old epic which may possibly be at the bottom of that as well as of other versions.
To quote one instance : on p. 82 the author has & theory concerning the relation between Sive and Hanuman. But older writers are acquainted with a tradition according to which H. was generated by Siva and Parvati in the shape of monkeys.