Indian Antiquary Vol 60

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

Page 164

138
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JULY, 1931
ground, vessels, one of which bore signs bearing an exact likeness to the 14th on my plate (see Plate IV). The problem is therefore changed. It is not possible to suppose that a sign found on a funeral vessel near Pondicherry and the same sign found on a funeral vessel near Calicut can represent a maker's mark, or the name of the deceased. It might perhaps be an auspicious sign, intended for the protection of the deceased, or a religious sign. To go into the question more deeply, it would be necessary to examine the largest possible number of these signs, with photographs of the vessels bearing them and of the funeral urns or chambers in which they were found.
Nore 1.-The third sign from the end (.e., No. 16) in the third row on Plate III was inscribed upon & Vase found in a sarcophagus. This vase, instead of having two colours, red and black, is simply of a pale chestnut colour. Though this sarcophagus was found close to urns, there is no a priori reason for holding that it pertained to the same race as the urns.
NOTE 2.--The object of publishing this short paper is to induce other research workers to photograph as many as possible, not only of such signs but also of Vases and funeral urns, so as to afford a basis for comparison and further discussion of these interesting signs or marks' and their meaning. The urns should be photographed (1) in situ, before being opened, (2) in course of being opened, and then (3) the contents should be photographed.
EDITORIAL NOTE.-The attention of our readers is invited to the article entitled “Megalithio Remains of the Deocan-& New Feature of them " by Mr. G. Yazdani, published at pp. 56-79 of the Journal of the Hyderabad Archeological Society for 1917, and particularly to the Diagram of Marks' facing p. 57. Several of the marks listed by Mr. Yazdani and depicted on his diagram will be found represented on Monsieur Laffitte's Plate III. Attention is also directed to the article by Mr. H.C. Ray on "The Indian Alphabet "at pp. 233-35 of vol. LIII (1924) of this Journal. Readers may also be interested, in this connexion to refer to the recent discoveries at Ras Shamra in Syria. (See Antiquity, December 1930, p. 464, and references quoted in footnote.)
BOOK-NOTICES. JOURNAL OF FRANCIS BUCHANAN, kept during the obtained permission to use Buchanan's Ms. material Survey of Bhagalpur in 1810-11: edited by for his Eastern India (3 vols.), but though he thus C. E. A. W. OLDHAM, C.B.I. Bihar and Orisa compiled s celebrated book, it was badly put together Research Society, Patna, 1929. Pp. xxxvi, 571. and much of Buchanan's work was lost in the com
Buchanan Hamilton was one of those men who pilation. It is now due to the learning and industry worked incessantly and wrote voluminously through of Mr. Oldham and the late Mr. V. H. Jackson many years without any practical reward in his that Martin's deficiencies are being gradually filled lifetime, though all his work was of the highest class up. But they have accomplished more than that, and his accomplishments unusually wide and varied. because, being competent scholars, Buchanan's He was appointed in the early part of the nineteenth Journals are being reproduced in well edited forms. century on the statistical survey of the old Bengal The Journal under review is that of Buchanan's Presidency and wrote long Reports and Journals to survey of the old District of Bhagalpur, and the sccompany them, with many mape and drawings, Bibar and Orissa Research Society is to be congrawhich were all sent home in his name to the Court tulated on publishing it, for it runs, with Introducof Directors. The Journals were official diaries, tion, Notes and Appendices, to 297 pages of clonely recording the routes and distances travelled, contain printed text. The reader must expect to find ing also references as to objects of interest, and they changes in the district boundaries since Buchanan's sre of exceeding value to the anthropologist.
day, so that the area under his survey as the Buchanan was, however, unfortunate in two "Bhagalpur District " contains about half of that matters. Nothing was printed from the Journals and district as at present known and part of Monghyr Reports during his life, and he added Hamilton to and the Santal Parganas. In addition Buchanan hris surname, so that eventually subeequent authors enquired beyond the Indian frontier of Bhagalpur did not always grasp that "Hamilton was identical in Nepal and produced an Account of the Kingdom with Buchanan." Then in 1838 R. M. Martin of Nepal and of the territories annexed to this dominion