Indian Antiquary Vol 62

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

Page 211

OCTOBER, 1933]
MISCELLANEA
Ya zarav nata birav
Either suffer or else get away.
(Cf. the English proverb, 'What cannot be cured must be endured.')
Yithi pîra khota chu be-pîray jún.
It is better to be without a priest than with such a priest.
(Bad principle is worse than no principle.)
Zyûth gav byûth.
Too lengthy results in a dead stop.
(Cf. the British proverb, Too much is stark naught.')
MISCELLANEA
INDIA AND THE EAST IN CURRENT LITERATURE.
Acta Orientalia, XI, Pt. III (1933).-In this issue M. Mironov continues his interesting notes on Aryan Vestiges in the Near East of the 2nd Millenary B.C.. dealing with names of persons, gods and places found in the Amarna letters (Palestine and Syria, 1380-1350 B.C.), and among the Mitanni (1475-1280 B.C.) and the Hittites (1400-1280 B.c.), and adding linguistic remarks on the phonology and morphology of the names, many of which have a special interest for Indian readers. Some guarded observations are made on the evidence revealed by this material. M. Mironov regards the Indian character of the numerals noted in the Hittite documents as obvious,
and he points out that it seems possible to assign the forms to a particular stage of development of the Indian language, the date of those documents being known with fair precision (viz., not later than 1200 B.C.). Though the material be too scanty to permit of definite conclusions, he considers the forms "may be assigned to the language of the Veda, but they do not seem to be archaic, i.e., to belong to the oldest strata of the Vedic language." He is led to the view that the facts seem to corroborate the conclusion drawn by Sten Konow from the (supposed) fact of the Asvins being mentioned in the Boghazkeui documents as groomsmen, that the extension of Indo-Aryan civilization into Mesopotamia took place after the bulk of the Bgveda had come into existence, and the oldest portions of that collection should accordingly be regarded as considerably older than the Mitanni treaty.
In the same issue Prof. Rapson replies to the arguments of Prof. Lüders (Ib., X, pp. 118-125) regarding the date in the inscription on the Amohini Tablet at Mathura, and gives some additional reasons in support of his view that the decimal figure in the date is 40, and not 70 as Prof. Lüders thinks.
Acta Orientalia, XI, Pt. IV (1933) contains a paper by I. Scheftelowitz on 'The Mithra Religion of the
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Indo-Scythians and its Connection with the Saura and Mithra Cults,' in which he sets forth in consider.
able detail the numerous analogies between e cult duced into India, and quotes many references that as originally practised by the Sakas and as introcult in India and the effects of Brâhmapical inthrow light upon the spread and development of the fluences. Many aspects of this interesting subject, which had been so succinctly and ably outlined in Pt. II, Chap. xvi, of the late Sir R. G. Bhandarkar's Vaisnavism, Saivism, etc. (Grundriss series) will be found to be elaborated in this paper. The difficult question of the period at which the cult was actually started in India remains, however, to be definitely solved.
Zeitschrift der D.M.G. (N. S. XI, Pts. 1 and 2), 1932.-In a paper entitled 'War Marco Polo auf dem Pamir,' W. Lentz states his reasons for holding that Marco Polo did not cross the Pâmîrs, as hitherto generally accepted (e.g., by Yule, Cordier, Stein and others), but, having roached Ishkashm, he turned north by the valley of the Ab-i-Panja as far as the Wanj valley, and ascending it and crossing the Akbai Sitargi entered the Khingåb valley, whence he passed over the Gardani Kaftar into the Alai valley, which he followed, in a more or less easterly direction, and so on to Kashgar. He holds with Benedetto, that Scasem, and not Casem, is the correct reading, and that M's town was Ishkashm, and not Kishm. Marco's Vocan (one MS. reads Voca), hitherto always equated with Wakhân, he locates in the Khingåb valley, to portions of which we find the name Wakhia (upper' and 'lower') locally applied, according to Stein (Innermost Asia, II, 890). Suffice it to add here that, while the suggested route is attractive as being less perilous, there are many objections to accepting this as the route described in Marco's narrative, even as it appears in Benedetto's revised text.
C. E. A. W. O.