Jain Journal 1997 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 34

BOOK REVIEW
131
material has given him less opportunity to exhibit his proper perspective. In a very small space within the range of 250 pages, the author's endeavour is praise-worthy. As the subject is very vast, volume after volume can be written on it. One point to be mentioned in this connection is that the author has not used any diacritical marks for Sanskrit and Prakrit words for which it is, at times, very difficult to pronounce the words correctly and to understand the meanings, though the printing, quality of paper and binding of the book are good and well-done. However, these shortcomings will not hinder the value of the book as a piece of research work.
Satya Ranjan Banerjee
Sibdas Chaudhuri – index internationalis indicus 1993 (Current micro writings on Indic and Buddhist Studies, esp. in Calcutta Journals), Centre for Asian Dokumentation, Calcutta, 1996, price : Rs. 250.00.
To prepare an index of the Journals of Indological Studies is one of the greatest research works. Unless there is an index of the Journals, it is not only difficult to handle the mass of material on Indological studies, but also it is beyond the jurisdiction of human power to trace the articles. Sibdas Chaudhuri, one of the leading scholars in this respect, has rendered a yeoman's service to the scholarly world by the publication of his index internationalis indicus (1993). As the author has put it : "This volume of the index internationalis indicus records micro-writings on Buddhistic and South-Asian (especially Indic) studies in the current well-known and obscure journals of India and abroad, specially of Calcutta, in Indian and foreign languages. Entries have been arranged under the surname of the author in an alphabetical order." There is hardly any doubt that this bibliographical index is obviously a desideratum which has long been unattended to by many scholars. That this bibliography has a necessity is admitted by many scholars. "The necessity of this private venture”, says the author, "has been admitted by the scholars, though there are a few mass commulation such as the bibliography of Asian studies (of the association for the Asian studies, sponsored by the universities of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Yale) and index India (of the Rajasthan University, supported by the U.G.C.) which are considered sometimes less helpful because of their size and selective language coverage."
It goes without saying that no index, in howsoever way the author is meticulous, is perfect and complete in many respects compare to