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OPINIONS AND REVIEWS
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the end of the rule of the Calukyas, the Côlas, and their epigoni (pp. 172-180 and 188-190). In some minor matters also there is room for improvement. Thus, the account of administration on p. 71 f. seems a little too summary and hardly critical enough ; and the statement on p. 81 that "another (highway) stretched from Rājagriha in South Bihār by way of Srāvasti in Oudh to the banks of the Godavari" contradicts the facts, for the highway ran from Śrāvasti through Rājagriha to the Godāvari. The diacritic marking length of vowels is so often misplaced that one is led to think that the authors would have done better to have never used it at all. To quote a few examples, we find passim errors such as "Konkān" "Mālābār", "Peshāwār", "Māndālay", "Kathakāli”, “Ali", "Alivardi" (for "Ilahvirdi”), "Kāshmir", "Wāzir”, and both “Qāsim" and "Kāsim”, with other inconsistencies in representing the Arabic gutturals. On p. 71 we note with sorrow the misspelling "diarchy"; on p. 202 f. we regret to see Basava presented as "Vasava", while on p. 203 Vātsyāyana appears as 'Vātsāyana", both errors being due to the influence of Bengali pronunciation. It is disagreeable also to meet hybrid spellings of names such as "Hyder 'Ali" and "Omdut-ul-Umarā".
In a work of this kind there should have been some recognition of Warren Hastings' enlightened and successful efforts to revive Hindu education and law ; absence is to be regretted.
This book, now in its second edition, will surely be soon reprinted ; and then, we hope, blemishes will ba eliminated.
1 Not, it may humbly be pointed out, the facts record in some early Buddhist texts (cf. Sutta-Nipāta and its trans. by Fausböll, 1881, SBE, X, pt. ii, pp. 187-188, 209) which narrate a journey from Patitthāna (on the Godavari) to several places including Sāvatthi and thence to the city of Magadha and to Pāsanaka cetiya in Magadha.
2 That the errors in spelling are not all due to the influence of Bengali pronunciations will be apparent from the Political History of Ancient India, 4th ed. 1938, p. 339, line 29; and the GroundWork of Indian History by Sen and Raychaudhuri, seventh edition (1945). p. 112, which gives a brief account of "Basava''. As to "diarchy' for which the authors are criticised attention may be invited to the Universal Dictionary of the English Language, edited by Henry Cecil Wyld (sixth impression, 1946) p. 304 where we have the following: "diarchy......the irregularly formed dyarchy is common and should be avoided." That form irregular found on p. 124 of the Advanced History of India, is not commented on by the learned reviewer. The explanation for many of the blemishes will be found in the Preface, especially on. p. vi.
