Reviews Of Different Books

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REVIEWS 231 done on the interpretation of the teachings of Saraha and his commentators and on their relations with other Tantric schools before it will be possible to know to what extent their opinions are representative of "the Tantric view of life". Guenther sometimes makes it difficult for his readers to appreciate his work properly. There is no doubt that very few Western scholars have made such a searching study of Tantric texts and have made such persistent efforts to elucidate their inner meaning. It would be wrong to be discouraged by some of his idiosyncracies, for his work deserves to be read with the greatest care. Australian National University J. W. de Jong G. M. Bongard-Levin, Studies in Ancient India and Central Asia (= Soviet Indology Series 7). Calcutta, Indian Studies: Past & Present, 1971. vii+iii + 287 pp. Rs. 50.00. G. M. Bongard-Levin's Studies contain seventeen articles divided into three groups: (1) Problems of archaeology and ethnic history; (2) Problems of the ancient history and culture of India; (3) Problems of the history and culture of Central Asia. The articles collected in this volume were originally published in Russian and English between 1957 and 1971. The editor, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, indicates where the articles were published for the first time. His list omits one article: Indians, Scythians Arctic (pp. 52-66). The first three articles deal with prehistory: The Origin of the Mundas (first published in 1957), Symbols of Granary on the Seals of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa (1957) and Harappan Civilization and the 'Aryan Problem' (1962). Bongard-Levin has added references to recent literature in footnotes to the first article. Other articles in the volume also contain references to recent publications but the text itself has not been revised by the author. The second group contains seven articles dealing with historical problems of the Mauryan period. Bongard-Levin has studied the history of Mauryan India for many years. In the preface he announces the forthcoming publication of his monograph India in the Mauryan Epoch. Bongard-Levin is also the author of the chapters on the Mauryas in the history of ancient India which he published recently together with G. F. Il'in (Drevnjaja Indija: Istoriceskij ocerk (Moskva, 1969]). The titles of the articles are as follows: "Some Basic Problems of the Mauryan Empire: Agrammes-UgrasenaNanda and the Coronation of Candragupta"; "Megasthenes' Indica and the Inscriptions of Asoka"; "The Historicity of the Ancient Indian Avadana-s"; "An Epigraphic Document of the Mauryas from Bengal"; "On Some Features of the Varna-System in the Gana-s and Sangha-s of Ancient India"; "The Kunala Legend" (on Bongard-Levin's and Volkova's edition of the Kunalavadana see IIJ VIII (1965), 233-40). The third group contains a long article on Soviet archaeological studies on Central Asia in the Kushan period (pp. 173-202), an article on historico-cultural contacts between India and Central Asia in ancient times (pp. 203-28), information on the discovery of Buddhist texts in Khotanese and Sanskrit by Soviet scholars (pp. 229-37) and editions of fragments of Sanskrit and Khotanese texts: "Fragment of an Unknown Manuscript of the Saddharmapundarika", "A Fragment of the Sanskrit Sumukhadharani" and "Fragment of the Saka Version of the Dharmasarirasutra from the Petrovsky Collection". A supplement gives a brief sketch of Buddhist studies in Russia (pp. 275-87). The English version does not seem to have been revised by the author as is obvious from the spelling of several names: Scherbatsky, Konze and the Passen (de La Vallee Poussin?). In recent years Soviet scholars have made important archaeological discoveries in