Indian Antiquary Vol 07

SR No.: 032499
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 386
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1878.
shdła of Allahâbâd established by Narayana Singh, for teaching the Vedas in Hindustani ; also various associations, such as the British Indian, the Anjuman-i Panjab, the Sarvajanik Sabha of Pana, &c., are commented on.
In the necrology for the past year the first notice respects Mr. A. H. Bleeck, a former pupil of the author's, devoted to Oriental literature, and well known to the Parsis of Bombay as the author of an English version of the Zend-Avesta from the German translation of Dr. Spiegel, made and printed at the expense of Mr. M. H. Cama.-Sir Jang Bahadur, the prime minister of the Raja of Nipål, died on the 25th February 1877; he was personally acquainted with M. Garcin de Tassy.- The Qadi Abd-ulbari, President of the Musulman Literary Society, expired in Calcutta on the 9th April 1877, at the age of 79 years.-The Rev. Dr. R. C. Mather, formerly editor of the Khair Khwah-i Hind, or "Well-wisher of India," died on the 21st April; and on the next day Mr. Allen, the proprietor of Allen's Indian Mail, expired.-Miss Mary Carpenter, the philanthropist, well known and remembered all over India, to which she paid no fewer than four visits within a few years before her death, died on the 15th June, aged 71 years.-Almost simultaneously with hers, the death of the Maharaja Råmanath Tagor, the brother of Dwarkanåth, took place at Calcutta, at the age of 77 years. He was a member of the Viceroy's Legislative Council, and a C.S.I.-The death of J. O. Marshman, at the age of 83 years, took place in England, whither he Lad retired. He is chiefly known by his History of India, which has become a text book. He established the first Bengali journal at Serampur,-the Samdchdr Darpan,-as well as the Friend of India. On account of his proficiency in several Oriental languages, he was for many years the official translator to the Government of India.---Lastly, Miss Toru Dutt left this world at Calcutta on the 31st April, aged 20 years. She was a poetess of great promise, and, besides the pieces scattered in various periodicals, is known as the authoress of A Sheaf gleaned from French Fields. She had just obtained permission from the authoress of La femme dans l'Inde antique, or Woman in ancient India, to tranglate it, when she was overtaken by death.-E.R.
translations, either complete or partial, of Wilson (and Hall) and Burnouf. Portions of the others, more or less considerable, have, it is true, been published; but it is to be hoped that complete editions will in course of time appear of all of them, to enable us to extract from these texts what useful matter they contain. Though we cannot, perhaps, expect from the as yet unpublished Pauranic literature much actual gain of trustworthy historical and geographical knowledge, we must not forget that these works constitute a by no means unimportant chapter of Sanskrit literature, and that a much fuller acquaintance with them is required to fill up many blanks in the history of religious and speculative thought in India. of the great mass of separate treatisce that claim to form part of the Skanda-Purdna, the most extensive of these medieval depositories of Brahmanical lore, comparatively little has hitherto been published. Dr. Haag, in his Catalogue of Printed Sanskrit Books in the British Museum, mentions fifteen separate titles under this heading, most of them consisting of single mdhatmyas or kathds contained on a few leaves. A few more treatises have been noticed and analyzed in Prof. Aufrecht's Catalogue of the Bodleian Sanskrit MSS. Under these circumstances Sanskrit scholars cannot but feel grateful to Mr. Da Cunha for his convenient edition of a complete Ichanda of the work, together with the supplementary mdhatmyas bearing on the foundation of temples along the Sahyadri range. To Western archæologists especially the book cannot fail to prove very useful and interesting, and they will look forward with interest to the appearance of the translation which Mr. Da Cunha promises. That the edition cannot be regarded as a critical one, in the strict sense of the word, the editor himself must be quite aware. The various readings of the MSS. announced in the title-page extend only over a small portion of the work: with the exception of one solitary note at p. 369, no varie lectiones have been noted from p. 78 to p. 490. There are also a good many mistakes in the text. Thus some couplets of the seventh alhydya at pp. 23 and 24 are unintelligible as they stand; moreover, there seems to be a half-bloka wanting somewhere in the beginning.--at any rate the verses from 2 to the end have been wrongly divided : thus the second half-bloka of couplets 9-11 should form the first half of couplets, and in each of them tasmdt should be changed to yasmd. If we might venture to make a suggestion to Mr. DaCunha, we would advise him to go again carefully over his text, and print a list of errata along with his translation. He would thereby do more justice to himself, and save a good deal of trouble to those who make use of his edition.
The SAHYADRI-KRANDA of the SKANDA-PURAYA: a Mythological, Historical, and Geographical Account of Western India. First edition of the Sanskrit text, with various readings. By J. Gerson da Cunha, M.R.C.S. &c. Bombay, 1877.
Our actual knowledge of Pauranic literature is still very fragmentary and unsatisfactory. Of the eighteen chief Puranas, only two, the Vishnu and Bhagavata, have hitherto been made accessible through editions published in India, and by the