Indian Antiquary Vol 23

SR No.: 032515
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 412
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

Page 62

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[FEBRUARY, 1894.
clothed in the language of the traders' convention by way of hint to his companions as to how they were to act.
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The song wasNámanum puli per Tálanum tiru per Savana talanai Tiruvana talan sutta
Savana tálan midi.
Tú tài tôm ta dingand.
Which may be freely translated thus:We are pulix,
The hint contained in this song was that they (the traders) were puli (ten) in number, that the robbers were only tiru (three), that if on each one (sa) robber three (tiru) traders fell, one (sú) of the traders still remained to tie the hands and legs of the surprised robbers. The thieves, secure in their imagined success, thought that the song was merely meant for keeping time to the dance, and suspected no trick. The whole body of traders, however, caught the hint, and separated themselves into groups of three, leaving the business of tying the thieves' hands and legs to the starter of the song. When the thieves were all eyes and ears for the dance, and when tá tat tôm was at last significantly pronounced, the traders fell upon the robbers. There was a very severe struggle, no doubt, but three to one is no proportion at all in a free fight without weapons, and the thieves had already laid theirs aside in their elation, and so in the end the traders managed to tie them up, and render them helpless. Then, taking possession of their money and other valuables, the ten traders safely returned to Conjeeveram. What is it that saved them in this delicate position ? Traders' convention, is the only answer of the trading world.
INDIAN EPIC POETRY. For many years the study of the two great epics of India has been like Trisanku, neither in heaven nor on earth. The subject was too modern for students of the Védas, and too antique for those who devoted themselves to classical Sanskrit. Beyond some notices by Lassen, and one or two important essays by Prof. Weber (which have appeared in an English dress in this Journal), the student has had little to help him, except that practical and laborious work of Sir M. Monier-Williams entitled Indian Epic Poetry. Since then, the oracles have been dumb. There have been no epoch-making essays on the subject published in any of the Journals of the various Oriental Societies for the past twenty years. We have had entertaining articles from the facile pen of the late Dr. Rajendra Lâla Mitra, on "Beef in
Ancient India," and Krishna's seaside picnic, and Dr. Muir (another departed scholar) has also translated extracts from the larger of the two poems; but nothing has been added to our inforination regarding the epics, as forming a stage in the history and development of Indian Literature, nor are we wiser than our literary forerunners of a generation ago as to how much of these great masses of verse forms the original poems, and how much forms accretive additions.
They are tiru æ,
If on a sá x,
Tiru x sits down,
Sá x remains.
Tả tại tôm ta dingana.
BOOK NOTICE.
2 The meaningless word talam may be best translated by z.
1 Das Ramayana, Geschichte und Inhalt, nebst Concor.
Two books which have been lying on my table for some months go far to wipe away this reproach from Sanskrit scholarship,-Zur Geschichte und Kritik des Mahabharata, by Adolf Holtzmann, and Das Ramayana, Geschichte und Inhalt, hy Hermann Jacobi. I propose to deal with the. latter' work at present.
To begin with general remarks. The book is a pleasant one to read, well printed and wellindexed. The language is clear and forcible, and the author moves about amidst the amazing perplexities of his subject with a sureness of tread that evinces (as we might expect in any work emanating from Prof. Jacobi's pen) the most complete familiarity with all his surroundings. Such a confidence on the part of the author breeds confidence in the reader, and one rises from a
perusal of the work with an assurance that, though the last word on the subject of the great Rama-epic has not been said, a great addition has been made to the world's knowledge on the subject.
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To give a complete detailed account of its contents would take up too much space. It must suffice to glance rapidly at the principal headings, and to dwell at length on one or two topics which seem to me to be of greater importdanz der Gedrückten Recensionen, von Hermann Jacobi. Bonn, Friederich Cohen, 1893. Price, Marks 15. Pp. vii., 256.