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Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c30: Some Additions and Corrections

Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c30

Language
English

Some Additions and Corrections

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| Page | Line | |
| 148 | fn1 | Add “in the Pāla-Pratīhāra age they are also found in Pehoa (Ep. Ind. I. 247) and Bengal. |
| 240 | 4 | For contact between the Medes and India, see *India Antiqua*, 1947, 180ff. |
| | 23 | (Satrapy of Hiduš was formed before 513 B.C., Olmstead, *History of the Persian Empire*, p. 145. Some scholars believe that the conquest of Sind preceded Scylax's exploration of the Indus—*India Antiqua*, p .181). |
| 241 | 24 | after 'was' add 'at first'. |
| 241 | 28 | There is no reason to believe that the Indian satrapy of Darius refers to Sind or to some small territory to the west of the Indus. The account of Herodotus III. 94-98 seems to suggest that it extended eastwards beyond the Beas as far as the river Sarasvatī which flowed past the *Marudhanvan* in the days of the *Mahābhārata* (see 22n 2 *ante*; *cf*., desert beyond the Beas, ANM, p. 16) and finally disappeared in the sands of Rājaputāna. “Eastward of India lies a tract which is entirely sand . . . the Indians dwell nearest to the east, and the rising of the Sun. Beyond these the whole country is desert on account of the sand.” The Sattagydians, the Gandarians, the Dadicæ and the Aparytae, constituted the seventh satrapy and the Indians the twentieth (Herod. III. 91-94). |
| 262 | | The completion of Nikaia is doubted by Tarn (*Alexander the Great*, II, 238). |
| 262 | | The confluence of the Indus and the Akesines was fixed as the boundary of the Upper and Lower Indus satrapies. |
| 262 | | Nikaia and Boukephala stood one on each side of the Jhelum. Tarn thinks (*Alexander the Great, Sources and Studies*, p. 236) that Boukephala stood on the east bank of the Jhelum and Nikaia on the west bank (ibid p. 238). |
| 265 | | After his (Sandrocottus') victory he forfeited, by his tyranny, all title to the name of a liberator, for he oppressed with servitude the very people whom he had emancipated from foreign thraldom Justin). The tyranny of the *dushṭāmātyas* is known to Indian literature. But the sovereign himself is noted for his justice in early Maurya times. |
| 273 | 18 | Dr. G. C. Raychaudhuri draws my attention to an Aramaic inscription of Devānampiya found at Laghman (ancient Lampāka, |

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| Page | Line | |
| | | BSOAS, Vol XIII, pt. I. 1949, 80ff). This confirms the Greek evidence about the inclusion of Kābul and its neighbourhood within the dominions of the early Mauryas. |
| 277 | | For the date of the *Arthaśāstra*, see also Raychaudhuri, the *History and Culture of the Indian People*, Vol. II, ed. by R. C. Majumdar, pp. 285-87. |
| 301-2 | | For the date of Aśoka, see Raychaudhuri, *History and Culture of Indian People*, Vol. II, 92ff; for the views of Eggerment, *Acta Orientalia* (1940) 103ff. For the views of Filliozat, see *Manuel des études indiennes*, Vol. I, pp. 212-19. Filliozat prefers the Jaina date 313 B.C. for the accession of Chandragupta, ignoring not only the evidence of the Ceylonese Chronicles but also the fact that the Jaina verses refer to the commencement of Maurya rule in Avanti, not in Magadha or the Indus Valley. For the date of Magas, see also Cary, *A History of the Greek World*, 393ff. |
| 327 | | For the Aśoka *chakra*, see IC, XV (1948-49), pp. 179ff. |
| 354 | 5 | Cf. Strabo, XV. I. 27—"We became acquainted with the eastern parts of India on this side of the Hypanis and whatever parts beside which have been described by those who after Alexander advanced beyond the Hypanis to the Ganges and Palibothra". |
| 362 | 18 | Add after Seleukos "The Antiochos-Sophagasenus alliance may also have been directed against the Imperial Mauryas of Pāṭaliputra". Greek intrigue may have played a part in the disintegration of the empire before the Greek raids. |
| 372 | 33 | A Suṅgarāja (Agarāja?) is known from certain coins found at Kauśāmbī (*JNSI*, IV, i, 14). His identity is, however, uncertain. |
| 382 | | For Coins of Apollodotos and Menander in Gujrat, see *Gaz. Bomb.* I, i, pp. 16-17; *Num. Chr. JRNS* (1950) 207. |
| 382 | 18 | *After* "Strato I" add the following: "Seltman (*Greek Coins* 235) refers to a large gold coin which Eukratides struck to mark his triumph over Demetrius. Some distinguish between a Bactrian and an Indo-Bactrian Heliocles (JRNS, 1950, 211-12.) The duplication of the Indian Heliocles requires cogent proof. |
| 422 | | Whitehead in *JAOS*, 1950, 216, throws doubt on the conjecture that Agathokles was the mother and not the *wife* of Strato I. In that case the theory of her marriage with Menander requires more convincing proof than that adduced by Rapson and Tarn. |
| 423 fn 2 | | Tarn, *Greeks*, second edition, 527n. Deb finds mural crown; J. Banerji *yakshīs*. |
| 424 | | The from Yona is also found in the Post-Aśokan period (cf. the Besnagar inscription of Heliodoros). Doubts were raised by Tarn *Greeks in Bactria and India*, 2nd. ed. 538. |

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| Page | Line | |
| 427 | | Tahia is apparently different from the "Dahæ" of the classical writers which, says Macgovern, lay far to the west. According to Trogus the Asiani were the lords of the Tochari (*Reges Thocarorum Asiani*, JAOS, 61, 246ff; 65, 71ff). |
| 431 | | For the *Scythian Period*, see now a monograph by Johanna Engelberta von Lohuizen de Leeuw. |
| 439 | | Leeuw suggests that the era of the old Saka inscriptions began from the Yue-chi conquest of Bactria *c* 129 B.C. |
| 444 | | The Charsadda Inscriptions of the year 303 refers to a grāmasvāmin and satrap (of Chukhsa?) named Avakhajbāda (Konow, *Acta Orientalia* XX, p. 108ff). |
| 445 | fn 4 | Add at the end "Also Whitehead, *Numismatic Chronicle*, 1944, pp. 19-104. Apacharaja of the Bajaur inscription is taken by some to mean 'ruler of the West'. |
| 458 | | The periods of Yue-zhi migration have been discussed by several scholars. The first period of march from Kanshu to the Upper Li, *c.* 172-161 B.C. Second stage from the Upper Li to the Oxus between 133-129 B.C. The third period began with the conquest of Bactria (*c.* 129 B.C.) Leeuw, *The Scythian Period*, pp. 31-33. |
| 469 | 12 | Bachhofer, *JAOS*, 61, 242. |
| 540, 627 | | Recently Dr. D. C. Sircar has come across evidence in the Sumaṇḍala (Orissa) inscription which indicates that in 569 one Pritbivi-Vigraha held Kaliṅga apparently as a Gupta vassal. *Cf IHQ*, XXVI, March, 1950. |
| 593 | 11 | Add after 476-7 "together with the Benares Stone Pillar ins. of 159 (= A.D. 478-79)" noted by Dr. D. C. Sircar (A.S.B. 6-12-48). (JRASB, 1949, 5ff). |

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SOME CORRECTIONS

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| *Page* | *Line* | *For* | *Read* |
| 21 | 31 | text | texts |
| 38 | 19 | the Pargiter | Pargiter |
| 148 | 31 | distinguishes | distinguish |
| 162 | 17 | (aggamahi) | (aggamahisbī) |
| 188 | 28 | dffficult | difficult |
| 190 | 16 | Jam udvīpa | Jambudvīpa |
| 198 | 37 | Hammurali | Hammurabi |
| 199 | 23 | Mgadha | Magadha |
| 201 | 28 | Vishńuparańa | Vishṇu Puraṇa |
| 209 | 29 | grl | girl |
| 209 | 31 | Devanumpiya | Devanupiya |
| 232 | 34 | Kālavaṛṇa | Kākavaṛṇa |
| 237 | 33 | avarice | avarice and parentage |
| 245 | 33 | 1494 | 149 |
| 263 | 24 | Giger's | Geiger's |
| 266 | 33 | Erskine | Erskine |
| 270 | 35 | ocsan | ocean |
| 270 | 40 | sceptica | sceptical |
| 313 | 35 | Ms Crindle | Mc Crindle |
| 313 | 35 | Gedrolic | Gedrosia |
| 332 | 34 | st | list |
| 338 | 25 | Buddist | Buddhist |
| 350 | 8 | successor | successors |
| 351 | 35 | 1857 | 1875 |
| 372 | 12 | Vidharbha | Vidarbha |
| 378 | 13 | Predecessor | predecessor |
| 349 | 25 | Devadbuti | Devabhuti |
| 401 | 15 | Bṛihaspatīmitra | Bṛihaspatimitra |
| 407 | 1 | DIVERSE LINEAGE | DIVERSE LINEAGE OF |
| 409 | 22 | cessatio | cessation |
| 486 | 12 | regin | reign |
| 549 | 23 | Kmaarupa | Kamarūpa |
| 565 | 8 | Basin | Basim |
| 612 | 21 | xistence | existence |
| 614 | 24 | studics | studies |
| 620 | 37 | ksetra | kshetra |
| 628 | 38 | 1 | 7 |

c30.6

OPINIONS AND REVIEWS

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I.—Political History of Ancient India

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From the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty

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*Published by the Calcutta University*

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Opinions on the earlier editions and on Part I :—

c30.11

**The Hindusthan Review.**—It is learned and luminous and is a scientific treatise based on the results of research into the records and materials of ancient Indian history, of which it is a sound and an accurate digest, interestingly put together. It is about the best text-book of the subject it deals with.

c30.12

**Dr. L. D. Barnett. London.**—The author treats his materials with a certain degree of originality, but at the same time he preserves throughout a well-balanced judgment and never sacrifices critical caution to the passion for novel theories.........This interesting book .........shews judgment, ingenuity, and learning. And not the least of the author's merits is that he can write plain English.

c30.13

**Dr. F. W. Thomas.**—I have profited by a closer acquaintance with your Political History and other writings, which are really models of sound judgment combined with full knowledge.

c30.14

**Professor Hultzsch, Halle, Germany.**—Your valuable work ......is the outcome of extensive researches and throws much light on darkest and most debated periods of Indian history. You have succeeded in building up an intelligible account from the stray and imperfect materials which are available to the historian of those times.

c30.15

**Professor Jolly, Wurzburg, Germany.**—Your splendid volume .........What an enormous mass of evidence has been collected and discussed in this work, an important feature of which is the quotation of the original texts along with their translation which makes it easy to control the conclusions arrived at. The ancient geography, not less than the ancient history of India, has been greatly furthered by your researches and much new light has been thrown on some of the most vexed problems of Indian Archaeology and Chronology. The indices are very copious and the study of your work is greatly facilitated by them.

c30.16

**Professor Pelliot, Paris.**—Le nom de l'auteur est garant du serieux du travail.

c30.17

**Professor Jarl Charpentier, Upsala, Sweden.**—Professor Ray Chaudhury belongs to a set of young Hindu scholars who, combining the traditional education of a Pandit with a thorough training in English, German or French Universities, have lately been carrying on deep and fruitful researches in the various domains of Indian lore .........Even the student, who on essential points does differ widely from the opinions expressed by Professor Ray Chaudhury, must willingly recognize his high merits as a scholar.

c30.18

**Professor A. Schepotieff, Ufa, Russia.**—For our study of the history of the Ancient Age your Political History of Ancient India is of very great importance (trans. from original).

c30.19

**C. E. A. W. Oldham (J. R. A. S., 1928, July)**—Part I of Professor Ray Chaudhuri's work deals with the period from Parikṣit to Bimbisāra. The author seeks to show, as he tells us in his preface, "that chronological relation of the national transactions before 600 B.C. is not impossible." He has laid under contribution the usual authorities, the Vedic, Puranic, Buddhist, and Jaina texts—though he does not appear to place much reliance upon the last-named (*cf.* pp. 6 and 72). A vast mass of records has been collated, and the evidence marshalled in a very concise and able, and in some respects original, manner. The apposite quotations from the original texts are useful. Professor Ray Chaudhuri regards Parikṣit I and Parikṣit II, as they are named by the late Mr. Pargiter in his *Ancient Indian Historical Tradition*, as being probably one and the same king, and as identifiable with the Vedic Parikṣit. By "the great Janaka" he refers to the Janaka of the later Vedic texts, whose court is said to have been thronged with Brāhmaṇas, and not to the traditional first king Janaka, the eponymous founder of the Janakavaṁśa, or to Janaka Sīradhvaja, the reputed father of Sītā. Synchronizing Guṇākhya Śāṅkhāyana with Āśvalāyana and the Buddha, he inclines, it seems, to place Parikṣit in the ninth, and the "great Janaka" in the seventh century B.C. though he wisely avoids coming to any positive conclusion as to these debatable dates, and points out that if the evidence of the Purāṇas were accepted we would have to place them some five centuries earlier. If it could be established that Parikṣit came into power at the beginning of the ninth century, or the end of the tenth, this would help to corroborate the approximate chronology suggested by Mr. Pargiter, having regard also to the synchronism between Senājit Bārhadratha and Adhisīmakṛṣṇa. But until more convincing evidence is discovered most scholars will probably agree in the verdict of Vincent Smith that nothing approaching exact chornology is yet available for periods anterior to about 650 B.C.

c30.20

Much of the matter in Part II will perhaps be familiar to students of Indian history; but it has been arranged in a fresh and scholarly manner, while several important suggestions have been made on different questions. One or two of these may be cited as examples. On pp. 72-73 reasons are set forth for accepting the Ceylon tradition that Śiśunāga was later than Bimbisāra. The view recorded by Mahāmahopadhāya (*sic*) H. P. Śāstrī that the ultimate dismemberment of the Mauryan empire was due to a reaction promoted by the Brāhmanas, is vigorously controverted. Whatever other causes may have operated, and Professor Ray Chaudhuri undoubtedly lays his finger on more than one such, Brāhmanical influences cannot be ignored. The arguments used for holding that Demetrius,¹ rather than Menander, was the Yavana invader of the Madhyadeśa in the time of Puṣyamitra and that Simuka, the founder of the Sātavāhana dynasty, must be placed in the first century B.C., deserve careful consideration.

c30.21

¹ For the latest reading of the Hāthīgumphā inscription reference to the Yavana king, see *JBORS.*, XIII, 223.

c30.22

Since Hoernle made his well-known suggestions as to the identity of Devagupta, mentioned in two inscriptions of Harṣavardhana, several writers have attempted to frame the history of the later Guptas of Eastern Mālava and Bihār and the Maukharis of Kanauj. The period presents many difficulties, which are not likely to be solved until some further evidence reveals itself. Having regard to the conditions of the times and the bitter enmity of the Maukharis, who were then very powerful, it seems unlikely that the Susthitavarman mentioned in the Aphsaṇḍ (sic) inscription of Ādityasena as having been defeated by Mahāsenagupta of E. Mālava, could have been the king of Kāmarūpa, as the author states. Fleet's suggestion that he was the Maukhari king of that name,¹ whom we know to have been contemporaneous with Mahāsenagupta, seems more probable.

c30.23

¹ No Maukhari king of that name is known (H. C. R. C.).

c30.24

Not the least valuable part of the contents of this volume are the numerous comments on the geographical information supplied in the records quoted; and it is a matter of regret that of the five maps entered in the table of Contents (p. xvi), only one, *viz.*, that of "Bhāratavarsha" appears in the volume before us. As regards this map we are not told what specific period, if any, it refers to. In any case, the positions assigned to the Niṣādas, S. Kosala, Kamboja, and the Rīkṣa mountains seem to call for some explanation. On the other hand, the geographical information given in the text is extensive, and often suggestive, and it indicates that much attention has been devoted to this important auxiliary to ancient Indian historical research. The indexes, both bibliographical and general, have been very well prepared.

c30.25

**Professor A. Berriedale Keith, Edinburgh.**—I have read through the work and find it to contain much that is valuable. The author has arrived at clearly cut opinions on many of the chief difficulties in the history of early India; he has formulated them effectively, and as a result, even when they do not commend themselves as final solutions, they will serve to promote the discussion and to facilitate further fruitful research. He observes a due sense of proportion and is well read in the literature. The work accordingly may justly be deemed a most valuable contribution to the subject-matter of which it treats.

c30.26

**Professor Wilh Geiger, Munchen-Neubiberg, Germany.**—I highly appreciate Mr. Ray Chaudhuri's work as a most happy combination of sound scientific method and enormous knowledge of both Brahmanical and non-Brahmanical literature. The work is written in lucid style in spite of its intricate subject and affords a mass of valuable evidence, throwing much light on the whole period of Indian History dealt in it. I see with special pleasure and satisfaction that we now are enabled by the author's penetrating researches to start in Indian chronology from the 9th instead of the 6th or 5th century B.C.

c30.27

**Professor Jackson, Columbia University, New York.**—I can see the scholarly research which you have put into the volume, and am glad to have such a work for future reference in my historical studies.

c30.28

**Professor Louis de la Vallee Poussin, Brussels, Belgium.**—I believe that the book is well designed and has the twofold merit of collecting a vast amount (and in some chapters, an exhaustive one) of references, and of giving a clear and reasonable *exposé* of the main line of this history. I agree with the author on several controverted points of chronology.

c30.29

**Mrs. C. A. F. Rhys Davids.**—Dr. Chaudhuri has made debtors of us all.

c30.30

**S. M. Edwardes** (*The Indian Antiquary*, **July, 1927, p. 140**).—Professor Raychaudhuri's book forms a solid contribution to the discussion of the various problems implicit in the early history of India.

c30.31

**Professor E. J. Rapson, Cambridge.**—My best thanks for the kind present of a copy of the "Political History of Ancient India," which I am very glad to possess and which I shall find most useful for reference.

c30.32

**Professor Sten Konow, Norway.**—The book is a very useful contribution.

c30.33

**Dr. V. S. Sukthankar.**—I have to refer to it very often, both for corroboration of historical facts of the epic, and for geographical information and the excellent maps included in the volume. It has been always a matter of great gratification to me that you have adopted my views with reference to the Sātavāhanas and at last given them, in a standard history of India the appellation by which they call themselves...rather than accept the doubtful description of them given by the late Purāṇas.

c30.34

**Professor Nilakanta Sastri.**—Your excellent Ancient History of India. I have been using it on every conceivable occasion.

c30.35

**Sitaram Kohli, Lahore.**—I have immensely liked your book "Political History of Ancient India."

c30.36

**C. S. Srinivasachari, South India.**—Our author rightly holds the balance between the views of Pargiter which would give excessive value to Kshatriya tradition whose date allowed of manipulation to serve dynastic ends and the value of Vedic tradition whose two strong points are its priority of date and freedom from textual corruption.

c30.37

**W. Charles de Silva, Colombo.**—I have the greatest pleasure to express my high appreciation of your very valuable and learned article (Part I of the Political History).

c30.38

**Professor E. Washburn Hopkins.**—It is a fine augury for Indian scholarship when native scholars of the first rank take seriously in hand the great problem of untangling the web of Indian history. To this work your book is a valuable contribution.

c30.39

**Professor H. Jacobi, Bonn.**—Very suggestive and contains some important details.

c30.40

**Professor F. Otto Schrader.**—I have read the book with increasing interest and do not hesitate to say that it contains a great many details which will be found useful by later historians. The portion I enjoyed most is that on the sixteen Mahājanapadas.

c30.41

II. The Early History of the Vaishnava Sect

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*Published by the Calcutta University*

c30.43

**Professor E. Washburn Hopkins, Yale University, America.**—Your book has given me great satisfaction.........I am particularly pleased to see an incisive study of this kind in the realm of religious history.........Believe me, in the hope of further contributions of this character from your able pen.........

c30.44

**Professor A. Berriedale Keith, Edinburgh University.**—While I do not concur in your view as to the original character of Kṛṣṇa, I recognise the care with which you have investigated the issue, and value highly the elaborate collation of the evidence which your work contains, and which will render it of much service to all students of this doubtless insoluble problem. The stress laid on the epigraphic evidence and the full use made of it is of special value, while in many details your opinions are of interest and value, as in the case of the date of Pāṇini.........

c30.45

**Sir George Grierson.**—Very interesting and informing...... The book is full of matter which is of great importance for the history of religion in India and will form a valued addition to my collection of books on the subject......

c30.46

**F. E. Pargiter, Oxford.**—I agree with you in discarding various theories, but I don't think Kṛṣṇa Devakīputra is the famous Kṛṣṇa, and it seems to me your exposition can stand just as well without the identification as with it. Your book will help to elucidate the whole matter, but are you sure that the cult does not owe something to Christianity?

c30.47

**Professor F. Otto Schrader, Kiel, Germany.**—I perfectly agree with your opinion that Chāndogya passage on Kṛṣṇa Devakīputra and his teaching is to be considered as the first historical record of Bhāgavatism. There were, of course, many Kṛṣṇas, but to conjecture that more than one was (*sic*) also a Devakīputra, is to my mind an unscientific boldness which is the less justifiable as the teachings mentioned in that passage, as you show, perfectly agree with those, *e.g.*, of the Bhagavad-gītā and the Ṛk. quoted with the famous **तद्विष्णोः परमं पदं**.........

c30.48

**Professor Garbe, Tubingen, Germany.**—I have read your book with the greatest interest and perfectly agree with you in the main points, as to the personality of Kṛṣṇa and the development of Bhāgavatism.........You have brought together much important material and elucidated the dark early history of Bhāgavatism as far as possible.

c30.49

**The Times Literary Supplement, May 12, 1921.**—The lectures of Mr. Hemchandra Ray Chaudhuri on the early history of the Vaishnava Sect read almost as would a Bampton lecture on the "Historical Christ" to a Christian audience. They are an attempt to disentangle the authentic figure of Krishna from the mass of Puranic legend and gross tradition, from the wild conjectures and mistaken, if reasoned, theories which surround his name. The worship of Krishna is not a superstitious idolatry; it is the expression of the Bhakti, the devotional faith of an intellectual people, and many missionaries, ill-equipped for dealing with a dimly understood creed would do well to study this little volume . . . . .

c30.50

**Journal Asiatique, January-March, 1923, Paris.**—Dans le domaine historique, signalons un travail plein de merite de *M. Hemchandra Ray Chaudhuri.* *Materials for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect* (Dr. Jules Bloch of Paris).

c30.51

**Dr. Jules Bloch, Paris.**—My Guru, Sylvain Levi, who has come back from his travels, told me also of his esteem for that book.

c30.52

**Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain.**—The scope of this small book is rightly expressed in its title. The author who is Lecturer in History in the Calcutta University, has collected and discussed statements, references, and allusions from the early literature to throw light on the position and life of Kṛṣṇa and the growth of Bhāgavatism. He deals with the various theories that have been put forward, and with good reasons discredits the views that Kṛṣṇa Vāsudeva was a solar deity or a tribal god or a vegetation deity. He is right in treating Kṛṣṇa Vāsudeva as one person, the Vṛṣṇi chief, but he unnecessarily identifies him with Kṛṣṇa Devakīputa, the scholar mentioned in the Chāndogya Upanishad . . . . . (F. E. Pargiter).

c30.53

**The Bombay Chronicle, June 19, 1921.**—Mr. Hemchandra Raychaudhury of the Calcutta University has collected much valuable material from which he has succeeded in tracing the origin and growth of the Vaishnava creed. The Historicity of Srikrishna—or as the author calls him, Krishna Vāsudeva, is also handled with remarkable clearness . . . . .

c30.54

**A. Govindacharya Svamin.**—I pay you a most deserved compliment upon your acquaintance with the Azhvars and Sri Vaishnavism of southern India as evidenced in your learned book *the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect.*

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III. Studies in Indian Antiquities

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Demy 8vo. Pp. xvi, 211

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*Published by the Calcutta University*

c30.58

**Professor E. J. Rapson, Cambridge.**—Dr. Raychaudhuri's essays on Indian History and Antiquities are always well-informed, thoughtful and suggestive.

c30.59

**E. J. Thomas (J. R. A. S., October, 1933, p. 925).**—The study which Dr. Raychaudhuri has already devoted to ancient Indian history is well known. In the present book he discusses some of the geographical problems which still face the historians, as well as Vedic, epic, and specially historical questions......He has shown that Indian historical scholarship is proceeding on sound lines of its own and achieving independent results.

c30.60

**O. C. Gangoly.**—Permit me to thank you for your valuable gift of *Studies in Indian Antiquities* in which I have read with great profit your article: Vanga Kon Des? It is an excellent contribution to our knowledge of the little known phase of old Bengal. You do not try to prove too much, yet you have given very much based on solid data. It is a pity many scholars do not know of this article—buried in a series of Essays in English.

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Opinions on some of the Papers incorporated in the Volume.

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**Dr. Barnett.**—They are very interesting and critically sound.

c30.63

**Dr. Keith.**—They are all very interesting, and I am glad to note the very useful information elicited as to Bhoja.

c30.64

**Professor Dr. Sten Konow, Kristiania, Norway.**—They are written in a thoroughly scholar-like way, and more especially it seems to me that your paper about the Laksmana Sena era deserves very careful attention.

c30.65

**Professor H. Jacobi.**—The verification of the Bhāgavata credo in the Besnagar inscription is a find on which you may be congratulated.

c30.66

**Professor Schrader, Kiel, Germany.**—The Antiquity of the *Rig Veda* is a sober and useful little piece of research work with which, on the whole, I fully agree. If we follow Jacobi and Tilak we create a gap (which we cannot bridge over) between the Mantras and the Brāhmaṇas, for the latter are certainly not far removed from early Buddhism. On the other hand, if Hertel were right, the Ṛg Veda would immediately precede Buddhism, and there would be no room at all for Brāhmaṇas and Upaniṣads.

c30.67

Your important paper on the inter-relation of the two epics: The opinion held by Macdonell, Winternitz, and others, viz., that the heroes of the Mahābhārata are unknown to the Rāmāyaṇa, seems, indeed, to be untenable......Again, I find it difficult, as you do, to distinguish between a Pāṇḍava story and a Kuru-Bharata Epic.

c30.68

**Professor Jarl Charpentier.**—The identification of some words in this very important document (the Besnagar Inscription) with a passage in the Mahābhārata seems to be a most happy find.

c30.69

**Professor E. Washburn Hopkins.**—It is certainly a remarkable resemblance which you have established and I should be inclined to agree with your conclusion.

c30.70

IV. An Advanced History of India

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*Opinion on the book and particularly on the chapters contributed by the author of the Political History of Ancient India*

c30.72

**Professor Louis Renou, Paris.**—C'est un ouvrage tout-à-fait remarquable, destiné a mon avis à remplacer pour les étudiants avancés le Vincent Smith (et autres) un peu vieillis. Votre exposé est très clair, sobre, prudent, éloigné de toute hypothèse inutile.

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*Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Parts 1 and 2, 1949. Pp. 103-104. L. D. Barnett.*

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**An Advanced History of India.**—By R. C. Majumdar, H. C. Raychaudhuri, Kalikinkar Datta. Second edition, pp. ix, i, 1081; 10 maps. London: Macmillan and Co., 1948.

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One of the most hopeful features in the mental life of modern India is its thirst for history. Schools, Colleges and Universities pursue this study with vigour. The favours of Clio are not easy to win: she loves to walk especially in the domain of India's past, though darkling ways . . . . . But her Indian suitors have urged their quest with courage and often with notable skill, and their labours have borne fruit in a large number of works, many of high merit. In this book three distinguished Indian scholars have collaborated in order to produce for advanced students an outline of their country's history from the earliest ages down to our time, in which are summarized the main results of modern studies. In this they have been on the whole very successful. Their attitude is generally fair and reasonable, their narrative lucid and straightforward. Naturally specialists, particularly in the realm of ancient Indian annals, on which opinions are very often divergent, will find food for criticism in some of the views presented ; but our authors may justly claim a right to their opinions.

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It must, however, be acknowledged that in at least one respect their work shows some lack of proportion. They are Bengalis whose studies have been mainly concerned with the history of Northern India ; and this has led them to allot a very small space to the annals of the great kingdoms of the South from the decline of the Sātavāhanas to the end of the rule of the Calukyas, the Cōḷas, 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 Godāvari contradicts the facts,¹ for the highway ran from Srāvastī through Rājagriha to the Godāvarī. 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 "Koṅkān," "Mālābār," "Peshāwar," "Māndālay," "Kathakāli," "Āli," "Ālivardi" (for "Ilahvirdī") "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.² It is disagreeable also to meet hybrid spellings of names such as "Hyder 'Alī" and "Omdut-ul-Umarā."

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¹ Not, it may humbly be pointed out, the facts recorded 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 Patiṭṭhāna (on the Godāvarī) to several places including Sāvatthi and thence to the city of Magadha and to Pāsanaka cetiya in Magadha.

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² That the errors in spelling are not all due to the influence of Bengali pronunciation will be apparent from the *Political History of Ancient India*, 4th ed. 1938, p. 339, line 29 ; and the *Ground-Work of Indian History* by Sen and Raychaudhuri, seventh edition (1945), p. 112, which gives a brief account of "Basava (not Vasava)." 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." The explanation for many of the blemishes will be found in the Preface, especially on p. vi.

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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.

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This book, now in its second edition, will surely be soon reprinted ; and then, we hope, blemishes will be eliminated.

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