Page:The Indian Antiquary, Vol. 4-1875.djvu/299

 284 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. [September, 1 call it Shi-kia-itiit-ni-Fo-pen-kinr) ('the different births of Sakya -Muni-Buddha* — translated into Chinese about a.d. 70) ; the Mahisasakas call it Pi-ni-ttong-han ('Foundation of the Viuaya Pi- taka')." The original Sanskrit seems to have been lost, but as it is attributed toAsvagosha, a contemporary of K an i s h k a, it may belong to the first century a.d.* Mr. Beal of course notices the point of agree- ment both in the teachings and events of the life of Christ and of (SakyaMuni; " it would," he says, " be a natural inference that many of the events in the legend of Buddha were borrowed from the Apocryphal Gospels.f if we were certain that these Apocryphal Gospels had not borrowed from it." But, recognizing the difficulties in the way of any satisfactory explanation, he enters into no discus- sion, thinking it better at Once to allow " that in our present state of knowledge there is no com- plete explanation to offer. We must wait until dates are finally and certainly fixed. "We cannot doubt, however," he concludes, "that there was a large mixture of Eastern tradition, and perhaps Eastern teaching, running through Jewish litera- ture at the time of Christ's birth, and it is not unlikely that a certain amount of Hebrew folk-lore had found its way to the East. It will be enough for the present to denote this intercommunication of thought, without entering further into minute comparisons." The volume is closely printed and contains a mass of curious legends, but, most unfortunately, many passages of the original seem to bo omitted without the slightest indication of their contents ; this is a system of translating Oriental works that we must deplore, is coming too much into vogue. There are in such works much that may be quite unworthy of translation, but few men if any, however learned they may be, are able to decide what may aud what may not be of great im- portance in helping to unravel the many points of chronology, authorship, derivation, &c^ that are constantly turning up for discussion; and where a passage has to be omitted, its position, extent, and contents ought always to be noted, however briefly. Thon, thongh we have sixty chapters, many of them divided into distinct sections, we have no table of Contents, while the Index fills very little over two pages in 395, supplying about one proper name to two pages of the text, and less than 300 re- ferences in all— an utterly inadequate guide to the varied contents, speakers, and references in a book that is so interesting, as far as it goes, that • Vide ante, pp. SI, 141 ; Mmo- Mary Summers, Uiitoirt di houddha.Siikya-Mowni, pp. 18ft, 189. t Compare, for example, Iho Gospel of tke Infancy, its defects and omissions arc the more to be re- gretted. The IIistost or India, as told by its own Historians. — The Muhaanuadun Period- The Po-ibumoaH Papers of the it". Sir IT. M. Elliot. K.C.B-, edited and continued Ly Prof. John Dowson, M.K.A.S. Vol. VT. (London: Triibner and Co., 1875.) In this sixth volume we have extracts from nineteen different native works, some of them very brief indeed. The first 250 pages are mostly occupied with the reign of Akbar, continued from the previous volume, and to some extent relating to the same events as there detailed by other writers. Nearly half ofthisis occupied with extracts from the great Akb(tr-Ndm<i of Abu-1 FazI, and its supplement, the Takmila-l Akbar Ndnui of In&yatu. 11a; — from the earlier pages of the former of which, works we had already copious abstracts in Price's Retrospect of Mahommedan History ; and the 83 separate extracts here given from it are translated for the first time by Prof. Dowson, while those from the latter work, of which no copy of the original is known in England, were translated by Lieut. Chalmers of the Madras Army and by Elphinstone. Then follow extracts from the -Noma of Shaikh lllahdM, Faizi Sirhindi, by Ensign F. Mackenzie and the editor, extending over 31 pages ; one out of the whole series of letters forming the WitkPdi of Shnikh Faizi, and translated for Sir H. M. Elliot by Lient, Fritcl and a few extracts from Wikayai Amd Boff, tiaQ entirely translated for Sir H, M. Elliot by Mr. B. W. Chapman, B.C.S., Next we have extracts from the T<*r4kk~iEaklei, Zuldatu-l Tmcdr!kh,Eau- zatu-t Tdhirtn, Mnntullabu-t Tairdrikh, Tdrikh* Fivixhta, Ma-dsir-i Rakimt, and An/a'n-lAhhlnir occupying 76 pages, reprinted from Sir H. Elliott original published volume. These conclude the information relating to Akbar ; and the editor pre- faces the extracts bearing on the reign of JabJ with a valuable and important preliminary note on the different editions of the original Memoirs of this Emperor. Thia is followed by 136 pages or extracts from thj i Baltm SIuiM or 2Y .'jtrt and Wok bigtri, translat Major Piko. Sir II. M. Elliot, the editor and others; but this is apparently only a portion of what Sir H. M. Elliot left in MS. The extracts from the v j Wdkff&i Jdhdngiri of Mu- hammad Hadi, and the IkbdU dvgtrt of Mu'tamnd Khan, are almost wholly by the editor, while those from the Ma~ui>;,--;j l ihd,tgirt,Iiiiikhdb-i Jalidngirt Sh4M, and note on tin- ttW largely by Sir H. M. Elliot himself. The Ap- pendix contains six articles, the first on the early <"M EX*, "Om Lord lrarninir his Alplial-et," with th« account .given at pp. 67-71 of Mr. Bears ti • »f. also beal b fravels ofFah Mian njid 8* a. U™. Usui, and Farrtu-'s Life of Christ, wl I. pp. 211, 2I.V