Page:The Indian Antiquary, Vol. 4-1875.djvu/77

 6i THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY, [FfflratTART, 187. r r- may hnro preceded an Aryan invaBimi, the Brah- moan were probably thm priest* of a phallic deity named Brahma, from whom they iraiy hare derived iliuir die finetivn name/* "Again, the Indian Home ofthoYedic Aryans wa* in the Panj&b, to the westward of the river Saroawatt. The Indian home of the Braumum* wua apparently in Hindu- stan, and extended from the Sarnawutl eusLward to the bun kit of tin- li.mgea in the ncighbonr- hood of the ancient city of Kanouj " Further, " tUQ Brahman* had undoubtedly mads their way into the Panjab, whilst the Vodic Aryans were jnero colonists in the land. Hut the Kb bis com- posed satirical hymns ugninvt r '"" nn^hrruraii.," What will the Brahman* themselves bay to thit mud other similar assertioun of the author's ? The origin of Sati, Mr, Wheeler Gomtden o* a " SkvLliian uw»gn modified by Aryan culture," "The Skythliin Sutt was modified by th; Aryan worship of the fin* and the gun. Agni, or tin, was the purifying deity. She wua not only the domes- tic goddess of the household, but the divinct mes- senger that carried tho anerineu to the gods ; tho purifying flame that bora away the widow and her lord to the mausiuua of tho »un." Now we very much doubt the Say th* ever having influenced tiio btttt life of another race |o any Booh extent : waa widowv, whose plots still disturb net ire ntn.ti.ti P Up return* to the do tails of the former two volume*, and again drags the weary rwider ovur the stories of BAma and Kriuhna, leaving him no Winer than before, esoopt that "the whol« luirro- tive" of thn iixile of BAma * a may be dismissed as apocryphal; as a mythiml invention of compara- tively modern date, intended aa an introduction to the tradition of another and later Kama/" who carried on a war with R&rana, 'whose subjects, ■' there in reason to believe, represent Che Bud- dhists." Bat Mr. Wheeler is fond of relegating people whom he knows little of to tho ButldhiuL*. Ho says elsewhere (p, 45SI "there in reason to bus])". '. Thomas wbji a Buddki who had perished in the age of Brahmumrnl persecution ;*" Chora IVrnmal, of whom Farm y Bousa mentions that he is void to have mured to the Church of St. Thomas and died at Mriiapnr* " in alt probability" aim " turned a Buddhi n r in his old ago," Even Mann was a Buddhist (p BS Though a gifted writer, Mr. Wheeler doe* »nme- write hi a atyh) that i« u mint orally inflated : and the employment of simile like **the Indus and its tributaries" appearing " on the map like th* sacred candlestick with Fereri b ranch- Uvtclcan as it J* pedantic- He speaks alio (p. I ft) of Mara becoming " incarnate in a dream with a small white elephant !" "The Kaltaii" ho eaya (p. 1721, ♦'have been identified with lb* f'liattfes of Kattuywar in Grtzorai ! 1 1" Tho serpents men- tioned by Megasthcucs. with membranous wings Bfeo bfttn, srhow Detente wfll pnhrafyttii tldn^- " are nothing more," he «uy a. "than the wmmon Hfamb, and certainly their uioislnro wUI cm i ■ • i w ate i ' 1 11 ii ni m utior. . " ' I ' I it 1 1 ana and Tagara are *"two important marts on the weait-ru 000*1 " Lt. tho name ofZarmuiioehcgos, who burnt him- self at Athena in the time of Augustus, the word Sheik;" but he nerer says who made th ia or any other i SBti&bntfona henotieiw. Hd makeo ^ankar Acharya a Linjriyal l'p- f^^V iMt not fCcta to bare beard that there ure Dignmbara Jain? {p. 861), Sometitucb Bmh. nub, ViahnOi itntl WU'44. he tills his readers, arc •* separately *' w wmlu ppcil " w* the Q bt pre* server, and ths destroyer of the nmvene, under tho nnme of the Triiuurti/' The - i wear the Hnga (.p. li'M] : and pouaibly the ens of Farainrama {a,0. flUS) corTMi»onrU to tho era of BAma* war with Bavana (fi. 4flS). When ho eomev to points of chronology Mr. Wheeler tosses about without helm. First Aioka live* in tho ago of tho rebuilding of the Jewish temple,— that is, wo suppose, in tho fifth century a.c. He is so like Sandrokottos that the two may bo one and thf Mime (pp> 93^ 1*7/: then lie ascended the throne »x. 326»~tjuite forgetful that in the great edict Asoka mentions Ant p HM, Magjis, and Alexander t who Bred nearly seventy yearn later, ar in 2^ft I We had noted inn ay tnoro such rash or er- roneous statement* in thtl volume; hut thesetnay sufllee to show with what care its assertion* nnatit ^received. The author is a good /»rrJnV-writifr,Bnd. with the tett of Tod's Jfajarthan, KtuWll, V- or Mareo Pole.'" lV«e^S, Fnrin y & a (variable and interesting dMnJ .- but hJi rending is too limited, hi* power of obser- v.:.ti-m loo HuperSetuh and hi* logical faculty too untrained, to enable him to gmendtRe with oecn- racy or to investigate with approximate certainty : ho is moreoftlie Hcir.lf-f thai mvestlg*. tor, and wrtnti tlmt ocenrncy wit hoot which even ■ucn a book as thin Is not only wanting In what ought to rcustitute its chlHvj 4 j m but ispoei peniiciotii. Tim scholar will deteot itn faujr it ii addresiied to the popular reader, who lias not tho Kpecisj knowkdge to vnabte hhn to sift what is matter or history from tho misconceptions <>T tb-» author. To those who can do this, however, tho volume will afford pleasant and inter**! ing read» tog.
 * >tti not n political institution to get rid of the
 * Olicjpt*," he says-, "has been identified with