558 NOTICES OF BOOKS.

INDIAN MYTHOLOGY ACCORDING TO THE MAHABHARATA IN

OUTLINE. By V. FAUSBOLL. (Luzac's Oriental Religious-
Series, vol. i.) pp. xxxii, 206. (London: Luzac & Co.r
1903.)
Sanskrit scholars do not require to be told that the most
important literary problem still awaiting their solution is
the problem of the Mahabharata. The great epic, the most
genial and vigorous, if not the most characteristic, product
of the Indian mind, occupying a position midway between
the ancient and the classical Sanskrit, and connected on the
one hand by certain indications with the Satapatha Brahmana
(Hopkins' "Epic of India," p. 368), on the other with the
Buddhist Sanskrit literature, which in its turn bears lexico-
graphical affinities to the same Brahmana, forms the centre
of an important linguistic development. It constitutes also
the great storehouse "of ancient mythology and tradition,
whereby it becomes the key to much that is obscure in the
Yedic books, while its use by the classical writers more than
justifies its own confident pretension—
anasrityedam akhyanam katha bhuvi na vidyate |
aharam anapasritya sarlrasyeva dharanam 11
idam kavivaraih sarvvair akhyanam upajivyate |
udayaprepsubhir bhrtyair abhijata ivesvarah 11
(I, ii, 380-1.)
To the study of this really national creation, which during the
last decade has elicited so many important works, Professor
Fausboll devoted in 1897 a volume in Danish entitled " Four
Studies towards an exposition of the Indian Mythology
according to the Mahabharata," and he has now given to us
in the present work a systematic treatise based in part upon
the same materials. We may perhaps conclude that in the
opinion of the great Pali scholar the time is ripe for bringing
the results of the investigations of early Buddhism to bear
upon the immense problem of the epic.
Professor Fausb^U's work is wholly expository. After
enumerating all the noticeable discussions of early Indian
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 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY. 559

mythology, he observes that "in order not to be influenced

by the opinions and views of others, but to be quite
independent," he has, " while writing this book, not made
use of any of the treatises mentioned above." He gives us,
therefore, an objective picture of the chief mythological
•conceptions as they appear in the poem itself. It must be
admitted that there was room for a manual of this nature,
and it will be of great use to students both of the Maha-
bharata itself and of all the later poetry. The index is
quite satisfactory, though we note a very few omissions
(e.g. Skanda).
The arrangement is that of a classification. First we
have the heading Asuras, with subdivisions for Daityas,
Diinavas, Dasyus, Nagas, Raxasas, and Pisacas; then Suras,
divided into Adityas, Apsarases, Asvins, Lokapalas, Maruts,
Pitrs, Prajapatis, Rbhus, Rsis, Rudras, Sadhyas, Siddhas,
Valakhilyas, Vasus, and Vidyadharas; thirdly Yaxas.
Exception may no doubt be taken to this order, but it
supplies, especially as drawn out in the very full table of
contents, a clear conspectus of the Pandaimonion and
Pantheon. Under each heading we find a full account of
the beings named, with their legends, attributes, and names,
supported by citations, sometimes of considerable length, and
in all cases accompanied by renderings, whereby we see the
actual working of the myths. It is curious to note what
a different impression the sloka produces in four lines instead
of two.
There are some particulars in which we are compelled to
dissent from the author's views. He infers " that by Asuras
the Aborigines of India have been understood " (pp. 41—2);
•" it is more probable," he holds, " that the word Indra
originally has been Indura from indu, a drop " (p. 82); in
the sentence vrhatmd Visnur ucyate it seems scarcely correct
to see an etymology of Visnu from VwA (p. 107), where
probably \/vk is intended. We must also call attention to
the somewhat excessive number of misprints in the Sanskrit
words, giving the careful reader unexpected shocks.
In spite of these small scruples and defects, we must
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 560 NOTICES OF BOOKS.

cordially thank Professor Fausb^ll for giving us in an

interesting and comprehensive form the first systematic
account of the middle Indian religion. In later times the
beings whom the Mahabharata presents in lifelike characters-
were swamped by conceptions of a metaphysical order,
which reduced most of the minor powers to lay figures for
literary use. The Trimiirti, as we learn on the authority of
Professor Sorensen (p. xi), does not yet occur at all. More
unexpectedly we find that so thoroughly familiar a figure as
that of Ganesa is but twice mentioned in the poem (ibid.).

Contribution preliminaire a l'etude DE L'ECRITURE ET DE

LA LANGTJE SI-HIA, par M. G. MORISSE, Interprete de
la Legation de France k Pekin. Extrait des Memoires
de l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. (Paris:
Imprimerie Rationale, 1904.)
The peculiar script to which this scholarly article is
devoted was first introduced to the learned world of Europe,
as M. Morisse observes, by Mr. Wylie, in a paper published
in our own Journal in 1871. It is one of the scripts
preserved in the well-known hexaglot Buddhist inscriptions
within a sculptured archway of the Great "Wall at Chii-
Yung-Kuan, near Peking, where it occurs in connection
with Devanagari, Tibetan, Bashpa Mongolian, Uigur, and
Chinese. The inscriptions from one side of this archway
were illustrated in Mr. Wylie's paper, and a reduced
facsimile of his impressions of four of the scripts is also to
be found in Yule's Travels of Marco Polo (vol. i, p. 28).
They have since been published in extenso in a magnificent
album of Documents de I'epoque mongoles des xiiie et xiv"
siecles by Prince Roland Bonaparte, under the competent
editorship of MM. Deveria et Chavannes.
The unknown script was at first supposed, on doubtful
Chinese authority, to belong to the Juchen (Niuchih)
Tartars, who ruled Northern China in A.D. 1125-1234.
But later researches into the works of Chinese epigraphic
and numismatic authors have conclusively proved it to be
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