New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-08-20

medieval INDIA UNDER MoHAMMEDAN
illustrated. Crhe Story OF the Nations Series)
Octave. pp. rviii. AIS. G. p. Putnam's Sons
Professor Davids has produced a compact sur
vey of the India of the Buddhist period. vivid
p,cture of a civilization long buried in the jun
gle Even the sites OF most Of the great Bud
dhist towns remain to be discovered, but the al
thor proves the faIIacy of the idea that India is
lacking in historical data Moreover. he shows
that in studying such data they have found
accessible scholars have too readily accepted the
Erahnlinistic descriptions of ancient India de-
scrsTfions which are not by any means always
20 be relied upon. Thus the Brahuinical Etera-
ture has failed to draw attention to an iInpor-
tant factor in the social condition OF the country
during the sixth and seventh centuries b. c.
This was the existence. side by side with power
ful Inonarchiea, of republics enjoying a complete
or partial independence. Professor Davids gives
a pIcture of society in this epoch that is very
attractive There were landlords and no
paupers. The people led a simple. industrious
life with nothing to mar their happiness save
when famine overlook them While nobody was
very poor, nobody was very wealthy. Class and
caste distinctions, the Brahu2ins to the contrary
notwithstanding, were not tightly drawn IN
deed the caste system as it prevails in India to-
day, was unknown.
OF the fifteen to twenty millions of people who
then lnhs bited North India the majority lived
In villages, the life OF which forms the sub
stance of a dfverting chapter in this book
From the village Professor Davids passes to the
town with which bass-reliefs and Brahninlca'
literature have given US some acquaintance out
about which we have wanted certain mror;ha-
ton which the author endeavors to supply Inc
Buddhist town was noisy. crowded ana uhsalh-
tary but its people seem to have thriveo ana 10
have enioyed life much as did the villagers. 1t
taafl Il
ing. as q rule some interesting edifces. Among
these we're hot air lighthouses, and the writer
suggests that from them the so-called Turkish
hath" may have been derived. public gam
bling hall IL appears. formed q customary part
of a royal palace. dice being the gaming imple-
rnents. Law books" adds the author, disclose
q custom whereby share Of the winnings went
10 the treasury Economic conditions, the be-
sinnings and development of writing, the eVo-
luton of language and literature and the ami
rnistic and Brahministic religions form the sub
5ects of successive chapters. Little is known OF
the events Of the century and half following
the Buddha's death, and Professor Davids passes
Oh TO recbrd the conditions found during the
reign of C-handragupta and his famous son.
Asoka Chandragupta rose from the status OF a
frontier bandit to be the ruler Of 1.-The mightiest
throne then existing in the world" and has been
made the hero of numerous legends The author
points out the resemblance between one Of these
stories and the mythical cake romance of
King Alfred the Great. The tale runs thus:
IN one of these villages woman by whose hearth
sna gave to her child He leaving the edges ate
only The centre, and. throwing the edges , away way,
conduct Is ike chandragqPta's attack on the king
doing. and what has Chandragupta done?' Thou.
my dear. said she throwing away the outside OF
in his ambition to be monarch. without beginning
he passed. has invaded the heart of the country
:: and his army is surrounded and DESTROYED
and learnt the lesson and prospered.
In his closing chapter Professor Davids dis
cusses the decline and fall Of Buddhism in India.
commenting adversely on the theory that 1t was
brought about by prolonged Brahministic ac-
tivity. In his opinion it caused rather by
changes that took place in the faith itself and
in the intellectual standard Of the people, and
by the influence OF the foreign tribes that in
vaded India from the northwest. he admits,
however that the material available is INSULT
Client TO warrant final judgment on this ques-
zion.
Professor Lane-Poole's "Alahommedan India
is as he remarks, more chronicle Of kings
and courts and conquests than Of organic or
national growth" There is too much truth in
his picture OF the national inertia Of the Hndoos
The development of civic rights, the vindication
of individual liberty, and the evolution Of self
government are ideas which seem to have no
meaning 10 the Indian mind. But it was not
so much the Oriental view Of power as divine
gift that enabled Islam TO triumph as it was
the fact that Mahometanisn was an all embrac-
Ing caste. This is clearly brought out by Pro-
fessor Lane-Poole. whose work is indeed so
suggestive that it would be unfair to consider
II merely as the chronicle" that he calls It.
Nevertheless. IL must be noted that he nresup-
poses some acquaintance on the part of the
reader with the broad facts of Indian history.
de has found it impossible to incorporate in 50
small book the wealth OF Information that
exists relating 10 the many centuries OF Ma
hometau rule. But he gives as full an account
as Is consistent with the narrow boundaries of
his scheme of the advance of Islam FROM tho
temporarily successful Arab raids of the eighth
century TO the establishment Of the kingdom OF
Delhi in the thirteenth and the subsenuen+
growth OF the Mogul empire in the sixteenth
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Mahorn
etenisrn as a temporal power is dead in India
put as a spiritual force it is still strong ..The
KING or England rules twice as manv Moslen,
SUBJECTS as the Sultan OF Turkey and the Shah
ol Persia together" Every sixth man I'm the
population Of over three hundred millions :. .
follower OF the Prophet, and it has been es.i
mated that hfty thousand Hindoos turn Turk,
annually The author draws some striking nor
traits OF the great figures OF the various dvnas-
ues' perhaps the most noteworthy being that os
sae famous Akbar. who is described as cha
noolest KING that ever ruled India"