THE SHRINES OF BENARES.*
POSSESSORS of the Rev. M. A. Sherring's work, The Sacred eitig of the Hindus, and Mr. E. B. Havell's more recent book on Benares, should also find a place on their shelves for Mr. $en's attractive little monograph. If it cannot compete in other respects with its rivals, it has the merit of being the work of a convinced Hindu, and—a sign of the times—it is printed and. published by Hindus at the rising little port of Chittagong. Only twenty years ago it would have been deemed impossible in rural Bengal to manufacture such a book, prettily bound in white and gold, clearly printed, and well illustrated with photographs. Purchasers of this small manual might well take the opportunity to get Messrs. Laza° and Co., Mr. Sen's London agents, to send them his previous work, The Triumph of Valmiki, a rendering into vigorous if sometimes quaintly-worded English- of Pandit' Hare Prasad Shastri's famous romance. It is not easy for untravelled Englishmen to grasp the spirit of the Neo- Hinduism which is the most conspicuous result of the contact of. Hindu minds with European philosophy and literature. In modern. Bengal there is springing up a new composite literature, a grafting of Western style and Western methods of speculation on the ancient legends of Hindustan, of which the most distinguished representatives are Hare Prasad Shastri and the poet. Ravindranath. Tagore, who has recently quitted our shores. Read with a good-natured complaisance towards inevitably exotic turns of phrase, Mr. Sen's transla- tion gives an -accurate impression of the fresh outburst of Hindu fancy and philosophical interpretation of the facts of life which has resulted from the study of English by minds still imbued with the Hindu tradition. The teachings of the French Revolution find a surprising echo in the message of Brahma to Valmiki, the reputed author of the Ramayana : " Behold," said the Creator, " all men are equal, all are brothers, all are one. Go round the world, "proclaim this equality, brotherhood, and oneness in song. Be immortal, for thine is the victory." It was the victory of charity, sanity, common sense, as opposed to brute force on the one hand and intellectual arrogance on the other. Such are the writings that are slowly transmuting Hindu society and loosing the w;ctilarfetters of caste.
The Holy City of Benaree.By Rsinni Ranjan Sen. With 58 Illtuttrattonn an 1 Mar. Chittagong : It" Om [4e. 44. net]. - -
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