INDIAN GODS AND KINGS By Emma Hawkridge Miss Hawkridge has
set herself the task of telling the story of the living past of India, " for the intelligent but uninformed reader." It might have been supposed that amid the multi- plicity of books devised for this reader, or at least for the -immense • class of the uninformed, there could be no room left for yet another picturesque short history ; but Miss Hawkridge was right in assuming that there was. Her book (Rich and Cowan, 15s.) is exceptionally good ; well calculated to stir the interest of a public which has been irritated by the repetitions of foolish writers and travellers and film producers trying to be impressive about Rajputs and Moghuls. Miss Hawkridge is an American. This relevant fact could hardly be inferred from her writing, which is as free from current American usage as it is from the sloppiness of too many English writers on . her theme. She has read widely and is modern in her acceptance of .the results of anthropological and archaeological research. An unusual gift for seleetiOn is shown in her choice of heroic legend. and historic incident, as in ,her quotations from the epics and from Indian lyric poetry. • :She, admirably brief and clear in her summary of Mann and the early Hindu ordinances and of the main religious 'myths, in her characters of Buddha and Asoka, her picture of the social system of ancient India, and the country into which the armies of Alexander broke in the fourth century R.C. She is no less successful in presenting the great Hindu ages, the Moslem invasions, and the Moghul period. And she ends with the death of Aurungzeb, having as she says no wish to venture into the sphere of modern problems. Her narrative gift is attractive, and she has the merit of retelling the wonderful stories without romantic gUsh. The volume has been excellently produced by the Riverside Press, with a good American blackness of type, and seventeen excellent illustrations. For the general reader Miss Hawk- ridge has performed a service deserving of high praise.
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