CURRENT LITERATURE.
BOOKS ON INDIAN SUBJECTS.
Th,e Fundamental Unity of India (from, Hindu Sources). By Professor Radhakumud Mookerji. With an Introduction by J. Ramsay MacDonald, M.P. (Longmans and Co. 3s. 6d. net.)—Professor Mookerji has made an interesting little book out of tolerably familiar evidence that Hinduism has had some unifying effect in welding together the races of India, and that they differ less from one another than from races beyond the Hindu Koosh. Mr. MacDonald thinks it a "super- ficial view "which nevertheless dwells on surviving differences, and regrets that the fact "that it is the view of many of the present governors is proclaimed without secrecy from Ceylon to Afghanistan." There can be no harm in collecting proofs of Indian unity in a very readable little book. It is to be regretted, however, that Professor Mookerji does not realize, nor, we suppose, Mr. MacDonald either, that it is under British rule that the tendencies to unity have for the first time become an enduring political fact—Studies in Ancient Hindu Polity (Based on the eirlha-sdstra of Kautilya): Vol. I. By Narendra Nath Law. (Longman!' and Co. 3s. 6d. net.)—Readers interested in ancient India must not be deterred by the feet that Mr. Law's text is interspersed with numerous Sanskrit words and citations. In most cases a translation is given. Professor Radhakumnd Mookerji has added a preface explaining that the sage Kautilya was no other than Chanakya, the famous Minister of Chandra Gupta and contemporary of Megasthenes. His slohas have been translated into many modern languages of India, and are regarded as models of practical wisdom. He was a master of finesse and artifice, and has been called the Machiavelli of India. This book presents him in a more pleasing light, as a practised and conscientious administrator. —The Gods of India; a Brief Description of their History, Character, mut Worship. By the Rev. E. Osborn Martin. (J. M. Dent and Sons. 4e. 6d. net.)—A popular but carefully written and well-informed account of Hindu mythology, ancient and modern, by a Wesleyan missionary who has spent thirteen years in India and Ceylon. Mr. Martin gives a kindly and creditably impartial account of (1) the Yea] • Mahe& of land Transfer. By Sir Charles Fortesene-BrIekdals, London; Stevens and Sons. Esc net./
Nature-gods of the ancient Aryan settlers in Northern India; (2) the gods of Pauranio Hinduism, still worshipped by members of the educated classes; and (3) some of the innumerable local deities to whom the peasantry appeal for help in time of trouble. Mr. Osborn is, of course, awake to the defects of orthodox Hinduism, but rightly insists on the value of an unbiassed study of the history and growth of Hinduism. "There are," as he justly urges, "whole realms
• of Hindu mythological thought still to be surveyed."— Principles of Tantra. With an Introduction and Com- mentary by Arthur Avalon. (Luzac and (Jo. 10s. net.)—A translation, with a laborious commentary, of a Sanskrit work on Tantriti occultism and magic by a Bengali pundit. Not all worshippers of the mystical feminine Sakti of the Himalayan god Siva are of the Left-handed or VzImiichAri sect, and many live irreproachable lives in spite of the extraordinary scriptures by which they profess to be guided. But most of those who know India know what moral and social results have been -associated with Tantiic rites, and it may be doubted whether, even as an historical document, this long, obscure, and repul- sive apology was worth the considerable labour of translation and annotation.
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