Review of the Journal 'Indian Culture' on its inception by Dr S. Srikanta Sastri (July 1934)

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Review of the Journal “Indian Culture” on its inception by Dr S. Srikanta Sastri

Review & reception of “Indian Culture” – Journal of the Indian Research Institute, Calcutta by Dr S. Srikanta Sastri [July 1934; Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 142]

We welcome this new quarterly published under the distinguished editorship of Drs. D. R. Bhandarkar, B. M. Barua and B. C. Law. In the Foreword, Sir Dêvaprasada Sarvãdhikari suggests the need “to focus suggestions, criticisms and ideas” and visualises a “Culture neither narrow nor lop-sided but is broad-based, universal, and all-pervading.” This number contains Sir Brajêndranath Seal’s ideas on the coming World-Order and the problem of War. Prof. Bhandarkar, in his “Notes on Ancient History of India,” suggests that Vitihõtra-Tãlajanghas murdered Kumàrasëna, the younger son of Punika who destroyed the Vitihôtras and placed his other son Pradyõta on the throne, and that Käkavarna had defeated the Achemenians by 393-365 B.C. Dr. R. C. Majumdar describes the old and middle Javanese literature which included several versions of Purãnic stories not found in extant Samskrt works. Dr. Fàbri summarises briefly “the latest attempts to read the Indus script” but omits the references to certain publications that have appeared in the Indian journals. In this connection, the note of Dr. P. Mitra on the three-fold divisions of knowledge, the practice of intoning the scriptures and other Védic traits observed among the Maoris, is interesting as probably throwing some light on the Easter Island script and its relation to the Indus signs. Dr. Keith rejects the sixth century B.C. date assigned by Olmstead and Lehmann - Haupt to Zoroaster and concludes that “the date of Zoroaster lies well before the sixth century B.C.” Dr. Dasgupta supports Šamkara’s contention that the Sãmkhya is avaidik and it bloomed forth in a different field altogether. Dr. P. K. Acharya, writing on the “Origin of the Hindu Temple” traces the Šikhara and other features of the temple to the sacrificial altars in different shapes described in the Taittiriya Samhita (V. 4, 11). The issue is rounded off with notes on miscellaneous problems and reviews. The printing and get-up leave nothing to be desired and we would suggest that the Journal, true to its name, would devout itself more to the interpretation of Hindu Culture-symbols than to the discussion of disjecta membra, for which purpose indeed we have many other Oriental Journals that have survived the economic depression. We extend a warm welcome to this new venture and pray that it will maintain the same high levels of ideas and ideals.

S. S. SASTRI.

www.srikanta-sastri.org

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