Select Contents of Oriental Journals
Summary
This section abstracts noteworthy articles and announcements from a wide range of oriental journals. Highlights include P. K. Gode’s study of cultural gleanings from the Jñānakaṇḍa of the Kāśyapasaṃhitā, which examines Vaiṣṇava ritual practices and the symbolic use of grains, flowers and plants; K. Madhava Krishna Sarama’s biography of the musician–poet Bhāvabhāṭṭa; and A. N. Srinivasa Raghava Aiyangar’s interpretation of the term Bhāratavarṣa as the “spiritually inclined human world”. Jean Filliozat’s article on India and French Indology is also noted. Entries from the Journal of the Annamalai University report on the Dravidian neuter plural and continue the editing of the Bhāvanānuvākh with commentaries. From the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, H. D. Valankar’s paper on Prākṛta and Apabhraṃśa metres is summarised along with V. V. Gokhale’s study of fragments of the Abhidharmasaṃuccaya of Asaṅga. Other abstracts cover D. D. Kosambi’s work on early Brahmins and Brahminism and B. M. Barua and Pulin Behari Chakravarti’s edition of the Sañkor plate of Trailokya Varman, which sheds light on early Bundelkhand history. Further notes cite A. S. Bhandarkar on the origin of the Patane Prabhus, G. V. Devasthali’s critical edition of the Ālaṃkāra‑tilaka, and P. V. Kane’s study of Varāhamihira and his commentator Utpala. Subsequent entries mention recent instalments of the Vaiśeṣikasūtra commentary, excerpts from a Sanskrit encyclopaedia compiled at Vizagapatam and articles on topics such as hymns to Indra, the relation between bhakti and rhetorical theory in Ānandavardhana’s Dhvani theory, and postulation methods in Indian musicology. The section thus serves as a concise bulletin for researchers, alerting them to significant studies in Sanskrit philology, grammar, history, prosody and Indology published worldwide.
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Conclusion
By summarising articles from numerous journals and bulletins, this section alerts readers to diverse research on Indian history, literature, linguistics and religious studies. The abstracts range from ritual studies and historical epigraphy to prosody and musicology, demonstrating the vitality and breadth of oriental scholarship in the late 1940s.