महावीरचरितम् (महाकवि भवभूति - वीररस-प्रधान रामकथा नाटक सम्पूर्ण ७ अङ्क सटीक)

Note by the General Editor [xvi] of what was to him the classics, and for his use of that knowledge, may justly be compared with John Milton; and for the exquisite finish of his diction, we might call him the Thomas Gray of India. For the student of comparative literature, in particular of literary genetics and the history of the drama, this play has many aspects of interest which I hope the editor has not failed to put in a clear light. But it is for the student of the history of religions that the Rāma-legend is especially instructive: its hero has become a pattern, often quite divine, of all that is good and noble; Sītā is wifely fidelity incarnate; and the Rāmāyaṇa—translated from Sanskrit into the great vernaculars, Bengālī, Hindī, Marāṭhī, and so on, and especially the Rāmāyan of Tulsīdās—has become to untold millions literally a Bible to which they look for examples of virtue and for inspiration to righteous living. Our drama is accordingly one of the many forms into which the Indian genius has cast the story of its greatest popular hero, its deified hero; one of the many expressions of its loftiest ideals. May the knowledge of those ideals so enlarge our minds and our sympathies that, when we pass judgements on the East, we shall realize the truth of the Sanskrit proverb, ‘The whole world is one family’. C. R. Lanman. Harvard University, December, 1914. Postscript.—The prism-process was described by K. Krumbacher in an article entitled ‘Die Photographie im Dienste der Geisteswissenschaften’. This appeared in 1906 in the Neue Jahrbücher für das klassische Altertum, 17. 601–659, and was also published separately by Teubner, price marks 3.60. For further articles on the photographic reproduction of manuscripts, see The Nation, of New York, for March 5, 1908 (procédé Graffin), for March 19, 1908 (excellence of ‘good ordinary photographs’, and ease of making them), and for December 30, 1909 (apparatus of Carl von Arnhard of Munich). The Photostat, manufactured by the Eastman Kodak Co., is sold by the Commercial Camera Co. of Rochester, New York, for $500 or $750 or $1,100 according to the size. The Camera Co. issues a pamphlet entitled ‘The Photostat and its operation’. ‘The photostat is a simple and practical apparatus for the rapid photographing of printed or written docu- ments...directly upon the surface of sensitized paper with the image in correct position.... No previous knowledge of photography is necessary.’ For a great library or scientific society which is not too painfully hampered by lack of funds, and in which the apparatus will be much used, the photostat is unquestionably the best and in the long run the cheapest apparatus.