62 Address. [Feb. 



and registered in tlie several Provinces of India," and from them a very- 

 fair insight may be gained as to literary progress in India and the direc- 

 tion it is taking. The report for 1888 has just been issued, and though 

 it throws us rather back, it may not be uninteresting to give a brief 

 abstract of it. 



Bengal. In Bengal 2,693 works were registered, of which 365 

 were English, 1,713 in provincial vernaculars, 214 in Indian classi- 

 cal languages and 401 in more than one language. Mr, C. H. Tawney, 

 in presenting the report of the Bengal Library, remai'ks on the re- 

 markable paucity of historical works, and on the utterly uncritical 

 character of most of the many religious works published. Fiction and 

 poetry flourish, as they have ever done ; though it is doubtful whether 

 the form or substance of Indian fiction has been improved by our occupa- 

 tion of the counti'y. It is decidedly discouraging to find that, in the 

 opinion of one who has had so much experience in education as Mr. 

 Tawney, English education has not influenced the Bengali mind to any 

 perceptible depth. He says — " The influence of English science is diffi- 

 cult to trace in the report. Philology keeps in the old groove and 

 medicine seems to be trying to return to it." 



In Arts, 68 works have been published, of which 31 are English. 

 They are mostly educational treatises on mensuration. One of the 

 most favourite subjects in this section, all over India, is Music. 

 A work by Nanda Kumar Mukhei'ji, dealing with the harmonic 

 ruusic of the Hindus, is noted by the Librarian. Biographies are not 

 numerous, but they include lives of President Grarfield, Martin Lu- 

 ther and of Harish Chandra Mukherji, the first editor of the Hindu 

 Patriot. Dramatic literature flourishes, but is nearly all utterly bad 

 and immoral ; though mythological dramas and melodramas continue to 

 be written, and it is curious to remark, as an unexpected union of Church 

 and Stage, that a devotional feeling for Hari, or Vishnu, has taken entire 

 possession of the native stage in Calcutta. In Fiction, 126 works were re- 

 gistered, of which 120 were in provincial vernacular. A tendency is noted 

 on the part of the native authors of the present day to show an affectionate 

 appreciation of everything Indian and to write regretfully of the former 

 happy state of things which is passing away under the influence of 

 Western civilisation ; and no doubt here, as elsewhere, there is much to 

 be said for the old quiet studious days, as opposed to the ever- restless 

 * progress ' of the present day. Two works of fiction of more than 

 average merit are noticed as written by Hindu ladies — the ' Hughlir 

 Imamhdri," by Swarna Kumari Devi, and the Laland MuJcur, by an 

 unknown authoress, which gives a somewhat realistic picture of life 

 in a great Hindu zemindar's family in the Mofussil. 



