4. A Note on the Bengal School of Artists. 



By S. Kumar, M.R.A.S., Supdt. of the Reading Room, 



Imperial Library, Calcutta. 



In 1869, Dr. Anton Schiefner of St. Petersburg (now Petro- 

 grad) published, under the auspices of the Russian Imperial 

 Academy, a German translation of Taranatha's History of 

 Buddhism in India. The work is originally in Tibetan and it 

 is almost a sealed book, as it were, to many who are not very 

 well acquainted with the language. But the translation has 

 made the work more popular. It has almost become a fashion, 

 nowadays, with a certain section of Orientalists to speak of 

 it as an authoritative work on the history of Northern India 

 during the pre-Muhammadan period. The original work was 

 written in about the beginning of the 17th century a.d. It is 

 an embodiment of traditions in the shape in which they reached 

 the author, mostly garbled and strongly biased, and with a 

 large amount of personal equation which might be accounted 

 for the creed of the author. An analysis of Taranatha's 

 statements has not yet been completed, so that for the present 

 the actual historical value of the work cannot be estimated 

 with any amount of definiteness. But so much has already 

 been proved as would enable us to say that it would not be 

 quite safe to regard Taranatha's work as a record of unadul- 

 terated historical facts, or of reliable traditions. It is a curious 

 jumble of facts and fiction, of truth and untruth, of proved 

 historical facts and garbled Buddhistic traditionary accounts. 

 What we have said above might be illustrated by referring 

 to a particular instance taken out of Taranatha's History. 



Just before the accession of the Palas of Bengal there were 

 anarchy and lawlessness in the country,— a fact recorded by 

 Taranatha in the following terms:—' 4 Zu der Zeit waren schon 

 viele Jahre vergangen, ohne dass in Bangala Konige waren, 

 and alle Einwohner des Reichs waren in Ungliick und Kummer 

 gerathen. 1 " Further he says,— " Da sagten alle, dass er im 

 Besitz grossen Tugendverdienstes sei, wahlten ihn bestandig 

 zur Herrschaft und gaben ihm den Xanien Gopala." 2 



There can be no doubt about the truth of these state- 

 ments, as it has been borne out by the copper-plate grant 



1 Tar. Gesch. d. Buddh. i. Ind. Ueberset. v. A. Schiefner, p. 2u3 



2 Ibid., p. 204. 



