Smith, in a single volume of moderate size, well illustrated, and provided with maps and bibliographies, has provided a well-written account of the history of the peninsula. Besides a full account of the political history, he has written admirable summaries of social life and of the three main religions—Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. The volume will be indispensable to the student of history and is well suited to the wants of the general reader. It will long remain the standard history of the Indian Empire.
The account of the Salem District in the Madras Presidency, by Mr. F. J. Richards, is a book of another, and not less valuable and interesting, class. He gives us a complete survey of an important district, describing in detail the geography, history, ethnology, religions of the people, with notices of the most important places and architecture. If anyone desires to know how the people of Southern India live, their beliefs and ritual, and how they are governed, he will find these things described in a scholarly way and in the fullest detail. Southern Indian religions and ethnology are a field practically unworked, and the book is a mine of curious information on religion and folk-lore.
The original edition of Cunningham’s valuable work appeared in 1849. It has been now edited in excellent style by Mr. Garrett, Professor of History, Government College, Lahore. Captain Cunningham, from his long service in the Panjab, acquired much information about the Sikhs. Like Mr. M. Macauliffe’s important work, also published by the Clarendon Press, The Sikh Religion, its Gurus, Sacred Writings, and Authors, it is written largely from the Sikh point of view; but it has a special value because Cunningham was a writer of singular independence, and his criticisms on the policy of the Government were so distasteful to his superiors that, as a punishment, he was removed from his political appointment and sent back to regimental duty. His second brother, Alexander, lived to become Archaeological Surveyor of India, and produced a valuable series of reports and monographs on
