A Peep into the Early History of India. By R. G. Bhandarkar. 7½ × 5, iv + 74 pp. Bombay : Taraporevala, 1920. - Ancient India. By Upendra Nath Ball. 7 × 5, iv + 236 pp. Calcutta: Kamala Book Depot, 1921.

AbstractThe legal treatises of ancient India, called Dharmaśāstras, are often read as records of the initial emergence of law from religion in South Asia. The Dharmaśāstras teach the dharma, or “sacred duty,” of different members of society. It is one of the dharmas of the king to adjudicate disputes that come before his courts, and it is widely accepted that a need to articulate the king's dharma led the composers of the Dharmaśāstras over time to fashion rules for state courts, a body of law called vyavahāra. Scholars such as Henry Sumner Maine and Max Weber saw in the Dharmaśāstras evidence of the disentanglement and rationalization of law, respectively. A close examination of our sources, however, shows that the law of royal courts emerged not within the Dharmaśāstra tradition, but within an adjacent and decidedly more secular tradition of statecraft. It was gradually absorbed into Dharmaśāstra texts, where it was reconfigured as sacred duty and its historical origins were obscured. This article argues that the early history of state law in India is best described, therefore, not as a transition from dharma to law, but as a transition from law to dharma.

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32. The Early History of Sonship in Ancient India

Man ◽

10.2307/2788895 ◽

1924 ◽

Vol 24 ◽

pp. 40

Author(s):

Nares C. Sen-Gupta

Keyword(s):

Early History ◽

Ancient India ◽

History Of

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ETYMOLOGY AND MAGIC: YĀSKA'S NIRUKTA, PLATO'S CRATYLUS, AND THE RIDDLE OF SEMANTIC ETYMOLOGIES

Numen ◽

10.1163/156852701750152645 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 48 (2) ◽

pp. 147-203 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Johannes Bronkhorst

Keyword(s):

Ancient Greece ◽

Early History ◽

Ancient India ◽

History Of

AbstractSemantic etymologies are to be distinguished from historical etymologies. A historical etymology presents the origin or early history of a word. Semantic etymologies do something completely different. They connect one word with one or more others which are believed to elucidate its meaning. Semantic etymologies are practically universal in pre-modern cultures, and there are treatises in some cultures - such as Yāska's Nirukta in ancient India, Plato's Cratylus in ancient Greece - that specifically deal with them. This article addresses the question how modern scholarship should try to understand semantic etymologizing. It is argued that, being a universal phenomenon, semantic etymologizing is in need of a universal explanation. Drawing inspiration from certain pre-modern philosophies, it is proposed to study this phenomenon in the light of another category of phenomena that is often called "magical".

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Some early history of replica techniques for electron microscopy

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100130018 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 50 (2) ◽

pp. 1076-1077

Author(s):

Robert M. Fisher

Keyword(s):

Thin Film ◽

Electron Microscopy ◽

Optical Microscope ◽

Early History ◽

Bulk Materials ◽

Thin Sections ◽

Transmission Electron ◽

Reflected Light ◽

History Of ◽

Electron Microscopes

By 1940, a half dozen or so commercial or home-built transmission electron microscopes were in use for studies of the ultrastructure of matter. These operated at 30-60 kV and most pioneering microscopists were preoccupied with their search for electron transparent substrates to support dispersions of particulates or bacteria for TEM examination and did not contemplate studies of bulk materials. Metallurgist H. Mahl and other physical scientists, accustomed to examining etched, deformed or machined specimens by reflected light in the optical microscope, were also highly motivated to capitalize on the superior resolution of the electron microscope. Mahl originated several methods of preparing thin oxide or lacquer impressions of surfaces that were transparent in his 50 kV TEM. The utility of replication was recognized immediately and many variations on the theme, including two-step negative-positive replicas, soon appeared. Intense development of replica techniques slowed after 1955 but important advances still occur. The availability of 100 kV instruments, advent of thin film methods for metals and ceramics and microtoming of thin sections for biological specimens largely eliminated any need to resort to replicas.

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