Kleine Schriften.

• Author: Pruitt, William
• Position: Brief Reviews - Book Review

Kleine Schriften. By LUCIAN SCHERMAN. Glasenapp-Stiftung, vol. 40. Stuttgart: FRANZ STEINER, 2001. Pp. xxxii + 704.

This collection of short articles by Lucian Scherman (1864-1946) is a very useful way to make them available to scholars. The original articles are reproduced as first printed with the original pagination, along with the addition of continuous pagination for this edition at the bottom of the pages. The numerous photos suffer a little in the process of reproduction but are generally clear enough to serve their purpose. The volume is of especial interest to art historians and ethnologists.

The introductory material includes a portrait of the author, a short biography (in German), and a bibliography of his publications. The bibliography gives a good idea of the scope of his work. Subjects are grouped under the same headings used for the writings included in the book itself: Indology, Buddhist art, Burmese studies, ethnology, museum catalogues, and bibliographical pieces. This is followed by a list of pieces about Lucian Scherman and a table of important dates in his life. A table at the end of the book (pp. 681-93) gives the itinerary of a trip by the author to Sri Lanka and South India in 1910-11 together with some documents from that trip.

A note to one article (p. 350) identifies the author as an authority on ethnography, philology, and the civilization of India. It goes on to say that he left Munich in 1939, fleeing the Nazis, and continued his work at the Fogg Art Museum in the United States.

The volume begins with his dissertation on Vedic hymns, published in 1887. The second work is a study of Indian visionary literature. This section on Indian studies also includes articles, with photos, on the two groups of the Nilgiri tribes of South India: (1) the Todas, Kotas...