The Ancient Empire Of Southern India And South East Asia

This Volume Presents The Fascinating Record By M.M. Shoemaker Of A Long Journey He Undertook Through South India. Burma And Some Of The Islands Of The Pacitic. The Narrative Takes The Reader Over A Vast Expanse Of Space Which Once Contained Ancient Empires, The Relics Of Which Are Fast Changing Under The Swift Progress Of Civilization. The Great Religious And Cultural Centres Of South India Receive Detailed Attention And We Have Some Of The Finest Descriptions Of Several Such Centres: Rameswaram, The Seat Of The Most Venerated, The Most Magnificient And The Largest Of All Hindu Temples, The Fantastic Madurai Where The History Of The Adoration Of Countless Worshippers Of Golden Shiva Goes Back To The Dim And Distant Past ?When Our Religion Was But A Prophesy To Be Fulfilled?; The Stately Tanjore Where The Majestic Outlines Of The Temple Tower Soars Aloft More Than Two Hundred Feet Above A Cluster Of Shrines, Colonnades And Arches. The Journey Accomplished Durint The Time Of The Great Plague (1898) Took The Author To Several Areas Devastated By The Epidemic. The Book Contains Some Of The Most Graphic Descriptions Of This Terrible Tragedy ? The Grim Portaraiture, For Instance, Of The City Of Bombay With Thousands Of Its Inhabitants Dead Or Dying And To Whose Overfed Towers Of Silence The Awful Tidings Of The Dead Brought Vultures From As Far Away As Turkestan. Crossing The Bay Of Bengal The Author Lands In Rangoon Under The Dazling Great Pagoda From Where He Travels Up The Irawady A Thousand Miles Through Stately Forests Almost To The Borders Of China, Passing On The Way The Romantic Royal City Of Mandalay ? The Kremlin Of Burma Which Would Contain Several Of The Russian Citadel? ? With Its Golden Palaces, Monasteries, Countless Pagodas And Its Many Legends Of Splendours Founded Upon Wholesale Slaughter?. On The Way Stands The Ancient City Of Pagahm With Its Two Thousand Shrines Which Would Throw Into Shade Even The Grandeur Of Rome. The Chapters On Manila And The Philippines, Based On The Highest Authorities Including Official Records Deal With The History Of The Spanish Occupation Of These Areas And The Almost Wholesale Devastation Of The Native Population Which Followed In Its Wake. The Spanish Guns, For The First Time Broke The Silence Of Centuries Amidst These Idyllic Islands In He Pacific. The Atrocities Committed On The Native By The Spanish Frairs Were So Terrible That They Were Driven To Take Revenge Upon Their Tormentors By The Wholesale Destruction Of The Churches And Even By Digging Up The Graves Of The Dead. The Author Depicts The History, Customs And Manners Of The People Inhabiting The Areas Of His Sojourn With The Skill Of A Fine Desriptive Writer And The Verve Of A Man In Love With The Life He Talks About.