TARA: A MAHRATTA TALE _EXTRACTS FROM SOME PRESS NOTICES OF "TARA."_ THE "TIMES." "For its rapid action, in fact, we have seldom read a better story, or one which is more full of incidents, sanguinary, trenchant, and robust." THE "DAILY TELEGRAPH." "A true and a wonderfully well-sustained piece of Oriental life and striking history." THE "SPECTATOR." "This is a very remarkable book. It is a determined attempt to bring the interior Hindoo and Mussulman life of a great Mahratta province during the most exciting times home to the hearts and understandings of Englishmen, to interest them in people with whom they have nothing except human nature in common." "MORNING POST." "'Tara' is a unique work. There is nothing like it in the English literature of fiction. No other writer has ever attempted the portrayal of Indian life, society, and interests, entirely free from any European admixture of character or incident. The author himself now does so for the first time. 'The Confessions of a Thug' related to British jurisdiction in India. 'Tippoo Sultan' dealt with the gallant struggles of that monarch against the encroaching British power, but 'Tara' is all Indian." "SATURDAY REVIEW." "It is seldom that we meet with a work of fiction executed with anything like the conscientious care and minute elaboration of Captain Meadows Taylor's Indian Tale. His characters have mostly the clearness and individuality of portraits, and his scenery exhibits all the marked and decisive features of photographs taken on the spot. The work throughout is evidently that of a master of Oriental life and character in love with his subject, to whom nothing appears trivial or beneath notice that can illustrate the peculiar traits of Asiatic nature, or kindle an enthusiasm for knowing more of the history, manners, and usages of our fellow-subjects in the east." THE "STANDARD." "In no one part of the work has Captain Taylor shown more thorough art than in those pages in which he details the features of the Hindoo and Mahomedan family life. He never overloads; his characters are not lay figures attired in triple folds of gorgeous robes to hide their nakedness. With a few subtle touches he shows us the interior life of each household, and the morning springs of every character, and he leaves us to fill in the obvious details for ourselves." COLONEL MEADOWS TAYLOR'S INDIAN TALES. Each complete in 1 volume, Crown 8vo. Illustrated, price 6s. THE CONFESSIONS OF A THUG. RALPH DARNELL. TARA. TIPPOO SULTAUN. LONDON: C. KEEGAN PAUL & CO. [Illustration: "Now listen, all ye Brahmuns; I am true and pure, and I am Sutee henceforth." P. 461.] TARA _A MAHRATTA TALE_ BY MEADOWS TAYLOR, C.S.I., M.R.A.S., M.R.I.A., ETC., ETC., AUTHOR OF "SEETA," "CONFESSIONS OF A THUG," ETC., ETC. THIRD EDITION LONDON: C. KEGAN PAUL & CO., 1, PATERNOSTER SQUARE. 1879. (_The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved._)