Indian Antiquary Vol 02

SR No.: 032494
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 428
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

Page 303

SEPTEMBER, 1873.]
MISCELLANEA.
273
on that hallowed spot for ever. The god gracious- torate, and distant 112 miles from Puna. ly consented, and was instantly transformed into Abridged from "Bombay Garette," 28th July. the black idol which ever since has stood there. A temple was built round him, and he acquired a
PEHLEVI INSCRIPTIONS. wide reputation.
During a recent tour through the Cochin and But Vithobl is broken and dead, and his priests
Travancor States I found some Pehlevi inscriphave given out that the great god may perhaps tions which go to prove that there were once large be induced, by prayers and fasts, to signify his settlements of Persians, probably Manichæans, in gracious consent to retake possession of the muti.
S. India. This fact will be of interest to Sans. lated idol. So, already, thousands of religious
kritists since Prof. Weber's admirable essay on Hindus are seeking, by extravagant vows and mor
the Ramdyana. Prof. Weber has shown reasons tifications, to persuade Vithobê not to depart from
for suspecting Greek influences in the composition Papdarpur; and the aid of the press will doubtless
of that poem; and it will now, in consequence of be sought, to spread the news of the disaster
this discovery, be possible to prove that much in wherever there are Hindus to pray, fast, and make
the modern philosophical schools of India comes offerings. The fall of the Pandarpur shrine, and
from some form of Christianity derived from the stoppage of the pilgrimages, would be one of the
Persia : and this fact at once explains also the greatest blessings that could befall the country, as
origin of the modern Vedanta sects in Southern the fairs are a source of annual expense and harass. Indis exclusively. ment to the authorities all over the presidency: In a Syrian (ie. Nestorian) church at Kottayam for many virulent ontbreaks of cholera are traced in Travancor, said to be one of the oldest in the every year to the return home of the pilgrims with country, I found at the back of a side-altar a the fatal disease among them. Before and after granite slab with a cross in bas-relief on it, and each fair, sanitary precautions are taken along all
round the arched top a short sentence in Pehlevi; the principal routes, at great trouble and expense.
at the foot of the cross a few words in Syriac. On But the Hindus, who never appreciated this action
looking round the church I found a similar but of the British Government, are now fearful lest
evidently older tablet built into the wall. This the angry god should plague the country, and are
tablet is nearly covered by whitewash, but shows also warning the authorities of the certain falling only a Pehlevi inscription. There is a similar off of the revenue from the cessation of the tax of tablet in the Mount church (near Madras), which four annas a head levied on every pilgrim to the has long been the property of the Portuguese. temple. Those who understand the priesthood, Since my return to Mangalor I have found in hundreds of whom are living on the fat of the land
Friar Vincenzo Maria's Viaggio all' Indie Orientali, by means of the offerings of Vithobâ's worship. p. 135 (Roma, 1672), mention of several such pers, can foretell that they will never allow the tablets; he particularly mentions the ones at Cran. shrine to be deserted. The holiest man of them
ganor and Meliapor (i. e. Madras), and takes will one of these days be favoured with a vision them to be relics of the mission of St. Thomas to or droom, in which Vithoba will intimate his plea- India. As there is hardly a trace left of Crangasure to hear the prayers of his servants and nor, it would be useless to search there; but continue at Pandarpur. In this case the popolar the older Syrian churches (at Niranam, Kayan. veneration of the idol will become greater than kalam, &c.) will no doubt furnish other copies. ever, and yet larger numbers will repair to Pan. In this very out-of-the-way place I have nothing darpur to worship the god who was wounded to to help in deciphering the Pehlevi inscription, death, and whose deadly wound was healed. This which is nearly the same on the three tablets result seems to be regarded as a foregone conclu- I have seen; the first few signs only differ. The sion. The damage done to the idol has been last word in all looks like afzid (may it be inrepaired by a stone-mason, many of the most creased !). As soon as I can get it lithographed I ardent devotees on the spot tasting neither shall send copies to the principal European scholfood nor water till the god was made whole. So ars who occupy themselves with Pehlevi. that everything is ready for Vithoba to take The number of these tablets proves that there possession again. The police saved the impious must have been communities in several places, goodvi from the fary of the people, and he now and those large enough to have churches both on awaite his trial under some mild section of the the S. W. and S. E. coasts of India. Cosmas Penal Code about "voluntarily committing injury (beginning of the sixth century A.D.) mentions to property."
Christians in Male (i.e. 8. W. India), and that Pandarpur is a town on the Bhima, of about there was a Persian bishop at Kalliana, i.e. Kal. 20,000 inhabitants, situated in the Sat&ra collec- yanapůr, near Udupi, and in this province -- place