Indian Antiquary Vol 08

SR No.: 032500
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 404
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 277

SEPTEMBER, 1879.) AVALOKITESWARA'S DESCENT INTO AVICHI.
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degrades his lips, and he is slothful and fond of sloep by day. But Hindus will on no account inquire after their children's tuition, it is en trusted to the pantuji, who, being a Brahman, is far too good to practise deception. He is ignorant of the higher branches of education : all he knows being picked up in a school similar to the one he now conducts. He knows to read plain manuscripts, repeat by rote the multiplica-
tion table, with a few hymns to serve his own purpose, and to write a neat hand.
Recreation is denied to the boys, as the pantoji thinks it the road to beggary. The parents agree with him, and instead of allowing their boys to play, they are pleased to see them squatted on the veranda or lying on the floor brooding over the all-absorbing topic--the pantoji, and the beatings they receive at school.
THE NORTHERN BUDDHIST LEGEND OF AVALOKITESWARA'S DESCENT
INTO THE HELL AVICHI.
BY PROF. EDWARD B. COWELL, M.A., CAMBRIDGE. One of the most remarkable features of the premier rang dans notre Lotus de la bonne loi" Northern Buddhism, corrent in Nepal, Tibet, (Introd. p. 115). Tartary, and China, as distinguished from the Fa Hian, the Chinese traveller, who travelled Southern, current in Ceylon, Burma, and Siam, in India from 399 to 414 A.D., expressly says is the worship paid to the Bodhisattwa (ch. xvi.) "men who belong to the Great Avalokiteswara.
Translation worship the Prajnai Paramita, ManThis Bodhisattwa' is supposed to be the son juári and Avalokiteswara ;" and in a subsequent of Buddha Amitabha, who reigns in the chapter he describes himself as invoking AvaloWestern heaven, called Sakh å vati; to him is kiteswara when exposed to a storm during his attributed the famous formula Om maņi padme homeward voyage from Ceylon to China. Hiwen húm, and he is looked upon as the tutelary saint Tbsang also (who travelled in India in the of Tibet. In China he is worshipped under a seventh century) is well acquainted with this female form (corresponding apparently to the saint, and mentions him in several places. He Hindu notion of a deity's sakti, or personified finds his statue in Kapisa, south of the Hindu power), as Kwa n-y in, or the Goddess of Mercy; Kush, and in a monastery in U dy Ana, and and the Rev. S. Beal has translated the Con. in Kashmir, and he also mentions a celebrated fessional Service addressed to her, in the second statue on the bank of the Ganges, famed for its volume (new series) of the Journal of the R. A. power of working miracles. Society (pp. 403-425).
The two best known Northern works which The name and attributes of Avalokiteswara | contain details respecting Avalokiteswara are are entirely unknown to the Southern Buddhists; the Karanda-vyúha and the Sudilharma-Panand his worship is one of the later additions daríka; the latter belongs to the collection of which have attached themselves to the simpler nine books which, under the name the nine original system, as it spread through India, and dharmas,' is regarded with such veneration in ultimately made its way to China and Japan. Nepal. The latter was translated by Burcouf
We cannot tell when this new deity first rose as Le lotus de la bonne loi; the text of the on the popular horizon; but there are some former has been recently published at Calcutta, indications which may help us to approximate in a native series of Sanskrit books. The editor in fixing the date. Burnouf has remarked that does not mention where he found the original the earlier and simpler Northern books contain MS. from which he has printed his text; but no allusion to this object of worship. "Ce nom it was probably one of the many MSS. presented n'est pas cité, une seule fois dans les Sutras, ni by Mr. B. H. Hodgson to the Bengal Asiatic dans les légendes de l'Acadána Sataka, ni dans Society, between 1824 and 1839. celles du Divya-Avaddna, tandis qu'il figure au The twenty-fourth chapter of the Lotus is
IA Bodhisattwa is a potential Buddha, one who has only one more birth before he attains nirvina. Burnouf explains Avalokiteswara as a barbarous Sanskrit compound, moaning
| 'le seigneur qui a regardé en bas' (Introd. p. 226).
Cf. also the Patent of Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese, pp. 338-100.