Indian Antiquary Vol 13

SR No.: 032505
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 492
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 22 MB

Page 33

JANUARY, 1884.]
ASIATIC SOCIETIES.
27
Kittel, to whose works the author of it is evidently "Two early sources of Mongol History"-viz., the so largely indebted, is not even named in it.
Yuan-ch'ao-pi-shi, the contents of which are being Mr. B. H. Chamberlain's paper, is "On two ques- incorporated in the papers on Chinghiz Khan, in tions of Japanese Archäology," viz., the documen- this Journal, and the Huan-yuan-shen-vu-tsin-jentary sources of our knowledge of Ancient Japan, lu, edited by Palladius in 1872. and the so-called Sacred Characters said to have These papers are followed by Mr. Vaur's very been used by the Japanese before the introduction full and elaborate report on the progress of of the Chinese mode of writing. On these ques. Oriental studies and research for 1882. tions he is at issue with the views of M. Léon de The Journal of the Bombay Br. R. Asiatic Society Rosny, which he combats most satisfactorily, (vol. XVI, No. zl.) is devoted to Prof. Peterson's showing that, on the first, M. de Rosny has given Report on the search for Sanskrit Mss. in the credence to a recent forgery entitled J6-ki or Bombay circle, 1882-83. It is elsewhere (inf. Uye tsu Fumi; and as to the second, that there p. 28) analysed so fully that only some minor is not sufficient evidence to justify us in speaking points need be noticed here. of the use of the so-called "sacred" characters as This Report is very readable, but contains some a fact, and that these characters are identical rather ex cathedra dicta; thus (p. 2), the author with the existing Korean alphabet, which is says "I should like, however, to say that having reasonably believed to have been based on an had the good fortune to be admitted within Indian original.
the shrine of Achalêswara, where the mark of The next is a paper by Rev. S. Beal on "Two the toe of the god Siva is to be seen unto this sites named by Hiuen Tsiang," in which he tries day,' and having carefully examined that mark, to identify the mountain Potalaka or Pôtaraka I am disposed to think that it contains the "to the east of the Malaya mountains," on which explanation of the curious knob on the left of the Avalokitesvara often resided, and from which figure of the Pramara prince, which stands facing perhape Mount PÔtaraka at Lhassa, the residence the temple of Vasishtha at the other end of the of the Dalai Lama, takes its name. A Chinese hill. The one is an exact copy of the other; and writer—the annotator on Wong Puh-says that the 'toenail of the devil' was probably one of "Buddha preached a sermon on the subject of the cherished insignia of the royal house of Avalokitesvara with twelve faces on Mount Pô. the time. I was able to secure admittance both taraka," which "derives its name from the fact to this shrine and to that of Vasishtha." This that it produces a great number of little white admittance, which has not been rarely granted to flowers, the scent of which is perceived from far." visitors previous to Prof. Peterson, we are led to And Mr. Beal suggests that if the flower was the infer, was secured to him by putting off his white jasmine (sumand), it would support his shoes; for he proceeds to lecture other visitors theory that Sumanakuta or Adam's Peak in Ceylon in these terms, -" There may," he says, “be was the mountain in question, and in connexion circumstances in which persons officially reprewith this he traces the Buddhist worship of senting the government of the country, or an Avalokitêsvara "the god who looks down,' also alien church, may hesitate to comply with the called Samantamukha "looking every way!) to condition universally attached to such a concession. the veneration of sailors and others for the hill. No such considerations need trammel the scholar god Sumana. He also notes that the Chinese name in search of knowledge. And as far as personal Kwan-ghai-yin is equivalent to that of the Sabran feelings are concerned, I do not envy those of the divinity Al-Makah—he who hears,' and that the man who can stand before the ruined shrine of knowledge of him may have been brought to Vasishtha, or enter the porch of the Kårli cave, Ceylon by Sabwan or Arab merchants, who, as while fancy conjures up the innumerable company Fa-hian states, had settled there in large numbers of men and women who have worshipped where in the early centuries of our era. This is hardly he now is, without saying to himself, Pat off thy satisfactory. The second site is Po-lo-mo-lo-ki-li, shoes from off thy feet: for the place whereon thou a hill on which king Sadvaha excavated a splendid standest is holy ground.'” It is amusing to listen Sangharima for Nagarjuna. Julien restored the to this demand for reverence to the places where name to Baramulagiri, but Mr. Beal prefers men have long time worshipped what in a previous Brahmara, the black bee,' as a name of Durga. breath he has described as “the devil," or elseNow Fa-hian calls the same place Po-lo-yu, which where (p. 55), as "a hideous black stone," and at he transliterates as Pârvati; and Pârvati is Durga, the same time interlarding his language with and Brahmara is Durgå. Even if this hold good, quotations from a Book, which many of the best however, it does not enable us to fix the place. men of all ages have regarded it as a want of
The last paper is by Mr. H. H. Howorth on reverence and good taste to quote in a flippant way.