Indian Antiquary Vol 15

SR No.: 032507
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 446
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1886.
since their attention has been drawn to this of India have always regarded the lotus as a subject, he and Mr. Rivett-Carnac have found symbol of creative power. It has from all time Bome hundreds of all types and sizes, and been held sacred by them and might consesimilar in form to many which have been quently be considered by the Buddhists discovered in Europe and America. Mr. suitable receptacle in which to deposit such a preRivett-Carnac's later finds appear to differ cious relic. Again, a curious old brass object in slightly in form from the flint implements and my possession, bought in the bázár at Benares, arrow-heads which he found in Central India seems to afford an almost certain proof that this in 1864, but I would venture to assert that explanation is a correct one. At the base of it is all have their counterparts in objects of a a boll, an emblem of Siva, from whose back rises like nature, which have been found in most a lotus bad, which, on a couple of turns being countries and may be seen in alınost every I given to it, opens its petals and discloses a small museum in Europe, and which were used as agate egg. Behind the bull is a cobra, with its weapons by primitive peoples before they body elevated as if in the act of striking. A became acquainted with metals.
ring which it holds in its month, serves to One of the smaller celte found by Mr. support a small pointed vase which is perforated Rivett-Carnac has been fixed into a handle of at its lower end. If this vessel be filled with stag's-horn, like those found in the Swiss lake. water, the liquid slowly drops upon the egg in dwellings. He had it sharpened, and says the centre of the flower, and thus a libation that it now chops wood as efficiently as a small is poured on the jewel in the flower of the lotus, iron axe.
About the word mari as signifying & sacred It is well known that the Buddhista of stone or lines of stones : it seems to me to Western Tibet and of the Labanl Valley make survive in Europe in place names. If we walls of stones at the entrances to their vil- study a local map of Brittany, we cannot fail lages styled manis, which are occasionally a to be struck with the frequent recurrence quarter of a mile in length, but are never more of Mané, as the prefix to various sites on than four feet in height and the same in width. which are dolmens or megalithic monuments, On the top of these walls numerous inscribed M. Henri Martin, in his Etudes Archæologiques stones are loosely laid, placed there as memo- Celtiques, explains Mané to be the augmenrials of the dead, or when starting on a journey, tation of men or maen, stone :-e.g, menhir, registering a vow, or entering upon any import- great-stone. And he adds that it designates ant undertaking. The person who requires equally an artificial mound, or the summit of a one for any of the above purposes, chooses & mountain, smooth stone, and takes it to one of the local
No. V. monasteries, where a priest usually engraves
Some Ideas about the Future Life. upon it the sacred sentence " On mani padmd Wherever the doctrine of annihilation has ht" which has been translated to mean "All not prevailed, mankind has had in all ages, hail to the jewel in the flower of the lotus." and still retains, the belief that the soul and This sentence appears to be an unmeaning one the body are distinct, and that the soul has to at first sight, but the key to its meaning is, I go through a process of purification, or a season believe, to be fonnd in Ceylon, where a supposed of probation after the decease of the body, in tooth of Buddha, kept in a temple at Kandy, order to atone for evil deeds committed by the in seven or more cases of gold or silver gilt, latter when on earth. These ideas are most in the form of a stupa or tumulus, is an object widely spread. We find them amongst Musalhighly venerated. This tooth, which some mâns and Hindus, amongst the ancient Greeks, Europeans have imagined from its shape and in Sweden, in Germany, in Northern America, size to be that of an alligator, rests within a in the Island of Formosa, in the Fiji Islands, golden lotus flower and may well be likened and in many other portions of the world. to a jewel in the flower of the lotus. From its The process of atonement in a future world peculiar mode of shedding its seeds the natives implies a journey thither, and the nature of that
The natives of the districts of Hangrang in the Batluj Valley, of Spiti, and of Ladak, -in short wherever
Buddhism prevails in the Himblaym, always po those piles of stones som to have them on their right hand.