Indian Antiquary Vol 21

SR No.: 032513
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 430
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 374

350
IRE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[DECEMBER, 1892.
that the writing of the third portion also agrees with that of the second in the matter of the hook attached to the bottom of the main perpendicular (see ante, p. 129).
The leaves are again of varying thickness. The first has three, the third has six, and the second and fourth have each four layers.
This portion of the Manuscript is complete. It commences at the top of the obverse of the first leaf and concludes with the second line on the reverse of the fourth leaf, the remainder of which is left blank. The treatise which it contains relates & Buddhist tradition : how on the occasion of a novice, named Svâti, being bitten by a cobra, Buddha, who was then living in Anâ thapiņdada's garden in Jêtavana near Srâvasti, gave a curative spell (sánti-svastyayana) against snake-bite to his disciple Ananda for the purpose of saving Svậti. The introduction, which is written in prose, extends as far as the middle of the last line on the obrerse of the second leaf. It first relates the occasion on which the spell was given, and next enumerates all the dangers or diseases against which the spell may be put in practice. Then follows the great spell, which is composed partly in verse (álóka), partly in prose. The intelligible portions are in verse, while the unintelligible jargon, consisting mostly of alliterating or rhyming words, is in prose. The spell ends in the fifth line on the obverse of the fourth leaf. It is called the Mahamayari, and described as & vidyaraje, or "queen of the magic art." Mahámáyúri, I notice, is said in the abridged Petersburg Dictionary to be “the proper name of one of the five talismans and of one of the five tutelary goddesses of the Buddhists." The present treatise shows it to be the name of a spell, From the fact of the mention, before the commencement of the spell (fl. 1b), of the ligatare to be placed on the bitten part, I conclude that the saying of the spell was intended to accompany the operation of tying the ligature. See further remarks on this subject in Appendix III to this paper.
The spell is followed by the conclusion, which is again in prose. This consists of a series of salutations addressed to Buddha and Buddhism, under various synonyms, and of good wisbes addressed to a certain " Yasamitra" (for Yasômitra). This would seem to be the name of either the composer of the treatise, or of the person on whose behalf it was composed. Sir Monier Wiliiams' Sanskrit Dictionary, I find, gives it as "the name of a Buddhist author;" but in the abridged Petersburg Dictionary it is only noted as the name of various persons in Jain tradition.
A fragment of this portion of the Manuscript, - that on the obverse of the third leaf-was published by me in the April, 1891, Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, pp. 60, 61. It was also published, about the same time, and independently of me, by Professor Bühler in the Vienna Oriental Journal, Vol. V., pp. 106, 108, and in the Academy of the 15th August 1891, pp. 138, 139. His reading and translation were reviewed by Mr. R. Morris in the Academy of the 29th August 1891, pp. 178, 179, and by Dr. A. Stein in the Vienna Oriental Journal, Vol. V., pp. 343-345. Mr. Morris, in his review, has given valuable identifications of some of those Nagarajas, whose names occur on A. IIIa. In Appendix I to this paper I have added such further information, as I have been able to gather from the literature of the Northern Buddhists available to me, on all those whose names oceur in the second part of the spell. But perhaps Mr. Morris and other Buddhist scholars, whose acquaintance with that literature is more intimate than mine, may feel disposed to supplement this information, which, I need hardly say, will be gratefully acknowledged by me in the edition I am preparing for the Government of India.
Professor Bühler, who interprets the term goa (A. IIIa*; see also 4. IIb) as the same as Godavari, the well-known river in the Dekhan, accordingly considers it probable that the snake-charm was composed in Southern India. I cannot agree with this opinion; I have given my reasons, in a note to the translation, showing that gold cannot be a proper name, bat must be a common noun, meaning district. Nothing, therefore, can be extracted from this word to indicate the locality of the composition of the spell. Dr. Stein, on the other hand, suggests that
? Soe post, Appendix III. The term corresponds to the German Heilspruch.