Indian Antiquary Vol 26

SR No.: 032518
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 360
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

Page 63

Marca, 1897.]
BULLETIN OF THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA.
Dr. Führer, among remains of various dates. So at Buddha-Gaya, the sanctuary of the tree of wisdom, where the Master attained the perfection of a Buddha, and whose long continued history has lately been recounted by the veteran of Indian archæology, in a magnificent volume.95 Here again the inscriptions date from the earliest times down to the twelfth century. The long series of excavations executed under his direction have enabled General Cunningham to determine the successive additions which made the actual building, and to reconstruct the plan and chief arrangement of the original sanctuary. In agreement with tradition, he attributes this sanctuary to Asoka, and this conclusion is not impugned by epigraphy; for, though the name of the king has not been met with, the characters of the inscriptions, those at least of oldest date, are the same as those of his edicts.97 At the extreme north-west of the Paõjab and of India, where the alphabet called northern, Bactropali, IndoBactrian, or as Prof. Bühler prefers to call it, the Kharðshthi, prevails, we are face to face with a similar problem. There also we have on a series of monuments, a form of writing, which beginning with Asôka, remained with hardly any change for several centuries. A considerable number of these inscriptions is dated; but, in certain cases, when we have not to do with the epoch established by Kanishka, which scholars are almost all agreed in fixing at A. D. 71, there is anything but agreement as to the era or eras to which these dates refer. In a carefully
9 Archeological Survey of India, New Series, Vol. I. The Sharqi Architecture of Jaunpur; rith notes on Zafarabad, Sahet Mahet and other places in the North Western Provinces and Oudh. By 4. Führer, with Drawings and Archi. tectural Descriptions by Ed. W. Smith, Edited by Jas. Burgess, Calcutta (and London): 1889. On the other hand one result of the researches of Dr. Führer is that the identification of Bhuila Tal with the lost Kapilavastu, the place of Buddha's birth, which was proposed by Mr. Cerlleyle so confidently, is entirely imaginary. - In the following volume of the Archæological Survey of India (The Monumental Antiquities and Inscriptions in the NorthWestern Provinces and Oudh, described and arranged, Allahabad (and London 1891), Dr. Führer has condensed an enormous masa of information on the archæology of that district, which he is exploring with such intelligence and zoal. On Sahet Mahet, the ancient Sravasti, see further the essay of Mr. W. Hoey, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. LXI. Part I. sutra number, 1899. In the preceding Bulletin (t. XIX. p. 267) I have mentioned the discovery of Mr. Cockburn, near the junction of the Ganges and the Jumna, of the cave where, in the time of Hiouen-Theang, the shade of Buddha appeared. Mr. Cockburn also recovered there an ancient inscription and took an imperfect copy of it, of which Prof. Hoernle (Proceedings of the As. Soc. of Bengal, 1887, p. 103) was not able to make much. This inscription, as well as another in the interior of the cave, has since been published by Prof. Führer in the Epigraphia Indira, Vol. II. (1893) p. 240. It is indeed very old, of the first or second century before our era, but possibly Jains. In the seventh century the cave had been taken possession of agair by Buddhism ; at the present time, the nearest inhabitants are Jainas.
* Mahabodhi, or the Great Buddhist Temple under the Bodhi Tree at Buddha Gaya. London, 1892. I regret to have to record the death of General Cunningham on the 28th November 1893. What a wonderful scientic career came to an end in the death of this bold and tireless worker in bis eighty-fourth year, and with his pen still in his land ? His first case y bears the date of 1834, when he was the companion and follow-worker of James Prinsep, and only the other day the Transactions of the Oriental Congress held in London, and the Numismatic Chronicle (Part III. 1893) brought us hin lant labours on the coins of the Indo-Seythic Kings.
These excavations have unfortunately ended in restorations for which General Cunningham is not answerable and which are too like au act of vandalism. The temple, which for centuries had become Hindu, has been made brand new by means of countless square yards of stone facing and has been claimed again for the community of Buddhists in all quarters of the globo by agitators in Calcutta and Madras.
97 I bring together in this note some other discoveries and identifications of the sacred places of ancient Hindu Buddhism I. E. Abbott, Recently discovered Brukthist Caves at Nilsdr and Nenavali in the Bhor Slate. Bombau Presidency (Ind. Ant. Vol. XX. (1891), p. 121. - Henry Cousons, The Caves at Nadear and Karsambla (Archeolog. Survey of West, Ind. No. 12, Bombay, 1891). -T. W. Rhys Davids, Fa. Hien's" Fire Limit" (Journ, Roy. As. Soc. of Gr. Brit, and Ireland, 1891, p. 337). -T. W. Rhys Davids, The Buddha's Residences (ibid. p. 339). - A. Macaulay Markham, Report on Archeological Excavations in Bijnor, North-Western Provinces (Journ, As, Soc. of Bengal, Vol. LX (189), p. 1), -Henry Cousons, Report on the Borid Lakha Medi Stapa near Junaga:th (in Kathiawar) (Ibid. p. 17).L. A. Waddell, Discovery of Buddhist Remains at Mount Uren in Mongir District, and Identification of the site of a celebrated Hermitage of Bulha (the hill in Hiranyaparvata, where, according to Hiouen-Thsang, the Buddha had conquered a certain Yaksha Bakula) (Ibu. Vol. LXI. (1892) p. 1).-L. A. Waddell, The "Team-cho-dung" of the Lamas, and their very erroneous identification of the site of Buddha's death (the Lamas situate it in Assam) (Ibid. p. 38). - Lastly I shall nention tho very careful translation of the voyages of Fa-Hien by Prof. James Legge, though it has appeared some time ago; A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms, being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fa-Hien of his Travels in India and Ceylon (4. D. 399-411) in search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline. Translated and. annotated with a Corean Recension of the Chinese Text. Oxford, 1886.