Essays Lectures on Religion of Hindu Vol 02

Author(s): H H Wilson
Publisher: Trubner and Company London

Page 25

BAUDDHA TRACTS FROM NEPAL.
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by the will of MANTUDEVA, void of being, the personification of desire, favourable to many, and praised by BRAHMA, VISHNU, and Siva, who in Durgs, the giver of boons, was manifested on the ninth day of the dark half of the month Márgaśirsha, be propitious to you-I adore her.
7. May SWAYAMBHÚ, in a visible form as Ratna Lingeswara, of the Srivatsa shape, the chief of the eight Vitarágas', the raft by which the ocean of life
Flag.
like an adoption from Saica mysticism.” This, and the preceding verse, are both very obscure.
1 This, and the following seven verses, refer to the eight litarágas of the nine Bodhisattwas addressed in verse four, all but the first manifested portions of themselves under some visible but inanimate shape, thus
MAITREYA, was visible as a flame called Sriratsa. ANANTAGANJA,
Lotus. SAMANTA HADIRA VARIPÍKI
Water-Jar. MANJUNATII,
Chauri. VISIIKAMBLÍ,
Fish. KsutIGARBITA,
Umbrella. KULGARBIA,
Conch Shell. These are called litarágas, the exempt from Passion, or rather perhaps the liberators from Passion-as the compound admits of either sense. They are also called the eight Mangalas, or auspicious objects. They are found sculptured on Bauddha monuments, and especially on the stone or marble Feet, which are frequently placed in the temples of the sect. They appear to have been merely the symbols of the Bodhisattwas; but they have been connected evidently in popular belief with notions derived from the Hindu religion and local legends, and bear the character of so many Lingas erected by different individuals, some of whom are specified. [Burnouf, “Lotus?", 647.]